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Category / Forget Paris

Paris’ Missing Palace and the Making of the Louvre

In many ways, the history of the Louvre is the history of France, from the era of monarchs and the temples they built to their power to the radical ambitions of the French Revolution and Paris Commune. While many of the millions of tourists now flocking back to Paris will gawk at the architecture of…

The Art Spy who Stopped Hitler from Emptying the Louvre

An unlikely superhero spy; a bookish art historian in a paisley print dress, posing rather meekly beside her inventory of valuable museum works. But behind the innocent smile and the matronly garb, Rose Antonia Maria Valland was a lone female agent of espionage who, during WW2, tirelessly and valiantly put her life on the line for…

In 1970s Paris, an American Magazine Broke All the Rules

If The Paris Metro magazine were still around today – if such a magazine could exist today – I can imagine every English-speaking writer in the city would be lining up around the block for a job. And I’d be right there with them if it meant getting a taste of that roguish school of…

Smoke, Mirrors & Magic Lanterns: How a Parisian Horror Story Became our First Cinematic Experience

I have a rather curious new addition to the Cabinet and I’m waiting for that one in a million collector or historian to walk in the door and geek out over it with me – with any luck, they might be able to reveal more secrets about this obscure piece of antique machinery known as…

Turn up the Volume on a Forgotten American Jazz Queen of Mid-Century Paris

Amid the fervent jazz revival that swept Paris in the years following World War II, a host of American musicians found a second home on the banks of the Seine. Paris became a cherished haven for many Black artists whose creativity often ran up against racial barriers in the United States. Although legends like Sidney…

When Dangerous Dancing Dandies were the Bad Boys of Paris

The Paris of the Belle Époque saw the emergence of a certain type of street outcasts; a subculture that combined killer style with the criminal underworld. They were known as, les Apaches. They lived in secret dens in the city outskirts, shunned the idea of honest labor and took their name from the allegedly savage native American…

Sweeney Todd de Paris: The Original Demon Barber

Could it be that the original Sweeney Todd was not actually from Victorian London, but from Medieval Paris? Legend has it that the City of Lights and Love had its very own demon barber during the 14th century. And in fact, Paris was quite possibly the first home of cannibalistic pastries from a murderous barber-butcher relationship.…

Her Tarot Cards Came to Life

Poking out of the treetops in Tuscany, and spread across Etruscan ruins, is the sparkling masterpiece of French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle, Il Giardino dei Tarocchi — The Tarot Garden. De Saint Phalle acquired the land in the 1979 through a close friend, and from the get-go her intent was to transform its 14-acres…

A Haunting Compendium of Paris Ghost Stories

Paris may be the City of Light, but it is filled with dark corners. Some of the best-known ghost stories were inspired by the very real, gory history of this otherwise romantic setting. Behind – and, indeed, beneath – the picturesque Haussmanian facades lurk countless tragic tales, the protagonists of which are still said to…

A Love Letter to the Lost World of the Parisian Pneumatic Post

Years before the Paris Métro opened, there was another subterranean transport system rattling away beneath the city streets. Instead of messages floating around in the internet ether of apps and social networks, if you wanted to send a note to someone in your city in the 19th century, you tube. A network of sealed lines…

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