Paris’ Dusty Diary : A Peek Inside the City’s Most Secret Library

Guarded by a fortress of medieval walls cut from thick ominous sandstone, Les Archives Nationales means business. The former humble abode to a member of the French aristocracy, today this decadent sprawling chateau houses France’s most precious documents, each securely locked behind layers of mahogany-framed, etched-glass bookshelves. Formerly bequeathed the title “Hôtel de Soubise,” the…

Notes on Secret Versailles, After Hours

Have you ever wandered throughout the sacred black and white checkered marble halls of Versailles when emptied of the violent bustle of tourists? When such chaos is replaced by the whispered confessions of a lost era that float upon the still air. Once a week, when the Chateau closes its massive gold-gilded doors to the…

After Dark at the Shakespeare & Co in Paris

Paris is just one of those places in the world where talented people get together and make magical things. Filmmaker Spike Jonze and one of the few handbag designers in the world I actually think is worth raving about these day, Olympia Le-Tan, got together to collaborate on a short film set in one of…

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The Paris September Guide for La Rentrée

September, which Parisians call La Rentrée, is one of the best months of the year. It’s when Paris comes to life after the summer drought, everyone’s back from their holidays with a golden glow and eager to mingle. The same time, the sun is still shining, it’s still warm enough to wear your vacation clothes…

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A Secret Living Museum in Paris

This is the kind of place where you can find the original wall panels from Coco Chanel’s living room, rescued from a demolished Parisian mansion she once lived in. Down a corridor, the 200 year-old components of an entire room designed for Napoleon are casually stockpiled like pieces of an 18th century puzzle waiting to…

You Don’t Have to Bring your Own Boules to Play Pétanque in Paris – But it Helps

No matter how long you’ve been in France, there will be few other moments in your life that feel both as culturally significant and stressful as your first ever game of pétanque. The second the rain clouds clear over France in early spring, you can bet a boule will be thrown. There are a handful…

Don’t be a Tourist, Episode 3: Fencing and Frogs

Forget Hemingway. I’ve fallen for a chivalrous musketeer in Saint Germain! In a brand new episode of our web series “Don’t be a Tourist”, we’ll discover a time-capsule fencing club wherein I develop a crush on my charming fencing master, followed by a culinary joy ride into the world of frogs legs. It doesn’t get any…

Little Russia in Paris

The international world fairs of the early 20th century brought to Paris some seriously elaborate pavilions and palatial monuments such as the Grand Palais (and don’t forget the Eiffel Tower), but with the simultaneous arrival of migrants from the east, so too have they brought their own little pieces of home over the years. And that’s how this little church, Paroisse Saint Serge,…

5 Places to Fake an Endless Summer in Paris

Summer is over. The angry clouds over Nôtre Dame make it look too sinister, Sunday strolls in Montmartre are more melancholy in dreary weather and the rain-soaked gravel in the Tuileries does no favours for your shoes. It’s not exactly the makings of a picture perfect Paris. But if like me, you’re a little stubborn (a little in denial) and…

Adored by Many, but Loved by Chanel: A Forgotten Parisian It Girl

Proust, turned her into a fictional princess and Ravel turned her into music. Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec couldn’t stop painting her. Picasso was a confidante, Serge Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes, a best friend, and Coco Chanel – her “soul sister”; possibly her lover too. Belle Epoque Paris bloomed with opulence and a languid, if not…