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Category / My Secret Paris

Revisiting a Podcast: “Americans in Paris”

If you’ve ever lived in Paris or had notions of living in or travelling to Paris, a twenty year-old podcast episode from This American Life is essential listening. For the program’s 25th anniversary, producers dug up the episode for rediscovery, and as the author of book called Don’t be a Tourist in Paris, the podcast…

Before Playboy, Came “La Vie Parisienne”

A pair of clandestine, gender-bending lovers are about to embrace at la brasserie. A fashionable young woman in a barely-there dress is partying the night away in the cabarets of Paris without a care (or a man) in the world to ruin her fun. A curious eye would be intrigued by the risqué illustrations of…

Paris’ Secret Park in the Sky: The Original High Line

Paris and New York: both have islands, both have Statues of Liberty, crazy people on the metro, and unbeknownst to most, they both have parks in the sky. Until a little while ago, I was under the impression that New York’s much-adored HighLine was a totally unique feature to the Big Apple. But when le…

Hunting for the Lost River of Paris

La Seine, immortalized by artists and adored by lovers dangling their feet over the quay, harbours a dark secret. Under the fifth and thirteenth arrondissements grumbles la Bièvre, the Seine’s younger sibling who was banished to the netherworld over one-hundred years ago. Starting thirty-three kilometers away in the Yvelines and feeding into the Seine at…

Postcards from the Last Windmill in Paris

In the dappled light coming through the trees, a jovial bohemian crowd have gathered to dance and dally at the Moulin de la Galette, one of the many windmills that originally stood at the northern tip of Paris. By the time Renoir’s famous painting had captured the scene in 1876, the unlikely venue was already…

The Forgotten LGBT Queen of Paris and Her Secret Masonic Temple

She was the kind of woman who never belonged to anyone but herself. At least, when it came to love. But for Natalie Clifford Barney, life overflowed with colour, creativity, and passion in Paris’ Left Bank during one of city’s most romantic periods. Think of her as a lesser-known Gertrude Stein, albeit one who curated…

The X-Rated Paris Grave

In Paris’ city of the dead, where winding cobblestone pathways have their own street signs, graves look like small gothic houses and the likes of Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde have been laid to rest, there is one grave amongst the maze of tombs in Père Lachaise cemetery that’s not quite like the others. And apparently,…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. CCXLII)

In celebration of the release of MessyNessyChic’s first book, “Don’t be a Tourist in Paris“, I’m dedicating today’s 13 Things to the city that inspired it all. 1. A French beekeeper makes Honey wine in the Paris catacombs Mead, sometimes known as honey wine, is a mix of water and honey that, like wine, must be…

A Brief Guide to Going Naked in Paris

Here at MessyNessyChic, our motto is Don’t be a Tourist in Paris, but what about being a naked tourist in Paris?! The topic came up (don’t ask how) and we were curious– as summer approaches, temperatures rise, and the layers come off– does Paris have a naturist scene? As it turns out, the answer is yes! The first organised…

We Went to a Parisian Sex Club for Swingers So You Don’t Have To

It’s a phone-less world down there in the underground lair of Les Chandelles, the infamous “club échangiste” – and something to be appreciated in itself before we get into the stuff you really want to know about. Inhibitions (and Instagram) are to be left above ground, and your time spent down there is intended exclusively…

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