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Category / My Secret Paris

Investigating One of the Oldest Private Detective Agencies in Paris

If you were to wander around the 1er arrondissement in Paris, you might come across an intriguing, old looking green neon sign on an anonymous looking building on the Rue du Louvre. At night it captures the imagination, looking like a lot something from a film noir, saying simply “Duluc Détective”… The Duluc Détective might…

The Little-Known Paris Jewel Box of Curiosities

“Take the right hallway to the staircase, which will take you to another staircase, that will lead you to a doorbell on the first floor” – the exact instructions to finding the Museum of Mineralogy tucked away in the university of MINES Paris Tech. Paris hides one of its most inspiring cabinets of curiosity behind university walls…

Hiding Out in Paris’ Littlest-Known Medieval Tower

Hiding in plain sight, sandwiched amongst Haussmann buildings on the right bank, is one of Paris’ grandest but littlest-known surviving medieval towers– and former home of one of the city’s more villainous citizens, Jean the Fearless. The Tour de Jean Sans Peur has been lurching over the heart of the city since 1411, but it took even…

My Perfect Little Paris Attic

A nineteenth-century poet once described the Place Dauphine as the ‘vagina of Paris’, because of its erotic triangular V shape. Rumour has it King Henri IV modelled the place after the private parts of his favourite courtesan. Ah, French romance. Vaginas aside, it is one of my favourite squares in Paris, tucked away on an…

We went on a Picnic in a Parisian Nazi Bunker

I‘ve been on some adventures in my lifetime, but none of them ended with a candlelit banquet in an abandoned Nazi bunker. And it is with great pleasure that I finally get to share this surreal experience with you. The idea began with the proposal of a picnic with a few friends, somewhere a little…

Paris’ Mid-Century Vintage Village

In the heart of the 11th arrondissement, the Oberkampf district has its own mini Paris flea market, a petite shopping village of mid-century design, decorative arts and vintage lighting waiting behind weathered façades of the neighbourhood’s old ateliers. Shop owners set up coffee tables right outside in the square to chat with locals, leaving the…

Behind the Gates of Paris’ Most Secret Street

A microcosm of secrecy, high-society, and spookiness mingles behind a black gate, warning voie privée (private road) on Avenue Frochot in Pigalle. This dead-end street, inaccessible to the public, hides fairytale neo-Renaissance villas behind wisteria trees and rose bushes. Marked by an elaborate stained glass window of an old 1930s cabaret to the left of the entrance,…

The Secret Rooftop Farms you can Visit above Parisian Department Stores

In the early hours of the morning at Galeries Lafayette in Paris, the elevator doors open on the ground floor and out march a team of country bumpkins lugging crates of plump tomatoes, strawberries, fresh herbs and edible floIMG_0438wers, through the perfumery section, past the gleaming cosmetic counters and out the front entrance. They’re met…

A Year of Not Being a Tourist with MessyNessyChic

It’s been a life-changing year for MessyNessy all thanks to four magic little words: Don’t Be a Tourist. So I thought I’d dedicate our “best of 2017” round-up to just that– not being a tourist. I’d like to make a New Year’s toast to thank you for being curious, independent, adventurous, and creative. Thank you for…

The Ghost Bath Houses of Paris

I was researching old Parisian advertisements from the 19th century (as you do) when I came across this one for a palatial Turkish bath house near the opera house. Behind its vaulted arches, magnificent mosaics were lit by stars of coloured glass and according to a 19th century ‘Bather’s Guide’ to Paris, the establishment boasted Roman-Turkish hammams,…

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