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…

A Brief Compendium of the Most Petite Places in Paris

Space is scarce within Paris’ péripherique. As the most densely populated city in Europe, residents of the City of Light have learned to be creative with every nook and cranny. Beyond the mind-bogglingly miniature apartments and comically small lifts, there are those who have transformed the unlikeliest of spaces into fully functional cultural spaces, boutiques…

5 Fairytale Sleepovers in Case You Don’t Win that Night at Downton Abbey

It’s finally happening. Highclere Castle, aka the legendary English estate that’s hosted Downton Abbey, is opening up its gilded doors for a once-in-a-lifetime slumber party. In partnership with Airbnb, the castle will welcome two lucky guests to live out the wildly popular TV drama. Reservation opportunities go live on October 1st at 12PM BST, and…

Goth is Not Dead: 5 Notre Dame Alternatives to Seek Out in Paris

On 15th April 2019, millions of people around the world watched as Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral was engulfed in flames. Masses gathered on the banks of the Seine to sing hymns to Our Lady as a reported 500 firefighters battled the 15-hour blaze. That evening, as first the roof and then the spire fell 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…

What’s Left of a Cartel Cop’s Palace Playground

If you look up the definition of “police corruption” in the dictionary, there should really be a photograph of Arturo “El Negro” Durazo Moreno, the infamous Chief of Police in Mexico City, from 1976 to 1982. While his official job earned him less than $1,000 a month, Durazo made a fortune off the cocaine drug trade and…

Honeymooning Around the Earth in an Amphibious Jeep

My heroes are up there with the Amelia Earharts, Aloha Wonderwells, Ernest Hemingways, and the Jacques Cousteaus of this world; names that conjure up the romance of adventure and inspire us to take risks in an age where travel has been made too easy. But in all my travel reading, I’d never heard of the…

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…

Parisian Fast Food: Web Series Mini Bites

Okay, so we took a bit of a hiatus on the web series there. We’ve got tons of footage and not enough time to edit it. The good news is, we’re back– but with mini-bites … snackable little episodes of Don’t be a Tourist. In today’s mini bite, I’m sharing my version of Parisian Fast Food,…