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…

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

1. Inside Denmark’s secret nuclear bunker, now open to the public A top-secret atomic bunker has opened to the public in Denmark. Built to withstand a nuclear attack, it’s now an astonishing subterranean museum that sheds light on Cold War paranoia. 2. In the 1980s there were a line of spy toys called “Spytech” 3.…

Mucha and his Muse (Pioneers of a little movement called Art Nouveau)

During the late winter of 1894, a struggling Czech artist was working in an illustrator workshop, correcting proofs for a friend. It was the holidays in Paris and most other artists were out of town. All of a sudden, a woman rushes into the workshop demanding a poster for a theatre production called Gismonda. The production is set…

Wig Holes and Other Mysteries of Powdered Hair History Explained

There was a time when a visit to the powder room involved more than a quick tinkle and a dab of powder on the nose. Taking its name from the noble courts of Europe, the powder room was a designated space, in aristocratic houses, for the powdering of wigs that were a little worse for…

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

1. The “Titanic of the Mountains”, an old train station abandoned for 50 years is now a Luxury Hotel Canfranc International railway station was often referred to around the time of its opening as the “Titanic of the Mountains”, in part due to its large size, having been at one time, the largest station in…

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The Villages Where Provence Meets the Côte d’Azur

You might want to pour yourself a cold glass of rosé before you begin browsing this post, maybe play some Jacques Brel; it only seems right. I left Paris and floated down south this weekend in search of sun, sea and Provençale pastels. Join me for a little tour of a ridiculously charming village or two… There is no better…

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New York’s Incredible Lost Rooftop Theatres

There are some things we’ve lost that I’ll never understand. Midcentury automobile design comes to mind, as well as piano bars & cocktail lounges on our airplanes, hand-painted typography and artisanal signs lining our high streets, and now, I’ll add rooftop theatres to my list. From previous research on the ladies of the Ziegfeld Follies, I’d come across the…

Travelling Modern Europe with a Victorian Railway Guidebook

Are you looking for a way to travel back in time? Well, we haven’t cracked the laws of physics yet, but we have the next best thing – a guidebook from another time. Move over Lonely Planet, Bradshaw’s was one of the original guides that inspired the British to travel the Continent for leisure. Bradshaw’s…

A Brief Compendium of Places With Secret Passages

It is a well known fact that an underground tunnel connects 10 Downing Street, the British Prime Minister’s residence in London, with number 12 (we’re not sure why number 11 was left out) but it is surprising just how many residences, both old and new, are harbouring hidden passages. Secret doors and passageways have been…

Before the Flapper, There Was the Gibson Girl

Before the flapper came about as the embodiment of 1920s femininity, women in the late 1800s and early 1900s had a different role model from which to take cues – the Gibson Girl. She was the feminine ideal of this era and socially, the Gibson Girl had a very defined role. She was upper class, educated, athletic,…