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Category / Time travel

Inside the Time Capsule Fencing Club of Paris

I had been curious about what was behind the door of No. 6 Rue Gît-le-Cœur in Saint Germain for quite a while before I decided to Google it, half expecting to be disappointed by news that it no longer existed. To my surprise, a kind voice picked up at the other end of the telephone line. “Yes…

Never Again Would There Be a Toga Party Like the Lost 1920s Delphic Festival

Every summer we run into the same problem: too many amazing festivals, too little time. Then we caught wind of the long lost Delphic Festivals, which makes every concert we’ve ever been to pale in comparison to its over-the-top, 1920s interpretation of Greek merrymaking. Think Coachella, but on steroids… The Delphic festival was so lavish…

Searching for a Lost Wine Village in Paris

Parisians often talk about the great travesty that was the loss of Les Halles, a legendary food market in the heart of Paris, fondly referred to as “the belly of Paris”, a seemingly indestructible monument to the great tradition of French markets. It was demolished in 1971 and the hub of all food distribution in the city…

The Day Coca Cola Came to France (and how Parisians Reacted)

“Things go better with Coke”? Not the French apparently– at least, not when Coca Cola first officially began marketing the drink here in 1950. According to these photographs I came across in the LIFE magazine archives, it would seem that Parisians didn’t initially find the ‘great taste of Coke’ … well, all that great… This wasn’t actually the first time…

No More Than a Litre of Wine a Day, Recommends a 1950s French Sobriety Poster

Last night I was standing at the counter of our local café on Boulevard Saint Germain, finishing off a last glass of wine after work before heading home for the evening, when I noticed something behind the bar. I thought I must have been reading it wrong (I was on my third glass) because it said in French:…

Eau de Seine, a Conversation-starting Souvenir from Paris

“The Seine is a great place to have a crisis, since it clearly embodies the strength and the uncertainty, the beauty and the challenge of Paris itself.” – James Baldwin The Seine river flows through the heart of the northern region of France, including Paris, bringing life, business, and recreation to the city alongside an…

Let’s Reminisce Over Airplanes That Had Piano Bars, Cocktail Lounges, Pubs, and Restaurants

Airlines today just aren’t up for a good party anymore. Look at those fancy folks hanging out in comfy swivel chairs, ordering Martinis and asking attractive strangers, “So, do you come here often?” Don’t they look like they’re about to have the best flight of their lives? The 1970s was without doubt, a golden age of…

How to Host the Olympic Games on a Shoestring Budget

As the countdown for the Paris Summer Olympics has begun and the excitement for the international extravaganza of athletic prowess mounts, few will now remember a past games that had a rather more frugal approach to the sporting proceedings. Compared to the multi-millions spent on the current games the 1948 London Olympics was the make-do-and-mend…

What Happened to Picasso’s Mysterious Teenage Muse?

For a few Spring months in 1954, a melancholy Picasso found himself enraptured by 19-year-old Sylvette David. Of all the muses who bookmarked his life — and there were many — she’s fallen to the wayside of history as one of the most enigmatic and misunderstood. For years, critics wrote the body of work she…

Victorian People-Watching at the Beach

Today, our time machine is going for a pit-stop on a sunny, Victorian Era beach in Atlantic City, where the ponies are aplenty, and the bathing costumes make the women look like layer cakes. Sure, contemporary eyes may see a bunch of prudes, but for folks in the 1800s, showing off your bloomers at the…

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