The Forgotten Treehouse Bars of Bygone Summers in Paris

There was once a place that drew crowds of Parisians away from their grand boulevards and sidewalk cafés to rediscover their inner child, wine & dine in chestnut tree houses and celebrate summer like Robinson Crusoe. Perhaps you’ve heard of a “guingette”, a sort of French equivalent to a summer hoedown, traditionally located next to the river and particularly…

The Paris Time Capsule Apartment

A Parisian apartment left untouched for over 70 years was discovered in the quartier of Pigalle a few summers ago. The owner of this apartment, Mrs. De Florian left Paris just before the rumblings of World War II broke out in Europe. She closed up her shutters and left for the South of France, never…

Documenting the Disappearing Record Stores of Paris

Record stores are a little bit like urban legends nowadays; the types of places you have to know people to get to the good stuff, through a door in the back and a ladder to the basement where you might find boxes of the owner’s dusty 45’s that have been there for years. And even those places are rare…

Exploring Cairo’s Ghost Mansions

When you visit Egypt, you’re supposed to come back with photographs of the pyramids. “I didn’t find them very interesting,” says photographer Xenia Nikolskaya, “and consequently didn’t photograph them”. In 2006, Xenia had travelled to Cairo with the help of the Egyptian Embassy in Moscow, but when she returned without a single photo of a pyramid,…

The French Fartist who Headlined at the Moulin Rouge

I can imagine the Moulin Rouge had some pretty exotic acts in its heyday, but entertaining an audience with rhythmic flatulence? Surely our ancestors had a little more class! Meet Joseph Pujol, professional fartist and one of the most popular and highly paid stage performers in Europe prior to World War I. Posters all over Paris billed…

Uncovering the Ghost of an Iconic Department Store, the “Bloomingdales” of Paris

For ten years, one of the world’s most iconic and historic department stores sat empty along the banks of the Seine in Paris; an imposing ghostly shell of former retail splendour, a giant sleeping elephant in the room occupying prime real estate in the heart of the city. When I heard that renovation works were…

The Neglected Ghost Town of Italy’s Dolce Vita Drinking Water

San Pellegrino is an icon of the Italian lifestyle, the most stylish brand of sparkling water you can order anywhere in the world, synonymous with luxury, fine dining, jet set summers in Europe and “la Dolce Vita”. One of its first admirers was allegedly Leonardo da Vinci, who visited the source in Lombardy to sample the…

This Miniature Belle Epoque Photo Studio is Ready for its Close-up

In an era where an expression like “selfie” is announced as the Oxford dictionary’s word of the year, the idea of going to a photographic studio to have a picture taken of yourself, does seem rather like something out of a dreamworld… Ali Alamedy is an artist from Turkey who creates incredibly accurate and detailed dioramas, most recently this early photography studio from the 1900s…

Place your Bets on the Fate of this Crumbling Casino

It was the crown jewel of Romania’s “Monte Carlo”; a pearl watching over the Black Sea where royalty and the elite flocked from all over Europe and wealthy travellers spoke of it around the world, recounting stories of their extravagant gambling escapades at the Casino Constanta. It’s unmistakable art deco shapes and lines are still in tact, and from…

For Sale: Legendary Pre-Ban Absinthe Bottles of the Belle Epoque

When Parisians used to call it “la fée verte” (the green fairy), the custom of drinking absinthe had became so popular in bars, bistros, cafés, and cabarets that, by the 1860s, the hour of 5 p.m. was called l’heure verte (“the green hour”). It was a green and ghoulish drink traditionally served by placing a sugar cube on a…