Wet Hot Parisian Summer: A Lost 1930s Nudist Utopia

In Physiopolis, life was better in the buff. Or at least in a bikini, which was as close as one could legally get to public nudity in 1930s Paris. It was here, on an isolated sun-baked island on the Seine, that a titillating new naturiste-nudiste (naturalist and nude) movement sprang forth. Gone were the days…

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…

When Paris Built the Greatest Show on Earth

Forget the Olympics. Forget PT Barnum’s legendary spectacles. It was Paris, in my opinion that wins the prize for putting on the greatest show on Earth. Photographs of the Universal Exposition of 1900 never cease to make my jaw drop. The unrecognisable monuments, the dazzling profusion of electric that earned it the title of “City of…

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From Paris to Provence in Under an Hour

Escape from Paris? Yes, sometimes even the truest Parisphile needs a little break from the romance of this concrete jungle in exchange for some country air. We arose early to the sun gently warming our toes peeking out from under the duvet and knew, this was our day to escape. But where to…? “Somewhere less…

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Our Zoom Date with a Paris Catacombs Explorer

Welcome to our Q&A with the fabulously entertaining Alexander J.E. Bradley – an artist and urban explorer whose mastery of the Paris catacombs has led us down many a rabbit hole (you may recall our trip to his underground catacombs cinema to watch The Rocky Horror Picture Show one Halloween). If you missed the live…

The Dismantling of Belleville: A Parisian Village Lost to the Wrecking Ball

Remember that beautiful Parisian village featured in the Oscar-winning 1950s short film The Red Balloon? Well we’re sorry to report that it was almost entirely levelled by the French government. The history of Belleville, the Parisian neighbourhood where legendary French singer Edith Piaf lived and called home, is a dazzling mix of folklore and fact,…

Reviving the Abandoned ‘Life of Pi’ Art Deco Pool in Paris

If you ever got around to watching Life of Pi you might recall the hero of the film, a young Indian boy living in French colonial India, was ironically named ‘Piscine Molitor Patel’, after a historic 1920s Art Deco swimming pool (piscine) right here in Paris … At the start of the film, our lead character “Pi”, short…

She Ruled Paris From Her Bed

The only place more frequented than the Eiffel Tower, according to 19th century Parisians, was the exalted mattress of the Valtesse de la Bigne. Her story is the quintessential rags-to-riches tale, albeit one that’ll make you blush, and clues to her influence over the era’s most powerful figures are still visible in Paris to this…

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…

Inside a Secret Paris Atelier of Curiosities

Behind what might be the narrowest door in Paris, at the back of a peaceful courtyard, I could hear the faint sound of a radio crackling as I approached the end of a corridor, hoping I’d found the atelier of Maïssa Toulet. I had found a photograph of her work on Tumblr and tracked her…