In the hearts and imaginations of many around the world, Paris, of all the great cities, has a special aura.
Our favourite Paris … the translucent symmetry of the pyramid of the Louvre, the tranquillity of the Tuileries gardens, the mesmerising Monet waterlilies at the Orangerie, the enchanting macaroons at Pierre Hermé, the relaxed atmosphere at the Jardin des Luxembourg, the irresistible bread and pastry shops, and finally the beautiful architecture inside the Palais-Royal …
We think of (à la the “Thinker” at the Musée Rodin)… the Great Mosque of Paris which sheltered many Jews during the Holocaust and where today has a popular and magical “hamman”(steam bath) … (see Paris, les hammans, and the Grande Mosquée), and the Louvre which has one of the world’s all-time favourite paintings, has stood the test of time since over 200 years ago (it first started being a museum 4 years after the French Revolution, was vacated just before the Nazi armies invaded and its treasures secretly distributed among wealthy French citizens who hid them in their houses around the country), and made a beautiful and epoch-defining expansion with the help of a Chinese-American architect (enjoy reading “Witnessing ‘le pyramid’ … and its ‘disappearance'”).
See Finding liberté, egalité, and fraternité in Paris …. (a brilliant professor at Waseda University in Tokyo has made this an undergraduate text …)
We ponder upon the fact that the Pont Neuf (“new bridge”), which Parisian movies seem to invariably include, and which, despite its name, is the oldest of the Paris bridges, was the first road in Paris to benefit from pavements separating pedestrians and traffic. See our ode to The bridges of Paris.
Hemingway probably penned one of the most memorable quotes about Paris: “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast“.
So, let us bring you with us to visit Proust, Molière, Piaf, Chopin and Picasso (did you know that Picasso and Proust in fact breathed the same air and knew each other?) – and the moveable and beautiful feast of French classical music … and not forgetting the emerging technology scene there too – you can “bla” or “blabla” your way across Greater Paris.
June 2020 update: We are doing a “Secret gardens of Paris” garden-crawl this summer … Here’s the map for a preview (click on the map to see the details behind each of the icons)!
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