Cinema · Monarchies · Mores · People
On 24 April 1671 the outstanding French maître d'hôtel, restaurateur, impresario and founder of catering, François Vatel, brought his life's journey to an end. Vatel's name has become a byword for restaurateurs and chefs the world over: the man was so devoted to his
Archive · Books · Heritage · Saint Petersburg
On the history of the Warsaw Library in Russia, there are interesting documents left by one of the first employees of the Imperial Library, Mikhail Ivanovich Antonovsky. A writer, historian and translator, M.I. served the state in posts ranging from the Admiralty and the fleet to diplomatic errands. In
Books · Heritage · Saint Petersburg
After Suvorov's capture of Warsaw in 1794, among the other trophies that fell to Russia was one of the richest libraries in Europe, known as the Warsaw Library and by the name of the Załuski Library, assembled in the eighteenth century by the eminent Polish patrons of learning,
Archive · Books · Paris · People · Humour
Turgenev was terribly afraid of cholera and often remarked on fresh outbreaks in his letters, describing in detail the situation in Paris and other European cities, asking after affairs in Russia, noting that people were dying like flies, reflecting how fortunate it was that nightingales do not catch cholera and
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Art · Cinema · Humour
Works by the Swiss artist Emile François Chambon on modern lovers and stills from the film by the Soviet director Leonid Gaidai "Operation Y and Shurik's Other Adventures". Both date from the 1960s. Evidently this charming aesthetic of naive romanticism, of the builders of a new
NB! · Geography · Maps · Pop Culture · Humour
Reddit has produced a rather splendid and, oddly enough, fairly accurate map of France in the style of Super Mario. True, part of Lake Geneva has nonetheless been ceded to the Confederation
NB! · Humour
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Observations · Mores · Humour
I have two questions: when did you last go hunting, and do you know how to make a pigeon pie? It is no simple matter. Ingredients: 12 pigeon breasts, 450 g mushrooms, a few truffles, 12 quail eggs, salt, pepper, cloves and nutmeg, herbs, 1 glass of port, 1 glass
Museums · Pop Culture · Humour
Just don't tell me this is not the most splendid bear you have ever seen. Paddington is not fit to hold a candle to him. This hard-drinking teddy lives in a toy museum in the English historic village of Penshurst, in the county of Kent, once owned
Books · Mores · People
Some Fruits of Solitude in Reflections and Maxims / Fruits of Solitude. William Penn, 1693