Monarchies · Observations · Mores · People

The age gap of Henry II and Diane de Poitiers compared with the Macrons

Diane de Poitiers, favourite of the French King Henry II, was twenty years his senior. Just imagine how conspicuous such a difference was by the standards of the sixteenth century! She also outlived him by seven years. By all accounts, the delightful wife of the French President Macron, Brigitte, is

Black-and-white photograph of an elderly bearded man in a light jacket seated at a table with a microscope and test tubes.

Books · Observations · Science

On the idea that Europeans have a long old age rather than a long life

Academician Mechnikov wrote in "Essays on Optimism":. Europeans do not have a long life, only a long old age. When you are no longer fit for anything, and yet still alive

Architecture · Moscow · Museums · Observations · Science · Paris

The Paris Gallery of Mineralogy and Geology compared with the Fersman Museum

Yes, my favourite museum in Moscow is still the Fersman Mineralogical Museum in Neskuchny Garden. Let us compare it with the Galerie de Minéralogie et de Géologie in the Jardin des plantes in Paris, which occupies a building of somewhat grander proportions, yet looks almost like the Fersman Museum. The

NB! · Observations · Society · Humour

And that is before he has seen the new fares

Black-and-white photograph of a man and a woman standing at a window of a richly carved, ornamented façade.

Architecture · Cinema · Observations

The film “A Room with a View” and a photograph of a couple at the window of an ornate façade

Two at a Window of the Doge's Palace in Venice. It put me in mind of the film A Room with a View. If you have not seen it, it is essential viewing, a jewel in the golden fund of world cinema.

Bronze sculpture of a seated, bearded, muscular giant with two small nude figures beside him on a pedestal.

Observations · Mores

A holiday greeting and a reminder that love is the amusement of the gods

Love between two people is the amusement of the gods. Do not forget it. And a happy holiday!

Old engraving of a man standing on a sphere, pulled by a thread from a woman on the left and by a chain from a man on the right, with a lute, globe and books below.

NB! · Art · Observations · Education · Humour

A 1608 engraving on the choice between study and entertainment

Study or amusements. 1608. A choice for which we have failed to prepare in 400 years

Observations · Society · People

Do you remember the phrase attributed to Stalin, when he refused to exchange his son from his first marriage, Senior Lieutenant Yakov Dzhugashvili, for the former commander of the 6th Army in the Stalingrad "cauldron", Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus: "I d

This is a fairly commonplace formula for patriotic myths. Something similar is attributed to Barclay de Tolly, who was told of the death of his son during the Battle of Leipzig: "An officer has been killed; I beg you not to interrupt me, for now all children belong to

NB! · Observations · Mores · Humour

Good day, and do try not to sin quite as heartily as the ancient Romans

Monarchies · Museums · Observations

Parade helmet of an officer of the Life Guards Horse Regiment with the large guards cockade in the form of a silver star of the Order of Saint Andrew the First-Called, with an enamel centre and the motto of the Order of Saint Andrew "For Faith and Loyalty

Parade helmet of an officer of the Life Guards Horse Regiment with the large guards cockade in the form of a silver star of the Order of Saint Andrew the First-Called, with an enamel centre and the motto of the Order of Saint Andrew "For Faith and Loyalty&

NB! · Observations · Nature · Humour

Keep this little tit-provider and she will bring you an unexpected profit

Keep this little tit-provider and she will bring you an unexpected profit. Or a mouse, it is not certain

Art · Museums · Observations · Paris · Pop Culture

The Louvre's Department of Decorative Arts stages a fascinating exhibition setting objects from the museum's collection, from Byzantium and the early Middle Ages to the Second Empire, beside more than a hundred fashion looks and accessories…

The works have been lent from the archives of more than 45 fashion houses from France and elsewhere: Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Fendi, Chanel, Schiaparelli, Alaïa, Prada, Paco Rabanne, Balenciaga, Louboutin, Balmain, Yohji Yamamoto and many others. The central idea of the exhibition is the bond between fashion and