Art · Books · Heritage · Paris

A Passage from Diderot’s “Rameau’s Nephew” and the History of His Paris Monument

When I see a virtuous man perishing in poverty while a scoundrel bathes in luxury, I ask myself: what have we done with this world? We devised laws to curb crime, yet those very laws protect the criminal, provided he is rich. We extol the truth, yet chase after falsehood,

Observations · Society · Paris · Humour

France without a prime minister or budget, Macron isolated, Philippe proposes he resign

Heaven talks of nothing but France without a prime minister or a budget. Macron looks isolated, Édouard Philippe proposes that he leave office and call early elections, Alain Minc calls him a dreadful president, while Le Pen, his long-standing opponent, unlike her former comrades-in-arms, does not support

In the Press · Faith · Heritage · Society · Paris

Paris court finds Romanian who set fire to Notre-Dame-des-Champs church insane

A Romanian national who set fire to the church of Notre-Dame-des-Champs in Paris last July, as Le Parisien reports, has been declared insane by the Paris Criminal Court. He was already known for similar acts in 2021. He set fire to a statue of Christ, which was

Archaeology · Art · Museums · Observations · Paris

I made a point of going up to the famous Seated Scribe to photograph his eyes: lined with kohl, with pale blue, seemingly glass pupils that are in fact made of quartz, magnesite and an alloy of copper and arsenic

The sculpture is believed to have been created between the Fourth (2543-2436 BC) and Fifth (2435-2306 BC) Dynasties, but the name we give the scribe is conventional, merely one of the versions; the owner of the tomb in which the sculpture was found in 1850 has so far

NB! · Observations · Paris

Paris, je t'aime

NB! · Heritage · Society · Paris · Humour

Memorial to the Victims of the First World War in Paris's 15th Arrondissement Adorned with Dustbins and a Compact Rubbish Dump

The memorial to the victims of the First World War in Paris's 15th arrondissement has been adorned with dustbins and a compact rubbish dump. This is what they fought for

Art · Museums · Observations · Mores · Paris

Paul Poiret's wire turban and the turn-of-the-century fashion for fearing electricity

Incredible, but this feathered ornament by Paul Poiret is in fact made of the finest metal wire. The curator of the Poiret retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs said that for the whole team this extraordinary headdress came as a discovery. But I recalled the amusing fashion of the

In a shop window a doll in a barred cot reads the comic “Obsessions bis”, with a stack of books beside it and the sign Le dilettante above.

NB! · Books · Paris · Humour

Doll Reading a Book in a Cot in a Le dilettante Shop Window

The most frightening bookshop window display imaginable. How Le dilettante imagine the portrait of their reader

NB! · Paris · People · Pop Culture · Humour

A relaxed attitude to luxury means painting your own name on a Louis Vuitton trunk in white paint

A relaxed attitude to luxury means painting your own name on a Louis Vuitton trunk in white paint. Which is exactly what Paul Poiret did.

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Matryona Rasputina, Newton's forecast, Notre-Dame's bells and other topics in the digest

I have put together a digest of the most interesting posts that appeared on the channel in September:. 📌 The story of the circus performer Matryona Rasputina, daughter of Grigory Rasputin 📌 666 degrees Celsius. The forecast of the end of the world by Isaac Newton 📌 The financing of the 1917 revolution

Moscow · Observations · Society · Paris

It feels as though ticket prices of 45 to 65 euros for a concert by a second-tier ensemble in the Église de la Madeleine in Paris are about twice what they should be

One must learn to value the accessibility of culture and to attend events with more humane prices more actively: firstly, this supports the loyal institutions, and secondly, it helps to keep prices low. By way of comparison, not an entirely fair one, of course, tickets for the anniversary concert of

Archive · Books · Observations · Science · Paris

In an eighteenth-century alchemical manuscript, "The Wisdom of the Ancient Philosophers, or Their Teaching on the Supreme and Universal Medicine", once kept in the Capuchin library on the Rue Saint-Honoré and describing a universal medicine capable of pre

Let us take four from the many scenes: Fermentatio, Putrefactio, Solutio, Calcinatio. They show, first, the substance: a toad half-submerged in water and speckled with rising bubbles. This is the textbook visual representation of the "putrefaction of matter, often accompanied by the release of gas. Putrefaction is followed