Black-and-white photo: a bearded man in a hat talks with two women in aprons beside a steaming pot under a sign reading “A la renommée des bonnes frites”.

Archive · Mores · Paris · Humour

Women selling chips and a customer at the entrance of a shop in Paris, 1920

Tasty, and That's Full Stop: A Hundred Years Ago. A man awaiting his chips in Paris in 1920

Colour cartoon: at the top, a group of dark-skinned people with French flags looks down at two light-skinned people with a mirror and cosmetics.

NB! · Archive · In the Press · Society · Paris

Kladderadatsch cartoon of 1932 depicting what France would look like in 100 years

An illustration from the German satirical magazine Kladderadatsch, 1932, foreseeing the image of France a hundred years on: "The last white Frenchmen, the chief attraction of the Paris Zoo". Eight years remain until 2032

Paris · Pop Culture · Humour

Van Cleef & Arpels released the men's fragrance Eau du Tsar with Russian motifs in 1998

In 1998 Van Cleef & Arpels launched a men's fragrance, Eau du Tsar, that is, "the Tsar's Water". The design of the bottle and its case drew on Russian motifs, from a coat of arms in the Muscovite style to Cyrillic lettering. Amusingly, the

Archive · Architecture · Paris

Paris 1937 competition design by unknown author resembles the Syuyumbike Tower in Kazan

In 1937 a design was submitted to the architectural competition of the International Exhibition in Paris that bears a suspicious resemblance to the 58-metre Söyembikä Tower in Kazan. Since no information about the authorship of the Parisian competition drawing has survived to our day, one is left to guess

A mesh LED panel with blue, red and green lights on a facade, seen from below, with white ventilation pipes and glass structures behind.

Architecture · Observations · Society · Paris

The author criticises national culture becoming a backdrop for corporate interests

The façade of the Centre Pompidou has been entirely covered in LED strips, creating a vast canvas for Nike advertising. It is dreadful when national culture becomes nothing more than a backing for corporate interests

NB! · Art · Museums · Paris

Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine, Gustave Courbet, 1857

Vault mosaic of Orpheus with a lyre and Eurydice in a green robe on a gold ground, framed by ornament and masks.

NB! · Architecture · Art · Paris

Mosaic of Orpheus and Eurydice in the Palais Garnier in Paris

Orpheus and Eurydice. Mosaic in the Palais Garnier, Paris

Black-and-white photograph of two girls dancing on a curving street beside a fountain, with the tall bare wall of a demolished house and an old car nearby.

NB! · Archive · Paris

Robert Doisneau photographs two girls dancing on a Paris street in 1950

Two girls dancing in the street, Paris, 1950. Photo by Robert Doisneau

Copper octopus sculpture with outstretched tentacles set against an arched window with a dark grille and a border of shells.

NB! · Architecture · Art · Paris

Octopus in the decor of the main entrance of the Oceanographic Institute in Paris

The octopus decorating the main entrance of the Oceanographic Institute in Paris. Dedicated to lovers of Art Nouveau

Archive · Observations · Paris

Pedestrians on the Rue Mouffetard in 1951

Pedestrians on the Rue Mouffetard in 1951. Photo by Robert Doisneau. The picture reminded me of a woman with a very small dog whom I met yesterday on Solyanka: the mistress was coaxing the little creature to stand on the ground on its own little legs rather than merely sit

Painted interior with two women seated by an open balcony door, walls in blue patterned wallpaper and a round table with books in the foreground.

NB! · Art · Observations · Paris · People

French Post-Impressionist Édouard Vuillard becomes the author's new favourite artist

I officially have a new favourite artist. Allow me to introduce the French Post-Impressionist Édouard Vuillard (1868−1940)

Black-and-white photograph of a woman in dark clothing behind a window with her palms raised to the glass, a wrought-iron balcony railing in front.

NB! · Archive · Paris · People · Pop Culture

Edith Piaf at the window of her last home on Boulevard Lannes in the 1950s

Édith Piaf at her last home on the Boulevard Lannes. 1950s