Architecture · Mores · Paris

History of the Moulin de la Galette in Montmartre, from Mill to Dance Hall

The celebrated Montmartre windmill Moulin de la Galette, built in 1622 and immortalised in paintings by Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec and Renoir, stands to this day. Moulin is French for "mill". To be sure, if the nineteenth-century owners of the milling complex are to be believed, a

NB! · Architecture · Paris

Notre-Dame at Night

NB! · Architecture · Faith · Heritage · Paris

Jesus in the Parisian sky before installation on the south transept of Notre-Dame

NB! · Art · Museums · Heritage · Paris · Rome

Napoleon stole the Apollo Belvedere from the Vatican in 1797 and brought it to Paris with great pomp, installing it as the supreme trophy in the Central Museum of Arts, the future Louvre

Napoleon stole the Apollo Belvedere from the Vatican in 1797 and brought it to Paris with great pomp, installing it as the supreme trophy in the Central Museum of Arts, the future Louvre. After Napoleon's fall the statue was returned to Italy

NB! · Architecture · Art · Heritage · Paris

Vase with chimeras in the park of Versailles, Parterre du Midi, 1665

Vase with chimeras in the park of Versailles, Parterre du Midi, 1665. During the Revolution, the imperial lilies on the coat of arms were replaced with a sword

NB! · Architecture · Paris

Philharmonie de Paris, architects Jean Nouvel and Christian de Portzamparc, 2015

Architecture · Observations · Heritage · Paris

Basketball court in Remilly follows the outline of the gardens of the Palace of Versailles

Versailles has given a thoroughly French look to a basketball court in the Rémilly sports complex. The new court follows the outlines of the gardens of the Palace of Versailles, while keeping every sporting dimension required. I look forward to seeing similar courts in Moscow, in place of the dull

Aristocracy · Cinema · Monarchies · Paris · Society Pages

Prince Jean-Christophe Louis Ferdinand Albéric Napoléon with his wife, Princess Olympia, née Countess von Arco-Zinneberg, at the premiere of Ridley Scott's "Napoleon"

Jean-Christophe is a direct male-line descendant of Joseph, the eldest of Napoleon's brothers. Napoleon's only legitimate son, Napoleon II, died young and childless, while the numerous progeny of Napoleon's second son, the illegitimate Count Alexandre Colonna-Walewski, cannot lay claim to the

Art · Books · Paris · People

Rodin's Monument to Balzac, from the Nude Study to the Scandal at the 1898 Salon

While working on his famous monument to Balzac, often dismissed as a shapeless monstrosity, Auguste Rodin produced several models and sketches. Among them is this nude study. Apart from Rodin, hardly anyone ever saw Balzac like this. And it was in this form that Rodin first conceived the monument to

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Paris

Work in the Catacombs of Paris in 1862

A dark interior with a spiral staircase, an old man seated by a lit window and a second figure at a fire on the right.

Art · Museums · Paris

Rembrandt's Painting of 1632 from the Louvre Collection

Philosopher in Meditation. Rembrandt, 1632. Louvre collection

NB! · Art · Museums · Paris · People

Landscapes by Nikolai Vladimirovich Stahl von Holstein, French abstract painter of Russian origin, son of a general of the Russian army

Landscapes by Nikolai Vladimirovich Stahl von Holstein, French abstract painter of Russian origin, son of a general of the Russian army. He is better known as Nicolas de Staël. Collection of the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris