NB! · Archive · Paris

Fishermen by Notre-Dame de Paris, Summer 1932

Art · Museums · Observations · Paris

Exhibition “Degas in Black and White” at the National Library of France: 160 rarely shown works

Two in a box. My favourite drawing from the exhibition "Degas in Black and White", drawn from the collection of the Department of Prints and Photography of the National Library of France. In all, the exhibition presents 160 rarely shown works by Edgar Degas: etchings, lithographs, drawings in

Coming Up · Museums · Society · Paris · Society Pages

Macron and Mattarella at the opening of the exhibition “Naples in Paris” at the Louvre

Little Macron with the President of Italy, 81-year-old Sergio Mattarella, before the Mona Lisa. They pledge allegiance to great art on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition from the Capodimonte Museum at the Louvre, "Naples in Paris". Not long ago, relations between France and

NB! · Architecture · Paris · Pop Culture

Hubert de Givenchy's Green Drawing Room

Aristocracy · Archive · Books · Paris · People

First edition of Felix Yusupov's autobiography inscribed "For Jean Cocteau. From Felix Yusupov" found in the Library of the History of Paris

A first edition of Felix Yusupov's autobiography, inscribed "For Jean Cocteau. From Felix Yusupov", has been found in the Library of the History of Paris. Sent in by a reader

Archive · Architecture · Cinema · Observations · Paris

Security openings in the walls of the Royal Opera of Versailles at the 1961 Kennedy reception

Watching newsreel footage of the Kennedys' state visit to France in 1961, I noticed some curious openings in the wall of the Royal Opera of Versailles. What are these little squares, scattered across the different tiers of the auditorium, for? They are neither heating nor lighting vents. They are

Cinema · Observations · Paris · People · Saint Petersburg

The actor Sergei Dreiden (Dontsov) has died today. I remember him from two roles: in Kirill Serebrennikov's recent "Petrov's Flu" and in Yury Mamin's good old "Window to Paris"

Though not, in my view, the best known of films, "Window to Paris" is one of the important, truly Russian pictures. Very delicate and funny, tragic, absurd and bitterly truthful. A prim old lady hides a magical secret in her room in a grimy, noisy communal flat: on

NB! · Art · Observations · Paris · Humour

The Hôtel Le Grand Mazarin in Paris has lovely rooms, but I would rather not have a carpet hanging over my head, even if it were the most thoroughly cleaned in the world and went by the name of tapestry

Coming Up · Art · Monarchies · Museums · Observations · Paris

Three portraits of Marie Antoinette by a single artist, the Swedish painter Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller

Marie Antoinette sat for Wertmüller in 1785-88. He worked on commission from the Swedish king Gustav III. Besides the portrait of the queen with her children, Antoinette appeared on several other canvases. The most intimate proved to be precisely the first version. This one, by all appearances, was never

Black-and-white photograph of a man and a woman in a room beside a large white bird-shaped bed, with a dog standing on a chair.

NB! · Art · Paris

François-Xavier Lalanne made a bed with a seagull-shaped canopy in the 1960s

A bed with a seagull-shaped canopy. Work by François-Xavier Lalanne, 1960s

NB! · Archive · Paris · People

Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle at the Armistice Day Parade on 11 November 1944, Champs-Élysées, Paris

NB! · Observations · Society · Paris · Humour