Tuesday, 6 October 2026
Section · 835 stories

Paris

Molière is credited with the remark that one day people would speak of the French language not as the language of the French, but as the language of Molière

Cinema · Books · Paris · People

Molière is credited with the remark that one day people would speak of the French language not as the language of the French, but as the language of Molière

Molière is credited with the remark that one day people would speak of the French language not as the language of the French, but as the language of Molière. However presumptuous these words may have seemed to his contemporaries, the audacity proved prophetic. One of the greatest dramatists in history

By Alexandr Radayev
After the first Impressionist exhibition, a journalist from Le Figaro wrote that the paintings of Monet, Renoir, Morisot and Sisley made him think of a monkey to whom the public ought to present a basket of flowers

In the Press · Art · Observations · Paris · Humour

After the first Impressionist exhibition, a journalist from Le Figaro wrote that the paintings of Monet, Renoir, Morisot and Sisley made him think of a monkey to whom the public ought to present a basket of flowers

Evidently, this was an allusion to Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps's painting "The Monkey Painter" of 1833. Nearly 150 years have passed since that exhibition, and with every private view new talented primates remain in the shadow of their many masterpieces. It must be said, though, that the

By Alexandr Radayev
The director Vasily Katanyan has a recollection that links Elsa Triolet, her sister Lilya Brik and Marina Tsvetaeva through Yelena, the wife of the literary scholar Tager

Archive · Mores · Paris · People

The director Vasily Katanyan has a recollection that links Elsa Triolet, her sister Lilya Brik and Marina Tsvetaeva through Yelena, the wife of the literary scholar Tager

Soon after emigrating from Russia, Ella Yuryevna Kagan married and became Elsa Triolet, moved to Paris, and in due course began making costume jewellery out of whatever came to hand (my greetings to a good dozen of the fashionable jewellers of today), even out of Metlakh tiles, the kind used

By Alexandr Radayev
Voltaire at the École nationale des chartes, or proof that, given a set of eyelash extensions, any dried apricot can pass for a second-hand peach

NB! · Art · Observations · Education · Paris · Humour

Voltaire at the École nationale des chartes, or proof that, given a set of eyelash extensions, any dried apricot can pass for a second-hand peach

Voltaire at the École nationale des chartes, or proof that, given a set of eyelash extensions, any dried apricot can pass for a second-hand peach. Though in Russia, I dare say, some criminal case or other might well be opened over such embellishment of one of the national symbols

By Alexandr Radayev
See all
More stories