Museums · Paris · People · Humour

Now You Too Have Seen Napoleon in His Coffin

Now you too have seen Napoleon in his coffin. In tattered boots. A curious miniature at an exhibition at the French Musée de l'Armée, closing any day now, shows Napoleon as his body was found in 1840 in the grave on the island of Saint Helena: in the

NB! · Society · Paris · Humour

The Members of the Paris Council Await the Next Post About Anne Hidalgo in Parnassian Mockingbird

The members of the Paris Council await the next post about Anne Hidalgo in Parnassian Mockingbird. And so it goes every day, for a mere 4283 euros a month

Black-and-white photograph of an older woman in a dark hat and coat looking at a painting of a nude in a shop window, with the street reflected in the glass.

Society · Paris · Pop Culture · Humour

Robert Doisneau's 1948 photograph “Indignant Lady” at the Galerie Romi window in Paris

Elena Mizulina Has Entered the Internet. "Indignant Lady. Shop Window, Galerie Romi, Paris", 1948, by Robert Doisneau

Aristocracy · Monarchies · Science · Mores · Paris

Microscope of the Duke of Chaulnes, made around 1750 and sold in 2008 for 900,000 euros

In the drawing room of the antiquary Michel Meyer stood a microscope, an intriguing trinket, though many would call it heaven knows what, neither the most decorative nor the most useful item in the furnishings. Good for propping up books, perhaps, or weighing down the sauerkraut? Yet this microscope dates

NB! · Observations · Paris · Humour

If you are in Paris and don't know what to do with yourself..

If you are in Paris and don't know what to do with yourself.. Yes, in the mornings I am a great dreamer

Architecture · Books · Paris · People

Cocteau in “The Difficulty of Being” on his house as a refuge far from the Palais-Royal

In 1947 Jean Cocteau moved into a seventeenth-century château near Fontainebleau, which remained his permanent residence until the end of his days. In La Difficulté d'être [“The Difficulty of Being”] he wrote of it: “This house was waiting for me. Here I am as in a refuge,

NB! · Mores · Paris · People

Jean Cocteau in the tiny flat above the Palais-Royal gallery, where he lived with his beloved Jean Marais and three cats

A woman in a jacket and short skirt sits on a stone parapet beside a bronze cannon whose muzzle is shaped like a smiling lion's face.

NB! · Archive · Cinema · Paris

Actress Sabine Azéma beside an old cannon in Paris, photographed by Robert Doisneau in 1986

The actress Sabine Azéma and a smiling cannon, Paris, 1986. Photograph by Robert Doisneau

Cinema · Society · Paris · People · Pop Culture

Brigitte Bardot doubts the national honours for Belmondo and Josephine Baker

Brigitte Bardot Criticises the Memorial Policy of Macron, Whom She Detests. The actress looks sceptically on the funeral of her friend Belmondo: “Jean-Paul Belmondo would not have liked his funeral at Les Invalides.” He was “a charming man”, but “I do not understand the origins of the national reverence

Art · London · Museums · Paris · Humour

Disputed attribution of Poussin’s “The Education of Bacchus” in the Louvre and London

How many summers, how many winters: a heartfelt reunion of brothers-in-arms. Embracing infants from Nicolas Poussin's painting "The Nurture of Bacchus" in the Louvre collection. The canvas is currently undergoing restoration, which is a good moment to recall the dispute over its attribution: the

Art · Museums · Observations · Paris · Humour

Pablo Picasso's 86-year-old daughter Maya Picasso-Widmaier (68-year-old Brigitte Macron stands beside her, please do not confuse the two) has presented her father's museum with a number of memorial items and 6 of his works, including this portrait, in whi

It must be said, a very good likeness: you have scarcely changed, my dear

NB! · Observations · Paris · People · Humour

Claude Debussy, who died as the First World War drew to its close, has a maximally dull grave, and I cannot imagine how Manuel de Falla managed to dedicate music to this resting place, music of which, incidentally, I am not much enamoured either