Aristocracy · Monarchies · Mores · Paris

Since we have embarked on listing Coco Chanel's lovers, she also had a pre-war affair with Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, first cousin of Nicholas II and a participant in the murder of Rasputin

Since we have embarked on listing Coco Chanel's lovers, she also had a pre-war affair with Grand Duke Dmitry Pavlovich, first cousin of Nicholas II and a participant in the murder of Rasputin. One of the most notorious figures of the White emigration, the Grand Duke for

Paris · People · Pop Culture

Toto Koopman, Paris model, her enmity with Chanel, arrest for espionage and career as an art dealer

The history of the feud involving the Dutch-Javanese supermodel Toto Koopman (1908-1991), who worked in Paris before the Second World War and positively despised Chanel, is also of interest. Later the fascists arrested her for espionage and sent her to a concentration camp. One wonders whether Coco had

Mores · Paris · People · Pop Culture

Coco Chanel, a Nazi source in occupied France, and her link to Walter Schellenberg

Well, let us go on recalling spies from the world of fashion. Coco Chanel, for instance, was a Nazi asset in occupied France under the codename Westminster. This is hardly surprising, given that she was the mistress of the SS officer Walter Schellenberg, who wore Hugo Boss and in his

NB! · Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · Paris · Pop Culture

Speaking of costly jewels, this pearl parure of Marie Antoinette was inherited by her daughter, Marie-Thérèse, the last Dauphine of France and Duchess of Angoulême

Speaking of costly jewels, this pearl parure of Marie Antoinette was inherited by her daughter, Marie-Thérèse, the last Dauphine of France, Duchess of Angoulême. The enormous pearl pendant from this set was recently sold for £27,881,497

Architecture · Heritage · Society · Paris

Paris debates log benches and other decisions by Mayor Anne Hidalgo

Meanwhile in Paris, an angry debate is raging over the mayor, Anne Hidalgo, and her contentious decisions on urban improvement. Many are simply shocked by the new city benches, made of roughly hewn logs. Taken together with the installation of ungainly public lavatories, the removal of the railings around trees

Architecture · Observations · Heritage · Paris

Commemorative tiles in the paving of Place de la Bastille in Paris and bronze plaques in Moscow's Prechistenka

In Paris, on the Place de la Bastille, such charming and very stylish little tiles have been set into the paving, recalling the historical monuments that once stood on this spot. How do you like French commemorative practices? I rather like them. Incidentally, in Moscow in the Prechistenka district, for

NB! · Art · Cinema · Monarchies · Museums · Paris · Pop Culture

On 16 October the exhibition "Marie Antoinette, Metamorphosis of an Image" opened in Paris, bringing together hundreds of images of the queen, from the classic portraits of Vigée Le Brun to excerpts from films about Marie Antoinette and the manga "The Ros

Framed drawing of a dancer whirling on stage in a full pale orange skirt, with spectators watching from a box on the right.

NB! · Coming Up · Art · Museums · Paris · Humour

Major Toulouse-Lautrec retrospective on view at the Grand Palais

Toulouse-Lautrec asks me to pass it on. Incidentally, there is a large retrospective of his work at the Grand Palais right now

NB! · Archive · Faith · Cinema · Paris

Archive footage from the filming of the Chambord stag in the Parisian church of Saint-Eustache

NB! · Architecture · Art · Museums · Paris

A Degas drawing "At the Paris Opera" and those very private partitions in the auditorium of the Paris Opera, on a model of the building in the Musée d'Orsay

NB! · Art · Monarchies · Mores · Paris · Society Pages

The tureen in which Napoleon served broth to Marie-Louise when she bore him a son, the King of Rome, Napoléon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte: it, too, could be seen at the Paris Biennale, on the ImperialArt stand

NB! · Monarchies · Museums · Paris