Archaeology · The East · Museums · Paris

Neolithic settlement of Ain Ghazal in Jordan and its alabaster statues

In 1984, road builders in Jordan discovered Ain Ghazal, the largest Neolithic settlement yet found, which at its height, in the 8th millennium BC, was home to 3,000 people. The population of Jericho in the same period is estimated at around 2,000. Ain Ghazal also covered 15 hectares,

NB! · Art · Museums · Paris

A smiling female sculpture from the Louvre

Monarchies · Mores · Paris · Nature

The Little Ice Age and the fashion for sleighs at the French court

The forecasters' promise that there will be no summer recalled the run of rainy years in the fourteenth century that heralded, for the Russian lands, the onset of the Little Ice Age. Which would give way to a brief interglacial in the 1440s. The coldest phase of the Little

NB! · Art · Heritage · Paris · People

The most interesting part is that after the defeat of the Commune the column would be restored, and Gustave Courbet would be blamed for its destruction: by order of the court he was to pay 10,000 francs a year in compensation, and he died in poverty seven

NB! · Architecture · Art · Heritage · Paris

The Statue of Napoleon from the Toppled Vendôme Column

NB! · Architecture · Heritage · Society · Paris

The Demolition of the Vendôme Column on 18 May 1871

Architecture · Monarchies · Heritage · Paris

The Vendôme Column in Paris, from the statue of Napoleon to its destruction in 1871

The original turns out not to differ greatly from its prototype, save for a somewhat enlarged viewing platform on the, er... summit of the column, and a statue of Napoleon set at the very top. Originally the place on the Place Vendôme was occupied by a monument to Louis XIV,

Archive drawing “Colonne de la Grande Armée”, Place Vendôme, original layout: elevation, plan sections and a cross-section showing the inner staircase.

NB! · Architecture · Observations · Paris · Humour

Original design of the Vendôme Column, erected by Napoleon in honour of the victory at Austerlitz

This is how the Vendôme Column might have looked, erected by Napoleon in 1807 in honour of the victory at Austerlitz. As they say, the associations are no accident: the form does indeed match the message

Faith · Society · Paris · People

More than 10,000 pilgrims walk to Chartres in 2017 and Cardinal Burke's Mass

More than 10,000 of the faithful joined the 2017 pilgrimage to Chartres: 244 groups of 50 pilgrims each. The three-day, 100-kilometre route ran south from Notre-Dame de Paris through the Place de la Porte d'Orléans, then south-west to Chartres. The journey's

NB! · Faith · Paris · Reportage

the pilgrimage from Notre-Dame de Paris to Notre-Dame de Chartres is one of the largest in Europe and is dedicated to Pentecost (the 10th day after the Ascension and the 50th day after Easter), the feast of the descent of the Holy Spirit

Architecture · Art · Books · Monarchies · Paris

Napoleon's plaster model of a bronze elephant at the Bastille site stood until 1846

Napoleon wished to raise a dazzling monument to his victories: a bronze elephant twenty-four metres high, cast from melted-down cannon, was to adorn the square on the site of the demolished Bastille. The elephant, on a lofty pedestal, stood in the middle of a fountain, and the creature&

NB! · Architecture · Paris · Humour