Museums · Observations · Heritage · Paris · Humour

Protective Makrolon layer installed on Apollo Gallery window at the Louvre

Probably the most long-suffering window opening in the world. Yesterday the notorious window of the Galerie d'Apollon at the Louvre was at last fitted with a protective layer of Makrolon, a polycarbonate of exceptional strength with fire-resistant properties. Not yet bulletproof glass, but already a very

Observations · Mores · Paris · People

I had never before met such an original definition

Coco Chanel was dubbed a "horizontal collaborator" from the Ritz, a hint at her long liaison with Baron Hans Günther von Dincklage, a German lawyer and NSDAP official who was also, in his spare time, a secret agent and special representative attached to the Reich Ministry of Propaganda.

Art · Museums · Paris

Marlene Dumas becomes the first living woman artist whose works have been acquired for the Louvre's collection

Marlene Dumas has become the first contemporary woman artist whose works have been acquired for the collection of the Louvre. The polyptych, which is to hang at the entrance to the new "Pavilion of the Five Continents", is reported to have cost the museum 470,000 euros. The

Faith · Art · Museums · Paris

Saint Apollonia is considered the patron saint of dentists and of those with toothache; she is depicted holding pincers with an extracted tooth

Saint Apollonia, Francisco de Zurbarán, 1636-40. Louvre collection. The painting can be seen in the Spanish painting gallery

Workers in orange vests and a van by the kerb with black bollards, and a stone building with a gilded wrought-iron fence on the right.

NB! · Observations · Heritage · Paris · Humour

Protective barriers installed along the roadway beside the Apollo Gallery at the Louvre

It has taken barely three hundred years, but the Louvre has installed protective barriers along the roadway beside the Galerie d'Apollon. Robbers will no longer be able to park beneath the windows. A small victory, but at what a price!

NB! · Architecture · Monarchies · Observations · Paris

A Reminder That the Most Beautiful Bridge in the World Bears the Name of Emperor Alexander III

Books · Museums · Heritage · Society · Paris

Every Month Brings New Alarming Incidents at the Louvre

At the end of November, a serious accident occurred in the library of the Louvre's Department of Egyptian Antiquities: at about 21:00 on 27 November, old pipes in the suspended ceiling burst. Dirty water flooded the rooms, damaging some 400 rare books, including their antique bindings. The

Black-and-white photograph of well-dressed visitors with umbrellas walking at the foot of the Eiffel Tower among exhibition pavilions.

NB! · Archive · Architecture · Observations · Paris

The grounds around the Eiffel Tower at the 1889 World's Fair and the pavilions demolished afterwards

The grounds around the Eiffel Tower during the 1889 Exposition Universelle. It is strange to reflect that all these buildings were temporary pavilions, and were simply pulled down once the exhibition was over

Museums · Society · Paris

The Louvre to raise ticket prices for visitors from outside the EU from 14 January

The Louvre will raise ticket prices for most visitors from outside the EU. Tourists from the USA, the United Kingdom and China, for example, will have to pay €32. The increase will come into effect on 14 January. This step is expected to increase annual revenue by €15–20 million.

Architecture · Observations · Society · Paris

Outgoing mayor's narcissism and elite greed as causes of a distorted capital cityscape

The Triangular Tower in Paris: Expectation and Reality. Though both are equally ill-suited to the balance of the capital's panorama and to the elegance of the silhouette of the most beautiful city in the world. Most curious of all, the chief reasons for the existence of this

Art · Science · Paris

Rubens painting found in a Paris mansion sold for 2.3 million euros

It is not every day that experts discover a new masterpiece of the seventeenth century. A painting created by Rubens around 1614–1615 has been found among the belongings of the late owner of a Parisian town house. In 400 years the picture has survived in excellent condition. After X-

Observations · Society · Paris

Georges Pompidou in the 1970s on the excess of laws and rules in France

Leave us in peace! Stop pestering us! There are too many laws in this country, too many regulations, too many rules! It is killing us! Let us live a little, and you will see, everything will sort itself out! Georges Pompidou in the 1970s [about FRANCE, naturally]. But a little