Parc de Sceaux in a Paris suburb, laid out by André Le Nôtre in the late 17th century

Winter in the Parc de Sceaux on the outskirts of Paris. The park was laid out in the late 17th century by André Le Nôtre, one of the most celebrated landscape architects in the world and the creator of the parks and gardens of Vaux-le-Vicomte, Versailles, the Tuileries, Saint-Cloud, Saint-Germain and Chantilly. Though not the most outstanding of Le Nôtre's works, this park too was among the arbiters of fashion for the French formal garden in Europe. The trees planted in a single line, so meticulously trimmed and brought to one height, embody one of the key principles of the French formal garden, as a symbol of man's control over nature.

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Parc de Sceaux in a Paris suburb, laid out by André Le Nôtre in the late 17th century

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s