It’s all opulence and grandeur at this hôtel particulier on Boulevard Haussmann. The Musée Jacquemart-André is a private art collection with everything that you might expect. Rich, deep red velvet walls; fine Italian Renaissance and Byzantine art; a Fragonard (currently, unfortunately, on loan to an exhibition); an unexpected, but very delightful, run in with Élisabeth […]

My first encounter with Honoré de Balzac, the man (I was obliged to read his literature in school), was at the Musée Rodin, and I will say that the sculptor must not have liked him much, because the rendition is anything but flattering. However, I had also been seeing many posters for the re-opening of […]

This was a lesson in spontaneity. One bitter cold winter afternoon, not long after I’d arrived, I discovered a (new to me) bookshop across from Jardin du Luxembourg called The Red Wheelbarrow that had such a jolly red awning I had to stop in. I ended up picking up a copy of The New Paris, which […]

I was not always the biggest fan of Montmartre, Paris. It was rather far from where I was living at the time; there are too many hills and not enough escalators; it’s a little gritty; and on the other hand also very touristy. I find myself always on extra alert for pickpockets, especially near the […]

I met Hope on a bitter cold day in February (I’m pretty sure it was February) in a basement that, despite having just one window, was filled with light. The basement was church, and me being new, I was introduced to anyone who might have something in common with me. Hope, too, is from California. One […]

There’s a delightful surprise in the Latin Quarter, something wildly unexpected and out of the blue — or, rather, the appropriate expression is “out of the Haussmann architecture.” It’s la Grande Mosquée de Paris. There is a small admission fee, but if you love architecture, this is such a treat. It was built between 1922 and […]

We marched along, gravel crunching under our shoes, flip-flops; ballet flats; hiking sandals; les baskets rounding out the mix. The lilliputian chateau diminished into the trees as we found a quiet spot for our pique-nique in view of a fountain. Wildflowers swayed violently in the breeze, a seeming haphazard arrangement of nature, but, in fact, very well thought […]

[As the 14e is quite large, this post will be updated as I explore more. I made an artist friend today, on my first visit, and he said he’ll take me around to all the good spots.] When I think of Paris, the 14e is not what comes to mind at all. A little gritty […]

There we sat, in the pleasant afternoon summer sun, under the sign that read “Baladobus.” Supposedly, it would take us to the Abbaye des Vaux de Cernay. It was 45 minutes past two, the hour at which this supposed bus was to arrive. One of our travel companions had stretched himself out on one of […]

The townhouse is rather unassuming — if you’re not looking for it, you’ll walk right past it. There is no imposing gate to attract (or deter) the curious; no garden to meander through to reach the entrance. Just an iron-black door, surprisingly light as you lean on it, which dumps you right into the entryway […]