REDISCOVERING THE PICTURESQUE IN PARIS
Surprising Stories: Rodin’s The Burghers of Calais: Resistance and Sacrifice
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Today, perhaps more than any other time in recent history, we are aware of the fragility of the human body. The ongoing Covid pandemic and the worldwide protests against police brutality, makes it clear that how we view our bodies…
Surprising Stories: Fragile Flowers: Redouté, Prints and Porcelains
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For most of Spring 2020 many of us have missed being able to see, touch and smell beautiful flowers up close. We can look wistfully beyond closed garden gates to try to catch a glimpse of blooms or instead settle for virtual bouquets.…
Surprising Stories: The Buttes-Chaumont: A Model for a Green City
Art
As we leave our homes after two months of lockdown in Paris, our Surprising Story this week visits the Buttes-Chaumont, one of the city’s first public parks and urban renewal projects. Part of Baron Haussmann’s mid-19th century designs…
Surprising Stories: La Place Des Vosges: Fashion and Architecture in the Marais
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When King Henri IV arrived in Paris in 1594, after thirty years of war and destruction, he faced a momentous challenge: how to restart the economy and rebuild the capital city? A Renaissance prince with an eye for profit, he imagined a spectacular…
Surprising Stories: A Princely Wager at Bagatelle
Surprising Stories
Many of the public parks in and around Paris were created over three hundred years ago by the royal family or wealthy aristocrats. These private gardens were designed as places of play and amusement where the owners indulged their…