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12 events that influenced 19th century Paris
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 1789-1792 The storming of the Bastille fortress by people of Paris THE FIRST REPUBLIC 1789-1792 (The Reign of Terror) The guillotine THE FIRST EMPIRE 1804-1814 In 1804,...
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Where the revolutionaries lived
Excerpt from Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain, published in 1869 From sumptuous Versailles, with its palaces, its statues, its gardens and its fountains, we journeyed back to Paris and sought its...
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Mark Twain on Napoleon III
From Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain Text written in 1867 on the occasion of the Exposition Universelle *** Presently there was a sound of distant music; in another minute a pillar of dust came moving...
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Dinner with courtesans
From the Goncourt Journal Text written in 1857 *** June 7th Dinner at Asseline’s with Anna Deslions, Adèle Courtois, a certain Juliette, and her sister. Anna Deslions, Bianchi’s former mistress and...
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The Guide to Gay Paree – Part 2: Arrival to Paris
Hubert Sattler: Paris 1867 (From Paris Partout! A guide for the English and American Traveller in 1869 or How to see PARIS for 5 guineas) Recent history 1789 Capture of the Bastille 1792 Republic...
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The Prince of Wales in Paris: “Please adopt me! ”
The year is 1855. An enthusiastic crowd lining the boulevards greets Queen Victoria with her husband Prince Albert and the French imperial couple, Napoléon III and the Empress Eugénie, as their open...
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Disdéri’s Photo Studio: Kings, Queens, and Pretty Legs
André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri (1819 -1899) Photographic portraiture in the mid 19th century was a slow and expensive process until a clever man invented the carte de visite format. The inventor,...
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Eugenie, the Tragic Empress
Ever since she became an empress, Eugenie de Montijo feared Queen Marie-Antoinette’s fate. She was right to feel uneasy. Eighteen years into the reign and some eighty years after Marie-Antoinette’s...
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The Bloodbath of the Paris Commune
When you take a guided tour in France—whether it is a Loire château, or any other building erected before 1789—inevitably, there comes the time when the guide says: “Unfortunately, during the...
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The Truth About La Marseillaise
Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People, 1830. As seen here, men can lose their pants when they are led by a woman with a relaxed sartorial attitude. It’s the Fourteenth of July today, the...
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Loulou and the Zulus: The Life and Death of Napoleon IV
Napoleon III and his family Napoleon the Fourth? Was there ever such an emperor? Strangely enough, the Zulus in South Africa can tell you more about this personage than an average Frenchman. The...
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The English Courtesan Who Made a French Emperor
It takes a lot of effort to become an emperor. First, you have to believe in yourself and your star, which is easy when you are a nephew of the Great Corsican and the heir to his fallen throne. But you...
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Bois de Boulogne: The Rendezvous of Wealth and Opulence
Carriages returning from a Sunday parade in the Bois A previous post described the random free spectacles of the Paris streets. The largest and most ostentatious free show had a steady schedule....
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La Castiglione: The Too Much Countess
“I equal the highest-born ladies with my birth, I surpass them with my beauty, and I judge them with my mind.” Thus spoke Virginia Oldoïni, Countess of Castiglione, who was convinced that she was the...
View ArticleThe Gallery of Achievers
This blog has quietly passed the 10-year anniversary. We met many remarkable personalities along the way, and I want to recall some of them in this post. Not all were paragons of virtue, but they were...
View ArticleLes Halles: The Belly of Paris
. Les Halles were the commercial heart of Paris, a place of exchange and supply to the abundant life that had developed over the centuries. An entire chapter in Paris history was closed in 1971 with...
View ArticleWhy Victorian Paris?
pause The recent unrest across France reminded me why this blog could not be called anything other than Victorian Paris. I remember one reader objecting to the title, asking what had Victoria to do...
View ArticleThe Prince of Wales in Paris: “Please, adopt me!”
The year is 1855 and a procession of luxury carriages crosses Paris. An enthusiastic crowd lining the boulevards greets Queen Victoria with her husband Prince Albert in the company of the French...
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