Author Archives: MaNi

Paris Left Breathless – The Beatles and Club Castel in 1965

Paris Left Breathless – The Beatles and Club Castel in 1965. The famous Club Castel on rue Princesse (Princess Street) in Paris continues its nightclub tradition – but nowadays there is more emphasis on the bar and restaurant. Jean Castel established Castel in 1961 as a private nightclub for the rich and famous. It wasContinue reading “Paris Left Breathless – The Beatles and Club Castel in 1965”

Liberty Leading the People – Delacroix’s famous painting

Liberty Leading the People – Delacroix’s famous painting. “Liberty Leading the People” is certainly Eugène Delacroix’s most well-known painting, and perhaps of any French artist. It is housed in The Louvre in Paris. Painted in 1830, it depicts the French people, particularly Parisians, marching under the tricolour French flag, representing liberty, equality, and fraternity. It’sContinue reading “Liberty Leading the People – Delacroix’s famous painting”

2022 Paris Fire Brigade Calendar

2022 Paris Fire Brigade Calendar. The history of the Paris Fire Brigade (Brigade de Sapeurs-Pompiers de Paris) begins in 1699 with the introduction of water pumps. The Brigade de Sapeurs-Pompiers de Paris is known as BSPP or the Sappers. Sappers stems from “sapeurs” meaning brigade – a sub-division of the French military that dug trenchesContinue reading “2022 Paris Fire Brigade Calendar”

Richard Rogers, Paris Pompidou Centre and his mother’s clay pots

Richard Rogers, Paris Pompidou Centre and his mother’s white pots. Italian-born British architect Richard Rogers, designer of the Pompidou Centre in Paris, died in London at the age of 88 on 18 December 2021. Although he worked on many prominent buildings, such as London’s Millennium Dome and Heathrow Airport Terminal 5, he is best knownContinue reading “Richard Rogers, Paris Pompidou Centre and his mother’s clay pots”

Timeless Paris: Shops and Ateliers of Yesteryear

Timeless Paris: Shops and Ateliers of Yesteryear. Timeless Paris: Shops and Ateliers of Yesteryear (2021) is a coffee table reference book of wonderful photographs of interesting artistic workshops in Paris. The author, Marin Montagut, is an artist with his own atelier on the street where I live in the 6th arrondissement.  The workshops he describes areContinue reading “Timeless Paris: Shops and Ateliers of Yesteryear”

Medici Fountain in the Luxembourg Garden gets a facelift

Medici Fountain in the Luxembourg Garden gets a facelift. The Jardin du Luxembourg (Luxembourg Garden) in Paris, under direction of the Senate, undertook restorations to the Medici Fountain from June 2020 to December 2021. The statues have now been cleaned, the scaffolding around the statues and grotto has been removed, the repairs to the reticulatedContinue reading “Medici Fountain in the Luxembourg Garden gets a facelift”