Lisa
Magic at the Gallery of Compared Anatomy
FUSAC in POP Culture
The film was Love Actually a 2003 romantic comedy written and directed by Richard Curtis. Mostly filmed on location in London, the screenplay follows different aspects of love as shown through ten separate stories. The story that shows FUSAC is between the cuckold writer Jamie (Colin Firth) and Aurélia (Lúcia Moniz). Jamie withdraws to his French cottage, where he meets Portuguese housekeeper Aurélia, who does not speak English. Despite their inability to communicate, they are attracted to each other. When Jamie returns to England, he realises he is in love with Aurélia and begins learning Portuguese. He returns to France via the Marseille airport where he hops into a cab with a FUSAC in hand! He finds Aurélia working at a restaurant. In broken Portuguese he declares his love for her and proposes. She says ye…
New oaks for rebuilding Notre Dame de Paris
My French Neighbor and the Palais Royal Cannon
Get Out of Town to Cergy-Pontoise and La Défense
The Saints on the map of Paris
Whether you walk across Paris or look at the metro or street map, you often see places named after a Saint. Such familiar names as St Genevieve, St Denis, St Vincent de Paul etc... Have you ever wondered who were these saints on the map of Paris and what their history was? We did! Here is a bit of history on the Saints on the map of Paris.
Sainte GenevièveLogically the patron saint of Paris, St. Geneviève, is the one you come across most often. Her statue by Paul Landowski graces the Pont de La Tournelle in the 4th district. There is also one in Jardin du Luxembourg. She is on the front of Notre Dame as well. The Catholic church is celebrating the 1600th anniversary of Genevieve this year. A relic, her index finger, and her sarcophagus is in a chapel dedicated to her in the church of St Etienne du Mont a church in the 5th arrondissement on the Montagne Sainte Geneviève where she lived and prayed.
She was born in Nanterre in about the …Who was Christopher Oberkampf?
Oberkampf. You know the metro station, which was named for the street. The street was named for Christopher-Philip Oberkampf in 1864. But do you know who Oberkampf was and why there is a street named after him?
Christopher was a German Protestant immigrant to France in the 1700s under the Ancien Regime. He was a man who climbed the social and financial ladder by his own grit. He came from Germany and spoke only German when he arrived in Paris as a trained, but young, textile printer and dyer. He died a millionaire, head of an empire of 1300 workers and fashion trend-setter. The odds were against him, but his tenacity, creativity, technique, innovation, intuition and thick skin makes him one of the best immigration success stories in history. And that's why Paris has a street, metro and neighborhood named after him. But in fact though he did not live and work in Paris but in the nearby (now) suburb of Jouy-en-Josas. You probably know this town as the location …
Get out of Town: Parc de Saint Cloud
Get out of town to Bordeaux
Bordeaux. Nice. City. It took us way too long to get there for a visit. We had a lovely time there over 5 nights. There's a lot to see and it seems like a very liveable place. I would seriously consider it if I were planning to move. Great bikes paths which will be even better once some of the many construction sites are done, lots to do, lots of culture, a great river front walk and a really nice mixture of old/historic and new.
One of the new masterpieces is the Cité du Vin leading the gentrification of the area called “Le Quartier des bassins à flots” or wet docks.
The ceiling of the Cité du Vin's panoramic view tasting barThe Cite du Vin is a new generation cultural center, unique in the world they say, and, obviously, focused on all aspects of wine. Wine is presented in its cultural framework, its relationship to civilization, scientifically and agriculturally, its heritage and history and the future. The Cité is a cultu…