The Lapin Agile: the killers’ cabaret and the horrible Pantin massacre
Hidden in a corner of the crazy butte of Montmartre there’s a little house with a countryside, wine, laughs, music,…
The Characters of the Lapin Agile: an alert sectioned patient and an unaware millionaire
On the crazy hill of Montmartre, there are a lot of places smelling of genius, cheap wine, art, literature, and…
Compiègne, a palace for those who don’t want to go back to Versailles
Today, the mome-raths decided to show me a palace outside of Paris. But since their paths are never predictable, they…
The grim past of Buttes-Chaumont park
The most beautiful English-style park of the Ville Lumière, park Buttes-Chaumont (1 Rue Botzaris, nel XIX arrondissement), hides a dark past. It’s difficult…
Les Amis de l’Instruction: a magically intact library since 1861
In the ancient heart of Paris there’s an incredible time capsule that holds a treasury of stories. Many are made…
Doctor Blanche’s Clinic: Montmartre’s madhouse
Perhaps not everyone knows that in the XIX century, on Montmartre, the craziest hill in Paris, there was a unique…
Sarah Bernhardt: how to build a triumph, one defeat at a time.
In the sparkling Paris of the end of the Second Empire (1852-1870), a jew-born actress could flaunt, at just 24…
Sarah Bernhardt: enduring women are dangerous… because they triumph!
In the middle of the XIX century, a fatherless child (bad!), daughter of a courtesan (worse!), of jew origins (worst!)…
Victor Hugo: from celebration parades to the procession of grieves
This is the last of three articles about the life of Victor Hugo. I told you about his unhappy marriage,…
Victor Hugo: the humiliation of exile and Adèle’s madness
In this series of articles I’m going through the sad events of Victor Hugo’s life, a dark “behind the scenes”…