Category Archives: History

Lost Paris: Destruction and Renewal on the Île de la Cité

By Culture& Stuff | Published: July 27, 2011

This Lost Paris series has ended up being a tad melancholy, which isn’t really what I intended. More than anything what seems to have come through in the stories of these forgotten places and faded flashes of light in the city’s history is a sense that when you visit Paris today, you’re experiencing the grey [...]

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Also posted in 19th Century, Lost Paris, Medieval, Paris, Uncategorized | Tagged 19th century, ile de la cite, lost paris, medieval, Paris | Leave a comment

Lost Paris: The Dark (and Dirty) History of the Parc des Buttes Chaumont

By Culture& Stuff | Published: July 6, 2011

There are certain places in the world where sadness collects and seeps into the ground; certain gnarls, certain pockmarks, certain flaws that crept in during the formation of the face of the earth, which can never heal. Here is a picture of one of them. The Parc des Buttes Chaumont, by Jean-Louis Vandevivère via Wikimedia Commons. [...]

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Also posted in 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, Historical Places, Lost Paris, Medieval, Paris | Tagged dark, History, lost paris, Paris, parks, secret history | 5 Comments

Lost Paris: A Night at the Palais-Royal

By Culture& Stuff | Published: July 1, 2011

It’s a July evening in 1786 and you’re visiting Paris for the first time. Perhaps you’re staying with an elderly aunt. You’re quite fond of the old goose really, and to give her her due, she’s been an expert guide to most of the sights of Paris you’ve always dreamt about. But she is a [...]

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Also posted in 17th Century, 18th Century, Historical Places, Lost Paris, Paris, Royal History | Tagged 17th century, 18th century, entertainment, lost paris, palais royal, Paris, social history | 1 Comment

Lost Paris: All the Fun of the Fairs

By Culture& Stuff | Published: June 23, 2011

February in medieval Paris can’t have been much fun. When the sun went south for the winter, the city must have been a gloomy place, returning to its prehistoric origins as a swamp (the city’s Roman name, Lutetia, derives from lutum, Latin for mud, according to one persuasive theory) and life for your average Parisian [...]

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Also posted in 17th Century, 18th Century, French History, Historical Places, Lost Paris, Medieval, Paris | Tagged 17th century, 18th century, fairs, lost paris, medieval, popular entertainment, social history | Leave a comment

Lost Paris: The Pont Neuf, ‘the Eiffel tower of the Ancien Régime’

By Culture& Stuff | Published: June 16, 2011

In the next three posts in the Lost Paris series, I’m going to be looking at the Pont Neuf, the fair held annually at Saint-Germain, and the Palais Royal. Though two of these three still exist, and are probably high on any visitor’s must-see list, what they are today is but a shadow of what [...]