Hot Potato: The History of Hachis Parmentier
Author and French cookery expert Mardi Michels reveals that the French were rather slow to embrace the humble spud, considering it only good for animal fodder.
Hachis (the “h” and the “s” are silent) Parmentier...
Book Review: Trianon and The Queen’s Hamlet at Versailles
Created by Louis Le Vau for Louis XIV, Trianon was an oasis for the French royal family on the fringes of political life, far from the rituals of the monarchy. It was here that...
Worth its Salt: A Trip to Salies-de-Béarn
Get your fix of ‘white gold’ in France’s capitale du sel, Salies-de-Béarn
Nothing enhances a good meal quite like a top-quality table salt produced in the time-honoured way. France is blessed with a number of...
A Year after the Devastating Fire at Notre-Dame De Paris
A year after the devastating fire at Notre-Dame, Caroline Harrap looks at what comes next for the world-famous cathedral – and discovers why its future could still be at risk
Standing across the Seine from...
In the Footsteps of Disney in France
Chloe Govan unveils the truth about an icon and discovers the secret French roots of one of the world’s best-known brands
The founding father of one of the most famous American brands of all time,...
Read the Signs: Rue Vaugirard in Paris
Paris’s longest street, and its even longer history
The rue de Vaugirard starts at boulevard Saint-Michel, outside the Sorbonne University, and travels westwards across two arrondissements to end at the Porte de Versailles, tracing its...
In the Criminal-Catching Footsteps of Alphonse Bertillon
Described by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself as better than Sherlock Holmes, this Parisian petty clerk came to change the world of criminology. Chloe Govan explains why we should stop confusing him with a...
Say Cheese: The History of La Vache Qui Rit
It’s smiles all round for The Laughing Cow with a very interesting history indeed
La Vache Qui Rit... Or, as it is known in the UK and across the pond, The Laughing Cow. Children adore...
Wealthy, Scandalous and Powerful: The Patrons of Paris
Marie-Laure de Noailles and Natalie Clifford Barney were both famed for their patronage of the arts but, as Lanie Goodman writes, even within the context of early 20th-century Paris, they were also notorious for...
Commemorating the Fallen: The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has been toiling tirelessly in the shadows since the First World War. At long last, its incredible restoration work is being thrust into the spotlight at a new visitor...
