Scientists are leading Notre Dame’s restoration—and probing mysteries laid bare by its devastating fire
lead pollution, where the oaks were grown, and much more.
Tag: paris
Paris in 1900
Thanks to incredible archives restored and fully colorized, this film presents a previously unseen journey through time and space. Discover, Paris in 1900 at the time of the Exposition Universelle and the very beginning of modern art and cinema. The City of Lights became a showcase city, displaying the latest technical and scientific inventions, and also boasting avant-garde art galleries, lively cabarets, the ultimate in high fashion, and… the Parisiennes. The myth of “La Belle Epoque” reigned supreme.
Paris Through History
In 2012, a company called Dassault Systèmes launched an interactive application that allowed you to move about in a 3D historical reconstruction of Paris at different points in its history. The application seems to have fallen into disrepair so that you can’t actually use it, but the 13-minute video above offers a tour through several time periods, including: 52 BCE. The area was home to a Celtic group called the Parisii, just before the Romans conquered the settlement. 2nd century CE. The Romans ruled here until 486 CE; they called the city Lutetia. 1165-1350. The medieval period. Paris was one of the largest cities in Europe. 1789. A look at the Bastille during the French Revolution. 1887-1889. The construction of the Eiffel Tower for the 1889 World’s Fair. It was the tallest man-made structure in the world for more than 40 years (eclipsed by the Chrysler Building).
Paris Catacombs
Under the southern portion of the city exists its negative image: a network of more than 300 km of galleries, rooms, and chambers. Robert Macfarlane spends a couple of days and a few 1000 words exploring the extensive catacombs of Paris.
Lost and Found
On the southern edge of Paris, a 500 m2 basement houses the city’s lost possessions. The Bureau of Found Objects, as it is officially called, is more than 200 years old, and 1 of the largest centralized lost and founds in Europe. Any item left behind on the Métro, in a museum, in an airport, or found on the street and dropped, unaddressed, into a mailbox makes its way here, around 600 or 700 items each day. Umbrellas, wallets, purses, and mittens line the shelves, along with less quotidian possessions: a wedding dress with matching shoes, a prosthetic leg, an urn filled with human remains. The bureau is an administrative department, run by the Police Prefecture and staffed by very French functionaries—and yet it’s also an improbable, poetic space where the entrenched French bureaucracy and the societal ideals of the country collide.
Paris Syndrome sufferers
Paris Syndrome sufferers have been Japanese tourists, and the cause of their symptoms, which include “acute delusions, hallucinations, dizziness, sweating, and feelings of persecution,” is thought to be linked to extreme disappointment that Paris is not always the magical, romantic wonderland it’s so often made out to be in the movies
The Love Locks Plague
Paris will begin removing the “cadenas d’amour.” Almost 1M padlocks, weighing up to a staggering 45 tons, will be taken away. Last year, a part of the railing at the Pont des Arts collapsed under the weight of the locks
Paris metro PSA
C’est les jours de grosse chaleur, tel le manchot empereur, bien gardes les bras le long du corps et prendre sa meilleure prise en bas du poteau, pas tout en haut.
yes, this happened.
Worst restaurant
people who think paris cuisine is always amazing need to have their head examined. i found it pretty crappy actually.
An Englishman in blinding tweed and racy cap pushes through the door and roars. A waiter steps forward, arms outstretched, and makes hee-haw, hee-haw noises like Bart Simpson pretending to speak French. It is the practiced and familiar ritual greeting of mutual incomprehension and ancient contempt. Our servant glides past and does a silent-movie double take. “Your snails!” he exclaims. “They have not come!” His cheeks bulge as he flaps his short arms. In all my years of professional eating, I have never seen this before. I have seen waiters do many, many things, including burst into tears and juggle knives, and I once glimpsed one having sex. But never, ever has a waiter commiserated with me about the lack of service.
20 minutes later, possibly under their own steam, the snails arrive. Vesuvian, they bubble and smoke in a magma of astringent garlic butter and parsley. We grasp them with the spring-loaded specula and gingerly unwind the dark gastropods, curling like dinosaur boogers. They go on and on, expanding onto the plate as if they were alien. We have to cut them in half, which is just wrong. The rule with snails is: Don’t eat one you couldn’t get up your nose.
Paris Metro Demolition
The Paris Metro and the service it provides are deeply intertwined into the fabric of the city. As the 4.5M Parisians who ride it every day will probably attest it’s the quickest way around whether it’s for work, for play or both. The metro’s distinctive art-nouveau style is unmistakable and the plant like green wrought iron entrances topped with the orange orbs and Metropolitan signage designed by Hector Guimard which sprout up all over the city lead one down to the gleaming white tiled platforms to be whisked away all over the city. On my first trip to Paris I arrived into Gare du Nord and entered the dense maze that is the metro. Despite the crowds, the noise and the distinct odor of piss, I was in love. The kind of love which inspires one to risk life, limb and deportation to get up close and personal.
Gregor J. Rothfuss 