Let's Explore
Check list to see and do Destinations Tours, Guides, Walks & Wheels Museums Sightseeing Famous Graves sightseeing destinations in Paris, around Paris, outside France, within France
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Visit Châtelet’s Tour Saint-Jacques: How and When
If you want to begin your pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, begin at Châtelet and the Tour Saint-Jacques in Paris. Or skip the pilgrimage and let MagmaCultura help you discover the fabulous history of the tower and its uses through the centuries. A specialized guide leads you to one of the most beautiful, panoramic views of Paris! Along the journey up 300 steps, you will also visit a room with tower decoration fragments and a meteorology room that was in use until 2000.
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Life in Paris: Tassin Leather Continues an Upholstery Tradition
Paris neighbourhoods have gone through gentrification significantly in the 2000s. Along Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine n the Bastille is no exception. The furniture manufactures and sales offices have given way to clothing and sports stores. There is hope, however, because La Maison Tassin Cuir (leather) continues an upholstery tradition. Their story includes drama. In 2015, a fire destroyed the company’s artisan workshops. Livelihood, unfinished orders from distant lands and their leather went up in flames. Like a phoenix, however, the Tassin company mobilised and moved into adjoining buildings. The former display room became the workshop. The business offices moved to another neighbourhood. Soon, by relative time standards, the salvaged tools…
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Marcel Proust on His Mother’s Side
The “Marcel Proust-Du côté de la mère” exhibition has it all: Fake news, social, art and theatrical history, fashion and moral transformations and politics. A more in-depth look at Marcel Proust’s writings is illustrated by the use of the period's contemporary painters and photographers throughout the exhibition. Their scenes illustrate Proust’s words. There is so much to this exhibit, I recommend you visit to absorb the family history, Proust's observational history and the intensity of a time machine between the Belle Époque and the modern life of society and the rich contributions of modern Jewish families.
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Exploring the Musée de l’Art moderne and YSL
What happens when your tour guide does not show up at the art museum? You become the beholder of the beauty on your own: Couturier art, painted art, creative food art and chocolate art. When the guide did not show up, a group of us walked into the Musée d’Art moderne (MAM) and found Yves Saint Laurent’s couturier art and explored the MAM on our own to our own delight. After the ad-lib visit, we went downstairs to the Forest restaurant and were surrounded by dancing art on the walls in an imaginary forest. For dessert, two of us went foraging for chocolate and came upon more art: artisan chocolate…
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Marcel Proust “A Parisien Novel” is a Novel Journey
An unexpected pleasure came with choosing the wrong ticket. The ticket was not a Carnavalet Museum general admission ticket. My ticket was actually a timed ticket for Marcel Proust. Marcel Proust, is a well-known, popular Parisian author (1871–1922) who set his novels in the Belle Epoque of 1890s until 1922. The Marcel Proust A Parisian Novel (Un Roman Parisien) exhibit is a map of characters, fashion and scenery (exterior and interior) for the visitor's novel journey.... read more
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Experience Illuminated Evolution-Jardin des Plantes
Have you walked among giants lately? The other night I walked among some giants at the Évolution en voie d’illumination (Illuminated evolution)-information in English) at the Jardin des Plantes. All the species presented existed in the past, but are now extinct. This is a voyage through time.
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Happy New Year’s Day 2022 at Place des Vosges!
A busy place to be on New Year’s Day 2022 was at Place des Vosges (Louis XIII-Place Royale). It was a day of moderate temperatures for couples and families. Going out for a hot chocolate (chocolat chaud) was the goal.
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Father Christmas at the Bastille in Paris
One day walking through the Bastille plaza, I saw the Christmas trees being set up around the green July column. By the next evening, purple was once again the sparkling color lighting up the Bastille July column. For the Christmas holiday, Pere Noël was riding the merry-go-round and another day he was dancing with a marching band. Every day is different in the Bastille!
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Vivian Maier: A Photographer Found
The negatives and undeveloped rolls of film from Vivian Maier's Rolleiflex, Leica and Super 8 and 16 mm cameras ended up in cardboard boxes. To the world of renowned photographers, she did not exist. To the children of three different families, she was the Nanny. Vivian Maier is the photographer found. She was finally found in 2007 in Chicago. A handful of Vivian Maier’s images of street life photography are the current exhibit until January 16, 2022 at the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris.
