The wide-ranging Normandy Impressionist Festival (Normandie Impressionisme) runs from May 29 to September 27, 2026. It’s a great year for Impressionism, marking the centenary of Claude Monet’s death in Giverny. The artist spent the last 43 years of his life here, making and painting his garden, marking Monet’s painting into a more abstract mode. The theme of this year’s Impressionist Festival is one of questions and ideas around Un Possible Jardin – The Gardens of Possibilities – a Contemporary Homage to Claude Monet. It’s directly inspired by Monet’s Giverny garden and the idea of gardens that are personal and intimate or public, openness or closure, nature controlled or allowed to rampage free and more.

It’s a very French and philosophical approach, but if you want to, just enjoy the huge number of different exhibitions for the art alone, leaving the philosophy to others.

The contemporary trail takes the idea of Monet’s Giverny garden with a series of exhibitions in places like Honfleur, Rouen, Vernon, Le Havre and more.

The festival concentrates on important contemporary works. Some of the most famous international artists have contributed: Ai Weiwei, Fujiko Nakaya, Noemie Goudal and others.

The Birth of Impressionism

It’s the evening of April 15, 1874, and a group of 30 young, unknown and struggling  painters gather in the studio of the photographer Félix Nadar at 35 boulevard des Capucines for an exhibition of their work. The Cooperative and Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors and Printmakers included Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Claude Monet, Camille Pissaro, Alfred Sisley and Paul Cézanne. They were showing works that had been rejected by the Académie des Beaux-Arts Salon. 

The exhibition was not a success; it was too revolutionary for the time. The name ‘Impressionism’ was coined as an insult by a Parisian journalist called Louis Leroy. He was writing about Monet’s Impressionism, Soleil Levant, a painting of the sun rising over the port at Le Havre and he referred to it as ‘unfinished’. He wrote sarcastically in the journal Charivari on April 25, 1874: “What does this painting represent? Impression! Impression, I was sure of it. I also said to myself, since I am impressed, there must be some impression in it.”

Impressionism was born in that studio, and greeted with universal initial horror; the style was such a complete change from the stuffy classicism of the past 100 years. It took decades before Impressionism was appreciated and the artists struggled for many years.

2026 Normandy Impressionist Festival

The exhibitions centre around Normandy and Paris, the two places most associated with the Impressionists. It was on the beaches of the Normandy coastline and along the bustling boulevards of Paris where the artists set up their easels to record life and paint in the open air, something made possible by the invention of oil paints in tubes.

Major Exhibitions of Normandy Impressionist Festival 2026

Museums in Normandy

Giverny

Musée des Impressionnismes: Monet in Giverny: Before the Water Lilies, 1883-1890 takes Monet’s early years here, from 1883 to 1890 when he bought the house and began designing the garden. 30 paintings depict poplars, meadows, the banks of the Epte and the Seine in different weather patterns: rain and sunlight, mist and clouds.
March 27 to July 5, 2026

Honfleur

Musée Eugène Boudin: In this exceptionally pretty little port town, the museum is featuring Monet’s early days as an artist. Boudin encouraged the young painter to go outdoors to paint en plein air.

Rouen

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen has the largest collection of works by Monet outside Paris. Particularly worth seeing are his paintings of Rouen Cathedral. In summer you can see the facades of Rouen Cathedral lit up nightly, usually from June to September. The theme for this year is still to be announced.

Studio DRIFT shows the installation Meadow, with water lily lights opening under the visitors’ heads. It’s in the city centre heritage space: the 10^th century Sainte-Croix-des-Pelletiers church.

Le Havre

The maritime city is not appreciated enough for its museums and galleries. But this year it pushes the boat out with Monet in Le Havre at the Museum of Modern Art (MuMa).

Monet lived in Le Havre as a child and a young man, from 1845 when Monet was five years old to 1874, a seminal year for Monet and Impressionism. It was a formative time: he painted his first canvas, View Taken at Rouelles as well as major works like The Pointe de la Hève at Sainte-Adresse (National Gallery, London) and Seascape:, Night Effect (1864, National Gallery, Scotland). At the mouth of the Seine Estuary, nearby Pointe de la Hève at Sainte-Adresse was seen as the ‘end of the world’.

His family and local collectors were immensely supportive, and his painter friends Eugene Boudin and Gustave Courbet introduced him to new patrons. The exhibition has documents not seen before about his life, paintings, drawings and sketchbooks as well as photographs.
June 5-September 27, 2026

Caen

Celeste Boursier-Mougenot created a sound installation inspired by Monet’s water lilies – Clinamen which is outdoors in Caen at the Colline aux Oiseaux Park. FRAC Normandie has a crysstal garden and a circle of 12 ‘sound swings’  (which you can play on) topped with church bells.

Paris

Musée de l’Orangerie: Monet – au fil de l’eau (Monet – In Real Time). The theme of Monet  painting time focuses on how Monet’s style clanged from the 1870s to the 1890s. Almost 40 paintings are displayed at the museum that was called a true ‘Sistine Chapel of Impressionism (Andre Masson in 1952), with particular focus on the famous Nymphéas (Water Lilies).
September 30, 2026 to January 25, 2027.

Musée Marmottan Monet: Houses the world’s largest collection of Monet paintings (including Impression, Sunrise). The museum will host Histoires du Paysage de Monet a Hockney (1890-1925). Focusing on landscape art it starts with Monet and then goes on to show works by major 20^th and 21^st century artists, ending with David Hockney’s famous Normandy pieces. 

La Maison Impressioniste Argenteuil

West of Paris on the banks of the Seine, Claude Monet lived in Argenteuil from 1871 to 1878. He painted over 256 works here, with 156 depicting Argenteuil. His studio and living rooms have been reconstructed in the Museum. Along with the documents here you get an idea of Monet’s life and work.

Monet’s House in Vétheuil

Claude Monet lived in a rented house in Vétheuil, about 15 minutes from Giverny, from 1878 to 1881. It was an unhappy time for the artist; his first wife Camille, died here and his paintings were not selling. But the paintings of his small, steep garden are lush and happy. You can visit the house this year at specific times. Check the website for openings.
Apr 1-Oct 31, 2026.

Where to see Clade Monet’s paintings in Paris

Musée d’Orsay has the greatest collection of Impressionist paintings in the world. 

Houses and Studios of the Impressionists

Walking around an artist’s house and studio gives a wonderfully realistic feel of the painter, their life and work. The most visited, and well-known, is the house of Claude Monet in Giverny (see above).

Visit any of these other houses during the Normandy Impressionist Festival 2026; all are well worth a detour.

Jean-François Millet was born in 1841 in Gréville-Hague, northeast Normandy. The modest house is now a museum, recalling his childhood in the mid 19th century.
In 1849 he moved to Barbizon on the edge of the Forest of Fontainebleau and lived there until 1875. Here he painted the local rural life, in particular L’Angélus and Les Glaneuses, two canvases that have been exhibited around the world. The Millet Museum has his paintings as well as other Impressionist painters, engravings and prints.

Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894) lived in Yerres from 1860 to 1880. The large Caillebotte Museum south of Paris occupies his house. A visit takes you back to the late 19th-century and gives you the chance to see many of his works.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) spent his final days at the Auberge Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise. He lived in the atmospheric room under the eaves of the house in a Paris suburb. Today it’s a restaurant; have lunch or dinner then see the room.
More about Vincent van Gogh in Paris.

More Impressionist Delights to Savour

There are plenty of events put on at the Impressionist Normandy festival.
Take a cycle tour around Giverny with a guide who knows the village well and makes sure you see all the major sites linked to Claude Monet.

Try your hand at painting like an Impressionist. The Alabaster Coast provides the inspiration; you provide (hopefully) the artistic expertise, with an art teacher to guide you.

If you want to experience how the Impressionist painters spent their leisure hours, try the Founaise restaurant at Chatou. It’s a restaurant but the outside terrace recalls the guinguettes, open-air cafés often located beside a river where the atmosphere was casual and the food and drink offering a cheap and cheerful option.

Look at both these official websites for all the information on the wide-ranging exhibitions and events:

Impressionist Adventures
Normandy Impressionist Festival 2026 – Normandy Tourist Office

Normandy and Impressionism – A general overall look at the great Impressionist art movement and what to see in Normandy
Guide to the Impressionist Painters

Normandy Travel Guide – What to see and Do in Normandy
Getting to Normandy

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The Paris Olympics, the biggest event in France and Europe this year, runs from July 26 to Aug 11. The Paris Paralympics runs from Aug 8 to Sep 11. These massive events will take over the capital. The Paris Olympics have been 10 years in the planning, with vital cooperation from the 2012 London Olympics.

Official Paris Olympics 2024 website

History of Paris and the Olympics

Paris hosted the Summer Games in 1924, so 100 years later is a fitting follow-up. Paris also hosted the 1900 Games, joining London as the only cities to host three Games (London’s Olympics were in 1908, 1948 and 2012). In 2028, Los Angeles will join the band of three-time cities, hosting the Summer Games.

The Paris Olympic 2024 Olympic Torch Journey

The Olympic torch journey begins, as always, in Greece, on May 8, reaching Marseille on May 9. It will take in 65 towns and cities, plus more than 100 French tourist or cultural sites, before arriving in Paris in time for the final day, ending with the lighting of the Olympic flame during the opening ceremony on the Seine River on July 26th, 2024.
The Paris Olympics 2024 Journey

Venues for the Paris Olympics

Unlike many Olympic cities, Paris is mostly using its already existing venues and iconic buildings (95% existing or temporary). And the city has been very careful to make the games as sustainable as possible.

The new venues are La Chapelle sports centre in the north part of Paris which is designed to be eco-friendly with 80% covered with greenery, a front clad with recyclable aluminium and most of the building constructed with wood. It’s due to be opened on July 11. After the Olympics La Chapelle will be home to the Paris basketball team as well as providing space for sports and cultural events. 

The Aquatic Centre, an original building opposite the Stade de France, will host synchronised swimming and diving.

80% of the competition venues are within a 10-im radius of the Olympic and Paralympic Village.

The Olympic Village, a 51-hectare site on three sites in the north of the capital, will house 14,500 athletes and be used for social housing after the Games. It’s 7km north of the centre of Paris and less than 2km from the Stade de France.

The Opening Ceremony

Unlike other cities which have built spectacular new buildings to host the opening ceremony, Paris will use the Seine river. Barges carrying the athletes will travel almost four miles from the Austerlitz bridge in the east to near the Trocadéro in the west. It begins at 7.30 pm CET (10.30 am in Los Angeles, 2.30 pm in Rio de Janeiro, 6.30 pm in London and 8.30 pm in Athens). As it will take place outdoors at dusk, the setting sun over the great Paris landmarks, including Notre-Dame de Paris, the Louvre, the Pont des Arts, and the Musée d’Orsay, will be spectacular.

The French had hoped to make this accessible to 600,000 people, but security concerns (this is one of the most open of Olympic Games) mean that only around 104,000 people in stands will line Paris’ Seine river, and 220,000 will stand on raised roadways along the river. Tickets will be decided by quotas and will be open to those who live and work in towns hosting Olympic events. But the tv coverage will be spectacular. And there will be huge screens further along the river showing the ceremony.

Getting Tickets

Ten million tickets are on sale. One million of them start at €24 but the most popular events and dates are going fast and many are sold out. Almost half the tickets are prices at €50 or less. The site is easy to use and they are issuing tickets in batches. Some of the football matches still (at the time of writing) have tickets from €24 for instance.
Check out the prices and availability here.

What the Public can See

The Champions Park

From Jul 29 to Aug 10 (4.30-11.30pm), the public can visit the Champions Park (except between Friday Aug 2 and Sunday Aug 4). It’s the place to celebrate the previous day’s medal winners who you can see during their parade. There are live screenings of that day’s main finals in an open-air arena.

There will be performances by different artists and a variety of other activities.

The 2024 Paris Olympic Sports

This year there are 32 sports. There’s one new sport: Breaking or breakdancing, and before anybody doubts, or scoffs at the sport, I’ve seen two members of the French and British teams performing and it’s impressive. The sport is technically difficult, potentially dangerous and very very skilled with moves judged on performance and aesthetics. The men’s and women’s team have 20 competitors each.
New sports from the 2021 Tokyo Olympics include climbing, skateboarding and surfing.
In 2028 at the Los Angeles Summer Games, cricket, flag football, lacrosse and squash will be added.

Main Locations of the Paris Olympics 2024

Paris has chosen to keep the events close to the Olympic and Paralympic villages, a short 7km north of central Paris and just 2km from the Stade de France. 85% of the athletes will be less than 30 minutes from their respective venues.

Two main zones host the games, connected by the Seine river. The inner zone is in the heart of Paris showcasing those iconic sites of the capital. The second Paris/Grand Paris zone is part of an urban development plan, and includes new buildings and the Olympic villages.

Events at the Paris Olympics 2024

Here are some of the 15 Olympic and 11 Paralympic sites where the Paris Olympics will take place. The Olympic and Paralympic Village, the Media Village and six sports are at Seine-Saint-Denise. 21 Olympic sports (out of 32) and 14 Paralympic sports (out of 22) are within 10kms of the Village.

Alexandre III Bridge: Marathon swimming (Aug 8-9), Triathlon (Jul 30-Aug 5).
Alexandre III Bridge is also the finish line for the individual cycling time trials, swimming marathon, and the triathlons (both Games).  
Arena Bercy: Basketball (Jul 27-Aug 11), Artistic gymnastics (Jul 27-Aug 5), Trampoline (Aug 2)
Arena Paris Nord: Boxing (Jul 27-Aug 10), Modern Pentathlon (Aug 8-11)
Arena Paris Sud: Table tennis (Jul 27-Aug 10), Volleyball (Jul 27-Aug 11), Weightlifting Aug 7-11), Handball (Jul 25-Aug 11)
Arena Porte de la Chapelle: Badminton (Jul 27 to Aug 5) and the rhythmic gymnastics events (from 8 to 10 August) 
BMX Stadium, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines: BMX race (Aug 1-2)
Centre Aquatic: Diving (Jul 27-Aug 10), Water Polo (Jul 27-Aug 11), Artistic swimming (Aug 5-10)
Champs de Mars Arena: Judo (Jul 27-Aug 3), Wrestling (Aug 5-11)

Chateau de Versailles: Equestrian sports (Jul 27-Aug 6), Modern Pentathlon (Aug 8-11)
Colline d’Elancourt: Mountain biking (Jul 28-29)
Eiffel Tower: The park at the foot of the Eiffel Tower becomes the place to watch beach volleyball and blind football
Golf National: Golf (Aug 1-10)
Grand Palais, built for the 1900 Universal Exhibition and last renovated in 2023: Fencing (Jul 27-Aug 4), Taekwondo (Aug 7-10), Wheelchair fencing (Sep 3-7)
Invalides: Road cycling (Jul 27-Aug 4)
La Concorde Place: BMX freestyle (Jul 30-31), Breaking (Aug 9-10), Skateboarding (Jul 27-Aug 7), Basketball 3×3 (Jul 30-Aug 5)
Le Bourget Climbing Site: Sport climbing (Aug 5-10)
Paris La Défense Arena: Water polo (Jul 27-Aug 11); Swimming (Jul 27-Aug 4)
Parc des Princes: Soccer (Jul 27-Aug 10). Also see other stadiums below for soccer
Pont d’Iena: road cycling (Jul 27-Aug 4)
Roland-Garros Stadium: Boxing (Jul 27-Aug 10); Tennis (Jul 27-Aug 4)
Vélodrome National, Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Yvelines: Track cycling (Aug 5-11)
The Seine River hosts the swimming marathon, triathlon, para triathlon, and cycling time trials
Stade de France: Athletics (Aug 1-11); Rugby (Jul 24-30)

Olympic Venues outside Central Paris

Ile de France: Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium: Rowing (Jul 27-Aug 3); Sprint canoeing (Aug 6-10)
Hautes-de-Seine: Yves-du-Manoir Stadium: Field hockey (Jul 27-Aug 9)
National Shooting Centre, Châteauxroux, Centre-Val-de-Loire: shooting (Jul 27-Aug 5)
Marina de Marseille, Bouche-de-Rhone, PACA: Sailing (Jul 28-Aug 8)
Stade Nautique de Vaires-sur-Marne, Seine-et-Marne: Canoe slalom (Jul 27-Aug 5); Spring Canoeing (Aug 6-10)
Lille: Stade Pierre Mauroy: Handball (Jul 25-Aug 11)
AND: Tahiti, Teahupo’0: Surfing (Jul 27-30)

Timings of the Paris Olympics 2024

Paris time (Central European Summer Time):
CEST 2 hours ahead of UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) which is used to set all time zones around the world.
CEST is 1 hour ahead of British Summer Time, 6 hours ahead of North American Eastern Daylight Time, and 9 hours ahead of North American Pacific Daylight Time.
CEST is 3 hours 30 minute behind Indian Standard Time, 8 hours behind Australian Eastern Standard Time and 10 hours behind New Zealand Standard Time.

The Cultural Olympiad

This being France, culture is included in the Olympics, emphasising the common values of sport and art. Events and performances will take place throughout the country until September 8, 2024. Details here.

Getting around Paris

It’s going to be expensive to travel around Paris, with some significant price hikes. A single ticket from Roissy or CDG airports increases from €11 to €16 from Jul 20-Sep 8.
A single metro ticket goes from €2.15 to €4; carnet from €17.30 to €32. 
The usual day and week passes are suspended during the Olympics, so consider buying a Paris2024 Pass: 1 day €16; 2 days €32, 3 days €42 and a week is €79.
Consider buying single tickets before the games start or fill up a Navigo Easy card on android but not on iPhone

A Few Facts about the Paris Olympics 2024

Most countries won’t officially name their Olympic gymnastics team until late June or early July, after the Olympic trials,

Future Olympics:
2026 Winter Games in Milan–Cortina d’Ampezzo
2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles
2030 Winter Games in the French Alps
2032 Summer Games in Brisbane
2034 Winter Games in Salt Lake City
The 2030 French Alps and 2034 Salt Lake City games will be officially confirmed this summer (2024).

Quick Guide to Paris
Events in France in July 2024

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The first great French beam has been cut from an ancient oak for the new roof at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. The devastating fire in April 2019 brought the 96-metre spire that topped the roof crashing to the ground. A stunned Paris – and the world – could only look on.

The first oak to produce one of the great beams comes from the Bercé forest in the Sarthe department which lies between Tours and Le Mans in the little known Loir Valley (without an ‘e’). The 250-year old oak tree has been cut into a 20m long, 30cm wide beam at a sawmill at Craon, southeast of Rennes.

The hunt for the right trees began in January and February 2021. It was a complicated task. Most trunks have to measure over 1 metre (more than 3ft) wide and 18 metres (60 ft) long. Eight of the trees were located in Bercé. The other 9,992 trees that are destined for the cathedral come from 200 French forests. They had to be felled by the end of March to prevent harmful tree sap and moisture entering the wood fibres.

The sawmill is just one of 45 that are currently doing similar work on ancient oak trees that were felled as part of the normal cycle of managing the great forests. They’re being donated by the National Forests Office and are worth up to tens of thousands of euros each.

It’s an emotional time for a country that cares passionately about its heritage – of which Gothic cathedrals form a huge part. As the head of the project to rebuild the cathedral, General Jean-Louis Georgelin, said: ‘The whole of France is taking part.’

The first beam will be part of the base of the old 96m-tall spire. The spire wasn’t part of the old cathedral; it was added in the 19^th century by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc when the building was being renovated.

President Macron has an ambitious target: to open the newly restored cathedral for the Paris Olympics in 2024.

Oaks make up about 32% of all France’s forests and have always been vital for the country’s prosperity. Where do all those oak barrels for wine come from? And what about those castles like Guédelon? This castle that is being reconstructed according to medieval principles stands in an oak forest that provides much of the oak. Here’s more about the grand project of Guédelon.

The Great Gothic Cathedrals of France

Quick Guide to Paris

More from the Friends of Notre Dame Cathedral Reconstruction

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From September 18 to October 3, an extraordinary new attraction is on show in Paris. It’s the Wrapped Arc de Triomphe, an art work created by the Bulgarian artist Christo Vladimirov Yavachev and his French wife Jeanne-Claude.

The project is costing between €12 million and €14 million, and is funded privately through the sale of Christo’s preparatory studies, drawings, scale models as well as works from the 1950s and 1960s.

The great arch built by Napoleon is draped in 25,000 metres of silver-blue fabric tied with 3,000 metres of red rope. It’s very specialised and difficult work, with specially trained rock climbers scaling a very different surface from the usual.

A Monumental Task

It’s not the first Parisian monument to be wrapped by the couple. In 1985 it was the turn of the Pont-Neuf, to be followed 10 years later by the Wrapped Reichstag in Berlin.

But sadly the couple will not see the work; Jeanne-Claude died in 2009, and Christo in on May 31, 2020 in New York.

If you’re in Paris it’s a must-see attraction, something that will not occur again. The symbol of power and triumph is transformed into something ephemeral, a delicate sculpture that moves slightly in the breeze.

Napoleon’s France and what he built in and outside Paris

September Events in France

More about the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation

Cover Photo: Christo and the Arc de Triomphe Wolfgang Volz © 2019 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation

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Napoleon’s France isn’t as important to the French as you might expect. The bicentenary of his death on May 5 2021 has a few exhibitions, events and talks around the country but no great razzamatazz. Foreign visitors, particularly the British, will probably show more interest in Napoleon’s France. (But might that be because the British always like to claim that they were the saviours of Europe?)

In the Footsteps of Napoleon

You can follow Napoleon’s life on a series of visits which are all described below. Start in Ajaccio, then move on to Paris where his ambitious buildings are magnificent.

You can walk in his footsteps in Boulogne, and drive the Route Napoleon from Golfe-Juan to Grenoble in the south of France. Consider visiting my favorite place, the small Ile d’Aix on the French Atlantic coast where he spent his final three days of freedom.

Napoleon – Hero or Villain?

For Napoleon: Some historians claim that Napoleon destroyed the old feudal and autocratic order in Europe, giving rise to modern nationalism and unity. And today, the European Union. His bureaucratic reforms were extraordinary. Nobody can deny his huge influence on life today through his liberalising of whole countries, his legal Code and his huge modernisation of Paris (and Cherbourg and Lyon).

Against Napoleon: Critics point to the huge numbers of soldiers killed during his long campaigns in Europe to 1815 – estimates vary from 900,000 soldiers to around 2.5 million. Civilian casualties are estimated at around 1 million. And all due to the ambitions of the Corsican boy, born into a family with modest ancestors. He became Emperor in 1804 which demonstrated megalomania, replacing the short-lived French republic after the Revolution, and he restored slavery.

There’s a lot more to both sides of the argument, but that’s for the historians.

Napoleon’s France through his life

The Start of it all in Corsica

Napoleon’s France begins in Corsica where he was born into a relatively modest family on Aug 15, 1769. He only lived here for nine years before sailing to France and starting his military education. But Corsica and particularly the capital of Ajaccio have done their best to commemorate one of the most famous names in European history.

Ajaccio’s Napoleon Sites

The Musée National de la Maison Bonaparte is housed in the former family home. It’s worth visiting for the story it tells rather than the objects.

One of the great surprises of Corsica is the Palais Fesch in Ajaccio. Napoleon’s uncle Cardinal Joseph Fesch was born here and decided to turn the family home into a museum, donating a huge number of paintings as the start. The donation is estimated at 1,000 from the 17,000 he accumulated as a result of his nephew’s policy of ransacking the great galleries and private collections of Europe during the Napoleonic wars.

The museum’s Italian collection is a gem and includes works by Veronese, Michelangelo, Titian, Vasari, Botticelli plus a whole host of other Old Masters. The museum also has an impressive collection of artefacts, including religious treasures and Napoleonic items.

Napoleon’s mother is buried in the chapel attached to the palace, along with the Cardinal. Fesch was a key figure in Napoleon’s life and was responsible for persuading Pope Pius VII to crown Napoleon Emperor in 1804.

Paris in the 18th Century

In the 18th century Paris had become one of the great centres of the Age of Enlightenment. Paris was the financial capital of France and continental Europe. By the 1740s cafés flourished throughout the city, becoming the places where artists, writers and anyone with intellectual pretentions would meet. It was the main European city for book publishing, fine household furniture and luxury goods, theatres and fashion.

Napoleon’s Paris

Napoleon finished his military education at the École Militaire in Paris before joining the Army in 1785. The military academy is an impressive building and in a corner of Paris very near the Eiffel Tower that I particularly like. It’s well worth a visit.

Right beside is the Champ de Mars where Napoleon held parades and military reviews to impress the citizens of Paris and inspire his troops. He planned a grand one here when he returned from exile in 1815. Two weeks later came his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

The École Militaire is not open to the public generally but the building does open on European Heritage Days in September.

Napoleon’s Grand Vision

Paris was a city rooted in the autocratic past and Napoleon wanted a capital that reflected the new order and particularly his power. When he became Emperor in 1804, he commissioned buildings that were to change the image of Paris, making it a suitable center of his empire.

The Arc de Triomphe

The foundation stone of the Arc de Triomphe was laid on Aug 15, 1806, Napoleon’s birthday.  It remained unfinished at his death in 1821 and was finally opened in 1836.

The Madeleine

The Madeleine was built in 1806 as a Temple de la Gloire de la Grand Armée (Temple to the Glory of the Grand Army). Inspired by the Maison Carrée in Nîmes, the neo-classical building is a Paris parish church.

Arc du Carrousel

Standing in front of the Louvre the triumphal Arc celebrates the victories of the Grande Armée under Napoleon in 1805.

Vendôme Column

The Place Vendôme is a magnificent square, the ideal place for a grand column. Napoleon commissioned his in 1810 in memory of his victory at Austerlitz.

Napoleon and the Louvre

The Louvre began as a fortress in 1190 and became a royal palace in the mid 14^th century. Falling out of royal favour it was abandoned and by the 1750s was ramshackle with prostitutes and shady businesses occupying the once beautiful buildings.

Renamed the Musée Napoléon so nobody would be in any doubt as to his importance to the museum and to art, Napoleon set about building the north wing and renovating other parts. He also made sure many of the art works he took on his campaigns found their way here. You’ll find objects associated with Napoleon on permanent display at the Louvre, along with paintings by David, the most famous artist associated with Napoleon.

Also check out the Egyptian gallery opened in 1827. It was the result of Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign and was curated by Jean-François Champollion who deciphered the hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone.

If Egyptology is your thing, visit the new museum opening in Vif near Grenoble in Isère. One of the major events of 2021, the Champollion museum is dedicated to the two Champollion brothers Jean-François and Jacques-Joseph and the 19^th-century Egyptology obsession.

How did he do it all?

Napoleon’s energy was extraordinary, managing all these projects while mostly campaigning in Europe.

“Make me a little report on the works I have ordered. Where is the Bourse?…What has been done to the Arc de Triomphe? ..Shall I pass over the Pont d’Iena on my return? So much for Paris…” He wrote to Monsieur Cretet, in charge of his work as he marched to Spain in 1809.

Napoleon’s Visions for Parisians

For the ordinary citizen post Revolution Paris was a mess. It was crowded; the Seine was polluted; there was no clean water for the poor and the streets were filthy. To Napoleon the plan was clear: clean up Paris.

Roads

Paris was hazardous for walkers who used decrotteurs de rues (street scanvengers) to scrape the mud and filth off their shoes. Napoleon’s grand building project improved the grand roads and boulevards but destroyed much of working-class Paris, something which Haussmann finished. The Emperor’s most famous road is the Rue de Rivoli, named after Napoleon’s 1797 victory.

The Seine

The river Seine broke its banks and flooded the city in 1797, 1801 and 1920. One of Napoleon’s first concerns, he had flood defences and new quays built along the riverside.

Bridges

River traffic along the Seine was vital for trade. The road system was overcrowded, made more so as there were not enough bridges linking the right to the left bank. Napoleon ordered four major new bridges of which three were built during his time: the Pont d’Iéna, Pont d’Austerlitz and the Pont des Arts, the first iron bridge in Paris.

Sewers came next…

Some 40 years before Joseph Bazalgette built London’s Victorian sewage system, Napoleon constructed a 19 mile/30 km stretch of underground, brick-lined sewers.

…along with Clean Water

The Ourcq Canal was built to bring clean water into Paris from the River Ourcq. Between 1802 and 1808 60 miles (96.5 kms) of the canal were constructed. Make your way to north east Paris for a walk along its banks, lined with bars and cafés.

As part of the improvements, 19 new wells were promised in a law of 1806. The Fontaine du Palmier on the Quai de Gesvres is the only one left of the 14 fountains he commissioned.

…and Finally

The expansion of Paris brought another problem: overcrowded cemeteries. In 1804 Napoleon ordered Alexandre Brongniart to design the layout of Père Lachaise. It was grand and grandiose and quickly became the place to be buried; its ornate 19^th-century tombs and mausoleums vying with each other as status symbols.

Père Lachaise is full of the great and the good of French history (many of them now forgotten) including 14 Marshals of the Empire. Balzac, Proust, Isadora Duncan, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf and Yves Montand are among many other post-Napoleonic figures buried here. But the most popular grave is of Jim Morrison who died mysteriously in Paris in July 1971.

Napoleon’s France: What to see outside Paris

Château de Malmaison

Malmaison was bought by Josephine de Beauharnais in 1796 just after she had married Napoleon. The couple came here to Malmaison to escape their official life. It’s a delighful place and gives a more domesticated idea of the life of one of the world’s greatest generals. The house is full of mementos and there’s a very definite military take on the décor. The gardens are lovely and include an old rose garden laid out by Josephine who was an avid gardener.

Josephine died here on May 29 1814 and is buried in the church of St Pierre and St-Paul in Rueil-Malmaison.

Malmaison is organising various events around Napolean. More details here.

Malmaison is around 15 kms/9.3 miles west of central Paris.

To get there take the RATP train from Porte Maillot metro station to La Defense. Then take the bus 258 from the La Defense-Metro-Rer-Tramway to Ecole La Malmaison. It’s a five minute walk from there to the Château.

A taxi from Porte Maillot to Château de Malmaison takes around 15 mins and will cost £17 to £21.

Château de Bois-Préau

Josephine bought the Château de Bois-Préau next to Malmaison in 1810. She tore down the walls between the two so it became possible to walk to nearby Rueil without leaving the property.

Bois-Préau was initially used to house her staff including her doctor and her estate manager and for storing many of the books of her library, her archives and natural history collection.

The Château is being renovated but you can walk through the park.

Château de Fontainebleau

The huge Château de Fontainebleau is magnificent with1,500 rooms. One of Napoleon’s favorite places to live, he called it the ‘King’s true home’ and ‘house of the ages’. Several rooms at the beginning of the visit show Napoleon’s life as Emperor.

Renovating Fontainebleau was one of Napoleon’s pet projects, spurred on by the need to host Pope Pius VII who was about to visit for Napoleon’s coronation as Emperor. He redecorated to suit his taste and created his own throne room. The small room where Napoleon abdicated in April 1814 is rather sad.
Fontainebleau has a series of itineraries around the Napoleon theme commemorating the anniversary.

Read the full story on the Château de Fontainebleau

Château de Vincennes

The Château de Vincennes is an extraordinary building with a huge central tower inside its defensive walls. It was the French monarchs’ favoured palace until Versailles was built in 1668.

Napoleon used Vincennes as an arsenal in 1808. But the château is associated more with Napoleon’s renowned and eccentric General Daumesnil than the army commander. Daumesnil had lost a leg at the Battle of Wagram in 1809 and commanded the château in the Battle of Paris in 1814. The allies offered generous terms as it was clear the place would be difficult to take unlike the rest of the city. When Daumesnil met them he declared: “I will surrender the castle when you return me my leg”. The redoubtable general held out even after the fall of Paris.

Vincennes is on the northern edge of the Bois de Vincennes in Paris.

To get there either take the Metro line 1 from Gare de Lyon to Château de Vincennes. Then it’s a five-minute walk.

Napoleon’s France from north to south

Napoleon’s Plans to Invade England from Boulogne

On May 16, 1803, war was declared on France by the British and the Third Coalition of European States: Austria, Russia and Sweden. Napoleon’s plan to invade England involved setting up the Boulogne Camp where 120,000 soldiers were placed. The camp went all the way down to Wimereux – the coastal town chosen as the harbour for the French flotilla.

In 1805 Napoleon gave up the plan and marched towards Austerlitz instead. But he still had old defences reinforced and new ones built against a possible invasion from England.

There are a few buildings and Napoleonic forts left along the coast, many of which were used during World War II.

One you may not know is Terlincthun Fort, constructed between 1806 and 1808 at Wimereux and renamed the Fort de la Crèche in World War II. The fort has the added distinction of being the first place outside Paris where the Légion d’Honneur (another Napoleonic innovation in 1802) was awarded.

Check out the Alprech Battery, reinforced by Napoleon which you can visit with an appointment. Find out more at the Le Portel Tourist Office, tel: +33 (0)3 21 31 45 93 south of Boulogne.

At Wimille you can’t miss the Column of the Grand Army. It stands 53 metres high on a cliff with Napoleon on top looking over the Channel towards Britain.

The Hundred Days and the Route Napoleon

When Napoleon abdicated after the defeat of the Battle of Paris in 1814, he was sent to Elba. He sailed back to a divided France, landing on March 1, 1815 with three generals, a thousand men and four cannon.

He landed at Golf-Juan in the Alpes-Maritime in Provence beginning his Hundred Days which ended at the Battle of Waterloo.

He took a route which ran north west along the foothills of the Alps finishing in Grenoble in Isère. Following the muleteers’ footpaths it took 6 days to cover the 324 kms (201 miles). At Grenoble he was greeted by French troops who overwhelmingly deserted the official army to join the returned Emperor. When he entered Paris on March 20 it was clear that he had the support of the vast majority of the French. And it had been so easy.

As Honore de Blazac remarked: “Did ever a man before in history win a great empire simply by showing his hat?”  

The Route Napoleon was officially set up in 1932. It makes a great drive through some beautiful scenery.

Ile d’Aix

Ile d’Aix just off the French Atlantic coast is one of my favorite places, even surpassing the very chic Ile de Re further south. It’s a small car-free island which you get to by ferry.

Napoleon spent his last three days of freedom here from July 12^th to 15^th, 1815 after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo on June 18 and his abdication on June 22. His plan had been to slip past the Royal Navy blockade and escape to America – an impossible idea that he rapidly abandoned. He boarded the British ship HMS Bellerophon to be taken to Portsmouth and from there to his final exile on St Helena.

On Ile d’Aix you can visit the small house, now a museum, where he stayed before his final exile. It’s small with just a few mementos, portraits and sculptures of the man.

There’s an excellent boutique hotel called of course the Hôtel Napoleon with a good restaurant. Otherwise just cycle the paths around the island and soak in the atmosphere of the Atlantic.

More about Ile d’Aix, a place for chilling out.

Napoleon’s Tomb

Napoleon died on St Helena and was buried there, despite his wish and those of many of the French to be buried in France. It wasn’t until 1840 that his body, remarkably intact, was brought back to France.

King Louis Philippe ordered a grand state funeral. The horse-drawn hearse went from the Arc de Triomphe down the Champs-Élysées, across the Place de la Concorde to the Esplanade des Invalides and then St Jérôme’s Chapel, where Napoleon’s body remained until the tomb designed by Louis Visconti for Les Invalides was completed. In 1861 he was finally laid to rest in the crypt under the dome of Les Invalides in a splendidly ornate tomb.

Napoleon’s France: French Events

There are very few major events in France around the bicentenary of Napoleon’s death on May 5, 2021. You will find some on this Napoleon website.

More on Napoleon events in Paris.

The most important event is the exhibition Napoléon at Grande Hall de la Villette until Sep 19, 2021. It displays 150 relevant objects from furniture to porcelain, from the famous black felt hat to his campaign tent. It’s a good overall picture of the private man and the public Emperor. Details here.

The Musée de l’Armée (which is well worth a visit for more on Napoleon) is holding the exhibition Napoléon n’est plus (Napoleon is no more). It runs until Sep 19, 2021 and concentrates on his death of St Helena. The exhibition covers the end of his life comprehensively using archaeology, medicine, and chemistry to provide more information.

The museum is also putting on a contemporary art exhibition around Napoleon, Napoleon? Encore! From Marina Abramovic to Yan Pei-Ming (Napoleon? Again!) It’s rather fitting, given the controversial nature of the Emperor, that one of the exhibits has enraged critics. It’s a plastic replica of the skeleton of Napoleon’s horse Marengo which passed into British ownership. (The skeleton is on display at the National Army Museum in London.) Critics have deemed the exhibit tasteless, irrelevant and generally a ‘bad thing‘.

Napoleon’s France: The achievements you don’t see

Napoleon was an exceptional visionary. He reformed higher education, brought in a new tax code and established the Banque de France, the first central Bank in France. He instituted the Bourse (Stock Exchange) and created a new relationship with the catholic church.

He helped found the modern system of departments in France.

He instituted a set of civil laws, now known as the Napoleonic Code which has influenced a quarter of the world’s jurisdictions in continental Europe, the Americas and Africa.

He sold the French Louisiana Territory to the USA in 1804, effectively doubling the size of the country.

He certainly plundered much of Europe’s art collections during his campaigns. He also founded 15 provincial art museums across his Empire in Europe, distributing the works from the Louvre. It means that many of the Fine Arts Museums have superb collections, well worth visiting. The repatriation of art works stolen during war remains a problem.

But did Napoleon introduce driving on the right side of the road? The jury is out on this one, though most historians think it was down to the French Revolutionaries. But he did enforce it in the rest of Europe, so the myth is partly true.

So Napoleon – hero or villain? You decide.

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Vincent Willem Van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) spent two years in Paris. It was to be an exciting and important period in the young Dutch artist’s life as he was swept up by the artists who were changing the world’s vision so comprehensively.

In the spring of 1886 he moved from Antwerp to live with his younger brother Theo, a Parisian art dealer, in his small apartment at 25 Rue Victor Masse. Two months later they moved into a bigger apartment at 54 Rue Lepic where Vincent had his own spacious studio.

19th-Century Montmartre

Like many other artists and dealers, the Van Gogh brothers’ choice of Montmartre was deliberate. On the northern edge of Paris and on the highest hill, Montmartre was entirely different from the rest of Paris. It wasn’t even part of Paris at that time. Instead Montmartre offered a demi-monde Bohemian life. It was full of bars, cafés and restaurants, inhabited by fellow artists, actors, singer and dancers, ladies of decidedly easy virtue and prostitutes. 19th-century Montmartre offered a cheap and easy Parisian life.

It’s changed of course, but there are still elements of the former disreputable and tacky district left.

A Walk around Montmartre

A walk around Montmartre is the best way to see the buildings associated with Van Gogh’s time in Paris. Decide between any of the many companies who offer Van Gogh walks; or take your own route.

See where he lived, where he ate and drank and met some of the artists flocking to Paris: Camille Pissarro, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, Paul Signac and Émile Bernard. Of these, Bernard is the least well known, but he was a significant artist and writer. He chronicled the new modern arts styles that were so revolutionary, but more importantly for anyone interested in 19th-century Paris, he described life among the disparate group of artists.

The close group of friends shared exhibitions, models and lovers, caroused in bars and arranged their own exhibitions – the Establishment would have nothing to do with them.

Van Gogh loved the city, writing to his British artist friend Horace Mann Livens as soon as he arrived: “And mind my dear fellow, Paris is Paris, there is but one Paris and however hard living may be here and if it became worse and harder even – the French air clears up the brain and does one good – a world of good.”

Van Gogh in Paris Paintings

In his two years in Paris, Van Gogh produced a glorious series of works. He painted portraits of friends and acquaintances, still lifes, views of Paris and particularly of Montmartre, scenes in the rural village of Asnières and along the peaceful Seine.

The Boulevard de Clichy which marks the southern boundary of Montmartre was a favorite subject of all the artists in Paris. It’s pretty similar today.

The Mills of Montmartre

Back then 300 windmills operated in Paris, 30 of them standing high on the hills around Montmartre. One of the oldest, Le Butte-fin, dated back to 1622 and was still producing flour in the 19^th century.

In the early 19^th century the Debray brothers bought the windmill and the Moulin Radet, both in the Rue Lepic. In 1870 they added an outdoor dance hall and guingette to the Butte-fin and renamed it Le Moulin de la Galette where you could get a glass of wine and bread made from the mill’s own flour. It was a popular hangout for the artists who painted it: Van Gogh, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec and Picasso.

Today Le Moulin de la Galette is still a restaurant; you’ll find it at 83 Rue Lepic.

The Artist Materials’ Shop

Julien François ‘Père’ Tanguy’s shop at 14 Rue Clauzel was the favorite art supplier for many of the artists living in Paris. The genial paint grinder, who his customers affectionately nicknamed ‘Père‘ also sold art, particularly the Japanese prints by Hokusai and Hiroshige which had such an influence on Van Gogh and his fellow painters.

Tanguy often took paintings by the impoverished artists as payment for materials, making his shop an experience like ‘visiting a museum’ of Impressionist paintings.

When Tanguy died in 1894 his daughter sold the Portrait of Père Tanguy to Rodin. You can see it in the Musée Rodin in Paris.

Where Van Gogh met his Friends

The Café du Tambourin at 62 Boulevard de Clichy was one of several local places where artists paid for their meals with paintings and organised exhibitions of their work. The owner, Agostina Segatori, was a model for many of the artists including Manet and Corot.

She and Van Gogh had a love affair but the story doesn’t end happily. They parted in 1887 after a stormy relationship though she kept his paintings including many of his still lifes. Then the café failed and she went bankrupt. The debtors sold Van Gogh’s paintings ‘as waste canvas’ in batches of ten costing from 50 centimes to one franc per batch. What was even more devastating to the young Van Gogh was that he lost the valuable frames.

Paintings of Asnières and the Seine

Asnières in the 19^th century was a delightful country retreat on the Seine. It might have been a short train ride from Paris but Van Gogh preferred the 8-km (5-mile) walk which he did frequently.

Asnières itself was popular, particularly for the ‘unrestrained atmosphere’ of the regular dances. But the main reason for the trips outside Paris was the small island in the Seine just opposite Neuilly-sur-Seine, the Ile de la Grande Jatte.

Many of the Impressionists painted scenes in the park, but it was Seurat’s A Sunday on la Grande Jatte that is the one everyone recognises. It was the painting that launched pointillisme as an art style.

Along with other artists like Paul Signac and Emile Bernard Van Gogh painted the Seine at Asnières looking towards the Pont de Clichy. Van Gogh’s depictions of the area are delightful; it was here that he introduced a lighter, more colorful palette.

Signac frequently met up with Van Gogh. “I would encounter him at Asnières and at Saint-Ouen. We painted together on the riverbanks, we lunched at roadside cafes and we returned by foot to Paris via the Avenues of Saint-Ouen and Clichy.“

“Van Gogh, wearing the blue overalls of a zinc worker, would have little dots of color painted on his shirtsleeves. Striding quite close to me, he would be yelling, gesticulating and brandishing a large size-thirty, freshly painted canvas; in this fashion he would manage to polychrome both himself and the passers-by.”

Visiting Asnières-sur-Seine today

Asnières became Asnières-sur-Seine in 1968 and it’s still a delightful place to visit. Cross over to the Ile de la Grande Jatte and walk the route that takes you around the island indicating the places painted by the Impressionists.

How to get to Asnières-sur-Seine

From Paris Saint-Lazare:
Transilien railnetwork: Line L /J to Gare D’asnieres-sur-Seine
Metro: Line 13 to Gabriel Peri then 12 minute walk

Van Gogh’s Work in Le Musée d’Orsay

One of the highlights of any visit to Paris is the Musée d’Orsay, the spectacular museum on the Left Bank devoted to major French art between 1848 and 1914.

27 paintings by Van Gogh include highlights such as Starry Night Over the Rhône (1888); Self Portrait (1889), and Bedroom in Arles (1888).

The paintings of his time in Paris in the collection include La Guingette (Le Moulin de la Galette) and the Restaurant de la Sirène at Asnières. Most of the other paintings Van Gogh did in Paris are in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Don’t Miss Van Gogh in London

Don’t miss this exhibition in London which is coming from October 2021. You must book now.

L’Atelier des Lumières, a digital art museum but not just any digital art museum, is putting on its extraordinary art immersion project on Van Gogh. They haven’t revealed the London location yet but it should be as impressive as the show. It will take you into an enclosed space where hundreds of Van Gogh’s paintings are transformed to fill and move around the whole space: floor, walls and ceiling while you list to music like Nina Simone’s Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.

The show was produced and has been shown in France and is now touring the world.

In France three permanent locations that are part of the Culture Space enterprise put on annual art shows of different artists. Paris has (Les Ateliers de Lumières), Bordeaux (Bassin de Lumières), and Les Baux de Provence (Les Carrières de Lumières).

More about France and its Art

Did you know that Toulouse-Lautrec was a great cook and gourmet? He cooked elaborate meals for his friends and made special menus and invitations for them.

Normandy and Impressionism

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The art of cuisine – who would have expected that from Toulouse-Lautrec? The brilliant artist’s depictions of the life of the theatres, cafés, bars and brothels have become part of our perception of 19^th-century Paris, but we know little about his other skill.

To his friends, he was also a great cook and a generous host. As he saw it, everything deserved a celebration, particularly the completion of a new work of art. The art of cuisine was one of his abiding passions.

The Art of Cuisine Recipe Book

After Toulouse-Lautrec’s death in September 1901 at the age of just 36, his friend and art dealer, Maurice Joyant, collected together the menus and recipes of the artist. He also added recipes they had discovered together from others.

As you’ll discover from the book, Toulouse-Lautrec was an outlandish and adventurous cook.

For Joyant, putting the recipes together was a labour of love: “Each recipe brings back a memory of sheer delight, a moment of perfect relaxation.”

Toulouse-Lautrec the Gourmand at Home

The artist’s upbringing was in a privileged, aristocratic family whose wealthy ancestors as the counts of Toulouse played quite a part in French history. The young boy spent his time between the town house of the Hôtel du Bosc in Albi and the countryside pleasures of the Château du Bosc in Camjac, around 48 kms (30 miles) north east of the city.

On their country estate, the family fished and hunted; the servants cooked and served the results. It was all part of the natural order, but for the Lautrecs, there was with an added element.

“When my sons kill a woodcock they are delighted three times over: once when they shoot it, once when they sketch it, once when they eat it”, the artist’s grandmother wrote.

Toulouse-Lautrec the Gourmand in Paris

In Paris, Toulouse-Lautrec’s life revolved around painting and those Belle Epoque Parisian pleasures. His circle of friends was wide, and often eccentric, made up of poets, fellow artists, and men like Thadée Natanson, publisher of La Revue Blanche. He remarked about Toulouse-Lautrec’s continual drinking: “He does not give his moustache time to dry”.

Toulouse-Lautrec’s cooking skills – and his capacity for eating and drinking – were admired by every one of them. The Symbolist poet Paul Leclercq remarked that “He was a great gourmand…He loved to talk about cooking and knew of many rare recipes for making the most standard dishes… Cooking a leg of lamb for seven hours or preparing a lobster à l’Américaine held no secrets for him.”

Lobster was his favourite seafood and on a ship travelling between Le Havre and Bordeaux  he insisted that the captain go off course for a few miles to catch lobsters.

Throughout his short life, Toulouse-Lautrec ate, and particularly drank, as if there was no tomorrow. One of his great pleasures was cooking for his friends, captured in Vuillard’s portrait of the artist at the stove at Thadée Natanson’s country house at Villeneuve-sur-Yonne in 1898.

Weekly Food Parcels

Every Friday a hamper would arrive from his mother’s château near Bordeaux. Adèle had moved there after she had left her charming, but philandering husband, Alphonse. For her son, living in Paris, it was a weekly excuse for a feast.

He sent out personal invitations and wrote out the menus, delightfully illustrated with sketches.

The menus were invariably elaborate. For his Irish dancer friend, Miss May Belfort, the feast consisted of:

Oxtail soup
Hors d’oeuvre
Lake Michigan trout
Haunch of venison on a purée of chestnuts
Foie gras in a crust
Salad
Sweet course
Dessert
Grand table wine – Vouvray, Corton

Cooking for Friends

Friends would often ask him to prepare a meal for them, though if unfamiliar with his approach they could get caught out. The artist Georges Henri-Manuel invited him to his pristine bachelor apartment to cook a lobster. Lautrec arrived, refused to use the kitchen and instead set up an electric hot plate in the drawing room. His cousin Gabriel Tapié de Céleyran was there as well.

 “George Henri-Manuel, in great anguish because a lobster lobster à l’Américaine has to be cut up alive, hastily covered his most precious pieces of furniture with sheets. Then, wrapped in a long white apron in which his short legs kept getting entangled, brandishing a spoon as long as himself, and moving saucepans about, Lautrec prepared the lobster lobster à l’Américaine  whose memory lingers with me yet.”

Instructions to Friends

Toulouse-Lautrec would send a letter well ahead of the proposed feat with a list of the ingredients he needed to cook for his friends. Jacques Bizet, son of the French composer was asked:

“Dear master, here is the list of fish to be obtained, Eels, (one pound), 2 gurnards, 1 hake, 1 sole, 1 small lobster. Seasonings: garlic, cayenne pepper, olive oil. Have all this at 5 o’clock Sunday. We will be there at 6.15 o’clock… Our humble respects to Madame Bizet and to you. H.T. Toulouse-Lautrec.”

In December 1896 he moved into a studio opening onto a garden on avenue Frochot. The following spring he invited his friends around with an invitation that read

“Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec will be very flattered if you agree to take a cup of milk on Saturday 15 May at about half-past three in the afternoon.”

This was not the turning over of a new leaf, but a dig at the new fashionable habit of drinking milk. “I’ll drink milk when the cows graze on grapes,” was his reaction.

19th-century Recipes

When the book was written, recipes were inspirational rather than exact. There are no precise ingredients listed, nor any measurements or cooking times. The reader was expected to be a pretty mean chef already.

If you get a modern copy, there are measurements listed. But the recipes are still a challenge.

The Art of Cuisine Book

This is an unusual cookbook which has some real gems.

Chapter headings are intriguing. The first chapter is called About Certain Soups, but what of The Rainbow of Sauces, About Certain Game of Fur and Feather, and finally About Certain Domestic Animals? In fact, those ‘domestic’ animals are beef, veal, lamb, and so on. So no need to worry that they ate cats and dogs in 19th-century France.
Sweet things go into About Certain Flatteries.

An Unusual Approach

The book is full of delightful anecdotes and advice and descriptions that take you by the imaginative hand and offer nuggets of information. Take the unusual recipe of Stewed turbot Livers:

“Towards Christmas time, when the turbot come upstream and are caught in large quantities in the eel pots…”
Who knew turbot were caught in eel pots?

Or one of Toulouse-Lautrec’s favourite dishes: Stewed fillets of Porpoise

“When mounted on the bowsprit of a cutter you have harpooned a porpoise in the English Channel, open it lengthwise and take from it some nice fillets of fish.”

Once caught they should be cooked then and there on the boat.

Different Century – Different Tastes

People were less squeamish in those days and methods of killing, cleaning and cooking are set out in detail. I won’t describe how to empty a minnow (though you’d have to be pretty desperate to cook them anyway). And as for pressed duck – it takes a strong cook for this one. The dish is famous, best known at La Tour d’Argent restaurant in Paris.

Regional Products

French cooking still centres around the best products from the right region as it did in the past. The book recommends using trout from the Bresle river in Picardy; or black trout from the Black Forest or French mountains for truite au bleu; pike from the Somme to roast; crayfish from the Ardennes; wild duck from Champagne, wild boar from the Solonge (where they still hunt wild boar in great style), and lamb from the Auvergne.

The Art of Cuisine Goes with the Seasons  

The seasons ruled a cook’s life and the Art of Cuisine follows the rules. 19th-century technical advances might have brought more modern ways to preserve food but the best always reflected the time of year.

More about seasonal food in France
Major Food Festivals in France

The Start of the Year

There are plenty of tips that modern day foragers might find useful. So for a dandelion salad: “In the fields at the end of January or February, after a thaw, pick some dandelions which are beginning to grow – whose hearts already show signs of yellow.”

Summer

Summer brings mullet roe to spread on toast.

“Toward July, when the gray mullet, coming from the Mediterranean  return to the estuaries to swim up to lay their eggs in fresh water, and are full of roe…” Steep them for 48 hours in salted water, then lay the strings of roe between ‘two very clean white wood planks’ and put a light weight on top. Hang them in the hot sun when a mistral blows (strong, cold north westerly wind blowing from south west France into the north Mediterranean). Voilà…

“Thus you will have poutarde, which is eaten with bread like chocolate and which, by its special taste of fermented fish, pleases connoisseurs, although its flavour is less subtle than that of caviar.” But of course, much less expensive.

Autumn Game

September and October bring a wealth of game. Wood pigeons appear in October as they migrate and those birds in the shooting season get their own recipes like quails in ashes, and partridge with cabbage.

Some of the dishes are not possible today. Neither fillet of herons, nor thrushes with juniper would go down well even if you could somehow get hold of them.

Squirrels are not protected but they have very little flesh, unless they are marmots which are bigger. But you have to feel sorry for the marmots:

“Having killed some marmots sunning themselves belly up in the sun with their noses in the air one sunrise in September…”.

There’s even some health advice from marmots which I will pass on free to health fans. Apparently you should keep the fat ‘which is excellent for rubbing into the bellies of pregnant women, into the knees, ankles, and painful joints of sprains’. If there’s nothing wrong with you, you can always rub it ‘into the leather of shoes’.

Rainbows

The Rainbow of Sauces deals with white sauces from A la Poulette to one for asparagus. Yellow sauces cover Aioli and mayonnaise which can be made into a green sauce by adding chervil, tarragon, parsley, chives and watercress.

A rose-red sauce is an exotic concoction.
“Incorporate in your sauces made of butter, bouillon, flour and binding also: tomatoes, cooked, strained and seeded; puree of sea-urchins’ roe; puree of crabs’ roe; butter – melted and passed through a sieve after having been coloured with the cooking juices of prawns, female crabs, crayfish, lobster, crawfish , crushed anchovies.” Brown sauces come with Madeira, Miroton or mustard.  

Cocktails

The Rainbow of Sauces chapter heading might well refer to Toulouse-Lautrec’s love of cocktails. When inviting his friends to see his latest work, he advised them that “Properly to appreciate a painting one has to drink a good cocktail first.”

He had his own cocktail shaker to rustle up some pretty deadly concoctions. The Earthquake was four parts absinthe (which was 63% proof) to two parts red wine and finished off with a splash of cognac.

The rainbow cocktail was copied from one of his favourite bars. Known as the ‘corpse reviver’, it was made from 12 different liqueurs poured carefully over a small spoon so they didn’t mix.

Cooking Ingredients

Late 19^th-century Paris was a good time for anyone interested in cooking. The great food market Les Halles was built between 1851 and 1854. Called the ‘Belly of Paris’ by the French novelist Émile Zola, the market supplied the capital’s voracious appetite with oysters from Brittany (and lobster), grain from the centre of France, meat from the Auvergne, mirabelles, plums, apricots and chestnuts. They came daily by river and the newly built railways making Les Halles the biggest wholesale market in the world.

The Great 19^th-century Chefs and their Cook Books

The 19^th century was the start of a new golden age of gastronomy. It all began in France with Marie-Antoine Carême who changed French haute cuisine for ever. He was a master at producing extraordinary magical feasts, dishes and edible replicas of buildings from ancient Roman temples to Turkish mosques. The world had never seen anything like it, buying his new cookbooks in such quantities they became bestsellers.

While England had the homely Mrs Beeton whose books were first published in 1861, France had writers like Brillat-Savarin who published his meditation on culinary matters, La Physiologie du Goût (The Physiology of Taste) in 1862. Later, Georges Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935) updated and popularized classic French cooking methods.

To find out more about Escoffier, visit the Escoffier Museum of Culinary Art in Villeneuve-Loubet in the south of France.

The Last Word

The sting in the tail is the tongue-in-cheek last chapter Ultima Ratio Finis (the ultimate goal) which is pure fantasy, and a dig at the Catholic church. Grasshoppers should be grilled in the fashion of Saint John the Baptist; you might try Saint on the Grill: ‘With the help of the Vatican try to procure for yourself a real saint’.

And the final recipe?

“Full of mystery. It will never be known. God revealed the knowledge only to his Prophet, who uttered no word about it. This recipe will, therefore, remain forever unknown to all other human beings.”

More of Interest to Food Lovers

Food of Burgundy

Food of Provence

More on Toulouse-Lautrec

Toulouse-Lautrec and the Tarn where he grew up. What to see and where to stay and eat

Toulouse-Lautrec Museum in Albi

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Quick Guide to: Getting to Paris, Getting around, Where to go and Where to eat

Paris is one of the world’s greatest capital cities. This guide to Paris will get you started. The City of Light as she’s called, has everything: a long history, some of the best museums; iconic buildings like the Eiffel Tower and Notre-Dame cathedral; small, winding streets bustling with street markets; wide boulevards lined with gracious buildings; famous restaurants and cafés where you sit with the ghosts of the past and watch the frenzy of the present and of course great shopping.

Paris has a relatively small centre, so it’s an easy city to navigate. Wander from the Quartier Latin to Montmartre; from the increasingly trendy Marais to the Eiffel Tower, taking in the very different characters of each area.

Getting to Paris

By plane

Roissy-Charles de Gaulle (known as Charles de Gaulle or CDG) is 26 km (16 miles) northeast of the city. It carries the main international and transatlantic airlines and is where you will arrive from overseas.

Orly is 14kms (8.6 miles) to the south. It is the busiest Paris airport with most domestic flights coming here.

By Train

There are 6 mainline stations and a motorail station, Paris-Bercy.
Eurostar from St Pancras International in London arrives at Gare du Nord.

By Car

Whichever direction you come from, you’ll arrive in Paris by one of the 30 ‘Portes’ all around Paris on the 35 km of expressway. There are two major ring roads, the inner ring road périphérique intérieur which runs in a clockwise direction and the outer périphérique extérieur which runs anti-clockwise. Check out this guide to Ferries to France from the UK.

Getting around Paris

There are four public transport systems in and around Paris: Metro, RER, Bus and Tram.

Metro: This is the one that visitors use the most. Pick up a free map at any metro information booth or download here. There are 16 metro lines and 300 stations on the 10 km square area of central Paris. Metro lines are numbered 1 to 14, each one a different colour, with two bis or secondary lines (3b and 7b).

The Paris Metro runs from roughly Sunday to Thursday from 05.30am to 12.40am and Friday, Saturday from 5.30am to 1.40am. Train frequency is around 2 minutes during rush hour and up to 8 to 10 minutes during normal hours, holidays and Sundays.

The RER (Réseau Express Régional or Suburban Express Railway) includes five express trains within Paris and further into the surrounding suburbs (Ile de France). The five lines are identifiable by letters (A to E) and the end of line names. The RER is an express underground train in Paris and an overground commuter train outside Paris. It connects to destinations like CDG Airport (RER B), Disneyland Paris (RER A), and Versailles (RER C).
RER trains start at approximately 6am and stop at around 12.45am every day – including public holidays.
Check the RER map here.

Bus

300 bus routes serve the whole of Paris with many of them going through the centre of the city. 
Buses run from Monday to Saturday from around 7am to 8.30pm. Some lines operate also between 8.30pm and 12.30am. There are around half the number of buses operating on Sundays and public holidays.
Night buses (Noctilien) operates in Paris and the Paris region from 12.30am to 5.30am.
Check the night bus map here

The Balabus is for tourists getting around the major sites between the Gare de Lyon and La Défense. It operates from April to September on Sunday afternoons and public holiday afternoons.

Tramway

Paris has 7 tramway lines and 148 stations covering 51 miles (82 km) serving the perimeter of the city.
Most useful to visitors are T1 in St-Denis and T2 in La Défense and T3, a circular route inside the Paris peripherique, connecting Metro stations.
In 2023 the T3 will open in northwest Paris linking Porte de la Chapelle (the last top currently on the T3b route with Porte de l’Asnieres.
Tram tickets are the same as those used on the metro and the RER in Paris.
T1 operates in southern St-Denis
• Line T1: Asnières – Gennevilliers – Les Courtilles – Noisy-le-Sec
• Line T2: Pont de Bezon- Porte de Versailles
• Line T3a: Pont du Gariglian – Porte de Vincennes
• Line T3b: Porte de Vincennes -Porte de la Chapelle
• Line T4: Aulnay-sous-Boi – Bondy
• Line T5: Marché de Saint-Denis – Garges – Sarcelles
• Line T7: Villejuif – Louis Aragon – Porte de l’Essonne

Where to buy Paris Metro, RER, Bus and Tramway Tickets

You can buy tickets and passes at any metro, RER or tramway station and when boarding buses. You can also buy them at Paris Tourist Information (Welcome) Centres in the city, and sometimes at newsstands and tabacs (tobacco sellers and newsagents).

Tourist Offices

Most Paris tourist offices, called Bureau d’Accueil (Welcome Centres), provide maps and information, can book accommodation and sell travel passes and the Paris Museum Pass. If you need a guide to Paris this is a good place to start, with plenty of free information.

The main tourist office is in the Hotel de Ville (Paris City Hall), 29 rue de Rivoli, 4^th arrondissement. Open Monday to Saturday 10.30am to 6.30pm.

Carrousel du Louvre Tourist Welcome Centre has direct access from the Louvre Museum and is at Carrousel du Louvre, Place de la Pyramide Inversée 99, rue de Rivoli, 1st arrondissement. Open daily 10am to 8pm.

Gare du Nord Tourist Welcome Centre, 18, rue de Dunkerque, 10th arrondissement is in the station near platforms 7 to 9. Open daily 8am-6.30pm. Closed December 25, January 1 and May 1.

More information from the main telephone number: Tel.: 0892 68 3000 (€0,34  per min.).
Or check the main Tourist Office website here.

Paris Layout

Paris is divided into 20 arrondissements. They start in the centre (1^st) and spiral clockwise around the centre in circles, ending with the 20^th on the east side of Paris. Most visitors, and certainly first-timers, concentrate on the central area with its iconic buildings. This guide to Paris is not comprehensive, but gives you an overall view.

The 1^st running along the Seine, contains the Louvre and the Tuileries of course; where else would any self-respecting French monarch live?
The 2^nd is surprisingly unvisited, but seek out the Rue Montorgueil neighbourhood for its street market, cafes and restaurants.
The 3^rd is known as the ‘Temple’ area.
The 4^th is wonderfully historic with Notre-Dame Cathedral on the Ile de la Cité and the Marais as well as the world class Beaubourg Centre and the Pompidou Museum.
Cross the Seine south into the 5^th, the heart of the Latin Quarter and the home of the Sorbonne and the Jardin des Plantes.
To the east the larger 6^th arrondissement beckons with Saint-Germain des Pres, where the literary giants of the past once hung out in cafes like Les Deux Magots. The shady Luxembourg gardens are magnificent, particularly when the summer sun beats down.
The 7^th is one of my favorites with the Quai d’Orsay museum housing magnificent Impressionist paintings, and the area around the Ecole Militaire and the Champ de Mars.
Back over the river again and you’re in the famous 8^th where the Champs-Elysées marches down from the Arc de Triomphe to the Place de la Concorde, transformed in winter by thousands of twinkling lights and a Christmas market.
The 9^th is grand with its Belle Epoque department stores and the famous Opera Garnier, the old opera house where a friend of mine Jean Pocton ran the unions with an iron fist and installed beehives on the roof.
The 10^th with the Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est is much more ‘local’ Paris. It also has the unexpectedly charming Canal St Martin neighbourhood.
The 11^th continues south where the Place de la Bastille marks the start of an increasingly fashionable area to the east. It also has the new opera house.
The 12^th is less well known on the outer edges of the city. The Gare de Lyon brings travellers from south east France, Lyon, Marseille and Geneva. There’s also a wonderful viaduct along a disused railway line and the green lungs of Paris, the huge Parc de Vincennes.
The 13^th, another area neglected by visitors is known as the Chinatown of Paris, so good for restaurants. Otherwise the Gare d’Austerlitz is the place for trains wizzing you south.
The 14^th is another of the outlying arrondissements; go there for the Catacombs and the charming Parc de Montsouris.
The 15^th has the largest convention centre and a huge water park.
The 16^th runs on a long narrow strip from the south west corner of Paris up to the Arc de Triomphe; it’s a good place for some unusual but excellent museums like the house of Honore de Balzac and the very good Modern Art Museum of Paris.
The northern 18^th is best known for Sacre Coeur and the still racy district of Montmartre.
The 19^th takes you into the 21^st century with the Museum of Science and Industry in the Parc Vilette and the rounded, mirrored, huge La Geode which shows films and hosts concerts. The Parc des Buttes-Chaumont is another of the delightful, relatively unknown parks of Paris.

Where to Eat

Paris has an ever changing selection of restaurants to choose from. But while it has the best restaurants in the world, it also offers small, charming out-of-the-way places, mostly family run and well established. And as eating out on holiday is as much to do with the ambience, value for money, style and location, my favourites might strike some as idiosyncratic. But hey-ho, restaurant choosing is a hit and miss affair, so I make no apologies.

Favourite cheap place: This has to be the ever famous Bouillon Chartier in the rue du Faubourg Montmartre, 9^th arrondissement. The building is a historic monument (it dates back to 1896), and the food should be listed as well; it’s as traditional as you can get though definitely not haute cuisine. Incredibly cheap prices, and harassed if not downright grumpy waiters – it’s perfect.

Favourite brasserie: A difficult one and every guide to Paris will have a different choice. My brother got married in Paris when I was 18 which to me was intensely romantic. On the eve of his wedding, we walked past Au Pied de Cochon in Les Halles, where late-night diners burst out onto the streets. I couldn’t afford it then, but have eaten those famous pigs trotters since. 

But my all-time favourite has to be Brasserie Bofinger, in rue de la Bastille in the 4^th. It’s quite beautiful though not cheap. Again, it’s the association with the past that made it so memorable for me. I went there first on a winter trip to Paris. We ate in the opulent surroundings then left to walk back to our hotel. It was midnight on New Year’s Eve. A group of young revellers approached; a remarkably handsome young man swept me up, gave me a passionate kiss, whispered Bonne Annéee, and went on his way. I’ve been back to the Brasserie since but not managed to find another encounter quite like that one. It’s not the kind of advice you find in a guide to Paris!

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