L’Huma is making a historical parallel here – #Chienlit a word that to French readers is strongly associated with another period of political crisis, 1968…

Too many favourites to choose from! Here’s a soulful stanza by Marceline Desbordes-Valmore.

#WorldBookDay

Heartbreaking biographical entry for Emile Cohl in the ‘Dictionnaire des illustrateurs 1800-1914’ (Ides et Calendes, 1989): “Il mourut vieux et misérable dans une maison de retraite des environs de Paris, sa longue barbe blanche ayant pris feu à une bougie.”

As for ‘A Rebours’ – I started it in the Folio edition, but only read the whole thing, years later, in an Imprimerie Nationale copy I picked up for a song at Galigniani. Was delighted to discover, on p200-odd, that said bookshop was where Des Esseintes bought his Baedeker!

Looking forward to reading ‘Impossible City: #Paris in the Twenty-First Century’, latest from @simonkuper.bsky.social, now out in paperback from @profilebooks.bsky.social.

(That Indy puff on the cover, though… *former* City of Light? Ouch!)

#Paris, #manège, April 2003.

www.paris.fr/pages/les-beaux-maneges-parisiens-c-est-parti-pour-un-tour-24393

#Paris, #Métro #Bastille, April 2003.

Discovery of the week, possibly month: US #photographer David #Turnley, who clearly spends a lot of time in #Paris.

The home page of his website is a portfolio of fantastic b/w Paris shots in the humanist vein of #Ronis, #Doisneau, #Cartier-Bresson, #Brassaï etc.

www.davidturnley.com

According to the 2022 Baudelaire expo catalogue published by the BNF (@labnf.bsky.social), it was with this image in mind that #Manet painted his 'La Musique aux Tuileries' a few years later. One of its top hats is worn by Baudelaire himself: that's him directly above the blue bonnet on the left.

This is glorious: 1850s #Champs-Elysées society by Constantin #Guys, 'peintre de la vie moderne' endorsed by #Baudelaire; it's currently at the @museecarnavalet.bsky.social. I love the arrangement of that focal top hat and the foliage above, with an arc of daylight between.

C’est vraiment un livre à l’image de son auteur: drôle, généreux, intelligent, tout en digressions savoureuses. Je le savais anglophile, mais ça m’a tout de même épaté d’apprendre que le jeune Bertrand était lecteur assidu des histoires de… #Biggles!

Saddened to learn, very belatedly, that Wilhelmenia Fernandez has died – way back last February, at the age of 75. She was the unforgettable diva of 'Diva', Jean-Jacques Beineix's glorious and often critically misjudged 1981 operatic fantasy that launched the so-called 'cinéma du look'.

I wondered if the weathercock would go to the Musée Carnavalet, but it’s certainly apt to display it on home ground.

Sa vie et rien d'autre? Certes, dans la mesure où la vie de l'auteur fut remplie à craquer de #cinéma, de musique, de livres, de voyages, d'engagements, d'amis. Passionnants 'Mémoires interrompus' – hélas – de Bertrand #Tavernier, sortis en novembre dernier aux éditions Actes Sud.

For all the best reasons, #Notre-Dame is getting a lot of press at the moment, but other #Paris churches are available… This is the Eglise St-Germain l'Auxerrois, which faces the @museelouvre.bsky.social and is known as the 'paroisse des artistes'.