Episodes
Wednesday Mar 04, 2020
Paris Episode 14 The Louvre
Wednesday Mar 04, 2020
Wednesday Mar 04, 2020
The world's grandest art gallery, the Louvre's enormity presents both a pleasure and a challenge. It is said that it would take a hundred days to see everything, if you stopped at each exhibit for 30 seconds. So this is a whistle-stop and rather esoteric tour, stopping off at some pointers to French history and at some representative examples of the best of French painting, with also a very quick nod to a number of sculptures and foreign block-busters.
Wednesday Feb 26, 2020
Paris Episode 13 St Germain
Wednesday Feb 26, 2020
Wednesday Feb 26, 2020
The Parisian district of St Germain oozes class and intellectual allure, being home to the Sorbonne, and also to some of the big publishing houses, the Académie Française, proud guardian of the French language, and the lovely Luxembourg Gardens, so fondly described in many a memoir. This pot-pourri of an episode also considers the area's political importance as the home of the Assemblée Nationale and the Sénat and its artistic inheritance, centering on two museums, formerly the homes of the Romantic painter Delacroix and the sculptor Rodin.
Wednesday Feb 19, 2020
Paris Episode 12 The Seine and the Champs Elysees
Wednesday Feb 19, 2020
Wednesday Feb 19, 2020
This episode looks at two of the loveliest ways to see Paris, wandering along the Seine and strolling down the Champs Elysées. Informed by a little history, some travel writing and a snatch or two of poetry, we take a closer look at some of the famous places you will pass on these two routes. We also make time for such highly Parisian details as the role of the bouquinistes and the reason why the Pont des Arts has always been so popular with artists.
Wednesday Feb 12, 2020
Paris Episode 11 Montparnasse and the Latin Quarter
Wednesday Feb 12, 2020
Wednesday Feb 12, 2020
A well-known Parisian saying tells us that the right bank may be for spending and shopping ('La rive droite dépense'), but that the left bank is for more intellectual pursuits ('La rive gauche pense'). This episode looks at the Quarter Latin, where the city's best known university, the Sorbonne, has its roots and at Montparnasse, the adopted home of many of the 20th century's best-known writers, both expats (Hemingway, James Joyce) and Parisian (Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir).
Wednesday Feb 05, 2020
Paris Episode 10 Occupied Paris
Wednesday Feb 05, 2020
Wednesday Feb 05, 2020
There are still signs of 'les années noires' (the dark years) of German occupation in Paris to be found all over the city, for example the many plaques in memory of fallen Resistance fighters and of deported Jewish Parisians, which can be spotted on buildings everywhere. This episode offers a little history, some testimonies from the time and a pointer to two institutions where you can learn much more: the Musée de la Libération and the holocaust memorial, the Shoah.
Wednesday Jan 29, 2020
Paris Episode 09 Impressionist Paris
Wednesday Jan 29, 2020
Wednesday Jan 29, 2020
Can there be a city and an art movement more intertwined than Paris and impressionism? Home to many of the movement's best-known artists, Paris itself was often the subject of their paintings, whether lovely views of the city like Pissarro's Boulevard Montmartre on a Wintry Afternoon or canvases capturing Parisians at leisure, such as Renoir's Bal du Moulin de la Galette. This tour of impressionist Paris visits three key sites: the Musée Marmottan, the Orangerie and the Musée d’Orsay.
Wednesday Jan 22, 2020
Paris Episode 08 The Belle Epoque and the Eiffel Tower
Wednesday Jan 22, 2020
Wednesday Jan 22, 2020
Impressionist painters, the Folies Bergères, the city’s art-deco style metro stations and its grandest cafes all date from the Belle Époque, the 40 year period so well captured in Toulouse Lautrec’s quintessentially Parisian posters. It is the era when the Opéra Garnier, the Eiffel Tower and the Galéries Lafayette were built, a time when Paris seemed to be the centre of the civilised world. The episode looks at a little history and takes you on a tour of the places where you can still glimpse Belle Époque Paris today.
Wednesday Jan 15, 2020
Paris Episode 07 Montmartre
Wednesday Jan 15, 2020
Wednesday Jan 15, 2020
We look first at Montmartre as one of the centres of the Paris Commune. After a visit to the Basilique de Sacré Coeur, built in commemoration of the city's suffering, we consider the other important aspect of the area, its artistic heritage and a visit to the Musée de Montmartre will illuminate the lives of the artists who lived and worked here, as well as the goings-on in such well-known venues as the Moulin de la Galette and the Chat Noir.
Wednesday Jan 08, 2020
Paris Episode 06 Napoleon's Paris
Wednesday Jan 08, 2020
Wednesday Jan 08, 2020
This look at Napoleon's Paris focuses on the Emperor himself and the buildings most closely connected with him: the Arc de Triomphe, begun under his own instructions in 1805 to mark his victory at Austerlitz; the Invalides, where not just his hat and his field equipment, but also his imposing tomb are on display; and the lovely Château de Malmaison, the country retreat he bought for Josephine a few miles out of the city. We examine his legacy too, the changes he made to Paris, and, most illuminatingly, his own remarks in praise of his glories and success!
Wednesday Jan 01, 2020
Paris Episode 05 Revolutionary Paris
Wednesday Jan 01, 2020
Wednesday Jan 01, 2020
1789, the defining moment in the history of Paris, is the focus of today's episode. Of course, the Bastille prison no longer exists, but we can visit the Conciergerie, where Marie-Antoinette and so many of her subjects were imprisoned, the Place de la Concorde, one of the sites where revolutionaries executed several thousand people in their quest to overthrow the authorities and the Musée Carnavalet, the city's main history museum. There'll be time too to learn a little more about the ill-fated Louis XVI and his queen, Marie Antoinette.