City Breaks

Paris Episode 20 Memoirs of Paris

This episode sets out to enjoy the work of a number of writers who loved Paris and wrote their memoirs about living or working there. Hear some gossip from 17th century high society via the pen of Mme de Sévigny, enjoy the reminiscences of past writers like Ernest Hemingway and George Orwell and find out about life in more contemporary Paris as experienced by the writer Adam Gopnik or the chef and food-writer David Lebowitz.

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Paris Episode 19 Two Literary Houses

We visit the two best-known literary museums in Paris, the Maison de Balzac in the 16th district and the Maison de Victor Hugo in the Place des Vosges and give an idea of what there is to see in each. In addition, brief biographical notes for each author are coupled with extracts to give a flavour of their work, from Eugène de Balzac's novels Père Goriot and Eugénie Grandet and from Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Misérables.

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Paris Episode 18 Buried in Paris

Visits to the Panthéon, where Paris pays homage to France's most respected citizens, and to the city's cemeteries are always fascinating. The world's most-visited cemetery, the Père Lachaise, contains the graves of, for example, Oscar Wilde and Edith Piaf, those in Montparnasse and Montmartre are also the last resting place of many famous writers, musicians and artists. We also take in Passy, the burial ground at the elite end of the city and the Picpus Cemetery, with its gruesome reminders of so many victims of the Revolution.

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Paris Episode 17 Cafe culture

'The last time I saw Paris, her heart was warm and gay. I heard the laughter of her heart in every street café.' (Oscar Hammerstein II). Paris welcomes you to its corner cafes, its bistros and its restaurants. Discover the history of the Paris café, with its properly attired waiters, its bread baskets and its cluster of little tables, spilling their contents onto the pavements. Find out about the 'must-visit' establishments and the famous Parisians who made them their own.

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Paris Episode 16 Le shopping

Shopping in Paris is always a delight, whether you are popping to a local food market to choose some of the very best seasonal produce, wandering the 'passages', the maze of little covered shopping arcades dating from the nineteenth century or visiting one of the high-end department stores whose art deco interiors and piled-high top brands lure visitors from all over the world. From the macaroons of Ladurée to the latest word in fashion footwear from Christian Louboutin, you will find it all in Paris.

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Paris Episode 15 Modern Art

A rundown of some of the events and 'happenings' in Paris which celebrate modern art, plus a visit to three of the big hitter museums where you can see 20th and 21st century works: the National Museum of Modern Art in the Pompidou Centre, the City of Paris Museum of Modern Art and the Musée Picasso. To finish off, some ideas on other places to enjoy contemporary art in all its many forms, be that painting, sculpture, sound and video installations or photography.

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Paris Episode 14 The Louvre

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.

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Paris Episode 13 St Germain

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.

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Paris Episode 12 The Seine and the Champs Elysees

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.

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Paris Episode 11 Montparnasse and the Latin Quarter

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).

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