Perhaps the most famous of all little black dresses was the one worn by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Created by French couture designer (and good friend of Hepburn’s) Hubert de Givenchy, the petite robe noire (little black dress, or LBD) attained such iconic status from the film that today it’s…

This past week in Paris was cool weather-wise – I wore a sweater and jacket every day – but it was sizzling as usual in the culture department. No matter what time of year, there is always something interesting going on in Paris. So if you are planning to be there in the next few…

Thirty years ago this summer, I went off to Europe for the first time. My homestay with a Belgian family was meant to help me speak French better – conjugating French verbs in high school had not done much to make the language a real communication tool. But while this family spoke multiple languages, including…

Paris is one of those towns that wears its fashion heart on its sleeve. A good sit in a central Paris café or a nice stroll by a few tony shop windows will show you the hot new trends in a red-hot minute. All you have to do is keep your eyes open and take…

Pastry shops in Paris have always been a feast for the eyes as well as the tastebuds. But there are some important differences between the pastry shops of then and the pastry shops of now. In the past, you walked in and saw all those rows of classic French desserts standing at perfect attention. Typically,…

There’s lots of gold in Paris – this should be no surprise as luxe and grandeur have been the motto for French rulers and presidents throughout the city’s history. As the French and Europeans figured out long ago, nothing says wealth and power quite so well and quite so publicly as gold. And once you start become…

A little over a week ago, winter made a roaring comeback in Paris – just before the official start of spring. The snow, la neige, started falling late Monday night and big flakes kept coming the entire next day. When I ventured out Tuesday morning to go to a meeting, Paris buses were still running but…

In our last article, we saw the Seine at its most pleasurable. This week, we take a look at the river’s more tumultuous and even dangerous side. It might be easy to imagine that the Seine flows peacefully along day in and day out, year in and year out. Not so. The river possesses a history of…

What would Paris be without the Seine? The picturesque waterway has been a great geographic, economic, social and artistic force since the city’s earliest days, long before the Bateaux mouches and Paris Plages showed up. Its peaceful waters reflect some of the most prestigious architecture in Paris, including the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, Institut de France,…