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@iva333can

116 posts

Flâneurs and Passantes: The Fauna of Paris Boulevards

Edgar Degas: Place de la Concorde, 1875 The street is deafening. It roars and jostles and reeks of horses and coffee and coal smoke. Then — a flash of black. A woman, tall, in deep mourning, lifting the hem of her skirt with one gloved hand as she crosses the boulevard. Agile, noble, with a leg like a statue. She meets your eye for exactly one second. Then she is gone, swallowed by the crowd,…

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Fashion and Horses: The Grand Prix de Paris

Every June, the Bois de Boulogne lost its mind. Not gradually. All at once. The Grand Prix de Paris — France’s most glamorous, most crowded, most hotly anticipated racing event — was, officially, a horse race. The horses ran. The horses were timed. A horse won. But if you think that is what the 150,000 people packed into the Hippodrome de Longchamp on a June Sunday were there to see, you have…

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#19th century fashion #19th century Paris #life in Victorian Paris #Longchamp horse racing #Paris Grand Prix

Buffalo Bill, Edison, and the Iron Lady: Paris, 1889

In 1886, the French government faced a delightful problem. The centenary of the Revolution was approaching, and Paris — host of four world’s fairs already — needed to outdo itself entirely. A competition was launched for a centrepiece that would announce France’s industrial genius to every nation on Earth. The winning design had to be, the committee decreed, an original masterpiece of metal. More…

#19th century France #19th century Paris #Bertillion #Buffalo Bill in Paris #Edison #Eiffel.#Exposition Universelle 1889

Crafting Illusions: Victorian Deepfakes

Long before digital filters, AI generators, or sophisticated editing suites, photographers were already bending reality to their will. In the earliest decades of the medium, when photography still carried an aura of scientific truth, artists and tricksters alike discovered how malleable that “truth” could be. With nothing more than scissors, glue, and a sharp eye for composition, they crafted…

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#19th century France #19th century Paris #photo manipulation #photography history

Mesmerizing video: Watch Paris Grow from 300 BCE to 2025

Related post: Map of Paris circa 1910

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Let's Get Sadly Personal

In 2026, this blog enters its fifteenth year of existence. From its awkward beginning, it has grown into a repository of 230 posts and over 1,000 illustrations on all aspects of life in 19th-century Paris. It is a well-read blog, no doubt about it. Old posts don’t get buried under new ones. They are read daily as people search for specific information. When I published my first novel, I was told…

#19th century France #19th century Paris

Christmas in Belle Époque Paris: When Réveillon Trumped Roast Turkey

If you were to time-travel to Paris during the Belle Époque with visions of Victorian Christmas splendor dancing in your head—the decorated trees, the stockings hung by the chimney, the carolers in the snow—you’d find yourself in for a rather confusing holiday season. The French, as always, did things their own way, and Christmas in fin-de-siècle Paris bore little resemblance to the…

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#19th century France #19th century Paris #Christmas in France #Etrennes #French Christmas #life in Victorian Paris #Noel #Reveillon

The Scandalous George Sand: Just Being Herself

“Is it a man, a womanIs it an angel, a demon?I am the complete beingI exist by myself aloneAnd have resolved the problemOf Plato’s androgynes.” Etienne de Jouy Anyone who opened a novel in 19th-century France would have encountered the name George Sand—a writer so prolific that Balzac himself complained he couldn’t keep up with her output. She wrote over 70 novels, 50 volumes of various works,…

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#19th century France #life in Victorian Paris

From Gutter to Glitter: How Two Courtesans Achieved Immortal Fame

. Ah, the Victorian era in Paris – when moral virtue was loudly proclaimed in public and quietly ignored in private. Among the many fascinating characters of this period, none captivated (or scandalized) society quite like the courtesan. Think of her as the Instagram influencer of the 1850s, only with better dresses and somewhat more interesting conversation. A dozen women, rarely more at any…

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#19th century France #19th century Paris #Alexandre Dumas Junior #Emile Zola #La dame aux Camelias #Marie Duplessis.#Nana #prostitution #The Lady of the Camellias #Valtesse de la Bigne

Americans in the Louvre: A Cultural Revolution

On August 10, 1793, France’s National Constituent Assembly decided to celebrate the first anniversary of the fall of the monarchy by founding a central museum for the arts of the republic in which the royal collections and various confiscated artworks be made accessible to the public. This painting by Hubert Robert depicts the museum interior in 1796. From Royal Palace to Revolutionary…

#19th century France #19th century Paris #Americasans in Paris #history of art museums #history of the Louvre #life in Victorian Paris

Anarchists and Explosives: Terror in 1890s Paris

Heading . In the 1890s, Parisians developed an unfortunate habit of checking under restaurant tables before sitting down. This wasn’t mere paranoia—it was a reasonable response to living in a city where anarchist bombs had become as much a part of the urban landscape as gas lamps and horse-drawn omnibuses. The Belle Époque, that glittering period of art, culture, and optimism, had a rather…

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#19th century France #19th century Paris #anarchists #Brigades du Tigre #Police in 19th century France #Ravachol

The Red Virgin and the Black Flag of Anarchism: Louise Michel (Part 2)

Disclaimer:This article discusses the historical context of anarchism in 19th-century France, particularly the life and symbolism associated with Louise Michel. It is a work of historical analysis and does not promote or endorse political violence, extremism, or any contemporary anarchist movements. The content is intended for educational and literary purposes only. I’m writing a novel set in…

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#19th century Paris #anarchism #Louise Michel #Paris Commune #workers&039; movement

Louise Michel: The Red Virgin Who Challenged Victorian Men

. Picture this: It’s 1871 in Paris, and while most Victorian ladies elsewhere are busy perfecting their swoons and arguing about the proper length of gloves, Louise Michel is out there building barricades, teaching radical politics to anyone who’ll listen, and generally making the sort of trouble that gives government officials nervous breakdowns. If feminism needed a poster child who could…

#1 #19th century Paris #anarchy #French feminism.#Louise Michel

Beyond Vidocq: Criminal Investigation in 19th Century France

In our previous exploration of Eugène-François Vidocq, we witnessed the remarkable transformation of a career convict into the founding father of modern criminal investigation. His innovative methods laid the groundwork for systematic policing not just in France, but worldwide. But what happened after Vidocq’s departure from the Sûreté? How did criminal investigation evolve throughout the…

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#19th century crime investigation #19th century France #Alexandre Lacassagne #Anthropometry #Auguste Ambroise Tardieu #Criminal Photography history #criminal science history #Eugène-François Vidocq #Forensic Medicine history #Henri Canler #History of ballistics

A Brief History of Telephones in Paris

. Paris has long been at the forefront of technological innovation, and the telephone’s introduction and evolution in the City of Light represents an interesting chapter in both Parisian and telecommunications history. From its humble beginnings in the late 19th century to the digital revolution of today, the telephone has transformed Parisian life, business, and culture. Early Beginnings The…

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Love, Law, and Liberté: The Drama of Divorce in 19th Century France

. . Picture Paris, 1793: The revolution has upended society, heads are rolling (literally), and something equally shocking is happening in French households – divorce is suddenly legal. Not only legal but downright popular. In fact, in those heady early days of marital freedom, divorce cases in Paris actually outnumbered marriages. Welcome to the roller coaster history of divorce in 19th…

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#19th century France #History of divorce in France

Tuberculosis: When Dying Became Fashionable

With the Industrial Revolution, two deadly diseases, tuberculosis and syphilis, spread rapidly with devastating consequences for humankind. Unlike syphilis, which carried heavy moral stigma, tuberculosis – paradoxically – gained a degree of cultural acceptance that would seem incomprehensible today. More about it later. Tuberculosis typically affects the lungs (but can impact other body parts),…

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#19th century fashion #19th century France #19th century Paris

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