From Paris to Zurich

The 19th divides the crowd: hipster heartland of left-leaning twenty-somethings for some, urban apocalypse best admired from afar for others. As usual, the truth sits somewhere in between — though it’s definitely sipping a flat white on the hipster side. Then vs. now About ten years ago, my friend Céline moved into a cheap attic […]

While Halloween is slowly creeping into French culture (see also: Is Halloween a Thing in Paris?), it’s still not as widely celebrated as in Anglophone countries. So, if you don’t get your fill of spookiness on the 31st, here’s a tale that’s guaranteed to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. […]

With their book How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are, Sophie Mas and Audrey Diwan showed that being Parisian isn’t about where you were born or live – it’s about your attitude and state of mind (and to a degree also about fashion and style). So whether you’re a native, a newcomer, a starry-eyed visitor, or […]

From the Louvre to the Palais Royal, from the Tuileries Gardens to the Rue Saint-Honoré, the Sainte-Chapelle and the Place Vendôme, Paris’ 1st arrondissement is like an open air museum. Yes, royalty once ruled (and later languished) here and you can still feel the velvet echoes of power in the air. But if you’re wondering […]

When I lived in the 16th arrondissement for a year back in 2016, I disliked it so much that I left Paris. The experience made me temporarily fall out of love with the city. So when I returned three years later, I looked for a place in the 11th arrondissement and – bam! – the […]