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Cabinet of Chic Curiosities
Category / Nostalgia

All the Clichés of Paris Tourism in one Delightful 1950s Cartoon

Feeling down about the prospect of another summer without Paris? We have something from the archives that might cheer your up. Made in 1958 by French cartoonist Albert Champeaux, “Paris Flash” is a satirical cartoon about Parisian life and tourism of the era. This would have been shown to audiences in Parisian cinemas, just before the film. It’s all…

Little Tuscany in the Heart of Paris

As if plucked from a 17th century Mediterranean estate waiting to transport Parisians to the hills of Florence; tucked away in a corner of Paris’ Luxembourg gardens is one of the city’s most underrated beauty spots. The Medici Fountain, crowned with an Italian grotto and flanked by ivy drapes, is an impossibly romantic place alluding…

The Place Where World War One Planes Still Fly

Wander through the quaint, old fashioned town of Rhinebeck in New York’s Hudson Valley, and you may feel as though you’ve stepped back to another era. Especially when you look up into the sky: for its quite common to see vintage airplanes circling high above all day long, the distinctive sound of old, single propeller…

Hidden Under a Chicken Coop: The “Louvre” of Wine

One of the world’s most prestigious wine cellars isn’t where you think it might be. It isn’t nestled beneath a grand chateau or presidential palace, but buried in the backyard of an average Joe, a retiree of humble background who has been collecting the rarest wines, bottle by bottle for the past 50 years. Michel-Jack…

Parisian woman with Turkish Veil on Rue de la Paix, 1914: A Short Story Challenge

It’s amazing to see how our minds can wander in different ways; how many variations of a story can come from a single picture. We recently proposed a new challenge for our readers to become the storyteller, prompted by a historical found photograph with a brief caption as the only clue: “Parisian woman with Turkish veil, seen…

When the Eiffel Tower was a Parisian Startup Laboratory

During the pandemic, the Eiffel Tower has been undergoing a fresh paint job ahead of the 2024 Olympics that harkens back to its golden hue of the early 20th century. But at that time, the Eiffel Tower was more than just an attraction: Gustave Eiffel was using his new tower as his personal laboratory of…

Another Reason to Check Your Attic: Priest Holes

Once upon a time in ye olde England, it was illegal to be Catholic. In case you need a quick refresher: King Henry VIII needed a male heir to the. He blamed Catherine of Aragon (his brother’s widow and the first of his six wives) for not bearing him a son. On these grounds, he…

Dive into the Psychedelic World of Verner Panton

You probably know his famous chair; the first chair to be made completely out of plastic in one single piece. But have you ever taken a deep dive into the trippy design world of Danish design icon, Verner Panton? His influence is all around us in today’s interior design trends, but chances are, you’ve only just touched…

The Palatial Ruins of the First Western Black Monarchy

Once known as the ‘Versailles of the Caribbean’, its hollow ruins are one of the few lasting remnants of a forgotten royal court – the first Black monarchy established in the Western world that rose from the ashes of the Haitian Revolution. The brief reign of the first and only King of Haiti is both…

Practice Your French While Time Travelling through Paris

In my ongoing quest to help bring you to Paris by any means, today we’re diving into one of my favourite resources for revisiting la vielle ville (the old town). The ‘Institut national de l’audiovisuel’ (INA) is a repository of all French radio and television audiovisual archives and within their Youtube channel, you can find…
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