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A Perfect Day In Saint-Germain
DON’T YOU JUST LOVE it when an otherwise ordinary day turns out to be extra special! That’s what happened to me earlier this week. After a rather tedious morning I met a friend for lunch in...
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Église Saint-Augustin
THE ÉGLISE SAINT-AUGUSTIN DE PARIS is to be found in the 8th Arrondissement amidst Baron Haussmann’s rectilinear avenues. The Église Saint-Augustin was designed and built by the French architect, Louis...
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Basilique Saint-Denis : The Royal Necropolis of France
IT WAS SOMEWHERE AROUND the year 270 AD when Denis, a Christian missionary and Bishop of Paris, was martyred on the hill we now call Montmartre. Denis was beheaded during the period of Christian...
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Saint-Sulpice in August
THE MIDDLE OF AUGUST is perhaps not the best time to go sound hunting in Paris. It’s a curious time, the weather is hot, the locals are for the most part away on holiday and many bars, restaurants and...
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Alésia
DID YOU KNOW that the Battle of Alésia is the oldest event commemorated on the Paris Métro? It took place in France in 52 BC when the Romans took on the Celts. The Romans were led by Caesar and the...
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Paris – A Personal View
I AM DELIGHTED TO present a new piece in my Paris – A Personal View series. For each piece in the series I invite a guest who lives in or has a close connection to Paris to visit one of their favourite...
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Rue Saint-Roch – A Street With A Secret
AT FIRST SIGHT, the Rue Saint-Roch seems to be an ordinary street in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, a stones throw from the Jardin des Tuileries and the Musée du Louvre. But, as is so often the case...
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Chimes Of Our Times – Past and Present
FOR THE LAST FIVE years or so I’ve been recording the contemporary sound tapestry of Paris in, as far as I know, a more comprehensive way than it’s been done before. During that time I’ve recorded both...
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A Celebration Through Sound
I SPEND A LOT of my time walking the streets of Paris listening to and recording the everyday sounds around me, the sound tapestry of the city. Recording urban soundscapes is not as easy as you might...
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L’Eglise Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais
DEDICATED TO THE 2nd century Italian martyrs Gervasius and Protasius, the Eglise Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais is one of the oldest churches in Paris and it’s to be found in the 4th arrondissement, just...
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“Je Suis Charlie”
WHAT A DIFFERENCE a day makes! Shortly before 11.00 this morning I arrived in Place Jean-Paul II, the open space in front of the Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris, to find that it was home to a selection...
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The Église de la Sainte-Trinité
USUALLY REFERRED TO simply as ‘Trinité’, the Église de la Sainte-Trinité, a Roman Catholic church in Paris’ 9th arrondissement, was built during the Second Empire as part of Baron Eugène Haussmann’s...
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L’Église Notre-Dame du Travail
FROM THE OUTSIDE it looks much the same as many other medium size Parisian parish churches. The five-bell array on the roof and the larger, exposed bell in the bell tower are perhaps a little quirky...
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Sounds In and Around L’Église Saint-Merri
IF YOU’VE READ Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables you will have read Hugo’s fictional account of the June Rebellion or the Paris Uprising of 1832, the last outbreak of violence linked with the July...
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À la Mémoire d’Edith Piaf
I SPEND QUITE A LOT of time in churches, especially Parisian churches. I am interested in church architecture, I’m fascinated by the history of individual churches and I enjoy exploring the sounds of...
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Les Cloches de Notre-Dame – The City Singing
WRITING ABOUT PARIS IN his novel, Notre-Dame de Paris, also known as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, published in 1831, Victor Hugo said: “And if you wish to receive of the ancient city an impression with...
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