The Indefatigable Nadar and his Pantheon of Cultural Big Wigs

Nadar focus image

Perhaps you’ve heard of Nadar, an industrious, yet chaotic, bon vivant who lived in Paris at the end of the 19th century. I had not until writing about the life of Gustave Doré, a brilliant illustrator whose career was launched, in part, through Nadar’s promotional efforts. His name popped up…

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Juliette Drouet; The Lonely Life of Hugo’s Devoted Mistress

Juliette Drouet, circa 1850

Two weeks ago, I wrote about a love letter that Victor Hugo wrote to his mistress, Juliette Drouet, shortly after fleeing France to live in exile. In that post, I remarked that over the course of their impressive 50-year relationship, Juliette penned roughly 20,000 letters to the storied author. It’s…

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A Love Letter from Exile, Victor Hugo to Juliette Drouet

Victor Hugo and Juliette Drouet

I recently came upon a list of the ten most beautiful love letters. In general, I find such lists rather pointless. In this case, however, most of the letters had been written by great French authors so it piqued my interest. Near the top was one that Victor Hugo wrote…

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How Victor Hugo Saved Notre Dame de Paris

Caricature of Victor Hugo

My series of posts about a new exposition featuring the Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris only covered a small fraction of the subjects tackled by the entire exhibit. There is much more to say and if you enjoyed the series, I hope you find time to visit the online exposition.…

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