Simon Johns @penjohns.bsky.social · 27/03/2026The setting looks better than ever, but it's the collection's staggering wealth of artistry and human understanding that I keep coming back for. Whatever the medium, scale or provenance, this is art that shines with personality and life. 030
Simon Johns @penjohns.bsky.social · 27/03/2026A small selection of the breathtaking masterpieces at the wonderful @museecluny.bsky.social, which I've just revisited for the first time since its big overhaul. 1173
Simon Johns @penjohns.bsky.social · 25/03/2026The sweet conceit of a scale #model on show in the building it models. The Panthéon has a mini Panthéon, the Invalides a mini Invalides, the Musée d'Orsay two mini Orsays (not on view). This 13,400-piece #Lego mini St-Sulpice was installed last year in the St-Jean l'Evangéliste side chapel. #Paris 000
Simon Johns @penjohns.bsky.social · 07/10/2025L’Huma is making a historical parallel here – #Chienlit a word that to French readers is strongly associated with another period of political crisis, 1968… 000
Simon Johns @penjohns.bsky.social · 21/03/2025Too many favourites to choose from! Here’s a soulful stanza by Marceline Desbordes-Valmore. 110
Simon Johns @penjohns.bsky.social · 05/03/2025Heartbreaking biographical entry for Emile Cohl in the ‘Dictionnaire des illustrateurs 1800-1914’ (Ides et Calendes, 1989): “Il mourut vieux et misérable dans une maison de retraite des environs de Paris, sa longue barbe blanche ayant pris feu à une bougie.” 100
Simon Johns @penjohns.bsky.social · 03/03/2025As for ‘A Rebours’ – I started it in the Folio edition, but only read the whole thing, years later, in an Imprimerie Nationale copy I picked up for a song at Galigniani. Was delighted to discover, on p200-odd, that said bookshop was where Des Esseintes bought his Baedeker! 020
Simon Johns @penjohns.bsky.social · 03/03/2025Looking forward to reading ‘Impossible City: #Paris in the Twenty-First Century’, latest from @simonkuper.bsky.social, now out in paperback from @profilebooks.bsky.social. (That Indy puff on the cover, though… *former* City of Light? Ouch!) 031
Simon Johns @penjohns.bsky.social · 11/02/2025#Paris, #manège, April 2003. www.paris.fr/pages/les-beaux-maneges-parisiens-c-est-parti-pour-un-tour-24393 000
Simon Johns @penjohns.bsky.social · 06/02/2025Discovery of the week, possibly month: US #photographer David #Turnley, who clearly spends a lot of time in #Paris. The home page of his website is a portfolio of fantastic b/w Paris shots in the humanist vein of #Ronis, #Doisneau, #Cartier-Bresson, #Brassaï etc. www.davidturnley.com 070
Simon Johns @penjohns.bsky.social · 04/02/2025According to the 2022 Baudelaire expo catalogue published by the BNF (@labnf.bsky.social), it was with this image in mind that #Manet painted his 'La Musique aux Tuileries' a few years later. One of its top hats is worn by Baudelaire himself: that's him directly above the blue bonnet on the left. 000
Simon Johns @penjohns.bsky.social · 04/02/2025This is glorious: 1850s #Champs-Elysées society by Constantin #Guys, 'peintre de la vie moderne' endorsed by #Baudelaire; it's currently at the @museecarnavalet.bsky.social. I love the arrangement of that focal top hat and the foliage above, with an arc of daylight between. 100
Simon Johns @penjohns.bsky.social · 01/02/2025C’est vraiment un livre à l’image de son auteur: drôle, généreux, intelligent, tout en digressions savoureuses. Je le savais anglophile, mais ça m’a tout de même épaté d’apprendre que le jeune Bertrand était lecteur assidu des histoires de… #Biggles! 000
Simon Johns @penjohns.bsky.social · 28/01/2025Saddened to learn, very belatedly, that Wilhelmenia Fernandez has died – way back last February, at the age of 75. She was the unforgettable diva of 'Diva', Jean-Jacques Beineix's glorious and often critically misjudged 1981 operatic fantasy that launched the so-called 'cinéma du look'. 100
Simon Johns @penjohns.bsky.social · 18/01/2025I wondered if the weathercock would go to the Musée Carnavalet, but it’s certainly apt to display it on home ground. 010
Simon Johns @penjohns.bsky.social · 03/01/2025Sa vie et rien d'autre? Certes, dans la mesure où la vie de l'auteur fut remplie à craquer de #cinéma, de musique, de livres, de voyages, d'engagements, d'amis. Passionnants 'Mémoires interrompus' – hélas – de Bertrand #Tavernier, sortis en novembre dernier aux éditions Actes Sud. 110
Simon Johns @penjohns.bsky.social · 16/12/2024For all the best reasons, #Notre-Dame is getting a lot of press at the moment, but other #Paris churches are available… This is the Eglise St-Germain l'Auxerrois, which faces the @museelouvre.bsky.social and is known as the 'paroisse des artistes'. 110
