Yes Yes Paris, Rue de Rivoli, Paris (2026)

23/05/2026

Standing in front of Van Gogh's Starry Night Over the Rhone at the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.

The painting was made in September 1888, on the banks of the Rhone River in Arles, in southern France. Van Gogh painted it outdoors at night, working under a single gas lamp. He wrote to his brother Theo the next day: "The starry sky at last, actually painted at night, under a gas lamp. The sky is green-blue, the water is royal blue, the ground is mauve."

What he put on the canvas was not quite what was in front of him. The Big Dipper — visible in the upper center of the painting — was actually behind Van Gogh that night, to the north. He moved the entire constellation to the opposite side of the sky to include it. The gaslights along the quay, about 20 watts each, would have barely reflected in the fast-moving water. He painted them blazing.

The couple standing at the lower right edge of the canvas sits in deliberate shadow, positioned exactly beneath the one stretch of sky with no bright stars above them.

The painting has been at the Musee d'Orsay since the museum opened in 1986. It draws a crowd every single day — some of them wearing the appropriate headwear.

23/05/2026

Victor Hugo died on May 22, 1885, at 83. His last wish was simple: a pauper's hearse, no ceremony, no pomp.

Paris had other plans.

His body lay in state beneath the Arc de Triomphe for two days, the monument draped in black cloth and lit by 44 candelabras. More than 2,000 delegations from France and abroad filed past in succession. On the morning of June 1st, floats loaded with flowers converged on the Place de l'Etoile (Star Square, the intersection where the Arc stands).

When the procession finally moved toward the Pantheon, the crowd that lined the route numbered more than 2 million. That was larger than the entire population of Paris at the time.

The people who came were not politicians or aristocrats. They were factory workers, war veterans, farmers, and the poor. Brothels across Paris closed for the day so that every woman who wanted to come could be there. These were the people Hugo had spent his life writing about. The dispossessed of Les Miserables. The outcasts of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. They showed up by the millions.

And true to his last wish, his body made the final journey to the Pantheon in the hearse of the poor — a simple black carriage, the same used for paupers with no family and no money. The most celebrated man in France went to his grave in the most modest vehicle in the city.

He was buried in the Pantheon in a crypt he shares with Alexandre Dumas. Emile Zola was placed beside them later.

23/05/2026

Two of the most ambitious public artworks ever created lasted exactly 14 days each.

The top image is the Pont Neuf (New Bridge) in September 1985 — which, despite its name, is the oldest bridge in Paris, built in 1607. Christo and his partner Jeanne-Claude had been trying to wrap it for ten years by then. Jacques Chirac, then mayor of Paris, refused the permit in 1982. It only happened because an aide slipped the approval documents into a pile of papers Chirac signed without reading. When he tried to revoke it, Jeanne-Claude told him she would release the signed letter to the press. He dropped the case.

On September 22, 1985, 300 workers deployed 450,000 square feet (41,800 square meters) of golden sandstone-colored fabric across the bridge's twelve arches, its sidewalks, all 44 street lamps, and down to the waterline. The fabric was held by 8 miles (13 kilometers) of rope and anchored by steel chains lying on the riverbed. Three million people visited in two weeks.

The Reichstag project took even longer. Christo first proposed wrapping the German parliament in 1971. He spent 24 years lobbying across six successive Bundestag presidents before the German parliament voted to approve it on February 25, 1994. It was the first time in history that a work of art was debated and voted on by an elected legislature before it existed.

In June 1995, 90 professional climbers spent six days fastening 1,076,000 square feet (100,000 square meters) of silver polypropylene fabric to the building using 9.7 miles (15.6 kilometers) of blue rope. Five million people came to see it. Berlin asked Christo and Jeanne-Claude to extend the installation. They refused.

The total cost of the Reichstag project was $15.3 million. Not a single dollar came from sponsors, governments, or corporations. Christo financed both projects entirely by selling his preparatory drawings and models.

23/05/2026

Île Saint-Louis in 1600 was two muddy, uninhabited islands in the middle of the Seine — and one of them was called the Cow Island.

One was Île Notre-Dame. The other was Île aux Vaches. Between them ran a shallow canal. Sheep and cattle were ferried over by boat because there was no bridge to reach them. The cathedral chapter of Notre-Dame owned both and used them for grazing, laundry drying, and the occasional duel.

The transformation started in 1614, when Louis XIII handed a developer named Christophe Marie a remarkable deal. Marie would fill in the canal between the two islands, build the bridges, and plan the entire neighborhood — at his own expense. In return, he and his partners could build and sell the real estate.

Within a generation, the cow island was gone. The canal was filled in. A single unified island emerged from the Seine, connected to the Right Bank by the Pont Marie — a bridge that still carries the developer's name today. Between 1620 and 1650, the French aristocracy commissioned Louis Le Vau, the king's own architect, to build their private mansions along the waterfront.

The 1600 image is an AI reconstruction of what the two islands likely looked like before development.

By 1666, Île Saint-Louis was fully built out. No Metro station was ever added. No bank, no post office, no cinema. The neighborhood has been almost entirely unchanged since the 17th century — which is exactly why a two-bedroom apartment there now sells for upwards of $2 million (roughly 1.8 million euros).

The whole thing took about 50 years to build. It has been standing, largely intact, for nearly 400.

23/05/2026

Be honest: did French food actually live up to the hype when you first tried it?

22/05/2026

Paris concentrates a lot into a small area — but nowhere more than the blocks surrounding the Louvre.
The galleries, covered passages, royal gardens, and old restaurants here aren't footnotes to the museum. They're the reason the neighborhood existed long before the pyramid arrived.

22/05/2026

Most people who visit the Sainte-Chapelle today enter through the same door and climb the same staircase. In 1248, that was not how it worked.

Louis IX built two completely separate chapels, stacked one on top of the other, and they were never meant for the same people.

The lower chapel sat at ground level. Low ceilings, small windows, dim light. This was the chapel for palace staff — the servants, the guards, the workers who kept the royal residence running. It was functional, not magnificent.

One floor above, connected directly to the king's private apartments by an interior gallery, was the upper chapel. This is the room with the soaring 50-foot (15-meter) windows, the 1,113 panels of stained glass, the light so thick and colored it feels like standing inside a jewel. Access was restricted to the royal family, invited guests, and the small college of canons who served the chapel.

The Bishop of Paris was deliberately excluded from the consecration ceremony in 1248. Louis had arranged for the chapel to answer directly to the Holy See, bypassing the local diocese entirely. The bishop received no invitation.

The two chapels still exist today. Anyone with a ticket can stand in the upper chapel now. But the architecture still tells you exactly what Louis intended: a building where the most spectacular room in Paris was built for one man, and the people who served him were given something else entirely.

Have you visited both levels?

22/05/2026

Five Guys has been trying to open a location on Boulevard Saint-Michel, in the heart of the Latin Quarter, for several years. The City of Paris has been blocking it.

The address in question is number 20, boulevard Saint-Michel, in the 6th arrondissement. The boulevard is one of the most recognizable streets in Paris, lined with bookstores, historic cafes, and students from the nearby Sorbonne. City officials have openly said that a fast food chain doesn't fit the character of the neighborhood. "Not our vision," is how one official put it.

Five Guys already has several locations in Paris, including on the Champs-Elysees and near the Opera. But the Latin Quarter location is different. The city has the ability to restrict certain types of commercial activity in protected areas, and it has used that power here. The case has gone to an administrative court. Negotiations were believed to be dead, but reports from this week indicate they have quietly been reopened.

This is not the first time Paris has pushed back against chain restaurants in sensitive neighborhoods. The city has long used urban planning rules to protect the retail mix in historic areas, limiting the spread of banks, pharmacies, and fast food. Boulevard Saint-Michel has actually been losing independent shops for years, which is part of why city officials are especially protective of what replaces them.

22/05/2026

Place Vendôme has had a lot of things at its center over the centuries. A column honoring Napoleon. A bronze statue melted down during the Commune. Now, in October 2014: a 79-foot (24-meter) green inflatable that Paris was not prepared for.

American artist Paul McCarthy was invited to create a public sculpture for the square as part of FIAC, the city's international contemporary art fair. He took inspiration from Constantin Brancusi's abstract geometric forms and reduced a Christmas tree down to its most basic shape. The result, titled "Tree," was unveiled on October 16, 2014, directly across from the French Ministry of Culture.

The interpretation debate lasted about ten minutes. Parisians recognized something other than a Christmas tree almost immediately, and the reaction was swift. McCarthy was punched in the face by a man who stopped him mid-interview with Le Monde to ask if he was the artist responsible.

That same night, vandals cut the steel cables holding the sculpture in place. It collapsed and was removed from the square by the following afternoon, barely 24 hours after it went up.

McCarthy himself had never tried to hide the reference. He told Le Monde the piece was inspired both by a Christmas tree and by an adult novelty item, calling consumer culture "so destructive" and describing Santa Claus as "the god of consumerism." The French Culture Minister, Fleur Pellerin, condemned the vandalism as "a serious attack on the principle of artistic freedom." Mayor Anne Hidalgo called the assault on McCarthy unacceptable.

21/05/2026

This Saturday, May 23, Paris is hosting its annual Night of Museums, and more than 200 cultural venues across the city are free to enter from nightfall until midnight.

The event has been running every May since 2005 and is now in its 22nd edition. Dozens of Paris institutions are taking part, including the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay, the Rodin Museum, the Marmottan Monet, the Cluny Museum, and the Musée de Montmartre. Most venues need no reservation. The Louvre is an exception and requires a free timed-entry booking in advance.

The programming this year goes well beyond walking through galleries. The Musée d'Art Moderne is hosting a live dance performance built around Henri Matisse's painting La Danse. The Rodin Museum ends the night with a Latin-rhythm DJ set in the sculpture gardens, free and open from 10 p.m. The quai Branly Museum is presenting its Africa Fashion exhibition alongside rooftop storytelling and mini-concerts. The Police Prefecture Museum is running a family crime investigation game through the evening.

Most venues are open from 6 p.m. to midnight. The metro and Paris buses run normally all evening.

21/05/2026

What you're looking at is 420 tons of printed fabric being inflated over the Pont Neuf — the oldest bridge in Paris, built in 1607.

The fabric was manufactured in Brittany by a specialist firm that spent months engineering the structure. Each panel is printed to mimic the Lutetian limestone quarries that sit beneath the city — the same quarries that supplied the stone used to build the bridge in the first place.

The project is called La Caverne du Pont Neuf (the Cave of Pont Neuf). It's the work of French artist JR, who started out as a teenage graffiti writer in the Paris suburbs before becoming one of the most recognized street artists in the world. The name is a direct reference to Plato's allegory of the cave — the philosopher's thought experiment about perception, illusion, and what we choose to see.

It opens June 6. Three weeks, then it's gone. Free entry, 24 hours a day, no booking required. You can walk through it, view it from the banks, or pass beneath it on a Seine cruise.

The Pont Neuf — "New Bridge" in French — has been standing for 419 years. It will look like this for exactly 22 days.

Photo:

Yes Yes Paris

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