Chateau de Borly in Marseille, from a village house to Apollo's palace
Parc de Borly, the most visited park in Marseille, 17 hectares of surprises, enchants first-time visitors with its ponds, diverse sculptures and various gardens.
The Last Issue, a new book by Anat Mei Dan
Anat Mi Dan is a collector, researcher and writer. Her first book, “The Imam Fainted,” was published in 1998 and takes the reader through the streets of Istanbul...
A Collector's Perspective: The Masterpieces of Oscar Gez
Oscar Ghez's collection accurately captures the diversity, vitality, and complexity of the rich, vibrant, creative, and bold artistic landscape of the Middle...
Maison Empereur: Marseille, the oldest home improvement store in France
People come to Marseille to see “Notre Dame de la Garde”, the basilica that dominates the city, the “Couscar Méditerranée”, a reconstructed prehistoric cave...
Felix and Lawton: Life in the Service of Art
Félix Vallotton, the most French of Swiss painters, died a century ago. 2025 is therefore his year....
Yves Touati, the Cherry Band and the Clanks of Marseille
Yves Touati, born in 1951 and died in 2009, was a composer, lyricist, singer, and music researcher. He was a jazz-rock composer, songs, and music...
The world's most famous manuscript: The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry
The Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry in a precious stone case north of Paris, the Château de Chantilly, was secretly preserved,...
Joe Dessins, American Singer in Paris, Triumphs and Tribulations
Claude Lemesle, lyricist of fifteen hundred performed songs, was present when Jo Deschamps fell to his death. Each of them...
How the cicada became the symbol of Provence
I lie on the tattered yellow sofa, which is long overdue for replacement, staring at the thicket of green branches opposite, listening to the song of the cicadas. Cicada –...
Where is the child, a never-ending story?
This article will tell you about a criminal case that shook France starting in 1991 with the disappearance of a child in Nice and resurfaced in 2017 with...
Baya, the miraculous life of the great Algerian artist
Baya, born Fatma Haddad (1931-1998), is the best-known Algerian painter in France. From her first exhibition in Paris, in 1947, at La Galerie Mag...
Sophie Rakhlanko, two autobiographies, one in Hebrew and the other in French
I am very curious to get to know people's lives. To get out of myself and see what others are doing with their lives. That's why I love to read...
A masterpiece by Camille Claudel, “Old Age,” was discovered by chance in an orphaned apartment
Camille Claudel's autobiographical work "Mature Age" (L'Âge mûr), from the late nineteenth century, was completed shortly after her separation...
Alain Delon without a doubt
When Anoushka, the daughter of Alain Delon and his former partner Rosalie, was 21 years old (she is now 33), her father called the playwright...
Giverny: Claude Monet's House and Garden
Giverny – the house and garden where the great Impressionist painter, Claude Monet, lived and created during the second half of his life, from 1883 until his death...
The restored Cosquer Cave in Marseille: a journey into prehistory
On the last day of January 2024, we visited the restored Coquer Cave (La grotte Coquer) in Marseille, a visit that was and remains a unique experience....
Le Butte Bergere, a lovely green and decorated corner, in the 19th arrondissement
Many people know the magnificent Parc des Buttes Chaumont in the 19th arrondissement of Paris. A famous park, one of the largest and most original in the capital. But who knows...
Diving into the musical world of Jane Birkin
Jane, Merci d'être née, vous êtes un fragment de nos vies, votre voix résonne dans mon salon comme un moment...
Emily L.: A novel about love and loss, steeped in alcohol and madness
Marguerite Duras, Emily L., Les Editions de Minuit, 1987 Marguerite Duras, Emily L., from French: Rama Ayalon, Ruth Library, 2023 Written...
Recommended apartment in Paris – not far from the Eiffel Tower
I highly recommend Audi's guest apartment in the 16th arrondissement, Nicolo Street. We stayed there for ten days and really enjoyed the apartment...
The dark side of the Eiffel Tower
Since the construction of the famous tower began in 1887, 370 people have died there. Accidents, challenges that ended in disaster, and mostly suicides....
Yossi Zisman, “An Art Dealer Named Niemand”
Yossi Zisman's book, "An Art Dealer Named Nimand," is a fascinating historical thriller that jumps between past, present, and future and revolves around its axis...
Missia Sert: Cultural Icon, Queen of Paris
Introduction March 30, 2022 marks the 150th birthday of Misia Sert (1872-1950), who played such an important role in the cultural life...
Missia, Queen of Paris, Part IV: The Second Half of Life
Fifty-year-old José falls in love with a twenty-year-old Georgian beauty. Misia and Serge are both over fifty and have lost their youthful enthusiasm...
Missia, Queen of Paris, Part 3: Leading and Supporting, Supporting and Leading
A comfortable and beautiful apartment, a beloved and wealthy partner, a respected position in high society. Missia was courted and happy, with status, like Madame Verdourn....
Missia, Queen of Paris, Part II: Madame Edwards Gets Divorced
Second marriage to Alfred Edwards, 1905-1909 Alfred Edwards, son of the English physician to King Fuad of Egypt, inherited from his father...
Missia, Queen of Paris, Part I: Missia Godewska, childhood, youth, first marriage
Misia Sert played such an important role in the cultural life of Paris in the first half of the 20th century that she was nicknamed...
Stormy, disturbing, disturbed loves in French poems
Musician Andrey Manukyan revealed in the episode “Dangerous Liaisons,” from a television show that reveals the secrets of songs, the surprising, disturbing, outrageous stories...
Virginia Hall, the American who felt the need to help occupied France
The extraordinary life story of American spy and resistance fighter Virginia Hall remained unknown for a long time. By virtue of her role as a spy, Virginia...
Imperial age through its connection to France
We all know about the deep ties of journalist and intelligence officer Gil Kessary to France (to date, six of his many articles on these topics have been published...
From Dora Bruder to Ingrid Tersen and from Ingrid Tersen to Dora Bruder / On two books by Patrick Modiano
Dora Broder was a Jewish girl who was murdered in the Holocaust. Thanks to Patrick Modiano's book dedicated to her, she emerged from obscurity and is now being read about in Paris...
A visit to Patrick Modiano’s study and a trip to his/our Paris through the novel “Sympathetic Ink”
“Sympathetic Ink” (Patrick Modiano, Encre sympathique, Gallimard, 2019), the 29th novel by the 2014 Nobel Prize winner, is similar to its predecessors but also...
The legal battle surrounding Camus Pissarro’s painting “Picking Peas”
Just recently, a legal battle over a Pissarro painting that was stolen by the Nazis and rediscovered a few years ago was concluded (but not yet completed).
Irene Peran tells of her sister's murder – drama and correction
“A Crime of No Importance” is a short literary composition in which Irene Peran documents her sister’s murder and tells about it and its surroundings, over a period of more than a year...
Henri Matisse: Tahiti leads to paper cutouts
Matisse's Polynesian experience was over. On his way to Nice, to his home on Charles Felix Square, he stopped in Marseille. I passed through Marseille, a little frightened by the noise, the narrow streets,...
Henri Matisse: Polynesia
The series of harem women, which occupied Matisse for more than a decade, exhausted itself to the point of exhaustion. The harem women, who were the main actresses, became mere extras...
Henri Matisse: Algeria, Spain, Morocco, Nice
Chapter two in a comprehensive four-part article that reviews the life and works of Henri Matisse according to the travels he took. In this chapter, we will travel...
Henri Matisse: Brittany, Corsica, Toulouse, Saint-Tropez, Collioure
Henri Matisse was born in northern France, not far from the Belgian border. I was born in my grandmother's house, in Cateau-Cambrésis, on December 31, 1869. My father was a merchant...
Marie Curie and Paul Langevin: Secret Forbidden Love
Marie Curie is known to us for her discovery of radium and winning the Nobel Prizes. However, behind the scenes, a turbulent love story took place with a married man....
Jeanne de Belleville, a lioness in love thirsting for revenge
Jeanne de Belleville, the world's first female pirate, sowed terror and death in the mid-14th century, against the backdrop of the Hundred Years' War. Dr. Orna...
Max Klinger, “The German Auguste Rodin”
Max Klinger was a great, prolific, and diverse German artist. Dr. Orna Lieberman presents his French side and explains why he was called...
The Migdal Nell Affair: Acts of Adultery in the Royal Court
Nell Tower, was at the center of a scandal of royal treason and a terrible punishment. Dr. Orna Lieberman returns with us to 14th century Paris and brings...
Pierre Soulages – Beyond Black
I wrote the article about the great painter Pierre Soulages, who brought blackness together with light, about three years before his death, on the occasion of his birthday...
The Anonymous Necrophile or the Vampire of Montparnasse
In 1848, all of Paris was terrified. The bodies of young women, who had just died, were exhumed from their graves and discovered by the guards of the Montparnasse cemetery. During...
Brigitte Macron leaves the palace
Brigitte Macron, the wife of the French President, is back in the spotlight. What made her suddenly give an hour and a half radio interview, after the first part...
The Nabi Group: Prophets of the New Art of the Late 19th Century
In April 2019, five years have passed since I visited two fascinating exhibitions in Paris dedicated to the Nabi movement. One, at the Musée Dorsa,...
Emile Birla Collection at the Muyol Museum
The Meulen Museum is currently hosting a temporary exhibition, until July 21, featuring the collection of German arms manufacturer Emil Birla, who was born in Germany...
The Yellow Vests: The Danger of Weekly Violence in France
The 18th act in the weekly drama, which has been taking place every Saturday for the past five months in France on behalf of the Yellow Vests movement, took place on March 16. The devastation left behind...
Amedeo Modigliani and Chaim Soutine: The Last Bohemians of Montparnasse
This is the story of the unique and surprising friendship of two brilliant painters, seemingly opposite in everything, in their appearance and in their artistic style: Amedeo Modigliani and Chaim Soutine. This...
Fernan Knopf 1858-1921, Maestro of Mystery
From now until March 17, 2019, you can visit a retrospective of the Belgian symbolist painter Fernand Knopf at the Petit Palais in Paris. A rare exhibition...
Facing the Night / Delphine de Vigan
Mother of two children, partner of literary critic and host of the most successful literary television program in France – François Bonnell, writer Delphine...
The Gold and the Clay: The Life Story of Camille Claudel and a Paris Itinerary Following Her
Camille Claudel (1864-1943) was a talented sculptor and painter who died abandoned in a closed mental institution but was rediscovered by the general public in the 1960s...
The Sleeper in the Valley / Arthur Rimbaud
This is a green female, in whom a peleg sings to him, who, like a madman, throws silvery shreds over the grass; in whom the sun, from the top of a proud mountain, shines: this is...
Black Fate: The Story of Rock Singer Bertrand Cante
On July 27, 2003, in a hotel room in Vilnius, rock singer Bertrand Cante stabbed his partner, actress Marie Trintignant, to death. Seven years...
Tormented Love, Healing, and Redemption in French Poems
Unrequited love is a never-failing source of poetry. Painful breakups, which cause great suffering, can lead to extreme thoughts. In most of the poems, which the author...
A youth potion in a French cup, served by Charles Ternay, Herbert Pagani, Julien Keller, Etienne Daou and more
The purity of childhood, the happiness of adolescence, first loves and innocence, the lack of worry without thinking about tomorrow – the years of childhood and adolescence are a source...
In Fire, Water and Beyond – Chansons for a Friend
Some of the most famous chansons are about courageous friendship. Dr. Orna Lieberman takes us on a musical journey through songs about friendship, companionship, and what...
Johnny Alliday: A Brief History of the French Rock Idol 1943-2017
Johnny Alliday, the revered rock star, “the French Elvis Presley,” died of lung cancer on December 6, the night between Tuesday and Wednesday, a year...
Bipolarity in the Soul and Poems of Charles Baudelaire
The tension within the human soul between two opposing poles is expressed throughout Baudelaire's work, who emphasizes this biographical fact in the famous sentences...
Catherine Fancol, French success
A new novel by the successful French author, Katherine Pancol, is currently being published, an 850-page volume that weighs more than a kilo (1100 grams).
When an American from Nashville discovered the secrets of French cuisine
Gastronomic recipes and recipes for life “Dinner with Edward” by Isabel Vincent is a gastronomic book for cooking enthusiasts combined with a guidebook that includes...
The beating heart of Mireille Darc
Mireille Darc is known to the general public as the blonde transvestite in the breathtaking backless dress opposite the astonishing Pierre Richard, “the blonde with...
Michel Berger – Everything for the sake of music
Twenty-five years have passed since the untimely death of musician and songwriter Michel Berger, who revolutionized French singing. His melodies and lyrics...
In the whirlwind of Jeanne Moreau's life
On July 31, 2017, the curtain came down on the life of the great French actress Jeanne Moreau. The legendary actress, who defined herself as a “woman who acts,” who infected...
Edouard Manet and Berthe Morisot: The Passion of Art
Edouard Manet and Bertha Morisot had a close relationship, both personal and artistic. Dr. Orna Lieberman takes us on an artistic journey between...
On the novel “The Little Horses of Tarquinia” by Marguerite Duras
Reading the novel “The Little Horses of Tarquinia” brought about a turning point in the life of Jan, a young philosophy student, as I explained in my previous article: The Last Lover...
Marguerite Duras's Last Lover
Jan Andrea, Marguerite Duras's "last lover," was found dead in the one-room apartment the writer left him, in the sixth arrondissement of Paris, opposite her apartment...
Breaking news from France: Have the killers of Little Gregory been discovered?
We are in the middle of June, nearing its end, and the pandemic is hitting here, in France. Not about Emmanuel Macron's heroic deeds, both abroad and at home,...
Pavillon Vendôme: The Royal Bastard, the Lover, and the Magnificent Villa
Not far from the city center, about a ten-minute walk from Mirabeau Boulevard, is a spectacular corner of Hamed, a 17th-century urban mansion, the Pavillon Vendôme,...
Camille Pissarro, the first Impressionist
On July 2, 2017, the exhibition dedicated to Camille Pissarro ended at the Marmottan Monet Museum, a very favorite museum of mine (which I wrote about in a previous article). During my visit...
2017 French Elections – A Surreal Campaign
The 2017 French election campaign will likely be studied in detail in political science schools. Its surreal script is full of surprises, dramas, and scandals. The scandals of...
La Piva: The Poor Jewess Who Became Queen of the Champs-Elysées
In June 1867, all of Paris was talking about the glittering event. The rich and famous of the protesting capital, its nobles and celebrities, were invited to the inauguration of the palace built by the Countess...
Who are you, Karl Lagerfeld?
Karl Lagerfeld, one of the most important cultural icons of our time, fashion designer, interior designer, designer of cars, watches, marionettes, dolls and what not? Orna Lieberman opens...
Mata Hari, Dance of Death
Who was Mata Hari? A ruthless spy or rather a tragic figure, who arrived in Belle Époque Paris and ended her life in front of...
Leo Marjean: French singer, music hall legend 2016 – 1912
Léo Marjane, the legendary singer in the heart of occupied Paris, sang "Bye Mir Bisto Shine", the beautiful Marjane, with the warm voice...
Paul Verlaine, cursed poet
Paul Verlaine, one of the greatest French poets, was only 24 years old when the collection “Saturnian Poems” was published in 1866, which included “a poem...
The Lovers from the Island of Mauritius: Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and his book “Paul Virginie”
In many places on the island of Mauritius, there are reminders of the renowned work of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, who is considered the father of the French Romantic movement and was a close friend...
Macron Day – On Emmanuel Macron's candidacy and the connection between theater and politics
Emmanuel Macron, one of the most popular politicians in France, has announced his candidacy for president. Dr. Orna Lieberman tells us his love story...
Square Montholon – a charming Parisian corner with a fascinating story
In the ninth arrondissement of Paris, between the Cadet and Poissonnière metro stations, there is a lovely green corner, planted with lawns, flowers, and trees –...
A Headless Woman – The Story of French Misogyny
Le Regrattier Street on the Île Saint-Louis in Paris was named after one of the contractors who was in charge of dividing the island's land...
The Museum of Erotica in Paris Closes: The Birth and Death of a Unique Museum
On November 6, 2016, the exhibits of the Erotic Museum will be sold at auction, thus closing the door on the Temple of Love at 72 Boulevard Clichy in Pigalle, near...
The Sand Dunes of Paris by Edna Shemesh. Literary Review
Literary critic and author Edna Shemesh is a staunch Francophile, so it's no wonder that her first novel (which is, more accurately, her second book) takes place...
Paris – Green Tours in the 16th Arrondissement Part XNUMX
This article is a continuation of the article Paris Green Tours in the 16th Arrondissement and constitutes a kind of appendix to the completeness. Part B: The 16th Arrondissement Peripheral Railway...
Jacquemart-André Museum: Enter the magnificent home of Nelly and Edouard
The Jacquemart-André Museum is undoubtedly one of the most impressive museums in Paris. Dr. Orna Lieberman takes us on a guided tour of this magical museum.
The legal troubles of French writer Regis Gioffret
Novelist's hat and crime reporter's hat Régis Jauffret is a 61-year-old French author, born in Marseille, who has won awards and been published, often...
Delilah Forever – The Dramatic Life of the Singer Who Became a Legend
“It was enough to hear her once to desire her as a companion, hidden and present, for the hours of the day and the hours of the evening,” he wrote about...
Ranelagh Garden – A tour of a green sculpture garden, a paradise where time stands still
The Marmottan Monet Museum is located on the western edge of Ranelagh Garden. On my way to the museum, I always stop by the statue of Le...
Visit to the Marmottan Monet Museum
Every time I come on vacation to Paris, where I lived for over 10 years, I dedicate about half a day to visiting the Marmottan Monet Museum, and sometimes...
Michel Delfèche, the troubadour who sang from the heart to the heart
The passing of singer Michel Delfèche (1946-2016) in January of this year saddened many French people, Francophones and Francophiles, and this post is dedicated to him. Michel Delfèche...