La Vie Creative

When I first set foot in Paris as a teenager, les pyramides in front of the Louvre didn’t exist, the Musée d’Orsay was a defunct train station with broken windows, and the cathedral of Notre Dame would continue to display a sooty black façade for another twenty plus years. Still, Paris had that certain je ne sais quoi. And, like so many before me, I was hooked…well, nearly. In early 1985, I immers...

Dora Maar from the end of her life until today is widely labeled the “Muse of Picasso”. As with most women in history they are relegated to being a postscript in a man's story, Dora was much more than that.  Born on November 22, 1907 Henriette Markovitch in Paris at the Tarnier Maternity Clinic at 89 Rue d’Assas. Her father Joseph was a Croatian architect and her mother Louise-Julie Voisin fr...

Born and raised in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Karen grew up with the aspiration to be a comedian, a musician, or both… She groomed these crafts from a young age by making everyone around her laugh and beginning a lifetime romance with the flute at the age of 9. She went on to study drama at Temple University in Philadelphia and played in a series of bands. From the age of 30 until she got married, K...

Louise Joesphine Weber is remembered more for her adoptive name La Goulue and how she got the name. Born on June 12, 1866, in Clichy the love of dancing was instilled in her at a very early age by her mother. By 1882 she had moved to Montreuil and started dancing at the Moulin de la Galette in Montmartre.  Customer and journalist Charles Desteque noticed her and introduced her to a friend, Charles...

Rebecca Devaney is a textile artist, researcher, and facilitator. She has recently established Textile Tours of Paris . Rebecca Devaney first landed in Paris in 2017 to follow her dreams and study haute couture embroidery at the prestigious École Lesage. With a BA in Art and Design Education and an MFA in Textile Art and Artefact from the National College of Art and Design in Ireland, there were a...

Liane de Pougy at the end of her life was labeled “from w***e to nun” but I am getting ahead of myself.   Anne Marie Chassaigne was born June 2, 1869 in La Flèche in the Loire and raised in Brittany. On July 15, 1886, at 17 she married Joseph Armand Henri Pourpee who was a naval officer living in Marseille. Joseph would be gone a lot and Anne Marie filled her time with another man.  Suffering from...

Melissa grew up between Australia and the Philippines, singing in choirs and writing her own songs from a young age. She studied Musicology at the Conservatorium of Sydney and went on to work as an opera critic and co-editor of the classical music magazine Limelight . In 2013, she moved to Paris and freelanced as a travel and music journalist, while working at the Marché aux Puces de Saint-Ouen (s...

Madame de Sévigné, one of the greatest authors of the 17th century, never wrote a single book. Instead, she is known to us today as a “lady of letters”.  Marie de Rabutin Chantal was born February 5, 1626, in the Palais Royal home of her grandparents. By the time she turned seven both of her parents had died and were being raised by her grandparents and uncle Christopher. He would teach her Latin,...

Mrids is a former film/TV producer who left the BBC, Hollywood, her jeans - sneakers outfit, to buy a sharp striped suit for a Masters at Columbia University in New York diving into business strategy.    An ambitious entrepreneur with a first profitable business at age 9, she truly loves solving problems and brainstorming solutions.  In her corporate role in NYC as Growth Strategist, Director, Sal...

Jeanne DuVal was the beautiful muse of Charles Baudelaire and would inspire his glowing devotion. The Black Venus and Mistress of Mistresses as he called her is mostly unknown still to this day.  Much of the details of her life are murky due to a fire that would destroy her vital documents.  Jeanne was tall and beautiful and her striking looks got her a role on the stage. Performing at the Théâtre...

Hello. I’m French and American, born in the mid-seventies, in April . I was raised in the forest , and spent my childhood either running wild in the woods of Picardie or taking planes to JFK to visit my grandmother. I also played a lot of piano . At that time, I  wanted to be in a musical , but instead I studied political science at Sciences-Po and business at HEC , in Paris. And started a life-lo...

Nélie Jacquemart was an artist and art collector whose love of art remains today and shared with everyone that visits the museums t As a child, her family worked and lived with the wealthy Alphée & Rose de Vatry. Rose formed a special relationship with the young Nélie who had a talent for drawing. Armed with art supplies she started to draw, encouraged by Rose who was also able to enroll her i...

Tanisha Townsend has cultivated a community of wine enthusiasts through an unyielding passion for Oenology. As Chief Wine Officer of lifestyle agency Girl Meets Glass, Tanisha leads wine classes and tours in Paris (and virtually). Her goal is to empower individuals with advanced knowledge of wine & spirits in order to build confidence in their tastes and make choices as a better-informed consu...

The Musée du Louvre and it’s list of amazing art is endless and hard to know where to even start. We will help share a few pieces that you don’t want to miss on your next trip to Paris.  In 1848 Louis Philippe commissioned 20 statues for the Jardin du Luxembourg. He picked each one that went from Queen Berthe to Anne d’Autriche and included Jeanne d’Arc. The Maid of Orleans was sculpted in 1845 by...

Anna Kloots is a Paris-based American writer and storyteller. But also a photographer, and there is a story behind every shot she takes. She is a true nomad, in the last twelve years she has gone through two passports; living and traveling in over 83 countries across 6 continents. She takes followers inside her life in Paris on her popular Instagram page. https://annakloots.com/ Support the show T...

Gabrielle d’Estrées, a woman known more for her risque painting than of her life itself. Gabrielle was born around 1573, and daughter of Antoine d’Estrées, Baron de Boulonnois and Françoise de la Bourdaisieres. She was one of eleven children, seven of which were girls and gave them the moniker “seven deadly sins” by the Marquis de Sevigné. Gabrielle mingled in the court of Henri III and where she...

Yanique Francis is a Paris-based businesswoman. An expert event planner, travel writer, and industry consultant. Francis was born in Jamaica and lived in the USA. She earned her Master's Degree in International Communications and Marketing at Emerson College. Francis founded MyParisianLife, a French Food and lifestyle blog in 2008, which went on to be named one of "best Paris blogs"...

The life of Juliette Drouet is closely tied to Victor Hugo, but she wasn’t always his mistress.  Juliette’s beautiful head turning looks was garnering the attention of Paris, especially the men. In a way to help fund her shopping sprees, a life as a courtesan and on the stage fit the bill. Not exactly a natural actor, but her looks got the attention of the producers and audience and repeatedly got...

Heather Stimmler is an American-born journalist and author living in France since 1995. She started the Secrets of Paris newsletter in 1999 as a hobby while working as an editor at ELLE.com in Paris. Over the next 20 years, Secrets of Paris grew into a private tour company and a guidebook publisher. In 2016 Heather became the Global Media Director for the international marine conservation group Se...

Marie- Caroline de Bourbon-Siciles, aka the Duchesse de Berry was born in Naples the daughter of the Crown Prince Francis Duke of Calabria and Marie Clementine of Austria, niece of Marie Antoinette. At the time of her birth in 1798 Napoleon was charging his way through Italy forcing the family to flee to Palermo and later pushing them into Sisily.  Marie-Caroline found her way to France after her...

Jay Swanson is an author and vlogger over on YouTube where he shares his daily life as an American in Paris, including tips and tricks on visiting and living in the City of Light. His latest book, Sea of the Unknown: Monsters and Mishaps on my Journey to Paris tells the story of how he wound up in Paris, got torn away from it, and managed to fight his way back. It's recently available on Audi...

It’s a big day today for Paris History Avec A Hemingway podcast! It’s the 50th episode! It also happens to be my birthday and the same number. When trying to decide who we would talk about for this epic episode it was almost impossible. Then it came to me, it had to be about something in my favorite place to spend a day, the Musée du Louvre.  The Louvre is filled with thousands of pieces of art, h...

Brandi Sea is an award-winning Creative Director, Design & Brand Strategist, and passionate observer with a Bachelor's Degree in Graphic Design. In addition to her design talents, she uses her 20 years of experience to help fellow creatives map out a plan to "discover uncommon inspiration" and produce more meaningful work. Brandi believes that every designer deserves to have a p...

Heloise, the name that may ring more of a bell as Heloise and Abelard. A couple is known as the French Romeo & Juliette long before Shakespeare would write the story.  Heloise was born around 1092, it is unsure of her actual birthday and can swing into the 1070s depending on what you read. Heloise would spend most of her childhood raised by her brother and at 11 would be sent to Paris to live...

My name is Camille Roux dit Buisson, I was born and I live in Paris. I grew up surrounded by art, with my parents who were passionate, and especially because my father is an art dealer who started collecting Jacqueline Marval (1866 – 1932)’s work from the 1980s. He took me to Drouot and the Louvre des Antiquaires (where he had a gallery until the 2010s) all the time, which started to build the pas...