Table Tuesday

 

 

Tables set out for tastings in the back of a small Left Bank wine shop.

 

Special Sunday

🌸 Happy Mother's Day 🌸 

 

Fête des Mères / Mother's Day in France 2026:

Sunday May 31

 

Above: spring blossoms light up the Latin Quarter
 

Sit-down Saturday

Suddenly this little photo booth just got a lot more interesting.

 

***

 

Vintage-style analog photo booths - fotoautomats/photomatons/fotomatons - have become very trendy in Paris. They produce classic black-and-white (sometimes color) photo strips, and the most iconic are operated or restored by Fotoautomat, which revives old machines (usually €4–6 per strip) 

 

Worth a detour: 

 

Most popular/most crowded: 53 Rue des Trois Frères, Montmartre 75018 (metro Abbesses): Go early. A color booth around the corner on Rue Androuet. Inspired by film “Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain” (2001) 

 

Photo booth Palais de Tokyo 13 avenue du Président Wilson 75116 (metros Iéna/Alma-Marceau): No need to buy an admission ticket to access; just inside entry

 

Bonton (Marais) 5 Boulevard des Filles du Calvaire 75003 (metro Saint-Sébastien-Froissart): Inside a kids'/lifestyle store

 

Galeries Lafayette Champs-Élysées: 60 Avenue des Champs-Élysées 75008 (metro Franklin D. Roosevelt): 1st floor, near stairs. Central and easy to combine with other sights
 
Printemps Haussmann 64 Boulevard Haussmann 75009 (metros Havre-Caumartin/Chaussée d'Antin-La Fayette/Saint-Lazare): In the Opéra area 

La Samaritaine: 9 Rue de la Monnaie 75001 (metros Pont-Neuf/Châtelet - Rue de Rivoli entrance): Luxury department store setting in central Paris near L'Hôtel de Ville

Le Centquatre (104) 5 Rue Curial 75019 (metros Riquet/Crimée): In a vibrant cultural center

Pavillon Puebla / Parc des Buttes-Chaumont 75019 (metros Butte Chaumont/Botzaris): Scenic setting inside the park
 
Philharmonie de Paris / Cité de la Musique 221 Avenue Jean Jaurès 75019 (metro Porte de Pantin): Music/culture fans 

Citadium 56 Rue de Caumartin 75009 (metros Havre-Caumartin/Haussmann Saint-Lazare): Multi-level urban/streetwear store. Distinctive Memphis-style booth on 1st floor

 

- Sometimes machines are out of order

- Squeezing in as many as possible is ok

 

See:    

 Fotomaton Friday

  

Floral Friday

Charm on two wheels, Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

 

Streets of Paris

 

The Marais district

Window Wednesday

A retro hat a tiny shop a Montmartre side street.

*** 

In Paris, the period of roughly the late 19th to early 20th century is often called the golden age of millinery. Historians place it within the Belle Époque (1870-1914) when hats were an essential part of daily dress, and Paris the global center of fashion. A well-dressed Parisienne might change hats multiple times depending on her activities, which is why the trade flourished. Hats weren’t just accessories: they signaled class, occasion, and even time of day. Modistes specialized in high-fashion women's attire that often included custom dresses, gowns, and especially elaborate hats, bonnets, and trimmings.

Today chapellerie refers more broadly to hatmaking, the hat trade or a hat shop, and back in the day several hundred to over a thousand of these shops might have been operating at once, from small independent workshops to prestigious houses. Entire districts were dense with these shops and catered to both locals and international clients. But gradually lifestyles changed and demand dwindled, and with it the industry, as many skilled hatmakers went on to work with grand fashion houses. - BPJ

Tranquil Tuesday

 Place Émile Goudeau on a shady afternoon.