Sit-down Saturday

 

Alone at his regular spot, an elderly gentleman enjoys his morning coffee.

 

Flashback Friday

Festive feasting in the English countryside.

 Above: roasted wild pheasants; savory stuffing; fresh (apple-raisin-orange-zest) cranberry chutney; creative salads; home-made tartes

Below: chestnuts for the stuffing; a chai-obsessed chicken; glorious sunrise on a country road 

 

 

 

 

3 hours (or less) from Paris

Eurostar

 

London

 

***

 

Years ago, living in London and invited by friends to the Cotswolds, I was surprised to discover that in the modern English countryside game birds regularly appear on tables ready to carve, and some say are more abundant than ever. These birds, trussed with rosemary, roasted til golden, skin crackling, have earned their place in the kitchen. The majority of pheasants and partridges survive the season to breed wild. Hedgerows are planted and managed specifically for them, cover crops of kale and quinoa stretch for miles and predators are legally controlled. The result: on a good estate you’ll see thirty or forty pheasants strutting along a single lane at dusk, tails flashing, while coveys of partridges whirl up from the stubble like brown fireworks. Soon the birds are plucked, seasoned simply with sea salt, cracked pepper, butter, rosemary or thyme sprigs and laid breast-up on the rack. Glasses are filled with good red wine or a local cider, and the company - cheeks flushed from laughter and gathering chestnuts - falls upon the feast with the honest hunger that only a day in the cold can give. Welcome to the enchanting rhythm of the countryside. - BPJ

 

 

Next newsletter

An English country Thanksgiving

 

Thursday thoughts

 At café Les Deux Magots Paris pauses between present and past.

 

***

 

Paris, the city where time does not merely pass but folds back on itself, like the Seine curling around Île de la Cité. The same cobblestones that felt the heels of revolutionaries in 1789 now support the hurried sneakers of tourists chasing that perfect Instagram of Notre Dame Cathedral. Inside Les Deux Magots, the café tables where Hemingway nursed vermouth and Simone de Beauvoir black coffee (while scribbling pages that would one day shake the world’s conscience), today hosts twenty-somethings who stretch five-euro coffees like it's a full-time job, and, like a mille-feuille, centuries collapse into a single afternoon. Stand on the Pont Neuf at dusk and watch lights flicker on along the quais, and suddenly understand that this city is not old or new but perpetually now - an eternal present tense where a medieval past and electric delivery scooters all occupy the same breathless moment, because Paris refuses to let anything truly end. - BPJ

Windmill Wednesday

Montmartre at night, where almost every corner feels like a painting.

Above: Le Moulin de la Galette

Table Tuesday

 

 

Golden leaves carpet the ground at the Renoir Gardens, one of Paris' quiet treasures.

 

 

Mocha Monday

 A café crème to start the week.

PAUL

corner of rue de Seine / rue de Buci 75006 

 

Sit-down Saturday

 

 

Looking back to warmer days.

 

île-de-Ré

3 hours (or less) from Paris

 

 

Floral Friday

 

At a Left Bank florist, flowers spill onto the terrace of a covered market.

 

Almost winter

 

Paris in suspension between two seasons.

***

Presque hiver

As coats and scarves leave closets, trees stand half-undressed. Soon the light will turn to gray, but the real cold hasn’t yet bitten on this almost-too-cold-to-sit-outside-but-we'll-do-it-anyway evening. - BPJ 

Window Wednesday

 

 

Tudor England, frozen in time from a pub window in an English country village.

 

3 hours (or less) from Paris

Eurostar

 

London 

  

Thankful Thursday

Today is Thanksgiving, a time to celebrate and be thankful for Life's bounty.

 🦃 

- FocusOnParis returns next week -

Mocha Monday

A warming café crème on the Left Bank, served with a kiss.

 

Snowfall Sunday

 

Light snowfall with more to come forecast.

 

Stand-up Saturday

At his post, ready to pour drinks and oversee nibbles (as Aristide Bruant looks on) at the Musée de Montmartre opening.

***

Current exhibition: 

École de Paris: The Marek Roefler Collection

 

 Musée de Montmartre

12 rue Cortot 75018

 

Ends February 15, 2026

 

Four-minute Friday

 

 Next metro: 4 minutes.

 Paris, where four minutes is never just four minutes.

*** 

 A lot can happen in four minutes, the time it takes to soft boil an egg. As the metro clock counts down, outside, just above, much is going on:

- A man has lost his phone (and lifeline) in one swift scooter-by grab. He runs after the perpetrator, returns breathless, plops on the nearest bench, and tries to figure out what to do next.

- A woman on a café terrace, watching her husband discreetly ogle yet another fausse blonde for the last time, has decided to leave him, and spends her four minutes rehearsing in her head what she’ll tell the kids.

- A man seated on a fountain ledge has hit the perfect rhythm to down his sandwich baguette-jambon-beurre: bite, chew, wipe mouth, finishing in just four minutes. A true artiste.

- In a doorway a teenage girl lights her first cigarette ever and, coughing dramatically trying to pretend she’s done this forever, her friend films the occasion for her social media.

- A man in a suit has been mouthing his resignation speech to himself while staring at his reflection in a pharmacy window repeating, “Ce n’est pas vous, c’est moi!” over and over. Then walks away.

- In a dreary hospice room, alone, a man who lost a leg has just said his confession and received The Last Rites when a call comes in. It's his estranged sister, from far away. In four minutes he pours his heart into hers, and tells her that he always loved her. 

- Someone is sprinting full-speed toward the bus stop, one shoe in hand, shouting “Attendez!” but the bus driver closes the doors and drives off with zero remorse. The next bus is in four minutes. 

- At the same time a tiny dog being walked in a tiny raincoat is refusing to continue because the pavement is “too wet,” and sits in defiant protest while its owner pulls and tugs, surprised at the strength and resolve in such a small body.

All in four minutes. And here comes my train. - BPJ 

***

Yesterday, as every third Thursday in November, Paris and all of France cheered the arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau.

 🍷🍷🍷 

December newsletter 

  

Thoughtful Thursday

 Toulouse-Lautrec watches thoughtfully from his Montmartre perch.

 

Wicked Wednesday

 A bright kiosk on a leaf-strewn square announces today's release of Wicked: Part II.

Teatime Tuesday

 

 

 

Teatime in the Renoir Gardens at the Musée de Montmartre.

 

*** 

 

Current exhibition:

 

École de Paris: The Marek Roefler Collection

 

 Musée de Montmartre

12 rue Cortot 75018

 

Ends February 15, 2026

 

 

   

Mustache Monday

 

 

How many moustaches have been trimmed at this salon de coiffure since 1988?

 

🤔 

 

Portes Ouvertes / Open Doors: Montmartre

 

 

MAP

 

 

Portes Ouvertes 2025

 

Thru Monday November 17   

 

From Anvers aux Abbesses

124 Artistes - 73 Ateliers

9th, 17th and 18th arrondissements

(Mainly around Montmartre)

 Discover / support participating artists and galleries.

 *** 

Painting
Watercolor

Photography 

Mixed Media

Textile

Engraving
Sculpture
Drawing
Collage
Mosaic
Ceramics
Digital art
Street Art

 Jewelry

 

 

Sitting Saturday

 

View from a bench.

 

Foto Friday

 

    

Reminder:

 PARIS PHOTO 2025

 November 13 - 16

❤️ ❤️

 

The golden hour

 Autumn leaves and lamplight.

Walking Wednesday

 

 

Shadows lengthen on a lively cobbled lane that leads to the river.

Travel Tuesday

Looking back: a view that never gets old.

(click to enlarge)

  

3 hours (or less) from Paris

Fly/Drive 

Cadaqués, Spain

 

Mouthful Monday

 

One bite of this XXL profiterole was pastry Valhalla. 

Below: the unfolding drama of that chocolate pour

 

 

Cemetery Sunday

 

 

Autumn leaves of bright reds and yellows overlook a section of the Montmartre Cemetery.

 

***

 

On the heels of Halloween:

 

Carved from a former gypsum quarry, the sprawling Cimetière de Montmartre is widely considered to be haunted - not just by ghost-hunter TikTokers and superstitious tourists, but in Parisian folklore, documented sightings, and even official police logs.

 

Local tales of shadowy entities scaling the craggy walls after dark and slipping under doorways in surrounding streets - especially those near the bridge nicknamed le pont des âmes, the Bridge of Souls where tragic energy lingers - abound. The entrance gate on Rue Rachel is believed to be the official “spirit doorway,” and 2 a.m. is branded l’heure des malédictions et des âmes agitées, the hour of curses and restless souls. 

 

Beliefs about living near the dead are as varied as a Left Bank cheese planche. Some cultures burn sage, others hang garlic in windows for protection. Others are convinced their tap water will be contaminated. Whatever the belief, the common thread to avoid bad luck and illnesses is, “Don't live too close.”

 

Like Ichabod Crane, nearby residents can be seen scurrying home before nightfall. Some are so busy watching their backs as the sun goes down they've been known to develop whiplash. 

 

The good news? Aside from occasional weeping, giggling, and whispering (in French), you have very quiet neighbors. - BPJ

 

***

 

Some illustrious residents:

 Writers Alexandre Dumas fils, Stendhal, Zola (just his grave; his remains were moved to the Pantheon)

Dancer Vaslav Nijinsky

Composers Jacques Offenbach, Hector Berlioz

New Wave filmmaker François Truffaut

Family Sanson, notorious executioners during the French Revolution

 

Sitting Saturday

A portrait artist has left his post to get coffee.

Above: French singer/songwriter/actor Serge Gainsbourg keeps an eye on things until his return

 

Fortress Friday

 

The medieval Conciergerie from the Pont au Change.

 

Window Wednesday

A night gallery calls from the street.

 

***

 

Gallery hopping in Saint-Germain-des-Prés

 

When: November 6, 2025

Starts: around 6:30 PM

Why: C'est Paris!

Where: begin at rue des Beaux-Arts, rue de Seine, and side streets

 - Meet the artists -

 Then squeeze in at LA PALETTE CAFÉ (43 rue de Seine) to recover - BPJ

 

Table Tuesday

A solitary sugar dispenser on a bistro table.

Mocha Monday

 

 

Hot coffee in the heart of Strasbourg's Old Town on a brisk morning.

 

PARIS - STRASBOURG

 3 hours (or less) from Paris

 ***

AI evaluations: Focus On Paris

"FocusOnParis.com is more than a photo blog—it’s a slow-burn love letter to the city, delivered in squares and captions that feel like whispered secrets...." - See About page for more

 

 

Sunset Sunday

 

 

This kissing spot in Paris is pure gold. 

 

***

 

While updating USA Today's Paris city guide a few years back, I added a new subcategory, "Most romantic kissing spot in Paris." Today this Montmartre hideaway still checks off all the boxes for a stratospheric smooch: an Eiffel Tower view complete with Paris rooftops from atop a plunging stairway, loads of privacy and, if timed just right, the setting sun. 

 

Getting there: At #23 Avenue Junot enter the black gate behind the lamppost and follow the cobblestone path to the troglodyte "Witches Rock" just in front of the entrance of Hôtel Particulier - where you've reserved a table? - and kiss away to your heart's desire. - BPJ

All Souls Saturday

 

Some souls to remember.

La Toussaint - All Souls Day

***

Flowers conceal a 3000 m² open space memorial dedicated to the victims, survivors, and families affected by the November 13, 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis, inaugurated in June 2025. Traversable paths link the church to the Hôtel de Ville and blend memorial gravity with everyday urban flow. The space is open daily to all and serves as a hub for gatherings, quiet visits, or simply passing through. - BPJ 

Jardin du 13 novembre 2015

 (Jardin mémoriel des attentats du 13 novembre)

  

Place Saint-Gervais 75004