Napoleon III

The Franco-Prussian war changed the map of Europe – so why are we so ignorant about it?

17 June 2023 9:00 am

Rachel Chrastil describes how Bismarck, relying on Gallic pride to provoke the war he wanted, ensured that France would fight without a single ally

Paris's glittering new museums

2 July 2022 9:00 am

The refurbishment of Paris’s galleries and museums continues apace, with money no object, finds Rupert Christiansen

Emperor for three years: the doomed reign of Maximilian I of Mexico

15 January 2022 9:00 am

On 8 April 1864 an Austrian archduke with a penchant for daydreaming agreed to be emperor of Mexico. As Edward…

Jean-François Raffaelli’s view of one of Haussmann’s boulevards in 1900. Credit Getty Images

Baron Haussmann: the man who set Paris straight

10 November 2018 9:00 am

Rupert Christiansen’s City of Light opens on the evening of 5 January 1875, with the inauguration of Paris’s new opera…

London calling

28 October 2017 9:00 am

Madame Monet was bored. Wouldn’t you have been? Exiled to London in the bad, cold winter of 1870–71. In rented…

Children in the bidonville du Chemin du Cornillon, Saint-Denis, 1963. (From Luc Sante’s The Other Paris)

Paris: a beautiful, damned city

13 February 2016 9:00 am

The much-lamented journalist and bon viveur Sam White, late of the rue du Bac, The Spectator and the Evening Standard,…

Monumental change: the overthrow of the statue of Napoleon I, which was on top of the Vendôme Column. The painter Gustave Courbet is ninth from the right

A short history of statue-toppling

9 January 2016 9:00 am

Sculptural topplings provide an index of changing times, says Martin Gayford

Simon Darwen as Peter and Siubhan Harrison as Eloise in ‘The Armour’

The Armour at Langham Hotel reviewed: three new playlets that never get going

14 March 2015 9:00 am

One of last year’s unexpected treasures was a novelty show by Defibrillator that took three neglected Tennessee Williams plays, all…

Edward VII, portrayed in the French press hurrying across the Channel to the delights of Paris

The Paris of Napoleon III was one big brothel – which is why the future Edward VII loved it

7 June 2014 9:00 am

Stephen Clarke lives in Paris and writes book with titles such as 1,000 Years of Annoying the French. Dirty Bertie…