Paris in Bleu Blonde Rouge

On August 10, 1793, the Musée Central des Arts de la République was opened. You may know it as the Musée du Louvre. 

Art was not a stranger to the Palais du Louvre and going back to the 16th century, François I first held a few of his prized pieces. Under Louis XIV, they added the Salle des Rois, today's Galerie d’Apollon, and in 1725 moved the yearly Salon to the Salon Carré along with the Academy of Paintings. 

At i...

On February 10, 1638,  Louis XIII officially proclaimed the Virgin as the “special protector of the kingdom of France”. After 23 years of marriage, Queen Anne d’Autriche was finally pregnant, and Louis XIII vowed his kingdom to the Virgin Mary and to Notre Dame de Paris. 

Louis XIII wanted a “great altar of the Cathedral church of Paris built with an image of the Virgin and her son,” and at he...

The most recognized painting by the Romantic master Éugene Delacroix, La Liberté Guidant le Peuple le 28 Juillet 1830, depicts the event of this day, 196 years ago. Painted in 1830 for the Salon of 1831, the painting commemorates the Paris uprising of 1830, known as the Trois Glorieuses (Three Glorious Days) that ousted King Charles X.  Liberty is the focal point of the painting, an allegorical figure rich with Greek imagery.&...

Napoleon has carried the brunt of most of the blame for the looting of art from Italy and other European countries, but not all of it lies on his shoulders. 

The looting of art from country to country isn’t a new idea. It all started with the Romans and the Greeks and continues to this day. There are a few more international rules in place to stop this, but not everyone follows them. In the 12th century, Doge Enrico Dando...

On July 13, 1793, Charlotte Corday talked her way into the apartment of writer Jean-Paul Marat and plunged a knife into his chest while he soaked in the bath, killing the Voice of the People within seconds.  

It was a pivotal moment in the French Revolution and was made famous by the painting by Jacques-Louis David.

A painting that is as much propaganda as it is historical and has become the very definition of the event. If ...

Few paintings in the Louvre are as unforgettable as The Raft of the Medusa, but behind Théodore Géricault's masterpiece lies one of the most horrifying true stories in French history.

In this episode, we uncover the disastrous 1816 voyage of the Méduse, a shipwreck caused by political favoritism, incompetence, and arrogance during the Bourbon Restoration. Stranded on a makeshift raft, 147 people faced starvation, mutiny, murder, and...

When the giant silver Olympic balloon rose above the Jardin des Tuileries during the Paris 2024 Games, it instantly became one of the city's most unforgettable sights. But in Paris, almost nothing exists without a connection to the past.

In this episode, we uncover the remarkable history behind the Olympic cauldron and why a balloon was the perfect symbol. From the daring experiments of the Montgolfier brothers and the world's first...

Poison, black magic, royal mistresses, and murder at the highest levels of French society—welcome to one of the most shocking scandals in French history.

In this episode, we dive into the infamous Affair of the Poisons, the dark conspiracy that gripped Paris and the court of Versailles during the reign of King Louis XIV. What began with the crimes of Marie-Madeleine d'Aubray, the Marquise de Brinvilliers, would unravel a vast ...

She is the most famous painting in the world, and everyone has an opinion of her. Are there better paintings in the Louvre? Sure, but she also deserves every bit of fame she has garnered for many reasons. Sadly, because of the chaos that surrounds her, you aren’t able to truly appreciate her the way you might other paintings. 

Who is the woman behind the most famous painting in the world? Was she the mistress of Giuliano ...

Pont Neuf wasn’t just the “new bridge,” it was so much more. Sure, it was the first in stone, without houses, the widest and the longest, and the first to have sidewalks in Europe. It was also the first celebrity monument in Paris. People traveled from all over Europe to see it, including Peter the Great. In 1717, Peter arrived in Paris after visiting Amsterdam to collect books, check in on Madame de Maintenon aft...

The debate surrounding the new stained-glass windows of Notre-Dame de Paris has reignited a familiar question: how much of the past should be preserved, and how much should be reimagined? 

In this episode, we explore the controversial plans to replace historic windows in the cathedral and place the discussion within a much larger story. From revolutions and restorations to political movements and changing artistic tastes, histo...

The last restored large-format painting by Eugène Delacroix has finally returned to the Pompei red walls of the Salle Mollien at the Musée du Louvre. Since 2019, the Louvre has been restoring the king of the Romantic movement's paintings. 

Last week, the fifth and final from the master of color was revealed. The Capture of Constantinople by the Crusaders, April 12, 1204. Before the restoration, the painting was very dark. The a...

The jewels of the French Crown were never just glittering ornaments. They were symbols of power, legitimacy, dynasty, and empire. For centuries, they adorned kings, queens, emperors, and empresses, surviving revolution, theft, exile, and war. But after the fall of Napoleon III in 1870, the new Republic feared that these treasures represented something even more dangerous: the possibility that France might once again embrace a monar...

On May 13, 1610, after finally giving in, Henri IV watched his wife, Marie de Medici, be crowned as the queen of France in the Basilique Saint Denis. 

The next day, his life would end

In this week's episode, we look at the tragic end of the beloved king of France.  With twists and turns that include his skull, which may have been found three hundred years after he died, and where you can find him in Paris. 

For more inf...

On May 5, 1821, 205 years ago, at 5:49 pm on the remote island of Saint Helene, Napoleon Bonaparte took his last breath at the young age of 51. 

Between 1814 and his final day in 1821, Napoleon was exiled twice. Toss in Waterloo in the middle, and his last years didn't really play out as he had hoped. 

In this episode, we take a closer look at his final months, battling cancer and ending in his grand return to Paris and his...

In 1981, the newly elected president, François Mitterand, announced his Grand Travaux project that would change the face of Paris, and none more so than the Musée du Louvre. 

Mitterand had one man in mind for the job, the Chinese American architect I.M. Pei, a master architect who blended glass, concrete, stone, and metal. 

In this episode, we dive deep into the project and the design elements of the pyramid, including just...

It was 6 months ago, on October 19, 2025, on a Sunday morning in Paris, that a brazen heist of the French Crown jewels struck the  Musée du Louvre.  

In this week’s episode of the Paris in Bleu Blonde Rouge podcast, we go deep into the details of the theft, the history of the stolen jewels, where they are in the investigation, and what has changed at the Louvre. 

For more info and photos, check ClaudineHemingway....

Seven years ago this week, a moment few will ever forget. At 6:18 pm on Monday, April 15, 2019, flames erupted in the roof of the Cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris, and over the following hours, the 12th- and 13th-century forest would be destroyed.

In 7 years, the cathedral came close to destruction and underwent a Renaissance that would return Notre Dame to the 19th century.  Without the fire, you and I, your children, and even yo...

Created in the 2nd Century BC, the great statue of the Goddess Venus was uncovered on the Island of Mélos in the south Aegean Sea, part of the Cycladic archipelago, today’s Greece. 

The Venus de Milo, or more accurately the Aphrodite of Mélos, was found on April 8, 1820, by a farmer, Yorgos Kentrots. 

The next few figures, which are said to have been part of her discovery, tell a lengthy story. 

We will dig deep i...