With watercolors, brushes, ink pens, and paper in hand, Dominique Mathez walked the boulevards of her home town, documenting the architectural details that make the…
View More Parisian FlourishesTag: architectural storytelling
Beyond architectural language is architectural storytelling, which I do here on The Diary of an Improvateur.
When I received the Rizzoli book Grand Bordeaux Châteaux, I was bowled over by how gracefully modern architects had added contemporary additions to the grand neoclassical châteaux in Bordeaux. The architectural storytelling took off when I found out the intrepid Stendhal had visited one of the wineries and I tapped his travel writing about touring the area to offer an entertaining look at Bordeaux in a time when it took seventy-two hours to travel there from Paris by stagecoach!
For the Stendhal had visited, the storytelling hinged on chivalry, which was such an important subject during the Tudor Era. I continued the exploration in Stendhal had visited, which looked at jousting through the Tudor King’s eyes. Henry VIII inherited his predilection for sport honestly, as his father, Henry VII, saw no need to devote any funds to supporting a court poet; instead, he invested in a state-of-the-art games-and-gambling complex at Richmond Palace that held facilities for jousting, bowling, tennis and archery.
On the Menu at La Fortezza
In the recently released book At the Table of La Fortezza: The Enchantment of Tuscan Cooking from the Lunigiana Region, published by Rizzoli, author and Atlanta-based…
View More On the Menu at La FortezzaFrench Chateau Style
Catherine Scotto’s journey to discover the owners of French châteaux listed as heritage sites in locales throughout the country can be described as nothing less…
View More French Chateau StylePresidential Residences in France
Anyone who follows me here knows that an addiction to large, gorgeous coffee table books is alive and well, and I have a new favorite…
View More Presidential Residences in FranceThe Hotel de la Marine Restored
In his foreword to The French Royal Wardrobe: The Hotel de la Marine Restored, Philippe Bélaval, the President of the Centre des Monuments Nationaux, illustrates how painstaking…
View More The Hotel de la Marine RestoredAn Invitation to Vaux-le-Vicomte
In 1641, the 26-year old parliamentarian Nicolas Fouquet, who was then the Master of Requests at the Parlement of Paris, acquired the viscounty of Vaux…
View More An Invitation to Vaux-le-VicomteThe Paris of a Pagan
This essay examining the military career of the last pagan emperor while he resided in Paris is included in my most recent book The Modern…
View More The Paris of a PaganLibraries Are My Temples
This essay about the legacy of Cardinal Mazarin, which includes several libraries, is included in my book The Modern Salonnière. The 34 other essays in…
View More Libraries Are My TemplesThe Architecture of Chivalry
This essay about the built legacy of Henry VIII is included in my new book The Modern Salonnière. The 34 other essays in the book…
View More The Architecture of ChivalryThe Nature of Noble Loyalty
It’s spring in London and the flowers are bursting forth on Cheyne Walk, which skirts the edge of the River Thames until it gives way…
View More The Nature of Noble Loyalty