Paris Unlocked

30/04/2026

I’ve walked across Paris so many times, I’ve practically memorized it. I honestly can’t think of any other place where walking is so wonderful and so consistently surprising.

La capitale française confirme ce que les Parisiens savent depuis longtemps : leur ville est faite pour être arpentée. Moins de voitures, plus de terrasses, des rues rendues aux piétons, la transformation silencieuse opérée sous Anne Hidalgo paie. 88 % des habitants le disent eux-mêmes.

30/04/2026

Sick of clichés about French culture? Make time for our new podcast.

30/04/2026

This is the official trailer for The French Culture Podcast (by Paris Unlocked), which debuts in June 2026 with four episodes from our first season, "Great French Icons of the 20th Century". Follow the podcast and share with anyone who might be interested. Merci, and hope to see you in June!

17/04/2026

It’s been a long few months in the making, but production is well underway on the first season of the French Culture Podcast (by Paris Unlocked)— and today I’m thrilled to be able to introduce it properly with a preview episode.

The podcast is a sister project for Paris Unlocked and this newsletter, and my intention is for the three to “talk” to one another in various ways, thematically and content-wise. I’ll be taking deep looks at French culture in its myriad forms and expressions, from art and literature to history and current cultural trends.

As I announced in a short teaser post a few months ago, Season 1, 20th Century French Icons & Artists, Part I, I’ll be taking a look at some of the great writers, musicians, and artists who made an outsized mark on French and Parisian culture last century. I’ll be exploring the lives and legacies of the artist Henri Matisse, the singer and performer Edith Piaf, the Franco-American dancer, performer, film star and resistance fighter Josephine Baker, the Nobel Prize-winning author Albert Camus, the b***y provocateur folk singer Serge Gainsbourg, and Louise Bourgeois, considered one of the 20th century’s greatest sculptors.

If you like this episode, please share it as widely as you can with anyone who might be interested in following the podcast– and save it to make sure new episodes arrive directly in your queue on your favorite platforms.

You can also lend your precious support to both the French Culture Podcast and to Paris Unlocked by buying us a coffee– or even better, becoming a “Donor Subscriber” on Substack. In addition to accessing our rich archive of news, reviews, commentary and op-eds and in-depth travel tips on Paris and France, you’ll also be entitled to personalized travel recommendations and tips from me via e-mail, as well as bonus episodes for this podcast.

Hope to see you soon.

(Links to the episode in the comments)

13/02/2026

While I’d related Linklater’s masterful “Boyhood” to the films of Truffaut — and suspected that Linklater may have been inspired by the Antoine Doinel films in capturing the same actor and character over many years for his own film, I hadn’t realized what a student and devotee of French New Wave cinema he was.

Until now.
Linklater has made a gleeful coming out as the sort of New Wave geek I’d encountered as a college student, and could never quite bring myself to be (though I secretly envied their too-cool-for-school personae).

Read the full post by following the link in the comments 👇- and subscribe for free to our newsletter!

04/02/2026

Partly in honor of Black History Month, and partly just to pay tribute to the remarkable, hard-to-define woman that Josephine Baker was, I'm resurfacing a piece I wrote a few years back about where to find Baker's traces in Paris. {You'll find a link to the full article in comments, and in the image captions.}

When most people think of Baker, they imagine her dancing in some glamorous Paris venue at the height of the jazz age. While this image certainly isn’t wrong, it tends to reduce the remarkable, complex woman behind it to a problematic caricature.

This is something that should be worked against. Baker, an African-American who lived most of her life in Paris and became a French citizen in the 1930s, was not "just" a dancer and performer who drew thousands to see her (often controversial) revues around the French capital.

She was a prominent civil-rights activist who spoke at the 1963 March on Washington beside Martin Luther King and was a longtime member of the NAACP.

She notably refused to perform in American clubs that enforced segregation between black and white audience members.

During her lifetime, Baker fought tirelessly to help secure equal rights for Black Americans-- and to fight racism as a general ideology.

This included the racial hatred espoused by the N***s. After France was occupied by N**i Germany in 1940, Baker became a key member of the French Resistance movement, gathering intelligence for the forces of “Free France” led from London by the General Charles de Gaulle.

In the aftermath of the war, De Gaulle made Baker a Chévalier of the French Legion of Honor. She was also awarded with a top military award called the Croix de Guerre for her role in resisting occupation.

She was a deeply accomplished actor, musician, activist, and intellectual who refused to be pigeonholed or reduced to a racist caricature-- although these caricatures sadly continue to inform how she is remembered.

Let's push back against all that.

28/01/2026

In our latest newsletter at Substack, we reveal a few good (and modestly priced) places to eat out in the Paris city center, pay tribute to the victims of the Drancy transit camp in France for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and note hopeful signs of the coming spring.

See the link in the comments 👇-- and subscribe for free if you haven't yet done so!

22/01/2026

In an area that’s incredibly popular with tourists for its iconic monuments, royal gardens and rich history, it’s perhaps unsurprising that many of the restaurants operating in Paris' city center are (at worst) tourist traps and (at best) mediocre. Many are overpriced, too.

To help avoid the scenario where you settle for the subpar when suffering from hunger pangs after a day of sightseeing, Paris Unlocked Associate Editor Rachel Naismith picked a few spots serving fairly priced, quality lunch or dinner– right in the center. Read the full article: https://www.parisunlocked.com/food/eating-out-in-central-paris-a-few-restaurants-we-like-recommend/

20/11/2025

Celebrating Christmas in Paris can be memorable and enchanting. From mid-November onward, the French capital transforms into a wintery landscape: streets are festooned with dazzling lights that twinkle nonstop, and department store windows come to life with fairy-tale-inspired window decorations. Traditional, heartwarming holiday markets, enormous Christmas trees, ice skating rinks, mulled wine and holiday-themed tours of the city round out the festive offering. See the full guide here:
https://www.parisunlocked.com/best-of-paris/christmas-in-paris-what-to-do/

03/11/2025

Sure, there are other places in the world where the cuisine is arguably more inventive, daring and forward-thinking at the moment. French gastronomes will often freely admit that Barcelona, Tokyo, and London have, in recent years, probably pulled ahead of Paris or Lyon in terms of operating fantastic and creative restaurants.

But with the possible exception of Japan, the wider food cultures in those places are still (I’d argue) much more laid-back and casual. You don’t see dozens of cheeses displayed at your average mid-range grocery store in the UK.

You don’t see the same head-spinning number of traditional products with protected status and rubber-stamped with labels of authenticity in Spain, though they of course have a few of their own (think ham and Manchego cheese, to name only two) .

And your average corner bakery in Scandinavia or even Italy often lacks the dazzling variety and aesthetic attention to detail that the ones in even small French cities so proudly display.

In short, French culture tends to prize good food, and the rituals of presenting and eating it, in a way that might be said to be, well, obsessive. Even a bit excessive? After all, isn’t life too short to fuss about shopping at farmer’s markets for extra-flavorful vegetables and spices, laboring over a cheese soufflé that might well collapse on you and ruin your night, or trekking across town in search of the platonic ideal of a baguette?

Here's my argument in favor of this "excess".

From impossibly artful pastries to three-hour lunches, France is famous for its passionate food culture. Here’s why I celebrate that fact.

20/10/2025

Wondering what’s inspiring, delicious, or otherwise worth doing this in ? has some excellent suggestions, from local restaurants to autumnal walks in a gorgeous 19th-century park most tourists never see. See link in bio, and join us by subscribing to the free Paris Unlocked newsletter. Featuring .belleville