When it comes to artistic endeavors, Paris shines bright as a historically welcome place to pursue them. The city that gave us the Louvre and some of the finest galleries in the world is full of creative talent or, at the very least, creative inspiration. But how it feels living and working as an artist in Paris is an altogether different story. Today’s guest trained as an architect but has been working as an illustrator and painter for several years and has a unique viewpoint on the arts. Guillaume Sardin has exhibited his work in Southeast Asia, South Africa, and throughout Europe, created works for French icons like Ruinart and Le Bristol, and talks today about how cultural preservation needs to be a bipartisan ambition. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Guillaume Sardin (website and Instagram)

Nantes School of Architecture

Créolization & Edouard Glissant

French ministry of culture history

Pierre Paulin room at the Elysée Palace

Aya Nakamura and the Olympics

Rachida Dati as Cultural Minister

Stendhal's Syndrome

Château d'Écouen- Renaissance Museum

Château de Maisons

Villa Savoye

Château Rosa Bonheur

Malmaison & Josephine

Palais de la Porte Dorée

History of Immigration Museum

André and Ivana Lemaître

Audio production & editing: Matthew Jordan

Music by Little Glass Men

Running a business in Paris is a dream for some, a hardship for others. But for today’s guest, Jane Bertch, it has been a variety of things including life changing. 15 years ago she confounded La Cuisine Paris, a French cooking school that is still going strong. She talks about the journey to Paris and running a cooking school in her book: The French Ingredient: Making a Life in Paris One Lesson at a Time which hits shelves April 9. Our conversation covers the Jane from Chicago to the Jane of Paris, starting and running a business, lessons from locals, and writing a memoir. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Episode 9 with Jane Bertch

Jane's book: The French Ingredient

La Cuisine Paris cooking classes

La Cuisine Paris on Instagram

Jane Bertch on Instagram

There’s nothing like leaving Paris for a short time to reset perspectives. I’ve recently returned from 10 days in New York and the Philadelphia region and I was struck by how worn and behind both destinations felt. Part of that is lingering socio-economic impact of the pandemic, and part of it may be insufficient funds devoted to much-needed improvements to public services and transportation. It only served to amplify how good we have it in Paris where major infrastructural investment and urban rehabilitation policies have shaped the city. To talk about this, I'm joined by my friend Brent Longley, an urbanist who moved to Paris a year ago with fervent support for Mayor Hidalgo and her transformative policies. We discuss Paris as a global leader in urban transformation, the opposition that still exists to some of the changes underway, and where the Olympics fits into the equation of a sustainable metropolis. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Brent Longley, urbanist

The Tryphena Project, Brent's newsletter

Infill architecture

Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Audio production & editing: Matthew Jordan

⁠Music by Little Glass Men

Paris has always been a refuge for foreigners. For a lifetime for some, for a chapter of their lives for others. One of my very best friends in Paris was drawn to many of the qualities that I’ve described on the show over the years (and in The New Paris book) and falls into one of those categories. Like me, she’s been an avid storyteller and reporter covering the many ways that old meets new in the city and how it’s changed over the years. But now, she’s gearing up to leave which is exciting for her and sad for those who love her here. It seemed like the right time to have her on the show to talk about that particular Paris experience, and all of the things she’s seen change in the almost decade that she's lived here. And we made it nearly to the end without tears!

Mentioned in this episode:

Sara Lieberman

Sara's newsletter Overthinking It

Sara on Instagram

Sara's GQ story on Mayor Hidalgo's swimmer son

Hire Sara!

Audio production & editing: Matthew Jordan

⁠⁠Music by Little Glass Men⁠

Welcome to the end of 2023! Let's take a look back at the challenging, protest-heavy, crisis-generating year in Paris and beyond, with a few thoughts for 2024. Bonnes fêtes et bonne année! Season 8 will begin in the second half of January.

Buy my book: The New Paris

Buy my book: The New Parisienne

Follow me on social: @LindseyTramuta

Follow the show: @TheNewParisPodcast

Audio production & editing: Matthew Jordan

Music by Little Glass Men

Paris has a long legacy not merely as a world capital of culture but as a literary capital. Some of the world’s greatest writers and thinkers have created some of their best work in or about Paris and found homes for it in bookstores, to be sure, but also libraries. Two years ago I interviewed the bestselling author Janet Skeslien Charles on this show about her novel The Paris Library (Episode 74) but today I’m excited to be joined by the executive director of The American Library in Paris Audrey Chapuis, someone I’ve had the great pleasure of collaborating with over the years as I’ve spoken at the library about my own work and moderated discussions for other authors. This fall, we were among the inaugural speakers at the Angers English language Literary Festival and Audrey spoke at length. In this conversation, we talk about her library path, bookish culture in Paris, the role that libraries play in the world and the role that this library has played since 1920, and much more.

Mentioned in this episode:

Audrey Chapuis

The American Library in Paris

Become a member

Make a donation

Proust and the Squid

Sara Georgini

Viet Thanh Nguyen

Hala Alyan

Kirstin Chen and Grace Ly in conversation

On the Road events

The BNF

Galignani Bookstore

Joan by Katherine Chen

The Curse of the Marquis de Sade by Joel Warner

Audio production & editing: Matthew Jordan

⁠⁠Music by Little Glass Men⁠

It’s the week of thanksgiving and that seems like an appropriate time to bring back an American friend. Amanda Bankert is a previous guest of this show (episode 8!) and the owner and pastry chef behind Boneshaker, the only donut shop in Paris worth your time, money, and sweet tooth. She’s also just released her first book in English called Voilà Vegan. We talk about how she got into baking, becoming vegan, how easy it is to find veggie or vegan food in Paris these days, and why all of this fits into evolving tastes in the food capital.

Mentioned in this episode:

Boneshaker Donuts & Coffee

Boneshaker on Instagram

Buy Voila Vegan

Jah Jah

Faubourg Daimant

Plan D 

VG Pâtisserie 

Land & Monkeys 

Tekés

Le Petit Monstre, Brooklyn

The Southern V, Nashville 

Chambelland (gluten-free bakery)

Audio production & editing: Matthew Jordan

⁠⁠Music by Little Glass Men⁠

I have been waiting to talk about the new book by today’s guest for years. Actually, since I met him some 7 years ago when he was already hard at work researching it. Jon Bonné has worked as a journalist for three decades and currently serves as the managing editor at RESY. He is, particularly for wine lovers, best known for his wine reporting and two essential wine books :The New California Wine and The New Wine Rules, which has sold more than 50,000 copies and has been adapted into numerous languages. But his latest, The New French Wine, which came out earlier this year, is his most deeply researched, chef d’oeuvre that tells the groundbreaking tale of the world's greatest wine culture at a moment of profound change.

What follows was recorded several weeks ago when I had the great honor of leading a discussion with Jon about this immense project at The American Library in Paris. 

Mentioned in this episode:

The New French Wine

Jon Bonné (On Instagram)

Resy

New York Times/Eric Asimov review of the book

*Watch my conversation with Jon on YouTube

Audio production & editing: Matthew Jordan

⁠⁠Music by Little Glass Men⁠

If you spend any amount of time on social media, chances are good you’ve come across the very viral videos of today’s guest. Cécilia Jourdan is a language teacher, content creator and entrepreneur who started Hello French in 2020 with an Instagram account that has since become a full blown business. She joins me today to talk about her trajectory from Paris to New York and in between, building a linguistic career, and what words and ideas seem to cut through the noise most on social media. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Hello French NYC

Hello French on Instagram & TikTok

The most viral video (on parenting) on Hello French

Cécilia Jourdan in Le Monde

In the previous episode, you heard from four incredibly smart people invested in both raising awareness and pushing for change when it comes to the fashion industry as a whole. But what practical steps are needed? In this episode, I'm joined again by Aja Barber, Khémäis Ben Lakhdar, and Esha Chhabra to talk about accountability, transparency, decolonization, brands that are doing things right, and slowing down our own consumption as a means to extract ourselves from the performative cycle of fashion.

Guests

Aja Barber, activist, consultant and author of Consumed 

Khémaïs Ben Lakhdar, fashion historian, lecturer, & PhD candidate at Paris-1 La Sorbonne

Esha Chhabra, journalist and author of Working to Restore

Mentioned in this episode

Vogue Business Story on Post-Purchase Technology

The Ugly History of Beautiful Things book

Decolonizing Fashion

Veja

Nisolo

Terra Thread

Grace Wales Bonner

Jamini 

Habile 

Nona Source

About a Worker

Special thanks to Matthew Jordan for producing and editing this episode.

(Special two-part episode!) Every season, all eyes are on the Parisian runways as onlookers try to get a peak at what big and disruptive trends await for the following year. But few know about the history of how this industry came to be, the role of colonialism in its development, and how the industry upholds many of the same ideas and practices today. As you will discover, the legacy of colonialism lives on within the fashion industry, and not only in France. You’re going to hear from a fashion historian, environmental journalists, and activists over the course of the next two episodes who will help me unpack the darker side to la mode, why it’s crucial to amend old ways and correct for generations of unethical labor and overproduction, and what the idea of decolonizing fashion really means.

GUESTS

Aja Barber, activist and author of Consumed 

Khémaïs Ben Lakhdar, fashion historian, lecturer, & PhD candidate at Paris-1 La Sorbonne

Esha Chhabra, journalist and author of Working to Restore

Catherine Dauriac, President of Fashion REvolution France 

SOURCES

The King of Couture: The Atlantic

The Empire of Fashion and the Rise of Capitalism in 18th century France (William H. Sewell)

Colonialism's Clothing (Victoria L. Rovine)

Aja on Al Jazeera

Tiffanie Darke's Substack "It's Not Sustainable"

 Clothing landfills in Ghana's textile market

Waste Colonialism

Special thanks to Matthew Jordan for producing and editing this episode.