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When Rue d’Enfer Collapsed — and Paris Invented the Catacombs
Jan and I rented an apartment overlooking Place Denfert-Rochereau, in the calm 14th arrondissement on the southern side of Paris, for our stay this…
Sep 30
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John Pearce
4
The Bayeux Tapestry’s Delayed Crossing
An update to my earlier post.
Sep 27
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John Pearce
4
2
The Lion, the Resister, and the Square: Denfert-Rochereau’s Many Lives
The Lion of Belfort replica by Bartholdi in the center of Place Denfert-Rochereau, Paris. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Sep 23
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John Pearce
3
1
Bayeux on Hold? Fragility, Security, and the High Price of Lending 1066
New French jitters over security and cost complicate the 2026 British Museum loan—while the embroidery’s origin story and propaganda punch still dazzle.
Sep 17
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John Pearce
3
2
David Downie’s Shadows of Rome: A Roman Memoir with Style
His family's origin in postwar Italy, his mother-to-be's close encounter with a P-38, and his father's recoil from the too-heavy influence of the CIA
Sep 12
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John Pearce
3
1
Paris Is Worth a Mass: Henri IV’s Vision for a Reborn France and a Remade Paris
A wedding gone wrong and the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre
Sep 2
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John Pearce
2
1
August 2025
Paris, 25 Août 1944: A City Liberates Itself
From Barricades to the Champs-Élysées
Aug 25
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John Pearce
4
From the World of the Eddie Grant Saga: Meet My New Heroine
After four Paris thrillers with Eddie Grant, it’s time to meet Sandi Brennan—spy, soldier, and survivor of one very bad day in Timbuktu
Aug 13
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John Pearce
150 Years of the Paris Métro: A City Underground, A Region in the Making
It started with Line 1. Next to open is Line 15, connecting the suburbs to the central city.
Aug 5
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John Pearce
5
July 2025
Medicare At 60: A Hard-Won Change in American life and health care
Truman had pushed national health care twenty years before; LBJ got Medicare done and gave Truman the first card.
Jul 30
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John Pearce
1
Beneath Val-de-Grâce: Ghosts, Quarries, and the Lost Porter of the Paris Catacombs
Not far from the busy cafés and old bookstores of the Latin Quarter lies Val-de-Grâce, the grand old military hospital whose domed church once served as…
Jul 13
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John Pearce
3
The Vanished Masterpiece: Raphael’s Portrait of a Young Man
Occasionally I look back at the topic of my early novel Treasure of Saint-Lazare, which Readers' Favorite chose as the best historical mystery of its…
Jul 7
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John Pearce
3
1
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