Paris in Bleu Blonde Rouge
The wonderful art and history of Paris and France
Episodes
33 episodes
The Theft of the Mona Lisa
Six days a week, for 115 years since her theft, more than 30,000 people a day push and shove to snap a photo or selfie with the Mona Lisa, and most have no idea why they even need to. On a hot Sunday, August 20, 1911, at around 4 pm...
The Birth of the Musée du Louvre
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 hi...
The Vow of Louis XIII & Notre Dame de Paris
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 ...
Liberty Leading the People & the Three Glorious Days
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 upri...
Napoleon's Looting of Art
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...
The Death of Marat, the Painting & the Event
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 ...
The Raft of the Medusa
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...
How the First Balloon Flights Inspired the Paris Olympic Vasque
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....
The Affair of the Poisons
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 conspirac...
The Birth of a Legend, Mona Lisa
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 surrou...
The History of the Pont Neuf, Yesterday & Today
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 trave...
The New Windows of Notre Dame and the Repeated Destruction of History
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 controversia...
The Restoration of Delacroix's Capture of Constantinople
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. ...
The 1887 Sale of the French Crown Jewels
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. B...
The Tragic End of Good King Henri IV
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 endIn this week's episode, we look at the trag...
The Final Days and Return of Napoleon
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 t...
The Louvre Pyramid of IM Pei
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 Ame...
The Louvre Heist of the Crown Jewels
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 i...
The Fire of Notre Dame, What We Know 7 Years Later
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....
Venus de Milo
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...
Renoir, the Sunday Painter
This spring, the Musée d'Orsay is holding two fantastic exhibits dedicated to Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Renoir and Love of his paintings and Renoir Dessinateur filled with his drawings, pastels, watercolors, and more. In th...
La Fontaine Médicis
The Jardin du Luxembourg was created under Marie de Medici, the Florentine wife of King Henri IV. After his death on May 14, 1610, she wanted to create a home that reminded her of her childhood in Florence, at the Medici Palazzo Pitti and its B...
The Crown of Thorns
Notre-Dame de Paris houses many essential items, including the most important relic in the world: the Crown of Thorns. But why is it in Paris, you ask? In this week's episode, I will share the entire story of this precious piece of ...
