Improbable Walks
Welcome to Improbable Walks, the travel podcast that brings you to the streets of Paris, wherever you are. Every episode, we discover a new street in the City of Light, strolling into the hidden history and stories of Paris, block by block. Your host is Canadian writer and long-time parisienne, Lisa Pasold. To support this podcast, please become a patron at Patreon
Episodes
37 episodes
Surrealism, Lee Miller, & Blue
In this episode, we check out CAMPAGNE-PREMIERE just below boulevard de Montparnasse. The street is barely one block long, but a surprising number artists and writers lived here during the first half of the 20th century, including Man Ray, Lee ...
•
Season 5
•
Episode 6
•
20:29
Anais Nin, Henry Miller, & the Villa Seurat
In this episode, we stroll into a hidden gem behind the well-known streets of Montparnasse: the Villa Seurat. This is a small street described in the famous Diaries of Anais Nin. Villa Seurat also appears in the work of her lover, Henry Miller,...
•
Season 5
•
Episode 5
•
17:44
Pop songs & cigarettes - Serge Gainsbourg on rue de Verneuil
In this episode, we visit a classic Left Bank street, the rue de Verneuil... which has a lively 20th century cultural record: This is where writer James Baldwin first landed in Paris, where singer Juliette Gréco lived, and where songwriter Serg...
•
Season 5
•
Episode 4
•
18:33
Theatre & Decadence in La Nouvelle Athènes
In this episode, we visit the "New Athens", a newly-restored neighborhood once inhabited by theatre stars, courtesans, and painters. Find out who Napoleon Bonaparte bought bedroom furniture for, admire some truly lovely 1820s architecture, and ...
•
Season 5
•
Episode 3
•
14:39
The Passage des Panoramas
We focus on the Passage des Panoramas & the Passage Jouffroy--two of my favourite covered passageways in Paris today. Back in the 1800s, Parisians window-shopped, met for pastry and tea, and browsed music stories to find the latest composit...
•
Season 5
•
Episode 2
•
18:58
Back to the Grands Boulevards
In this episode, we continue our stroll along the Grands Boulevards, exploring some wild stories, literati, and even an assassination attempt that resulted in the brand new Garnier Opera house being built. And I get to chat about some of my fav...
•
Season 5
•
Episode 1
•
20:35
Belle Epoque Spectacle: Grands Blvds (part 1)
In this episode, we celebrate the holidays with a stroll past the Opera Garnier. Bright department store windows, glittering performances, and even cinema lights: the Grands Boulevards has it all. This is where the Lumiere Brothers introduced f...
•
Season 4
•
Episode 9
•
24:07
Mme de Pompadour, the French President, and me
Today's podcast visits the French President's palace, L’Élysée. The 365-room mansion has a history that oozes personality: once the home of Madame de Pompadour, Napoleon Bonaparte's sister Caroline also lived here for a few years. Carolin...
•
Season 4
•
Episode 8
•
19:45
Rue Bonaparte, a Left Bank classic
Visit the street where New Yorker writer Janet Flanner lived, where the Beaux Arts school still stands, and of course, where de Beauvoir and Sartre once held court... The rue Bonaparte is a Left Bank Saint-Germain classic. For photos, check out...
•
Season 4
•
Episode 7
•
12:48
Zola's complicated life on rue de Bruxelles
Writer Emile Zola was once so poor, he pawned all his clothes and kept only a single bedsheet to sleep in. But by the time he moved into the quiet rue de Bruxelles below Place de Clichy, he had become a respected member of the middle class, a w...
•
Season 4
•
Episode 6
•
20:12
The Library on the Left Bank
In this episode, we visit the American Library in Paris, on the easily-overlooked little street of General Camou. This is a very short street, in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, and it's worth visiting both for the library, if you're an E...
•
Season 4
•
Episode 5
•
11:19
The University of La Nouvelle Vague
In this episode, we start in front of the beautiful Sorbonne and walk down the single block of rue Champollion. Named for the man who first successfully translated Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics, this street includes a movie theatre that's now ...
•
Season 4
•
Episode 4
•
13:09
Medicine, Monks, and Revolutionaries
In this episode, we walk along the medieval rue de l’Ecole de Medecine, the Street of the School of Medicine, on the edge of the Latin Quarter. This street was also the birthplace of the Divine actress Sarah Bernhardt, and extremely important t...
•
Season 4
•
Episode 3
•
20:35
Art Nouveau into Nouveau Paris
In this episode, we focus on architecture & successful new approaches to urban design, from the Haussmann era's Square des Batignolles, up to the brand new street named for cellist Mstislav Rostropovitch. This route includes gorgeous Art No...
•
Season 4
•
Episode 2
•
17:26
The Insomniac on rue de la Bûcherie
In this episode, meet the 18th-century insomniac writer & printer, Restif de la Bretonne. Paris is chilly in January, so it seems appropriate to walk along the rue de la Bûcherie, where logs were once unloaded from boats on the Seine, back ...
•
Season 4
•
Episode 1
•
15:34
The Defender of Time
In this episode, I chat with Heather Stimmler about the Quartier de l'Horloge, in the 3rd arrodissement beside the Pompidou Center. We visit restored automaton, admire its music, and discuss whether a breathing dragon would make a reassuring cl...
•
Season 3
•
Episode 9
•
15:03
The Queen's Flower Market
Today, let's visit a flower market on Ile de la Cité, right in the middle of Paris. Two good reasons to check this area out now: first, the Marché aux fleurs is due to be renovated, and second, back in 2014, the market was named for Queen Eliza...
•
Season 3
•
Episode 8
•
16:12
The Roman Arena Hiding in Plain Sight
This Latin Quarter episode begins at Place Émile Mâle and features the strange story of the disappearing Roman arena. We also talk about the discrete author of The Story of O, and the wonderful botanist, Bernard de Jussieu, who is responsible f...
•
Season 3
•
Episode 7
•
16:13
Reading the stars on rue Sauval
Today, we're walking along a small street near the Louvre that's packed with history. Let's talk about Catherine de Medici's personal astrologer, the 1940s Resistance fighters of Les Halles, and talk about successful vaccines of the 1700s. ...
•
Season 3
•
Episode 6
•
13:14
The Most Famous Avenue in the World
Today, we're walking along LES CHAMPS ELYSEES, the most famous avenue in the world. From an inclusive coffeeshop to the Guerlain perfume legacy... and most particularly, my favourite steampunk historical fact: in the early 1900s, inventor...
•
Season 3
•
Episode 5
•
14:40
Impressionists in Clichy
Once upon a time, the Avenue de Clichy was the place to meet the great Impressionist painters. Why? Because this was the location of the famous CAFE GUERBOIS. In this episode, we check out the place where artist Edouard Manet used to buy his pa...
•
Season 3
•
Episode 4
•
16:49
Coffee and Revolution in the Cour du Commerce-de-Saint-André
Wow, did April ever whoosh past in a blaze of work & sunshine here in Paris! Today, we're walking through a gorgeously historic "passage" near Métro Odéon on the Left Bank--we look at coffee in the 1600s, and brilliant Revolutionaries like ...
•
Season 3
•
Episode 3
•
15:46
Picasso on the rue des Grands Augustins
Artists Sonia Delaunay, Robert Delaunay, and Pablo Picasso all lived on this little Left Bank street. Poet Apollinaire stayed here briefly. And King Louis XIII was crowned right here in the road, when he was just a child! The rue des Grands Aug...
•
Season 3
•
Episode 2
•
16:09
Architects of the Modern
Today's episode walks into a neighbourhood of wonderful Modernist villas in the chic western residential arrondissement of Paris, the 16th. Welcome to the rue Mallet-Stevens, designed by the delightful architect, Robert Mallet-Stevens (wh...
•
Season 3
•
Episode 1
•
13:32
Bertie's Belle Epoque (King Edward VII in Paris)
Today's episode explores the beautiful hidden courtyards of Place Edouard VII, near the Opera Garnier in Paris. We'll talk about the Fragonard Perfume Museum, the gorgeous Athenée Théatre Louis-Jouvet, and we'll discuss why Bertie--Queen Victor...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 7
•
18:00
