Elephant of The Bastille
Kaushik Patowary
Apr 14, 2021
Between 1814 and 1846, there stood a colossal plaster elephant in the heart of Paris, at the site of the former Bastille prison. For much of...
Showing posts with the label France
The Mercy Dogs of World War 1
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 26, 2021
Dogs have accompanied men to war since ancient times, as scouts, sentries, trackers and messengers. But the most unique role they ever playe...
Heroic War Pigeons
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 16, 2021
World War One, and to some extent, the Second World War, was a strange blend of archaic and modern technology. The First World War, in parti...
How a Failed Dam Legalized Marrying The Dead
Kaushik Patowary
Mar 12, 2021
Sitting low among the hills, just north of the city of Frejus, in southern France, not far from the French Riviera coast, are the broken rem...
The Mad World of Hat Making
Kaushik Patowary
Feb 19, 2021
Hat-making in the 18th and 19th centuries was a hazardous business, because it involved the use of many chemicals, one of which was the toxi...
The Helfaut-Wizernes Dome
Kaushik Patowary
Jan 22, 2021
In the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France, close to the commune of Helfaut and Wizernes, lies a large Nazi bunker built during the ...
The Barbegal Mills: The Largest Concentration of Mechanical Energy in Antiquity
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 21, 2020
About 12 kilometers north of the city of Arles, in the Provence region of southern France, is the small town of Fontvieille. It is a commune...
Franz Reichelt’s Fatal Jump
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 15, 2020
The British Pathé film archive has a chilling video of a man jumping to his death from the Eiffel Tower. The man in the short video is shown...
Saint Guinefort: The Holy Greyhound
Kaushik Patowary
Dec 8, 2020
Around the second half of the 13th century, a Dominican friar known as Stephen of Bourbon, began travelling the width and breadth of souther...
The Spectacle of Death at The Paris Morgue
Kaushik Patowary
Oct 8, 2020
Throughout the 19th century, the Paris morgue attracted thousand of visitors every day. Eager tourists consumed by a morbid fascination with...
