Nobody was more Parisian than Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, the painter who captured the color and sweat of turn-of-the-century Montmartre and its Moulin Rouge scene in a stripped-down working way, where you could taste the absinthe and choke on the Gauloises. Known as the quintessential Parisian rake, Toulouse-Lautrec was actually a transplant, born into an old […]

On April 21, 2011, at an elegant three-story town house in the city of Nantes at the western end of the Loire Valley, French police discovered five bodies, all of them members of the notable Dupont de Ligonnès family, including the mother, Agnès, and her four children, Benoît, Anne, Thomas, and Arthur, ages 13 to […]

The French are used to tanks, jeeps, and military forces rolling down the Avenue de Champs-Élysées every July 14. Even the infamous bearded fighters of the French Foreign Legion are no big deal. But on this Bastille Day even the most jaded spectators stared incredulously as Franky Zapata, the inventor of the Flyboard, zigged and […]

A hilarious, candid account of what life in France is actually like, from a writer for Vanity Fair and GQ. Americans love to love Paris. We buy books about how the French parent, why French women don’t get fat, and how to be Parisian wherever you are. While our work hours increase every year, we […]

On a dreary October evening in 2015, Gad Elmaleh, France’s biggest comedian and one of its most recognized stars found himself doing stand up in English in a shopping mall outside of Pittsburgh. “I think that was my lowest point,” Gad confided to me in early September over brunch at Bubby’s, a local cafe in […]

Heiress to one of the richest American dynasties, Gloria Vanderbilt has seen it all. Fame, fortune, love, and tragedy. JOHN VON SOTHEN retraces the destiny of the woman who inspired Breakfast at Tiffany’s and designer jeans, while harkening back to a lost age – when America once had royalty. There must have been a moment […]

Most celebrity interviews fit a certain template. They are polite. Guarded. Brief. Perfunctory. Stella McCartney’s having none of that shit. Before I even start recording, she’s snuggled on a banquette, flipping through a lookbook of her latest collection. For the next 45 minutes, we sit and point and laugh and talk while the pages turn. […]

Born in Colombia, raised in Africa, schooled in Belgium and based in Paris, fashion’s favorite nomad has found a new home as creative director of Berluti. I can’t remember why, but Haider Ackermann and I are talking horses. He’s a big fan of riding, which is odd, considering he’s only been on a horse once. […]

JOHN VON SOTHEN discovered when he married a French woman that a man’s visions of those sex filled, rosé saturated lazy European summer holidays are unfortunately dependent on one thing. You have to spend them with…..the French. THE DINNER PARTY One of the selling points my wife, Anaïs, pitched me before bundling me off to […]

“Not many people know this, but Humphrey Bogart never said the line ‘Play it again, Sam.’ He said, ‘You played it for her, you can play it for me,’ and Sam acquiesced.” That’s Harry talking, the piano player aboard the Seabourn Odyssey, a sleek iron-and-teak-railed ship heading to old-school Mediterranean ports like Barcelona and Tangier before moving into […]