Perhaps my single favorite place in all of Paris is the Luxembourg Gardens. Its name is deceptively -- it is in fact a park, a very large one, and it is perhaps the most amazingly manicured park I've ever visited anywhere in the world.
The Luxembourg Gardens, while quintessentially French, was actually the brainchild of an Italian -- Queen Marie de Medici, widow of French King IV. She built this, along with the Luxembourg palace, in the 17th century, and today the palace is where the French Senate meets.
The highlight of my visit, and for so many others, is the huge pool where you can rent a toy sailboat and float it for half-an-hour. It's so much fun, so innocent and pure, that it was the highlight on my trip. I strongly suggest visiting every time you go to Paris.
Former US Representative Charles Rangel, who represented Harlem in Congress for nearly half-a-century, from 1971 to 2017, has died. He was 94.
Known as the Lion of Lennox Avenue, Rangel's career bridged the local politics of Harlem and NYC, and the vast power of the American government.
He was not only part of the Gang of Four that consolidated black political power in NYC but he also had the ear of mayors, governors, and presidents from both political parties for decades. He served on the Judiciary Committee in 1974, voting to impeach President Nixon for Watergate.
When Charlie Rangel spoke, people listened. He was a giant, truly a lion.
I remember many years ago, Rangel was on the CNN political chat show Crossfire. Rangel was debating some issue against the conservative journalist Robert Novak. Novak was an asshole. He was super right-wing, he hated everybody, respected no one, trash talked just about everyone. But to Charlie Rangel he said, "Congressman, you know how much I respect you."
Now that's power.
I'm currently watching the mini-serie The Leopard on Netflix, about a noble Sicilian family losing power in the 1860s during the Resorgimento, the unification of Itaty. The final lines are: "We were the Leopard, the lions; those who'll take our places will be little jackals, hyenas ..."
With the passing of Charlie Rangel, never has that been more true than today.
On April 19th, 2025, exactly six years to the day that it experienced a devastating fire, yours truly and family visited the rebuild, recently reopened Note Dame.
It was, as expected, gorgeous, and any traces of destruction long gone. Although crowded, we actually moved quickly and comfortably through this most historic of cathedrals. While still a place of worship, Notre Dame is also a museum of old French kings, reminding you how the history of the Catholic faith and the French nation are deeply, forever intertwined.
And you can learn more about how Notre Dame was rebuilt here:
Ten years ago, and just last year, Prince William of the United Kingdom visited NYC.
Since the death of his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, in 2022, William has now become the Prince of Wales, the crowned heir apparent to the throne. If all goes according to plan, he will one day become King William V.
But the to-be King William V isn't the first future British monarch to visit NYC. In fact, his previous namesake, King William IV, was in NYC more than two hundred and forty years earlier -- and this William was, in fact, the first British royal ever to visit the city.
Only he wasn't here as a tourist -- the then-Prince William was a 16-year old officer in the British Navy and he'd been sent to the city in September 1781 to fight in the Revolutionary War. As it turned out, he didn't stay long. Soon the British surrendered at Yorktown, the war coming to an end and American independence soon to arrive.
But the then-Prince William's brief stay in NYC wasn't without drama. The leader of the Colonial Army, General George Washington, hatched a plot to kidnap the British royal and use him as a hostage for military strategic leverage. The plot failed and soon was no longer necessary.
The irony is that, at the time, no one thought William would ever become King.
His father, George III, was still in the prime of his literally crazy life. William also had two older brothers who were ahead of him in the line of succession -- William was the spare x 2. And yet family circumstances would lead him to the throne -- after his father died, William's oldest brother became King George IV but he had no legitimate heir. And when their brother Frederick died in 1827 (who also had no legitimate heir), William became the heir to the throne -- and in 1830 George IV died and William became King.
He only ruled for seven years -- he was already 64 year old (the oldest person to become King until the current Charles III in 2022) and his health wasn't great. But during his brief reign, the British parliament enacted major reforms, including the abolition of slavery and the first social welfare programs.
William also had no legitimate heirs and so, after his death in 1837, his 17-year old niece Victoria became Queen, thus beginning the legendary 63-year Victorian age, lasting until the 20th century.
William himself was a bit of a lout -- he loved to drink, party, and he had an Irish actress mistress with whom he fathered ten illegitimate children. He eventually dumped her and made a proper marriage but, with no legitimate heir, his line of the family, the House of Hanover, ended and it would be Victoria's line that would and continues to rule to this day -- including the future William V.
In a city of historic and gorgeous architecture, nothing is more at odds with it than the Centre Pompidou. The modern art museum and library of Paris, named after a former French President, it was intentionally built to look like an uncompleted, work-in-progress structure.
Located in the Beaubourg neighborhood, it has a huge plaza in front with some odd looking modern art out front, plus it has these amazing glass-enclosed esaclators that, as you rise up, the whole city spreads before and around you like a kaleidescope. It provides some of the most amazing views of the city besides the Eiffel Tower.
Honestly, the most interesting thing about this museum is the building itself. The exhibits inside are sparse and underwhelming. However, on the day we were there, we a good if small exhibit on black American artists who self-exiled to Paris in the 20th century and found great success. It was amazing to learn about piece of American cultural history so far from America itself.
After almost two decades of this blog's existence, we reached a considerable milestone: a million hits!
Yes, you read that right, Mr NYC has been clicked on over a million times.
Considering that I do no promotion or any real flacking for this blog, that its subject matter is very niche, that its content is very mild (I don't really write sensational or "flaming" posts), there's no pictures of naked chicks or anythig racy like that, that's it kind of earnest and straightforward (like its creator), finally getting to a million "readers" (or hits) ain't bad.
I don't know how many of these hits are bots or whatever but, hey, I'll take.
Montmarte is a hilly, funky neighborhood in northern Paris. In a city bulging with people and tourists, it's relatively quiet and relaxed. We didn't spend a long time there and didn't see as much as we'd like but we did see:
The bakery from Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir. My kids wanted to see this because they're big fans, and there were other families on line for it too (they were from the UK, Germany and Japan which shows you how internationally popular this show is):
Then we went to a cemetery where we saw the graves of the great actress Jeanne Moreau and the brilliant director Francois Truffaut (amongst many others)
We saw, amongst other things, the Mona Lisa and Hans Holbein's painting of Anne of Cleves that led him to marry her before deciding she was too ugly to bang. We also saw the beautiful Napoleon III apartments.
Just so you know: if you ever visit the Louvre, schedule a whole day for it. We spent TWO HOURS on line to get in and we had timed tickets -- we were supposed to get in at 10:30 AM but didn't actually get to start seeing stuff until noon.
And if you want to know more about the Mona Lisa, Hans Holbein's portrait of Anne of Cleves, and Napoleon III, click here:
