For many centuries, Europeans travelled the world and the seas in search of spices. These rare plants were used for cooking and food preservation, as well as in medicines, cosmetics, and perfumes. As desirable as gold, these goods motivated numerous explorers to leave for parts unknown. Botanists soon followed in their footsteps with the aim […]

Operetta became recognised as a musical genre around 1850 in Paris, and one of its first and arguably most famous proponents was Jacques Offenbach. Unlike the sometimes stuffy productions of L'Opéra de Paris, Offenbach's compositions were light, airy and very funny – and immensely popular. Offenbach poked fun at the society of the day and […]

In the end of the 17th Century, a very specific diplomatic relationship was born between China and France, thanks to Louis XIV. In 1686, the King sent French Jesuit fathers in China who occupied a special place at the Emperor’s court thanks to their deep knowledges in astronomy and mathematics. Simultaneously, numerous chinese works of […]

In 1764, the Jesuit painter Giuseppe Castiglione (1688–1766) was commissioned to prepare sketches for sixteen illustrations of Qing military conquests. These were sent to Europe on the orders of the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735–1796), eventually finding their way to France, where they were etched onto copper plates used for printing. It took twelve years and […]