We'll Always Have Paris Chris Newens, Nafkote Tamirat, and Rachel Kapelke-Dale

Merry Christmas! This week, we break our Austrian accents out to bring you the story of Napoleon I and Marie-Louise. What's that? Never heard of her? There may be a reason for that...let's just say that some of the Paris love stories this week have happier endings than others. 

Welcome to a very special episode: part one of two in our Napoleon Bonaparte series! This week, Nafkote tells us the true story behind Napoleon and Josephine’s relationship. But first, we dive into the phenomenon of the celebrity power couple, trying to hook ourselves up with the ideal matches to dominate the world. Chris and Nafkote refuse to play Rachel’s game of pretending they are Colleen Hoover and insist on playing the role of Zadie Smith. Which was not the game.

Give Rachel a history assignment and she will RUN with it. This week on We'll Always Have Paris, she, Nafkote, and Chris discuss The King (2019)--but first, we pitch products to GOOP, run through the Hundred Years' War and the War of the Roses with many an Americanization of place names that the British inventened only to trick people, and cover Shakespeare's Henriad so that we can fully understand the subtleties of why this movie that probably should have worked didn't, quite. 

This week, Rachel and Chris dive into the world of Christian Dior: both America’s romance with French fashion (and the New Look in particular), and the designer’s late romance with a younger singer. Chris attempts to describe key New Look clothes as Rachel explains how France invented itself as the world’s fashion capital, briefly had its place questioned, and finally—on Dior’s non-padded shoulders—emerged triumphant. 

Due to a technical glitch, the sound quality is spotty at times. We apologize for the hassle, and thanks for bearing with us!

In the podcast, Rachel references several sources. They are:
“The Last Temptation of Christian” by Tim Blanks
Joan DeJean, The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafes, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour
“The Formidable Women Behind Christian Dior” by Lindsay Baker (mistakenly referred to as a Vanity Fair article, this in fact comes from the BBC)
Valerie Steele. Paris Fashion: A Cultural History

This week, the incredible Sutanya Dacres joins the team to discuss Paris as an artistic haven for 20th-century Black American artists. She delves into the lives of painter Lois Mailou Jones and author Chester Himes, explaining what Paris was--and wasn't--able to give them in their artistic practice that wasn't available in the United States. Tangents from the team abound, and you'll learn why Michelin-starred restaurants just might not make the best life partners. 

In this week's episode, Chris and Naf accidentally leave Paris for the winter charms of Clermont-Ferrand and Eric Rohmer's 1969 Nouvelle Vague masterpiece Ma Nuit Chez Maud (My Night at Maud's). Opinions differ as they discuss Pascal's Wager, Catholicism, and exactly what constitutes a car chase. Join us for a conversation about a film with a lot of conversation, and find out why even when people are at their most articulate, they're not always saying what they mean.