Lecture Series: World Monuments in Paris

This winter’s History & Heritage Zoom lecture series is once again hosted by the Alliance Française Miami Metro (AFMM) and the Alliance Française de Chicago (AF-Chicago), this year in partnership with World Monuments Fund, which will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2025. World Monuments Fund has helped to restore 700 architectural and cultural sites in 112 countries since its founding, including more than 30 projects at 21 sites in France.

After an introductory lecture by Mathilde Augé, Executive Director of WMF France, the series will feature five iconic but very different sites in and around Paris whose restoration has been supported by World Monuments Fund:

1. The Hôtel de la Chancellerie d’Orléans and the Hôtel de Rohan (two celebrated hôtels particuliers dating back to the 18th century);
2. An exciting new WMF project that will only be announced on January 15.
3. The Potager du Roi (the King’s Kitchen Garden) at the Château de Versailles;
4. The Opéra-Comique in Paris, with its magnificent Salle Favart; and
5. Saint-Eustache Church in Les Halles, the second largest church in Paris after Notre-Dame.

The series will begin on Thursday, January 9 at 12:00 p.m. CST in Chicago/1:00 p.m. EST in Miami/7:00 p.m. CET in Paris, and will continue for the following five Thursdays at the same time.

Guests may register for either individual lectures at $10 for Members of AFMM or AF-Chicago/$20 for Non-Members, or for the entire series of six lectures at $50 for Members/$100 for Non-Members. An individual membership at AFMMcosts $65. An individual membership at AF-Chicago costs $125.

Please note that registrants will receive a recording of the lecture shortly afterward in case you cannot attend the live event.

Series Curator & Moderator

Russell Kelley was the curator and moderator of the past four winters’ Zoom lecture series on the “Grands Châteaux of the Loire and Île de France,” “The Making of the French Garden,” “The Great Churches of Paris,” and “The Making of the Museums of Paris.” He is the author of The Making of Paris: The Story of How Paris Evolved from a Fishing Village into the World’s Most Beautiful City (Lyons Press, 2021), and has lived in Paris for more than 30 years.

This series is made possible through the generous support of Solange and Bill Brown.