Art journey Moments of Wonder is about sparking awe through words and curated experiences.
Get transported into past civilizations, rub shoulders with great artists, and understand what drove them.
Weekly Wonders are, on Mondays and Fridays, coffee-sized posts to daydream with a Moment of Wonder.
Moments of Wonder Stories are big-picture articles—about the religious, political, and cultural context—accessible to paid subscribers.
Its author is Guillaume Deprez, an art historian and Louvre School graduate. His writing is based on books, travels, and conversations with regular museum-goers.
With over fifteen years of experience giving private tours of museums in Paris and France, he has long realized that throwing facts and dates at people is the best way to lose them.
Asking people questions and answering theirs has been a great teaching experience. Being surrounded by masterpieces and seeing tears of emotion or laughter has been a great joy.
To his eyes, that glee is a Moment of Wonder—a sense of awe at understanding, at ‘getting it.’
He is setting out to do that on Substack, sharing enriching stories and inspiration for future travel.
The tone is poetic with a tint of humor but always factual.
Fascinating Facts
All stories on Moments of Wonder are fact-based, deeply researched, sourced, and based on objective and reliable information.
Wherever feasible, stories are illustrated with the author’s photos. Learning something valuable while having a moment of wonder is perfectly feasible.
As the article Fascinating Stories Do Not Need To Be Based On Forgeries explains, why add to the sea of fake stories online when AI can make things up faster than the human brain can?
Why Subscribe?
Free subscribers get Weekly Wonders :
- Weekly Wonders - Espresso coffee-sized posts on Mondays and Fridays to start your day with a small Moment of Wonder.
Paid subscribers get full access to the archive to daydream with a good Gin & Tonic. Cheers! And Moments of Wonder Stories.
Like the Notre Dame story, they offer information that is not—or rarely—found anywhere else online. They tend to be a book's worth of knowledge digested into one article.
Being deeply researched, they take time to produce.
Free or paid, all stories strive to be poetic and offer a Moment of Wonder. Please consider subscribing to help support the production of regular articles.
- Foundation subscribers get a yearly subscription, unlimited access to archives, and a PDF book (completed fall 2025), 'Understand Ancient Egypt' - two books in one.
Part one explains the ancient Egyptian civilization. Part two is a travel guidebook that illustrates and explains all the main temples and tombs from Cairo to Abu Simbel.
Paid and Foundation subscribers help with research and travel (France, Europe, and Egypt) needed for more articles, so consider becoming a subscriber.
While drinking coffee, you get articles that take you daydreaming and make you think, transporting you to Renaissance Florence, Paris in the 1930s, or the Nile 4,500 years ago.
Cultural Concierge
Curated travel planning crafted by an expert art historian to deliver once-in-a-lifetime experiences in Paris and France.
Bespoke cultural itineraries based on extensive, firsthand knowledge of sites and museums.
Like an architect listening to his patron describe his ideal home, we build together journeys that result in memories to treasure for a lifetime. To do that, we talk months ahead of time via video calls.
Private Tours
Enjoy bespoke private guided tours in the museums and monuments of Paris and France, lasting half a day, a day, or more.
Discover world-level marvels off the beaten path and major museums and sites in the best conditions, benefiting from over 15 years of experience.
Themed Tours
Unique experiences in France for 3 days up to 3 weeks, with a cultural thread like 'In the footsteps of Vincent Van Gogh' or 'Medieval Wonders.' Everything is private —up to 5/6 persons— and bespoke.
Once-in-a-lifetime Private Tours Of Egypt
If you've long dreamed of experiencing pyramids and temples, enjoy an adventure from the Giza pyramids to Abu Simbel.
