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Thomas Adamson-Koumbouzis is a Culture Correspondent for Associated Press based in Paris. He is formerly a presenter for the global newschannel, France 24. Until 2007, Adamson filmed and reported for Channel 4 News at ITN.
Adamson was educated at UCL and City University in London and La Sorbonne in Paris. He speaks French, Italian and Greek.
In 2019, Adamson broke the exclusive story that billionaire donors who pledged money to rebuild Notre Dame cathedral hadn't paid a penny toward the restoration. The story pressured several billionaire donors to make their first downpayments to the cathedral totaling over 20 million euros ($24 million) within days of the article appearing. Subsequent reporting also revealed that Notre Dame would miss its first Christmas since the French Revolution and that France did not have adequate safety regulations for the lead dust spewed out by the fire.
Adamson also investigated (and is credited as being one of the first to uncover) the story that a series of French widows from the 19th century, whose husbands died in sudden or mysterious circumstances, were responsible for creating the modern champagne industry. Adamson's article was highly impactful, creating an online universe for these icons that include Widow Clicquot and Widow Pommery, who are thought to be the Western world's first female CEOs. Following Adamson's reporting, champagne tastings based on the widows' story also were created in Australia and in the United States.
Adamson interviewed Hollywood legend Olivia de Havilland on her 100th birthday, during which she finally broke her decades-long silence on her feud with Oscar-winning sister Joan Fontaine.
Adamson has also worked for Associated Press as a fashion writer, known to have interviewed Chanel's former designer, the late Karl Lagerfeld, over 20 times. It was in Adamson's 2016 interview with the larger-than-life couturier in which Lagerfeld seemed to blame Kim Kardashian for being targeted in a controversial jewelry heist during Paris Fashion Week because she was "too flashy".
Adamson started in print at Associated Press in Paris in 2003. His foray into TV began on French design program Paris Modes, where he covered the catwalks at London Fashion Week.
He then worked as TF1's UK producer covering the aftermath of the 7/7 bomb attacks, and at GMTV's politics show The Sunday Programme where he produced their Climate Change special.
Since the launch in 2005 of Channel 4’s More4 News Adamson reported on Culture and European news for ITN, and was dispatched across Europe. Adamson’s work featured exposés on the closure of the window brothels in Amsterdam, [1] and the dire plight of the Greek economy after the Athens Olympic Games.
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. The title refers to the Notre-Dame Cathedral, which features prominently throughout the novel. It focuses on the unfortunate story of Quasimodo, the Roma street dancer Esmeralda and Quasimodo's guardian the Archdeacon Claude Frollo in 15th-century Paris. All its elements—the Renaissance setting, impossible love affairs and marginalized characters—make the work a model of the literary themes of Romanticism.
Notre-Dame de Paris, referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité, in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, France. The cathedral, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, is considered one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. Several attributes set it apart from the earlier Romanesque style, particularly its pioneering use of the rib vault and flying buttress, its enormous and colourful rose windows, and the naturalism and abundance of its sculptural decoration. Notre-Dame also stands out for its three pipe organs and its immense church bells.
Châlons-en-Champagne is a city in the Grand Est region of France. It is the capital of the department of Marne, despite being only a quarter the size of the city of Reims.
Karl Otto Lagerfeld was a German fashion designer.
Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaus and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washington, D.C.
François Pinault is a French billionaire businessman, founder of the luxury group Kering and the investment holding company Artémis.
Sir James William Alexander Burnet, known as Alastair Burnet, was a British journalist and broadcaster, best known for his work in news and current affairs programmes, including a long career with ITN as chief presenter of the flagship News at Ten; Sir Robin Day described Burnet as "the booster rocket that put ITN into orbit".
ITV News at Ten is the flagship evening news programme on British television network ITV, produced by ITN and founded by news editor Geoffrey Cox in July 1967. The bulletin was the first permanent 30-minute news broadcast in the United Kingdom, and although initially scheduled for only thirteen weeks due to fears that its length would turn viewers off, the bulletin proved to be highly popular with audiences and became a fixture of the ITV schedule.
Notre-Dame de Paris is a sung-through French musical which debuted on 16 September 1998 in Paris. It is based upon the novel Notre-Dame de Paris by the French novelist Victor Hugo. The music was composed by Riccardo Cocciante and the lyrics are by Luc Plamondon.
French Gothic architecture is an architectural style which emerged in France in 1140, and was dominant until the mid-16th century. The most notable examples are the great Gothic cathedrals of France, including Notre-Dame Cathedral, Reims Cathedral, Chartres Cathedral, and Amiens Cathedral. Its main characteristics are verticality, or height, and the innovative use of the rib vault and flying buttresses and other architectural innovations to distribute the weight of the stone structures to supports on the outside, allowing unprecedented height and volume. The new techniques also permitted the addition of larger windows, including enormous stained glass windows, which fill the cathedrals with light.
Goudji is a French sculptor and goldsmith of Georgian origin who was born in Soviet Georgia.
Andrey Andreev is a multinational tech entrepreneur. He is known for founding the dating and social networking apps Bumble and Badoo, amongst others. In 2019, Andreev sold the apps' holding company, MagicLab, to Blackstone at a $3 billion valuation. In 2020, he founded social audio app Stereo. His previous ventures include SpyLog, Begun, and Mamba.
Timothy Melton Willcox is a British journalist who formerly worked as a presenter for BBC News. He presents news programmes on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel. He is probably most recognisable for presenting the BBC's live coverage from Chile during events surrounding the Copiapó mining accident and anchoring the BBC's live daytime coverage during the early days of the Cairo January 2011 Egyptian revolution.
Baptiste Giabiconi is a French model, singer, and muse of Karl Lagerfeld from Marignane, France. For many years, he was the male face of major fashion houses Chanel, Fendi and Karl Lagerfeld.
On 4 September 2016, a car containing seven canisters of gas and pages with Arabic writing was found parked near Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral in Paris.
On 6 June 2017, at around 16:00 CET, French police shot a man who attacked a police officer with a hammer outside Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral on the Île de la Cité, located in the centre of Paris. The man injured the officer with the hammer, and was found to be in possession of kitchen knives. French police opened a terrorism investigation.
On 15 April 2019, just before 18:20 CEST, a structural fire broke out in the roof space of Notre-Dame de Paris, a medieval Catholic cathedral in Paris, France. By the time the fire was extinguished, the cathedral's spire had collapsed, most of its roof had been destroyed, and its upper walls were severely damaged. Extensive damage to the interior was prevented by its vaulted stone ceiling, which largely contained the burning roof as it collapsed. Many works of art and religious relics were moved to safety early in the emergency, but others suffered smoke damage, and some of the exterior art was damaged or destroyed. The cathedral's altar, two pipe organs, and three 13th-century rose windows suffered little or no damage. Three emergency workers were injured. The fire contaminated the site and nearby areas of the city with toxic dust and lead. The cathedral did not hold a Christmas Mass in 2019 due to the fire, the first time since 1803 that a Mass had not been held.
The spire of Notre-Dame de Paris is located above the cross-section of the cathedral's transept. Notre-Dame de Paris has had three timber spires, known as flèches. The first was built between 1220 and 1230. It eventually became so damaged that it was removed in the late 18th century. The second was put into place by the French architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc in 1859, and destroyed in a major fire on 15 April 2019. Work to construct a third one started in 2022, and was completed when the new copper rooster wind vane was placed on top of the new spire on 16 December 2023.
French Gothic stained glass windows were an important feature of French Gothic architecture, particularly cathedrals and churches built between the 12th century and 16th century. While stained glass had been used in French churches in the Romanesque period, the Gothic windows were much larger, eventually filling entire walls. They were particularly important in the High Gothic cathedrals, most famously in Chartres Cathedral. Their function was to fill the interior with a mystical colored light, representing the Holy Spirit, and also to illustrate the stories of the Bible for the large majority of the congregation who could not read.
Hed Mayner is an Israeli fashion designer that regularly presents his menswear collections in Paris fashion week, and winner of LVMH’s Karl Lagerfeld prize.
France 24
Culture / Channel 4 News
