Feb. 25, 2011 – Last weekend I returned to Menton, the town on the French Riviera just over the border from Italy, on the occasion of its annual Lemon Festival. I’d last been to Menton 15 years ago when I’d written about it for my guidebook to France.
The first Saturday in October—tonight—is Nuit Blanche in Paris, an official all-nighter, when City Hall invites visitors and residents to stay up all night and take part in artsy, nightclubby sound and light shows throughout [...]
There is a common misconception that Paris shuts down during the month of August, that it becomes a ghost town abandoned to tourists while Parisians all flee to country homes and nude beaches. Some people [...]
On July 4th I went to Cupcake Camp in a Paris bistro. The event was by proud Americans who seemed to have fogotten that July 4th was also the Fourth of July.
Today is Crepe Day in France as well as in other countries with crepe traditions, such as Belgium and Switzerland. Americans think of it as Groundhog Day. Crepes and groundhogs both mark the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. The day’s Catholic name is la Chandeleur in France, in recognition of the candles (chandelles) that are/were brought to the church in remembrance of the day when baby Jesus was first brought to the Temple.
Destination Brittany, travels with Henri, part 3 of 5: My brother Jon would have loved Dinard. He liked anything with the word resort in it: beach resort, ski resort, island resort, tennis resort. Wearing “smart casual” or “resort casual” came natural to him. After he died in a plane accident in 2006 my three other brothers and I inherited his clothes.
I went to Philadelphia last week to attend, along with about 55 other guests, the friendly Francophile ceremony by which Joanne Silver received the decoration of Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques, the most prestigious [...]
Reading my work on France Revisited may make it appear as though I’m entirely consumed by thoughts of France and Francophilia, yet I actually have what is commonly called a life. A part of that life is [...]
