Gary Lee Kraut
Gary Lee Kraut is the editor of France Revisited and an award-winning travel writer. As a long-time specialist on travel and touring in France, he has become the go-to contact for individual travelers and travel agents seeking personalized travel advice and customized tours in Paris and throughout France. See the About the Editor tab at the top of this page for his complete bio.
To Be Charlie: A French Lesson
Paris, January 2015 -- A French lesson: "être Charlie," to believe in the importance of freedom of expression (as the French would call it); a...
Street Art: Gilles Sacksick, the Animal Painter… and Artist
A photo vignette about street art and scaffolding covers, featuring animals at the National Veterinary School in Maisons-Alforts, a wall painted with attitude in Paris's 10th arrondissement and the capital's historical judicial complex where, sadly, everyone is now sentenced to Life.
Scraps of 2014, Inspiration for 2015
Anyone else would likely sweep them into the trash, but for me the scraps of paper scribbled with my handwriting that cover the horizontal...
Excellence Française 2014: The Expanding Circle of Mutual Assistance and Influence
The sixth annual pat-on-the-back to France’s international influence and ambitions, known as the Excellence Française ceremony, was less star-studded and less eloauent than in previous years but nonetheless brought out a bright crop of CEOs, company presidents and military/defense personalities.
The Assless Elephants of Chambery Head Off for Restoration
Imagine if Paris disassembled the Eiffel Tower to recast its iron or Carcassonne dismantled its ramparts to recut the stone and you can understand the visual trauma to the small city of Chambery in the foothills of the French Alps when the four beloved pachyderms of the Fountain of Elephants were removed...
The November Newsletter: From Le Black Friday to Le Cyber Monday
At first, last Friday, I thought it was the ad campaign for a new American horror film opening in Paris. I then realized that the notices for a mind-control experiment meets an invasion of the body snatchers were real: BLACK FRIDAY had arrived in France. Not just any Black Friday, but LE Black Friday
On the Radio with Peter Greenberg, The Travel Detective
On the occasion of the opening of the new Peninsula Hotel in Paris this summer, American radio and television personality Peter Greenberg, aka The Travel Detective, invited me to be one of his radio guests in order to talk about the best approach to visiting Paris. The show aired on Nov. 1, 2014 and can be heard in podcast.
A Christmas Tour of France
France may be a deeply secular nation, but everyone gets into the spirit of what are called “the end of the year holidays” (les fêtes de fin d’année), meaning Christmas and more. Let’s take a tour of the Christmas season in France through Alsace, Champagne, Lille, Lyon, Provence, Nice and Paris.
Black Friday à la Française
At first I thought it was the ad campaign for a new American horror film opening in Paris. I then realized that the signs...