Chef Talk: A Young American Apprentices with Jean and Pierre Troisgros, Masters of Nouvelle...
In 1974, David Glass went to France to study art history but no sooner had he arrived than his interest forked off into the heart of modern French gastronomy with apprenticeships with Alain Senderens then Jean and Pierre Troisgros.
5 Days in Auvergne, Part VI: Plenitude on the Aubrac Plateau
I can still clearly see in my mind Aubrac’s rippling empty pastures covered with the greenish-brown grass of early spring. But I remember Aubrac more as a state of mind than an actual place on the map.
5 Days in Auvergne, Part V: Mont Dore, Saint Nectaire, Chaudes-Aigues and Yu
The Auvergne diary. In which, over seven years later, the author finally responds to Yu Jia's message: "Too bad parts V and VI aren’t up, I did want to read about Mont Dore and Saint Nectaire."
The Deep South of the Loire
Long before it reaches the photogenic limestone castles of valley fame, the Loire River gathers strength in a region simply called Loire, where Corinne LaBalme took an off-track journey to a château that hosts a family-friendly classical music and dance festival and to some of the region's rural and natural delights.
Chambery: Civic Pride and the Four Assless Elephants
Chambery, a city of 58,000 at the base of the Alps, aspires to “the sweetness of life in a pleasant and secure society” as it honors its art, its history and its elephants.
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...
Moulins (Auvergne) and the National Costume Center
Deep in the heart of France, the little-known town of Moulins (Auvergne) reveals the fabric of great theater at the National Costume Museum, particularly this year when the museum celebrates the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth with an exhibition of costumes from some of the bard’s most emblematic plays, on display through Jan. 4, 2015.
The Decorated Cave of Pont-D’Arc Joins World Heritage List
Though not quite as exuberant as the cheers that follow a victory in the World Cup, hurrahs rang strong in certain quarters of conservationism and tourism in France when UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee elected in June to inscribe the Decorated Cave of Pont-d’Arc, also known as the Grotte Chauvet (Chauvet Cave), on the World Heritage List of cultural properties.
Party Like It’s 1865: A Taste of Imperial Splendor in Vichy
The primacy of French gastronomy may have gone the way of the rotary phone, still the hungry traveler explores France with a desire to taste its native tang, to savor its cultural heritage and, from time to time, to experience the flavors of long-gone imperial and royal glory served at Versailles or Chantilly or… (drumroll, please)… Vichy.