Memorial Day Ceremony at the Escadrille Lafayette Memorial Near Paris
The Escadrille La Fayette Memorial, 6 miles west of the center of Paris, honors the flying corps comprised of American pilots who, having volunteered to take part in the First World War under French, lost their lives in aerial combat. Sixty-eight of them are entombed below in a wide semi-circular crypt. The monument is easily accessible from by suburban train.
France Revisited Newsletter, Feb. 14, 2012
Feb. 14. Love is in the air, that’s what the calendar says: courtly love, big heart love, flower love, filial love, parental love, fraternal...
The Harsh Reality of the End of Daylight Saving Time
There’s something therapeutic about turning the clocks back in the fall—harsh reality therapy that makes us aware of our own dwindling time... and the arrival of All Saints Day. November 1, when Catholic tradition in France invites people to place chrysanthemums on the tombs of loved ones.
An afternoon nap on the French national holiday, July 14, 2011
Paris, July 15, 2011 – I had a delicious nap on the afternoon of le Quatorze Juillet, the French national holiday, known outside of...
Four French lessons I learned in February
March 6, 2011. Here are four French lessons that I learned in February on the Riviera and in Alsace.
1. Carnival in Nice
Nice’s Carnival, the...
Menton Revisited
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.
August in Paris: If Julia Roberts Only Knew
There is a common misconception that Paris shuts down during the month of August, that it becomes a ghost town abandoned to tourists while...
Crepes, tourtisseaux, groundhogs
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, part 3 of 5: party clothes
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.