A Brittany Tale: The Fright
Being alone on a boat at sea after a warm embrace on the quay carried with it the thrill of solitary freedom and possibility. I stood at the stern by the fluttering French flag watching Dinard fall away, then turned to Saint Malo with its central steeple poking out from the uniform mass of the town.
You know you live in Paris when… BHV Marais and the vocabulary of complaint
There’s no greater sign of your acculturation in Paris than seizing the right moment to râler (grouse, gripe, grumble) during an in-store complaint, while avoiding the emotional pitfalls and using the proper vocabulary.
You know you live in Paris when … Gazelle Horns
He arrives bearing gifts. There’s a box of camembert since he knows that you like cheese. He’s also brought a plastic container of eight cornes de gazelle (gazelle horns).
The Other Paris Wrap: Dior on the Champs-Elysées
Not to be outdone by the Christo-wrapping of the Arc de Triomphe, Bernard Arnault, chairman of Dior and LVMH, has had a monumental building on the Champs-Elysées wrapped following "Christian Dior's original drawings of 1955."
1952: The First Time I Saw Paris…
Lyla Blake Ward revisits her first trip to Paris as a 24-year-old newlywed with her husband Russ. The year was 1952 and the city was still coated in its post-war grime.
The Stuffed Animal Assisted Living Facility
Sadly, we aren't allowed to visit our loved ones in the stuffed animal assisted living facilities in France during the pandemic. We can only smile and wave through the window.
You know you live in Paris when… you have une prostate
Mistaking the gender of a noun as personal as your prostate is more than linguistic, it touches on your very sense of self.
You know you live in Paris when… You don’t
You don't live in Paris anymore. You now live at the center of a nameless territory with a radius of one kilometer, legally circumscribed by coronavirus confinement. If you were to give that territory a name, it would be your own.
The Best Boulangerie, a Paris Vignette
A simple yet powerful story about social distancing and the choices we make, by Alice Elvleth, an 84-year-old American who has lived in Paris for over 40 years.