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 Mona Lisa of the Champs-Elysées (How Le Cat Killed Curiosity)
Paris seeks herd immunity against curiosity by installing 20 monumentally insipid bronzes of Philippe Geluck's Le Chat on the Champs-Elysees.
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.
On Winter Solstice Night (Includes Audio)
A solstice night tale of darkness poetry and wonder in Paris. Sometimes, late in the evening, I’d look out the window and see him sitting on his stool just beyond the edge of the awning, in the light of the streetlamp, writing in a notebook.
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.
Biking in Burgundy: Stopping by Vines on a Sunny Morning (Video)
Whose vines these are I think I know.
His cellar's in the village though;
He will not mind this makeshift bar -
To share with Claire an apéro*.
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.
You know you live in Paris when…: French Combat Rations
At home in Paris, in a neighborhood with an extraordinary array of food shops, bakeries and restaurants, the author opens a box of French combat rations and sets out on a mission of three square meals.