The French

... texts you at 10pm Him: Good news, I’m on strike tomorrow. You: Good news for whom? Him: Us. I can come by in the afternoon. You: But I’m not on strike.

Arriving from England, Gerald Vinestock's experience driving in France has taught him much about the dos and don'ts and Gallicisms of the country's byways, highways and parking lots, from Calais to the door of a small-town boulangerie. His insights will come in handy should you someday get behind the wheel in France.

A vignette is a short text that focuses on a moment, a mood, a scene, a character, an encounter, an idea or a place. Here are three Paris vignettes that involve shopping, gift-giving and biking.

The terrorist attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis on November 13 killed 130 people and left hundreds more wounded. The immediate target was joie de vivre in the City of Light: the pleasure of sharing a drink or a meal with friends, of listening to music, of strolling down the street, of kissing on the sidewalk, of men and women mingling and dressing freely, of gathering comfortably with strangers, of being young in years or young at heart, of openly celebrating life. Those are all things that you, the visitor and the return traveler, look forward to when you imagine (re)visiting Paris.

The week after terror attacks that targeted journalists at Charlie Hebdo and Jews at the kosher grocery millions of people bought the survivor edition of Charlie Hebdo out of solidarity with the victims and what they represented. But did any think of buying kosher food?

PARIS FASHION FLASH: It’s been a long time coming but the Paris fashion police have finally received the circular concerning shorts, now making it acceptable for local men to show their knees on the street.

You know you're back in Paris when... Here are 10 signs that I'm back in Paris after 6 weeks in the U.S.

In November 2012 I was elected to the administrative board of the Association des journalistes du patrimoine (AJP), France’s Heritage Journalists Association, the first foreign journalist to join the board in the association’s 10 years of existence. Exploring patrimoine/heritage in France.