Our apartment is about five blocks from the magnificent Luxembourg Gardens in a corner of the 6th Arrondissement near Montparnasse. It’s a bit like bridging the Upper West Side (our immediate neighborhood) and Paramus, N.J., represented by the massive stores and malls about four blocks in the opposite direction. Best part of the neighborhood: The…
La gaufre saved the day. Or perhaps it was the kids and their boats on the Luxembourg Gardens pond. Or Devon’s first glance, from a distance, of the top of the Eiffel Tower, a glance that elicited an audible gasp. Or the spirited youth band that ended its two-hour performance in the gardens with Beethoven’s…
In June 2007, just a few months before the birth of our first grandchild, Kathy and I returned from a five-month sabbatical in France. We loaded a few thousand photographs onto my computer, picked a few hundred to develop, and then chose a dozen or so to blow up, frame and mount on our living…
As Valentine’s Day approached last year, Kathy and I window-shopped in Aix-en-Provence, admiring the variety of heart collages, shoe arrangements and other creative if sometimes funky displays in the city’s abundant shop windows. Oh, by Aix standards, Valentine’s fell in the midst of what had been a rather nasty stretch of weather. Lots of rain,…
The images from across the ocean have been painful: an office room, its floor covered with blood and papers; the arc of iron latticework at the Eiffel Tower’s base, framed around two soldiers, patrolling with semi-automatic weapons; massive crowds, marching for their very freedom of speech. There is no justification for terrorism. Not ever. But…
This article was written for and first appeared in the Christian Science Monitor SAINT-PIERRESVILLE, France — Gerard Barras scribbles as he talks. On yellow sticky notes, he draws an organizational chart outlining the tasks the 47 workers at his wool cooperative, Ardelaine, carry out in the mountainous countryside two hours south of Lyon. He jots…
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This is the 161st time I’ve posted on this blog since we landed in France Jan. 5. It’ll be my last — for awhile. I say for awhile because the project that drew me to France on sabbatical has just begun to come together. I say for awhile because we hope, after I retire, to…
It’s hard — perhaps impossible — to wrap six months overseas in a neat bow. I can’t provide you with “Five Ways to Find Friends in France” or “Six Ways to Be Smarter in Learning the Language of Love.” Sorry. I’ve written enough such silliness already. I’ve posted more than 150 blogs as Kathy and…
Think it’s OK to bury those orange peels on the trail? Or toss out a piece of chewing gum? Chamonix mag’ has this to say about litter on the trails: The lifetime of your waste: Fruit peels — last 6 months Chewing gum — 2 to 5 years A cigarette butt — 2 to 15…
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