Here’s something I’ve learned from living in a city: for many people, the range of vocal expression between distress and exuberance is surprisingly narrow. In other words, when I hear yelling in the street, I often have a hard time … Read More
When I was a young man, my father took me aside one day and gave me some advice that has served me well throughout my life. “Son,” he said, “Usually there are two or three little metal hooks in the … Read More
I never really thought about chimneys until I moved to Paris. Like everyone else, I had sat in front of the occasional roaring fire, dimly aware that there was this long, hollow, flameproof pipe running from the top of the … Read More
One of the things that make Paris a paragon of urban beauty is the way the Seine is incorporated into the municipal landscape. The Seine, of course, is the river that runs through the heart of the city, dividing it … Read More
As everyone knows, the French Revolution began on July 14, 1789, when a mob of anti-royalist insurgents, high on a sugar rush from eating too much cake, attacked a government building in an event that is now invariably described as … Read More
I had never been to Seville before, so when Nancy and I went there for Christmas, I saw it as an opportunity: an opportunity to discover a legendary city, to learn about its traditions, sample exotic foods, massacre an unfamiliar … Read More
A couple of weeks ago, in the course of conducting online research for an upcoming article (which, to judge from my browsing history, will be about “French history,” “French population growth,” “demographics of France” and “French nudists wild beach party”) … Read More
As regular readers of this column know, I grew up in the Midwestern United States and have been living in France for close enough to three decades to round up. Lest anyone wonder, here is a partial list of reasons … Read More
I was in the Midwest for Thanksgiving this year. As I mentioned last year, this is a holiday that doesn’t exist in France, and, as an American and an avowed Thanksgiving enthusiast, I am often called upon to explain its … Read More
Lately I’ve been keeping irregular hours, sleeping in my clothes, neglecting corporeal hygiene and letting my teeth get all fuzzy. Not because I’ve been evicted and am living in the Métro, but because I’ve been on a trip to the … Read More
