Where’s the beef… in Paris?
Beef in France: Not everybody’s a vegan or a vegetarian. Not everybody shuns butter, beef, and fried sticks of carbohydrates (called French fries in America, called “frites” here in France.)
30
01, 2025
1
01, 2025
My Days in Paris: Anything but ordinary
Hammam in Paris: It’s an almost mystical experience without the hymns, ritual god-eating, and guilt. Sometimes called Moorish or Turkish baths, the hammam is a ritual that moves the client through ever-increasing temperatures and periods of relaxation, treatment, and socialization.
26
11, 2024
My Home & Some Castles: Life in a country with 45,000 big houses
It’s been said that a man’s home is his castle. For a lot of women around the world, it’s a castle that needs to be cleaned, fixed up, and made welcoming for family and friends. It’s a job.I retired from a full-time career almost a decade ago which meant I never have to go to the office, get on a plane or spend the night in a hotel room again.
15
10, 2024
QDN? The secret language of French acronyms
Nothing makes you more of an insider than acronyms, those multi-letter abbreviations for things big or small, physical or conceptual, long-lasting or ephemeral.
18
09, 2024
A Fleur by any Other Name
The importance of your name in France: Why its wise to keep all the documents that confirm our identity in see-thru plastic pocket folders in files that we carry with us to any and all official meetings
22
08, 2024
Driving Mme Valerie in France
Driving in France: Have you experienced the complex task of asking the French government to let you drive?
17
07, 2024
Our daily pain: French life and the quotidian visit to the neighborhood boulangerie
Pain: After seven years of living in Paris, I can safely say that very little makes a day better than visiting your local boulangerie and coming away with a warm-from-the-oven baguette.
19
06, 2024
Sunday Lunch, in French
Sunday French lunch captures the essence of French life: Good food, good friends & family, good conversation and good cheer.
23
05, 2024
Finding hidden places in the most visited city on Earth: Or, how I learned to avoid tourist traps and love Paris again
Chateau Vincennes: An advantage to living in Paris is that you often stumble across less ballyhooed museums, monuments, buildings, and gardens that aren't ringed by souvenir shops full of berets and Eiffel Tower key chains.
19
04, 2024
France: What’s a Runaway Wife? How I decided to leave home, family and friends to end my life in France
Runaway Wife: After 40 years of making my living by writing and editing, I decided if this place I now call home is a good enough subject for the writers in Paris before me, I should give it a try.
