Something to Celebrate and the Art of Émilie Charmy

This week I’ve been looking for something to celebrate and a particular milestone related to this blog stands out. Last Friday’s post was my 200th, a bicentenary of sorts. You may have wondered (as I have) why I maintain this random assortment of loosely coupled brain dumps. The answer isn’t always clear to me but I think there are two primary motivations. The first is reasonably paraphrased by one of my favorite American authors, Flannery O’Connor:

I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.

We live in a content-rich world with so much to consume that it’s easy to move from book to book, film to film, article to article, and painting to painting, without taking much time to reflect. Writing is difficult and for me, way more time-consuming than I’d like. I don’t piss words as my husband Andy likes to say. Words don’t flow out of me. I spend more time on these posts than I care to admit and the pay rate stinks! But ultimately, I produce posts that solidly reflect my thinking and values.

Secondly, I remain a passionate student of French art, history, and language and if I can share my discoveries with other francophiles, then maybe I’ve taken one small step toward strengthening a culture I cherish. When describing his craft, the famous French playwright and humorist Molière is noted as saying:

Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money.

For better or for worse, I’m still in phase one of that three-part progression although some of my regular readers have come to feel like close friends. I’m selfishly writing for myself about things that interest me and hoping that my words occasionally appeal to others. In that light, I’ve put together a few lists of Top Ten posts, interspersed with the exquisite artwork of Émilie Charmy. Like many I’ve covered on this blog, Charmy is another trailblazing female who fought her way into a male-dominated club—in her case, the 20th-century avant-garde painters of Paris.

Top Ten Most Popular Posts

The following is a list of my most-read posts. Who decides what I write is worthwhile or not? In large part, it’s Google’s mysterious algorithm for ranking web pages. Here are its chosen breadwinners.

1. On the Trail of the Golden Owl, Lucrative Quest or Wild-Goose-Chase?

Perhaps it’s not surprising that this post about a 30-year-long treasure hunt for a bejeweled gold and silver statuette has been more popular than any other post.

2. Rebuilding Notre Dame, Painstaking Battle Between New and Old

I’m glad this post, about the army of artisans and experts who are working to restore the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris to its former glory, has received so many eyeballs. However, about half of these impressions came from a single source who reposted my story on Hacker News. Go figure.

3. Julie Gautier’s Ama, Stunning Underwater Dance of Strength and Courage

When I first published this story about the champion free diver, Julie Gautier, I was disappointed by the reception. Five months after I posted, however, the traffic suddenly shot up. I had no idea what had sparked the uptick until one day, sitting in a Marriott hotel room I turned on the TV. The feature story that appeared on the screen before I could surf away was about Julie Gautier. Apparently, Marriott’s short video bio, which ran for over a year in every Marriott property across the country, piqued the interest of some viewers who turned to Google to learn more.

4. French Blockbuster Disappoints, Reinventing the Life of Gustave Eiffel

I’ve produced half a dozen posts centered on the Eiffel Tower and this one would probably be the last I’d recommend to people. It’s a critique of the French film Eiffel, with which I was sorely disappointed. However, Google seems to love it. Last summer, during the Olympic Games, it received a boost beyond its normal steady stream. I suspect that tourists in Paris, wanting to learn more about the famous landmark were led (or rather misled) to read a review that isn’t nearly as interesting as some of my other pieces illuminating the Eiffel Tower’s colorful history.

5. Camus’ Letters to a German Friend, a Warning for Our Times

By contrast, I’m very happy with the relative popularity of this post about a letter that the Nobel Prize-winning author, Albert Camus, wrote during WWII to a fictitious German friend. Camus was active in the French Resistance, a clandestine movement that played a key role in overthrowing the Germans. Here he predicts the triumph of truth over falsehood.

6. Juliette Drouet; The Lonely Life of Hugo’s Devoted Mistress

I have a number of posts that feature correspondence written by notable historical figures. Letters, if well-written, have a way of bringing history to life with indisputable insights. And, everyone loves a love story. This post features portions of the more than 20,000 letters that passed between Victor Hugo and his sequestered mistress, Juliette Drouet.

7. Racism in France, What Most Americans Don’t Know

I wrote this post shortly after the George Floyd protests erupted across the United States. Similar demonstrations spilled into France. It seemed like a good moment to dive into a topic that has long fascinated me—that is, how the issue of racism in France differs from the issue here in the U.S.

8. Evangeline, Longfellow’s Epic Poem and its Remarkable French Translation

This post is near and dear to my heart as it tells the dramatic story of French settlers in Canada who were displaced when the North American territory fell under British rule. The great poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow encapsulates this tragic upheaval of a people in his epic poem, Evangeline. However, the French translation, which I view as a masterful derivative work by Pamphile LeMay, is even better.

9. Little Red Riding Hood, An Insanely Popular Tale from France

This is a post that once I began writing, I had serious doubts about. What sense did it make for me to write about a story that everyone already knows so well? However, the post was fun to write (and illustrate) and perhaps people are just as happy revisiting something they’re already familiar with as they are learning something new.

10. How Victor Hugo Saved Notre Dame de Paris

I never know where my writing is going to take me and when I started this blog, I would never have predicted that I’d end up writing more articles featuring Victor Hugo than any other topic. This post describes Hugo’s dedication to the Gothic cathedral in the heart of Paris and how his novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, helped save the famous monument from ruin.

Top Ten Posts Because I Love the Stories Behind Them

The Dominican-American author, Julia Alvarez was once asked to name the best book she’d ever written. Here’s how she replied.

To be honest, every book I write is my best at the time I am writing it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t put it out there.

I often have the same sentiment about my blog. The post that I last published is my favorite, possibly because it’s fresh, but also because it covers a topic that I’ve most recently been itching to learn more and write about.

Below, however, are ten posts that I might classify as favorites because I love the stories behind them. It’s impossible for me to rank order them with any accuracy so I present them to you just as I would my children. They each have their own strengths and special qualities that bring me joy.

Pondering Diderot’s Encyclopedia Never Ceases to Blow My Mind

Rudy Kurniawan, Extraordinary Forger of Fine Wine

Contradictory Paths Out of a Casablanca Slum, Sidi Moumen

The Ultimate Hoodwinkery, The Crook Who Sold the Eiffel Tower

The Indefatigable Nadar and his Pantheon of Cultural Big Wigs

Affair Of The Diamond Necklace, Swindle That Ruined An Innocent Queen

Visiting the Louvre through the Eyes of Outstanding Cartoonists

The Paris Attacks of November 13 and One Psychiatrist’s Confession

Whodunit? The Deadly Bullets that Narrowly Missed General de Gaulle

Gustave Doré, Illustrious Illustrator Dismissed by the Elite

Top Ten Posts Featuring Books and Their Authors

One of the unforeseen rewards of writing more has been the way in which it has shaped my reading. I think I’ve become a better reader. Not that I’m a faster reader. I still envy people who can consume a hundred pages in a single sitting. However, writing has made me better equipped to savor the words set before me, like a monk reflecting on the forces of nature that have delivered the meal he’s about to absorb.

Creating a list of my ten favorite posts related to books and authors is evidence of my fascination, not only with France, but also with graphic novels, the Middle East, challengers of the status quo, and warfare.

Arab of the Future, Classic Literature Masquerading as Comics

Chance and One Author’s Exploration of Extremism and Corruption

Surviving A Massacre—Catherine Meurisse And Art’s Curative Power

A Son at the Front, Informative Fiction Behind the Battlelines

A Game for Swallows, Revealing Humanity Beneath the Rubble

Pat Conroy Literary Center, Tribute to a Great American Author

War in Afghanistan, Life of the Combat Soldier

Black Authors Matter, Marguerite Abouet’s Positive Images of African Life

North by Shakespeare, An Underdog Defies 500 Years of Literary Doctrine

Graphic Novelist Jiro Taniguchi, Adored in France, has Died

Top Ten Posts That I Wish Got More Traffic

Here are some posts that I felt sure would be big hits when I put them out. OK, let’s be real. Nothing I’ve written has been a “big hit”. Nevertheless, I think all of these stories are worthy of the same traffic that any in the Google Top Ten, listed above, have received.

Marthe Gautier, Forgotten by the Misogynistic March of History

The Miseries of War, 400-Year-Old Portrayal of Treachery

Photography of Janol Apin: Outstanding Works that are Uniquely French

The Stunning Courage of Coco, Female Contributor to Charlie Hebdo

Kiki de Montparnasse, Muse of A Thousand Faces

Photojournalist Jonas Bendiksen Risked his Reputation Warning the World

The New Musée Carnavalet and a Renaissance Quiz

The Secret Governing Body of the French Resistance and its Plan for “Happy Days”

Bassins des Lumières, Man’s Awesome Capacity to Destroy or Exhilarate

“Under the Bridges of Paris”—Contrasting French and American Cultures

Reflection on Reflections

While I created Cas d’Intéret, Reflections of a Francophile in 2015, I didn’t start blogging in earnest until the pandemic kicked in. Over the last four years, I’ve often questioned the value of my work on this site. With so many needs in the world, it feels self-indulgent to spend as much time as I do pursuing personal passions.

However, looking over my collection of 200 does make me want to celebrate. Learning about the stories behind the posts and mustering the discipline required to write about them has been rewarding. Who knows? Maybe today’s entry marks the first in the next batch of 200.

Thanks for joining me on my circuitous journey through French culture, history, literature, and language.