If you’ve ever taken a course in French literature, you probably had to read at least one work by a Francophone author with African origins. France’s colonial empire once controlled a significant portion of Africa, and while nearly all of these areas gained independence by 1960, French is widely spoken…
Last Sunday started famously with a small family gathering under the Michigan sun while temperatures remained in the 60s. Sometime in the afternoon, however, my blog went offline, and it took nearly 20 hours to correct the problem. That was annoying, but it was the least of the troubles that…
I was first introduced to the engravings of Jacques Callot many years ago when I happened upon a free exhibit of his 18-plate series, The Miseries of War. Born in Lorraine in 1593, Callot is one of France’s great masters of engraving. Not only did he produce thousands of spectacular…
We’ve all read about notorious criminals who, after pulling off a clever heist, were caught, served time, then applied their talents to a legitimate trade. Consider Kevin Mitnick, the brilliant computer hacker who was imprisoned for multiple cybercrimes, then launched a globally successful cybersecurity company upon his release. Or the…
One of my favorite exhibit spaces, Le musée d’art moderne de Paris, currently features over 100 works by Henri Matisse devoted to his daughter, Marguerite. The exhibit runs through August 24, 2025, so you might want to stop by if you plan to visit Paris this summer. I have to…
There’s an old adage that I’ve found myself using with increasing frequency over the last decade. The more he spoke of his honesty, the faster we counted our spoons. More and more figureheads seem to adhere to the notion that if you say something loud enough and long enough, people…
Or, Just Because You Have Impostor Syndrome Doesn’t Mean You’re Not a Fake Last week, I wrote about an excursion I took with friends to the top of La Grande Arche—a massive office building in the heart of Paris’ modern business district, La Défense. In the spring of 2023, we…
Or, Just Because You Have Impostor Syndrome Doesn’t Mean You’re Not a Fake An often overlooked site when visiting Paris is La Grande Arche de La Défense, located in a stylish business district just beyond the city limits. Starting from the city center, the most efficient route to La Défense…
