In early December, I wrote about the Vendée Globe, sailing’s most daunting solo challenge. This round-the-world, non-stop race demands a combination of both physical and psychological stamina that is unmatched elsewhere in the world of adventure sports. Since Wednesday morning, I’ve been glued to my computer, watching as the race’s…
Shortly after the dark day that marked George Floyd’s murder, a friend of mine posted an article on her Facebook page, written by the Haitian filmmaker, Raoul Peck. While Floyd’s death was hardly a surprising piece of news, given the prevalence of similar incidents, his brutal killing seemed to have…
Back in October, I was reading a post on Bleu Blonde Rouge, a blog by Claudine Hemingway. In it, Hemingway wrote about her favorite French cookbooks. I love to cook so jotted down a couple of the titles to see if I could find them at my library. I was…
Yesterday marked the 6-year anniversary of the savage terrorist attack on the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo. That morning, two gunmen killed 12 members of Charlie Hebdo’s staff and left 11 injured. I wrote about one of the courageous survivors, Coco, back in 2017. The word courageous, however, doesn’t do…
This week, I was planning to publish a December Potpourri post, featuring highlights from articles, blogs, images, books, or videos that I came across last month. However, saying goodbye to this calamitous year has redirected my energies somewhat. I’ve spent the week enjoying time with my family, reflecting on the…
Last week I began summarizing some of the highlights from The Story of French, by Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow. My post left off in the midst of the French Revolution. I read much of the book in November. During the week of our election, I was learning that at…
Today, France lands at number 22 in the list of countries when ranked by population size. Yet, French is the 5th most spoken language in the world, behind English, Mandarin, Hindi, and Spanish. It’s an impressive status for a relatively small country—49th in the world in terms of geographic area.…
While many of us are tired of the isolation and solitude provoked by the Coronavirus pandemic, a few dozen of the world’s elite sailors are currently putting our notion of hardship to shame. On November 8th, 33 skippers set off on a solo, non-stop sailing race that circumnavigates the globe.…
