There was a time in my life when I thought I hated history. My irritation with the subject developed in high school. History classes were taught by athletic coaches, most of whom didn’t seem particularly interested in the subject matter and I found our textbooks to be completely devoid of…
This week I spent time translating a document for a friend whose grandfather fought in World War I. The document, issued by the French government, recognizes members of a United States Marine Regiment that helped defeat the Germans near the end of the war. There’s only one paragraph to translate.…
There are many reasons why I keep returning to the city of Paris, some of them concrete, others intangible. I always take hundreds of photos. Last summer, on my first trip back since the pandemic, I did so with the idea of melding them into a video to share with…
My last post featured the bitter story of Marthe Gautier, a young female doctor betrayed by her male colleagues. In 1957, Gautier was a promising intern in the field of pediatric cardiology. While working in a research lab studying children with intellectual disabilities, Gautier’s ingenuity and dedication led to the…
In the 1950s, a young doctor named Marthe Gautier happened to be the only scientist in Paris who knew how to grow human cell cultures. Gautier had perfected the new, cutting-edge technique after receiving a highly-coveted scholarship that sent her to study at Harvard University for a year. Upon returning…
After a week of perfect weather, another glorious morning fueled our footsteps as we made our way beneath the Porte de Bourgogne to catch a northbound tram. It was our last day in Bordeaux, a city of 250,000 residents with an enviable transportation network comprised of 4 tram lines, 80…
At the end of June, my husband Andy and I visited the French city of Bordeaux for the first time. I often plan a full agenda when we travel but this year we left much of our daily itinerary to chance and whimsy. A week before we boarded a train…
Whenever I’m in Paris, I make a point of visiting the Musée Carnavalet, which chronicles the history of the city. During my last pre-pandemic trip in 2018, however, the museum was closed for renovations. So, it wasn’t until June 2022 that I once again had a chance to wander the…
