‘Tis the Season for Daumier’s Caricatures of 19th-Century Merrymaking

Les Comédiens de Société, série par Daumier

December being a month for merrymaking, I thought it was a good time to introduce the great printmaker and caricaturist, Honoré Daumier, to my blog. I look at his work as an early precursor to comic strips like The Lighter Side of…, by Dave Berg of Mad Magazine. As you’ll…

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Awesome Gift for Francophiles who Love Paris and Photography

L'éléphant-colosse du Moulin Rouge, 1900, anonymous

I have a small stack of French-related coffee table books that I’ve wanted to review for months but waited until December since I think they’d make great gifts. Today’s post was intended to supplement a previous piece, 35 Sensational Reads for the Francophiles on your Gift List. When I sat…

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Stories of French Adolescence and History that Many Want to Forget

Le refugié, by Felix Nussbaum

If you follow my blog, you’ve probably recognized that I have a penchant for sobering literature. While feel-good stories aren’t exactly banned from my shelves, most of what I read is either nonfiction or historical fiction that sheds light on a troubling period in human history. Likewise, when it comes…

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Trial of Peter Cherif, One of France’s Most Wanted Terrorists

Peter Cherif on trial

Nearly 10 years after Islamic terrorists broke into the offices of Charlie Hebdo, Peter Cherif, one of the last Al-Qaeda jihadists accused of participating in preparations for the attack, was brought to trial earlier this fall. The case was tricky because the attack, which occurred in January 2015, was actually…

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The Complex and Controversial Saga of the Golden Owl

Michel Becker with his Golden Owls

As I wrote last month, France’s 31-year-old treasure hunt for a Golden Owl statuette finally ended sometime during the night of October 2/3, 2024. Michel Becker, one of the contest’s organizers, announced that a single person had managed to solve the 11 puzzles that led to a buried bronze replica.…

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France’s Dirty Indochina War & Whistleblower Jacques Despuech

1 Piastre Bank Note

Last week I wrote about a financial scandal that bilked the French people out of massive sums of money and slowed France’s economic recovery after World War II. Through a series of government-approved transactions, moving money from Saigon to mainland France, the French people inadvertently funded the weaponization of the…

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