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…
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…
Night had fallen last December when I left the Musée Carnavalet after attending an exhibit on La Régence, a period in French history that marks the dawn of the Enlightenment. Despite the darkness, the streets of the Marais were still bustling with activity and I felt the same pull to…
I know Madame Bovary is hailed as one of the greatest works of French literature, but after plugging away at the first 200 pages of the book this summer, I had to give up. I can’t say the writing is bad—far from it. The story simply failed to pique my…
I never imagined I’d begin a blog post with the words “this week I had a hysterectomy” but such is the case. I’ve decided that I might as well let it be known that I have more in common with my two female cats than I did one week ago.…
A skeptic at heart, I’m not one to believe in providence or good luck but whenever I’m in Paris, the number of happy coincidences I experience seems improbably high. For example, last December, after visiting an exhibit of Honoré Daumier’s 19th-century farcical Parisian caricatures, I failed to find a book…
If you’re like me, you enjoy giving books as presents. A couple of years ago, it occurred to me to share a list of my favorite sensational reads related to France. I’ve updated the list in time for the holiday season. My latest entries are denoted by **. Don’t be…
I recently read A Son at the Front, by Edith Wharton, the first woman to receive a Pulitzer Prize in Fiction. Wharton, the daughter of wealthy New York aristocrats, lived in Paris during World War I. Throughout the conflict, she dedicated herself to France’s defeat of the Germans. She volunteered…
