Throughout the month I come across a fair number of articles, blogs, images, exhibits, or videos that I’d like to share with readers, but they don’t necessarily work into my typical format. So, I’ve decided to create a monthly post that briefly highlights some of the Internet gems that have…
Two weeks ago, I wrote about a love letter that Victor Hugo wrote to his mistress, Juliette Drouet, shortly after fleeing France to live in exile. In that post, I remarked that over the course of their impressive 50-year relationship, Juliette penned roughly 20,000 letters to the storied author. It’s…
These days, when I go online, it seems nearly impossible to avoid bad news. Between Covid, the U.S. election, the response to the BLM movement, and many other raw subjects, it’s tough to remain positive. My post this week is an attempt to avoid the merde and focus on man’s…
Last week I introduced readers to the larger-than-life Kiki de Montparnasse. Kiki was a flamboyant artist’s model and muse of many notable painters, sculptors, and photographers living in Paris during les années folles, or 1920s. Born into poverty and abandoned by her parents, Kiki found herself alone on the streets…
There are many reasons why I love my public library and high on the list is its world language section. Over the years, regularly browsing the French stacks, I’ve often noticed the book Kiki de Montparnasse, by Catel Muller and José-Louis Bocquet. For whatever reason, the cover blurb never managed…
My series of posts about a new exposition featuring the Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris only covered a small fraction of the subjects tackled by the entire exhibit. There is much more to say and if you enjoyed the series, I hope you find time to visit the online exposition.…
You may well remember the terrorist attacks that took place in Paris on November 13, 2015. That evening, 6 separate attacks were carried out across the city, using both suicide bombers and gunmen with automatic weapons. In little more than an hour, 130 people lost their lives and 413 people…
On April 15, 2019, an electrical short is believed to have sparked the fire that nearly destroyed the 850-year old Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. Within days, France’s president, Emmanuel Macron vowed to rebuild the famous monument within 5 years. One year later, clean-up is still underway and many…
