Beyond la rentrée

Hello dear readers, Unless you are French speakers, you are probably wondering what “la rentrée means. It is a word you hear a lot in France, especially at the end of summer vacation just before school starts. Literally, it means “the return” and although there are many vacations in France and hence many returns, “la […]

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Emily in Paris

Ah, Emily in Paris!  Emily the innocent (who hit Paris running with her open, smiling American face) and Emily the arrogant (who never seemed to realize why the French wouldn’t want to take lessons in marketing or anything else from a young woman who didn’t speak a word of their language) opened a new page on

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A Martian in France

Letter from Paris March 2023 You don’t need to be a Martian to find French behaviour strange and mysterious, sometimes charming and curious, other times vaguely unsettling. You can simply be a citizen of any other country that is NOT France! I have been observing and cataloguing the strange and mysterious, curious and charming aspects of French behavior ever since

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Here We Go Again

PARIS, March-April, 2022 The year was 1962, the month October. I clearly remember my 16-year-old self standing still in a state of shock as I listened to the alarming reports and speculation about a possible nuclear war after U.S. intelligence reports showed that Russian missiles had been secretly placed in Cuba. Less than an hour

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Mayhem in Paris

Saturday, December 4: The phone rings as I am going outside and my husband signals me furiously with the hand that isn’t on the phone. “Be careful”, he mouthed. His friend on the other end of the line had called to see how we were because he had just watched “casseurs” (thugs) running down our

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