Christian Dior, un talent extraordinaire On the windy, sunny last day of 2017 a friend and I attended the Dior retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. It was without a doubt one of the best museum displays I have seen in a long time: informative, complete, well-explained and….magical! Dior was more than a designer: […]
Christian Dior, un talent extraordinaire Read More »
Paris Delights Now here’s what I love about Paris and why it has a reputation as a romantic city: there are so many pleasurable surprises – even when you’ve lived here as long as I have and that’s a good long time. I knew that master chocolate maker and 9-star chef Alain Ducasse had a
Pictures top row: Tiny but pretty Peruvian crèche, our dinner menu, one for each guest with place card. Pictures bottom row, The Christmas table and Harriet and Philippe posing in front of it. Christmas Eve chez les Rocheforts. I was in charge of the turkey, wild rice, sweet potatoes, cheese plate etc. Philippe took care
Un Joyeux Noël chez les Rocheforts Read More »
Photo: A London street with its Christmas decorations. A Little Pre-Christmas Jaunt to London A recent trip to London with a friend: I hadn’t been in way too long and had forgotten how easy it is via EuroStar. The weather was cold and snowy, then cold and rainy but that didn’t dampen (literally) our
A tale of two cities Read More »
To my readers: I am sorry I have not posted since the month of May. Writing a book, which is what I am engaged in, requires an enormous amount of concentration. (The picture shows me and my manuscript in my favourite café.) I hope to finish my opus soon and start blogging again. You will
In my most recent post below on the “invisible French”, I added a link which some of my readers have told me doesn’t work. As it’s quite complicated to rectify this on the post, I would suggest those who are interested in finding the article to google it with the following information: “Abandoned and voting
The French “invisibles” vote for Le Pen In case you are, legitimately, wondering who is voting for French extreme right leader Marine Le Pen, take the time to read the following article https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/04/opinion/sunday/why-my-father-votes-for-marine-le-pen.html?_r=0 by Edouard Louis, a brilliant young man who grew up in a very poor household 100 kilometres north of Paris. In his village, there
French “invisibles” vote for Le Pen Read More »
Just posted this on Facebook today and got a huge and positive response so am re-posting here for the readers of my blog. No sooner had Emmanuel Macron won the first round in the French presidential elections than he was criticized for inviting friends and followers to celebrate at La Rotonde, a well-known brasserie in
After months of suspense, the French flocked to the polls yesterday to vote in the first round of the French presidential elections. The result was surprising, even “revolutionary”. Neither of the winners came from the two major political parties, Les Républicains on the Right, and the Socialist Party on the Left. Emmanuel Macron, a former
French elections: voters reject the mainstream political parties Read More »
One of the most frequent questions I am asked by visiting tourists and student groups is: “Has France changed?” and if so, “how?” Since France is people by the French, it’s fairly obvious that you can’t address the question of whether France is changing without addressing the question of whether the French are changing.