The night these guys faced off, I was facing down a guy in Paris, trying to get some face time in the hopes of getting faced. I failed. Okay, I lied. In my article three weeks ago about following the … Read More
In preparation for this article, I found myself reflecting on a well-known philosophical tenet. First outlined in Plato’s Republic and later elaborated upon in detail in The Confessions of Saint Augustine, it states one of the basic precepts of Western … Read More
Other than wishing that it cost a soupçon less, I have no complaints about French cuisine. It is indisputably one of the world’s main cultural achievements and, much more importantly, one of the main reasons I moved here from the … Read More
I have heard that there is a presidential election coming up in the United States. For an American living in Paris, that means one thing: it’s time to head for the bar. Any gin joint will do, especially if your … Read More
A few weeks back, I wrote about how Nancy and I found our first rental apartment in Paris, a saga that involved frequent repetition of the phrase “We were so lucky!” I called that article “The Luck of the Draw, … Read More
The leak in my toilet reminded me of my old stereo system. Back in the days before digital technology became compact and ubiquitous, when you had to be home to get your phone calls, friends were people you had actually … Read More
The City of Light has long been associated with a light-handed attitude toward morality. By some accounts, Parisians are a bunch of hormone-addled sex maniacs who see something suggestive everywhere they turn. And, judging from the material I collected for … Read More
I overheard the most extraordinary conversation the other day while sitting behind a young couple on a bus. To pick a sample sentence more or less at random, at one point the woman said: “We need to go to the … Read More
Let’s see… Costume? Check. Instrument? Check. Props? Check. Ability to count to four? Hey, you can’t have everything! In Paris, good street musicians are like free, legal parking places: you know they’re out there, but on the reality scale … Read More
The highest point in the city of Paris is the Butte de Montmartre, “Martyrs Hill,” so-called because, according to legend, this was where Saint Denis, the patron saint of France, was beheaded by the Romans in approximately 250 CE. The … Read More
