The French don’t know what they’re missing: they don’t find this funny at all (“Nwah-zee” is a suburb of Paris). Sign spotted and photo taken by Perry Leopard Since starting this column I have adopted the habit of taking a … Read More
Finding a turkey in Paris at this time of year can be a wild goose chase. The French don’t need Thanksgiving. They already have nationally mandated days off on New Year’s Day, Easter Monday, Labor Day (May 1st), VE Day … Read More
I recently went on a pilgrimage in southwestern France. Not to Lourdes, home of the cave where the Virgin Mary put in a famous personal appearance in 1858 (she looked great, by the way), but to Cabrerets, a small town … Read More
Need something to worry about in 2012? The Paris Fire Department to the rescue! It’s that time of year. In Paris, autumn means a chill in the air, leaves on the sidewalk, wild game in the markets… and firemen … Read More
According to Hollywood, this is the view from every window in Paris. Which is closer to the truth than some of the things I heard… Photo: Darren Palmer The first thing every Frenchman does in the morning is not take … Read More
There’s no accounting for it: people either love oysters or hate them. But I can guarantee that by the time they reach the condition shown here, oysters hate people. As I have mentioned from time to time, it so happens … Read More
I didn’t get lucky, but number 9’s grand-sire sure did. The horse track is a key fixture of American popular culture, serving as the setting for fiction by writers from Damon Runyon to Charles Bukowski and episodes of TV shows … Read More
Buying one of these pastries could turn out to be a hands-on experience. Back in the 1950s, the French government undertook a large-scale campaign to improve the population’s general health. Under the impetus of prime minister Pierre Mendès-France, people were … Read More
One of the things I admire about the French population as a whole is the surprising number of people here who can’t get enough of school. For example, from 1985 to 2005, one of most eagerly awaited television specials during … Read More
Back in the 1980s when I had just moved to Paris, I used to go sell a batch of unwanted books every August. This was the result of a concurrence of circumstances: 1. I used to (and still do) buy … Read More
