Loup! Qui Est Tu?
Who’s Afraid ... ?
In French, the expression “image d’Épinal” refers to something that’s traditional, naively upbeat, clichéd, maybe even corny. The expression’s origin goes back to the Imagerie d’Épinal, founded in 1796, which became famous all over France for its brightly colored, simplified … Read More
Courbet/Hodler: Une Rencontre
Courbet Country
Any fan of the painter Gustave Courbet (1819-77) will relish the drive from Besançon to his hometown of Ornans in eastern France, near the Swiss border. You may even feel like a tiny figure in one of his luxuriant landscape … Read More
Susumu Shingu: Une Utopie d’Aujourd’hui
To Catch the Wind
The view of the Château de Chambord from the near distance is spectacular, but the sight of Susumu Shingu’s white kinetic sculptures moving silently in the breeze like abstract swans swimming on the moat turns it into pure magic. Beyond … Read More
Château de Cheverny
Château Life, 1624-2019
The early-17th-century Château de Cheverny, one of the few in the Loire Valley that has been continuously inhabited for its entire existence by the same family, has added a new attraction to the many it already has: a “Love Garden” … Read More
Saint Petersburg
Finding France in Saint Petersburg
What’s so French about Saint Petersburg? Quite a lot, surprisingly. I was recently invited to visit the watery Russian city on the Gulf of Finland, with its canals, river and sea, and found it to be almost a museum of … Read More
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