In appearance, it resembled a cheap mimeographed syllabus from a university course in the 1950s or 1960s. But it was anything but. In September 1940, close to six months after Adolf Hitler’s Wehrmacht troops marched in triumph through the Arch de Triomphe in Paris, German authorities drew up a list of books considered to be … More Liste Otto: Banning Books in WWII France ..read more

Entering into a Dreamscape of Words Who? Julian Green. Or Julien Green, as he preferred to be called. An American, but not an American. Born in Paris in 1900 to American parents, he wrote sixty-five books, most in French, and spent the majority of his life in France. It’s no surprise I’ve stumbled across him … More Julian/Julien Green’s “Paris ..read more

Not long ago, I read a book written by Julia Child’s great-nephew, Luke Barr. His Ritz and Escoffier: The Hotelier, the Chef, and the Rise of the Leisure Class revealed what happens when two geniuses meet. These two men probably did more to change the way high-class hotels and restaurants operated, and the impact is … More Auguste Escoffier and the Invention of the Restaurant Kitchen Brigade System ..read more

I’ve spent many happy hours strolling along the River Seine in Paris, browsing through the many book stalls (bouquinistes) dotting the parapet of the river. One of THE most emblematic symbols of Paris, aside from Notre Dame and croissants and the Eiffel Tower, the bouquinistes along the Left and Right banks of the River Seine … More Les Bouquinistes of Paris: Booksellers Along the Seine ..read more

Last Days of an Iconic French Cultural Figure This photo hangs on a wall in my kitchen. It sums up the stereotypical essence of traditional concierges of the past. I stayed once in a garret in Paris on the Île Saint-Louis for a month. Unlike the woman in Robert Doisneau’s iconic photo, the building’s concierge … More The Dying of the French Concierge ..read more

A Meditation on Éric Vuillard’s The Order of the Day The thing about history I love most is that we know how certain events came to an end. Or we think we know. Most of the time, that is. Living through historical events, on the other hand, presents challenges, often life-threatening, with the outcome never … More The Art of Writing History: A Satirical Approach ..read more

Reading Martin Walker’s Bruno, Chief of Police Novels It’s interesting how synchronicity works. My current, long-term writing project involves France – actually Paris – during World War II. However, there’re are only so many words about that time I can take in at once. So when I discovered a series of novels set in the … More A Little Side Trip to the Dordogne/Périgord ..read more

Shakespeare is the happy hunting ground of all minds that have lost their balance. JAMES JOYCE, ULYSSES Just about every book-loving tourist visiting Paris knows about Shakespeare & Company, a funky and unusual bookshop. Located at 37, Rue de la Bûcherie, overlooking the Seine, with a magnificent view of Notre Dame to boot, it’s usually … More A Bookshop in Paris: Living the Dream … Until a Dictatorship Destroyed Free Thought ..read more

This year – 2024 – scares me more than does Stephen King’s The Shining, published decades ago, 1977 to be exact. And that’s saying a lot, an awful lot. Truth be told, I have never been able to neither read the book all the way through nor watch the film to the ghastly end. (I … More What Scares Me More than Stephen King’s “The Shining ..read more

This year, Santa Claus brought me a most unusual book, David Drake’s Paris at War, 1939-1944. In 2008, David Drake wandered through what he calls a “controversial exhibition of colour photographs staged in the library devoted to the history of the city” of Paris, the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris, 22, rue Malher. … More Paris at War, a Review ..read more