This morning I took one of France’s regional trains out to Mussidan, on a hot sunny day. The station was busy, but most of the people were boarding the TGVs heading to Paris, not as many taking my line inward that ends up in Lyon. Few things can compare to […]
In the village of Sauternes, there are dozens of wine producers who focus on the same sweet white wine, known by the same name. It’s pale yellow and as it gets older, it turns slightly darker. It’s hard to chug more than a small glass because it’s very sweet. But […]
Today the pedestrian-only streets in the prosperous city of Bordeaux were mobbed, people were wall to wall because it’s one of the only two times per year that stores in France are allowed to have sales. For the first two weeks of July and again in March, stores can lower […]
We met a man the other night named Eurl Jean-Marie Bitaube, who is a traiteur. His specialty is summer escargot parties, and we followed him in his little white truck to a trail in the huge Foret du Landes, which is a 2.4 million acre planted pine forest, the largest […]
We had a date to go canoeing today but I inquired about getting my own solo vessel instead. To me a kayak on a small river is better than trying to manage a two-person canoe. Plus, it allowed me to go ahead and enjoy the silence of the narrow Citron […]
How would you like to live in a real-life castle? We met a man yesterday named Sebastian de Varitault, who actually does…his family has owned the Chateau de Roquetaillade for the past 700 years. It’s not all knights and fun, he told us, since they receive no assistance to maintain […]
I began the day behind the wheel of a 1989 Citroen Deux Chevaux, that classic little car the symbolizes France. We chugged over narrow roads, past fields of wheat and sunflowers, and through ancient villages where the iconic cars were greeted with smiles. Didier Montarras has made a career out […]
Last night we dined outside in a balmy evening, a relief after the day’s temps were in the upper 90s here in Southwestern France. This weather is unexpected and in most of France, there is a drought parching crops. But in this district, Lot-en-Garonne, golden wheat is being harvested, the […]
Today I walked the streets of Bordeaux with Stephane Thierry, who for 35 years has run the press marketing for the large region of Aquitaine, that covers five distinct parts, from Perigeaux and the Dordogne in the north all the way down to glitzy Biaritz in the South, and west […]
I am in Terminal E at Logan, awaiting a night flight that will bring me to Bordeaux on Monday morning. There are few things I can compare to the giddiness and sense of anticipation that I still feel, after hundreds of trips, about a departure. That’s why I’m a traveler, […]
For the second year in a row, the band Wilco has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars, excitement, energy and creative people into the dreary worn-down mill town of North Adams at the end of June. The three-day event, Solid Sound Music and Arts festival curated by Wilco, was a […]
Lenny singing Sinatra at the Voo. Lenny Zarcone loves to sing. Right in front of you, right at you, he swoops in with his microphone in one hand, the other arm stretched out, and he sings, sweetly, in tune, right into the faces of his audience. He meets your eye, […]