At Chateau La Thuiliere, a Cooking Lesson with Foie Gras
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 […]
Chateau d’Yquem: The Man Among the Boys of Sauternes
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 […]
Bordeaux is an Exciting, Gleaming City with Residents Who Are Proud of It
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 […]
In the Palombiere, Over Escargots, We Learn about a Tough Hunt
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 […]
Screw Top Wines in France? Oui, Oui!
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 […]
He Lives in a Castle that’s Been in the Family 700 Years
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 […]
Cruising to a Picnic in a Classic French Ride
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 […]
On a Balmy Evening, The Journalists Want to Eat Locally
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 […]
In Bordeaux, the Cruise Ships Dock Right In the City
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 […]
Tomorrow We Drive to Lot-en-Garonne and Begin our Aquitaine Adventures
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, […]
Solid Sound Brings Culture, Music, Excitement, Wilco and Bucks to No. Adams
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 […]
He Hustles Hard, He Sings Sweetly…He’s Lenny, from Greenfield
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, […]
How Big a Bottle Do You Need to Celebrate a World Championship?
My apologies to the reader who said my last post was too depressing. As a remedy, I’d like to share the exuberance of two world champions, and the very special liquid that they chose to indulge in to celebrate. A story by Jason Gay in the WSJ described two team’s […]
Lady Death Will Find You. Sadly, That Is Guaranteed
In Los Angeles Magazine last night, a ghoulish yet compelling story held my rapt attention. It was about what happens to you when you die. With a pre-amble that waxed philosophic on the inevitability of death despite all of our preoccupations with trying to stay healthy and put off the […]
Socialist Dreams and Beauty Queens: A traveler in Venezuela
I”m reading a book called Socialist Dreams and Beauty Queens: A Couchsurfer’s Memoir of Venezuela by a young English writer named Jamie Maslin. The facts he presents by visiting so many people there have completely changed my opinion of a man who I once thought of as a force for […]
Unnatural Selection: How So Many Girls Were Never Born
In normal human reproduction, there is a natural tendency to have more boys than girls…the ratio is about 104 to 100. But a new book by Mara Hvistendahl has come out about how much this has changed over the past fifty years and the dramatic repercussions that changing this ratio […]
Mutton and Mead Brings Thousands Back 800 Years to an English Village Festival
I took off my watch and left my cellphone at home yesterday. After all, I was traveling back in time, to the Middle ages, where a festival was taking place in a clearing in the woods of Turner’s Falls. It was the Mutton and Mead Medieval Festival, and more than […]
“Fair Game” Tells the Story of Betrayal of an Agent and the Results
Sitting around a dinner table with a group of close friends, wine flowing freely, someone throws out that Iraq’s dictator, Saddam Hussein, must be intending to use WMDs. It’s 2003, and the US is just about to launch the Shock and Awe campaign of missiles based on intelligence that proved […]