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I watch the television news each morning that I wake up in South Deerfield, since I’ve installed one of those racks that holds the TV way up on the wall like in a hospital room. My ritual is to flip it on and catch some scenes of news or turn […]
I remember a boss once when I sold newsaper ads whose claim to fame was his long association with the Washington Post. His name was Don, and he used to come into work very early, and always wore beautifully pressed dress shirts and shiny leather shoes. He came from that […]
I am back, running on all cylinders, having some fun doing what I do when I am working in my South Deerfield office. The trip to Tours in France energized my writing, making it easier to write and let it flow. That always makes for a better story, that flow. […]
While we were finishing dinner during one of the stops this week, a French guide told me that her kid’s German teacher was sitting over on the other side of the restaurant with his mistress. She knew him because her husband is a doctor, and he’s treating the man’s parents […]
I’m back from a different market, this one located just east of the train station, a quick walk from Madame Barnard’s apartment. She had a family joining us last night, and at breakfast they sat in the sunny porch and had their coffee while their two young sons chattered in […]
At Les Halles, the indoor and outdoor market in Tours, I asked this friendly produce vendor why her strawberries were so much redder and juicier than the ones across the aisle, which barely looked red, let alone ripe. “It’s because they are, vendres, and we are the growers,” she explained. […]
I’ve discovered that French shoe fashion doesn’t follow what most women in America prefer. I first noticed this when I saw a women wearing ballet slippers. These women at my cooking school all agreed–the flat rules. No chunky heels here, no big high clogs or high heeled sneakers. I had […]
I’d never given much thought to how one of France’s most famous cookies was made. Macarons, they’re called. Today I got an up-close look at how these delicious little sandwich cookies are made, when I joined ten French women for a baking class at tours a Table, owned by a […]
Vincent Careme is one of many young winemakers who are creating great white wines in the area around Vouvray, near Tours, France. Compared to the storied wine regions of Burgundy and Bordeaux, land costs in this part of the country are cheap, allowing twenty-something winemakers like Careme to begin early. […]
All over France, a new tradition is bringing citizens and visitors into the streets at night. It’s called Les Nuits Lumiere, or Illuminated Nights, and combines classical music and large images projected on buildings, bridges and other surfaces. Using the lines of the ancient buildings in the city, like the […]
This morning we walked around an area called the Marais, the marshes in Bourges, France, where 1500 local people tend gardens among watery trails and wildlife. In this video you can hear the frogs making their mating noises in the marsh. It’s a lovely spot, surrounded by water and some […]
We walked through the city of Bourges, in the center of the region of Cher, not expecting such a lovely and compact old city. I just never knew how nice this town was, and it surprised me. But it’s been a center of history and the cathedral is as dramatic […]