“Bonjour.” “Bonjour.” “J’adore votre ensemble. C’est tres elegant.” “Merci beaucoup.” “Vous habitez a Paris?” “Oui.” “Un Parisien, tres bien!” “Non, je suis americain.” “Oh, okay. Hi. Me, too. I’m visiting for Fashion Week.” “That must be interesting.” “It is. There’s so much going on. I was just wandering about your outfit. It’s so retro.” “Thank … More Conversation From The Twilight Zone
Friday evenings usually find me migrating to the neighborhood cafe (quelle surprise!) and enjoying a break in the action. The Usual Suspects who join me include a melange of academics, entertainers (aspiring and established), members of the French bureaucracy (high and low), a left-leaning–which is really saying something in France–political activist, his wife (member of … More Gallantry and Etiquette, According to the French
I was waiting at the Batobus* station recently, and struck up a conversation with a gentleman from Cleveland. He and his wife were visiting London, Paris, and Rome over a month. Art and culture were the focus of the trip (not their first here), and the conversation eventually turned to what I was doing in … More The Irony of It All
The more time I spend in France, the more I realize how much we as Americans owe the French. While I’m no historian of philosophy, I can’t help but note the ideas of the Enlightenment that bubbled up here…Voltaire acted as the world’s first civil rights activist, challenging injustice in the French courts, and Rousseau’s … More That’s Mr. Marquis To You
I don’t talk about myself much, to others in conversation, or on this blog in writing. I’m happy to talk about Old Money values, or discuss culture, history, philosophy, or current events. I have a keen interest in style–I would not call it fashion–and a passion for public policy–which I would not call politics. As … More Motive and Opportunity
When you arrive in a new city, especially one as unique and international as Paris, you become hypersensitive to your surroundings. At least I have. Paris is ‘foreign’ to me, in the sense that the natives do not speak English as their first language, and some of their customs and habits are unique. Unique not … More Paris…For Parisians