Category Archives: france

Bastille Day 1789

July 14, 2024 – 1:11 am

2 July 1789 The Bastille – Paris The Marquis De Sade was in the stone fortress on charges of perversion. In the afternoon a prisoner cried from his window. “Ils tuent les prisonniers.” The guards subdued the inmate, but his words sparked a smoldering rumor and the rumor spread through the poor neighborhood awaiting a […]

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Les Frogs

July 14, 2024 – 1:02 am

Most Americans have an unfavorable attitude toward the French. This antipathy is based on the abuse many US tourists have suffered from dismissive Paris waiters during their weeklong summer vacation. Few of my countrymen realize that these garcons are rude to their own countrymen as well as any estrangers. That is not to say that […]

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BETTER LUCKY THAN GOOD by Peter Nolan Smith

June 18, 2024 – 8:02 am

Back in October of 1990 a greasy nor-easter ruined Columbus Day weekend for New York. I shut my windows for the first time in months and dressed to leave my apartment for breakfast at the Veselka Diner on 2nd Avenue. The shoes and jacket seemed unnaturally heavy after a season of shorts and sandals. Luckily […]

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La Belle Francoise Hardy 1944-2024

June 13, 2024 – 3:07 am

Francoise Hardy remains an icon of beauty. The brunette had tons of hits in the 1960s. Francoise was the ultimate Yeh-Yeh Girl. Sadly Francoise Hardy passed this past week. But Mlle. Hardy remains a beauty. And Forever. “When I write, it is always the melody that comes first, and it just happens to be the […]

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Lost In Lille 2011

April 14, 2024 – 9:17 am

Lost In Lille 2011 After the Chunnel Night Luxembourg bound Porsche Boxer 180 KPH The Ambassador behind the wheel Moi Un passenger The embassy’s unofficial writer-in-residence Through the Hauts-de-France. Flat Same as Belgium Jacques Brel’s Le plat pays qui est a mienne. Eyes shut The flatness screened On my eyelids. Safe on the Autoroute The […]

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