Wednesday, October 31, 2007
A place in Paris is a pedestrian walking area, like a square or large patio. Sometimes a place is hard to get to, such as the Place Charles de Gaulle at the Arc de Triomphe, which you enter and exit through an underground passage. France’s Tombe du soldat inconnu (Tomb of the Unknown Soldier) contains the remains […]
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
My list of adult fiction set in Paris continues here. Where possible, I’ve listed the publication date of the book. JAMES, Henry. The Ambassadors. JOHNSON, Diane. Le Divorce (1997), L’Affaire, and Le Mariage (2000). KOEN, Karleen. Through a Glass Darkly (1987). Caution: there is another book by the same title by Gaardner and the film by […]
I’ve compiled a list of adult fiction books set in Paris from information from book clubs, publishers’ lists, book blogs, and my own reading. These are alphabetized by the author’s last name. I haven’t separated them into genres, nor do I sort the books as great or ho-hum or truly awful. When possible, I’ve indicated the original publication […]
Ernest Hemingway wrote that you carry memories of Paris with you as a moveable feast. But a moveable feast can bring on ants, thunderstorms, food poisoning, and other realities. Living in the French capital is sometimes that kind of difficult picnic. All this walking kills your feet. Tourists walk for hours a day. Even if you take the metro, […]
Saturday, October 27, 2007
I recently took Les Cars Rouges (a get-on-and-off red tourist bus with open seating on top) to the Eiffel Tower. My first move was to consume the best ham-and-cheese crepe in Paris at a street stand (see crepe preparation below). The crepe master pours the batter onto a circular black griddle and evens it out dragging a special T-shaped […]
Cafe de Flore and Les Deux Magots are famous because of who used to consume food and drink there. Long-gone waiters at these cafes served up libations to Breton, Hemingway, Picasso, Camus, Sartre, and de Beauvoir. The cafes now attract lots of tourists and many philosophy and English majors. I even saw an editor soliciting work outside Deux Magots with manuscripts spread […]
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
I had been searching for a certain tiny shop at 6, rue d’Echaude in the Latin Quarter for weeks. The shop features items from the not-just-for-children’s book Le Petit Prince. Sadly, the shop has changed idols. Number 6 is now “Pixi & Cie,” featuring books, cards, and dolls of the Belgian comic character Tin Tin. On my recent visit, […]
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
I’m not always out and about in Paris. I’m often back at my apartment by late afternoon. I read, write, clean up the place, do a load of wash, and watch TV. My apartment is hooked up to cable, so I get lots of channels. But only five of them are in English. I can enjoy watching “Law and Order” in […]
         My friend and I went on a Cityrama Tour, one of those tours where a group of tourists get driven in Louis XIV opulence aboard a giant, shiny, egg-yolk- colored bus. Champagne country wasn’t a destination I’d have chosen on my own, but my friend wanted to go, so, despite my lived-in clothes and running […]
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Here’s the second set of films set in Paris, with films listed by title M-Z. (See former post for the film title list from AÂ through L.) Marie Antoinette. Choose the 1938 version with Norma Schearer and Tyrone Power, or the 2006 film with Kirsten Durst and Jason Schwartzman. Â Â Â Â Le Million. 1931. One of the […]
