Saint Germain des Prés is still the place to be. At least if you know where to look. I always start at l’Ecume des Pages, the fabulous bookstore next to Café de Flore. This is where I went to buy Christophe Bigot’s new book, “Un autre m’attend ailleurs”, on Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987) after hearing him on France Culture. The first … Read More
I look forward to … La Rentrée
As you all know by now, La Rentrée is a major moment in Paris’ artistic and social life. 500 new novels come out, exhibitions are being inaugurated and the opera and concert season starts at Théâtre des Champs Elysées, the Paris Opera and the Philharmonie. The leaves of chestnut trees get brown prematurely, vacations are over and night falls at … Read More
An enchanting English road trip…
As you already now my favorite sports in the summer is to invade my friends’ houses and spend up to three nights with them. Beyond that, like the fish which stinks, it becomes too long. This time, and as in the last thirty five years, my final destination was Land’s End in Cornwall and since all flights from Paris to … Read More
More on the Olympics…
Since I did not attend many of the Olympic sessions except the archery on the Invalides, I spent the week talking to my foreign friends who had come especially from afar. From Melbourne, Rob and Jane were enthusiastic about the win of their friend Jessica Fox at Canoe-Kayak in Vaires-sur-Marne. They spent nine hours altogether in transports and on the … Read More
First Olympic days in Paris, a very strange atmosphere
Never has Paris been in such turmoil as this month. Helicopters wake me up every morning at 6 am and there is a feeling of a political Revolution including the “Phrygian cap” which was chosen as the symbol of the Olympics… What a strange old fashion omen! After the dissolution of the Assemblée, more confusion has been added to the … Read More
The reopening of Notre Dame is on the right track, December 8 is THE Day
You will be able to start applying for timed FREE tickets to visit Notre Dame around October and, for the first six months of the reopening (from December 8 th), only individuals and Parisian groups of pilgrims will be allowed. Do not try to buy tickets now because a number of fraudulent sites are selling them… Both Monseigneur Ulrich, archbishop … Read More
The New France and the Olympics
It has been a rule in the past that when Great Britain turns to the Tories, France elects a socialist government (Thatcher/Mitterrand), (Blair/Chirac) (Gordon Brown/ Sarkozy) and in this case, the Labor Sir Keir Starmer, elected in a landslide last Thursday has given us the worst fears as to the future majority of the Front National (Le Pen) over Le … Read More
An aristocratic week end in the Sarthe and the Mayenne
A friend of mine, Sabine de La Rochefoucauld, invited me to the ordination of her son Bernard, a thirty three year old graduate of the ESCP business school and a handsome boy. For the last two months, I was utterly excited to be able to witness this “wedding with God”, which such few men undertake nowadays. And so I planned … Read More