Category: France

French Film: Crazy on a Bad Day

The film Just a Sigh portrays the fine line between stalking and being adventuresome.

Given that adventuring is all about random encounters, romance, and a little bit of train travel, the film Just a Sigh (2013) provides just the right amount of escapism for anyone contemplating Paris or pursuit of a whim. Emmanuelle Devos,…

Christ of Many Colors

Jesus at the Church of the Spilt Blood in St. Petersburg, Russia Photo credit: M. Ciavardini

On this Palm Sunday, marvel at the varied images of Jesus depicted in churches and other places around the world. Sometimes he is a baby with the face of someone far more mature, sometimes he is an adult, sometimes with…

To Which Eiffel Tower Will You Go?

Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Is Everywhere—Orlando, Las Vegas, Paris With the turrets of the Excalibur in view, passing the Statue of Liberty of New York New York, cruising past the dancing fountains of Bellagio, taking in the singing gondoliers at the Venetian, the…

Paris, Incidentally

I prepare for a trip the way I get ready for everything else: by reading, talking about it, watching movies. I don’t always need the intensity of historical accounts; something light sometimes suffices. I just like to see where I…

Paris as Protagonist

The City of Light plays a leading role in the 2013 film, Le Week-End, about a long-married British couple celebrating—or, at least, observing—an anniversary. It’s sort of a Before Midnight with a slightly older couple (Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan)…

Paris: First Photo

Paris becomes Paris right away. I don’t have to go looking for it; wonder where the images I’ve seen in other pictures are. Right away I know my place, Paris, and that it’s the right one. —Lori Tripoli Headed to…

The Book to Carry while Cruising Paris

I’ll confess to having a stack of Parisian histories (and a number on my Kindle as well) that have been leafed through but not exactly read. I mean to, I want to, I just haven’t. I am not sure where…

Gertrude Three Ways

I first meet Gertrude Stein during my Pablo Picasso phase, and my Hemingway phase, and my F. Scott Fitzgerald phase and then I come across her in Bryant Park in New York and I see her resting at Père-Lachaise in…