Please don’t take this personally.  Whenever I say to someone here that we’re longing to go back to France, I feel like a rat.  Of course it’s not you we want to leave, and we’re not saying that where you live happily somehow isn’t good enough for us, and we’re not saying that we’re such [...]

I think it’s fair to say that when most people visit Paris they head for the beautiful old monuments, like Sacré Coeur.  And in fact when we stopped in briefly, nuns in fluttery white habits were singing some kind of plainsong, and it was pure loveliness. But the truth is that we were in Paris for [...]

Let’s go back to Strasbourg for a moment, shall we?  Having just had choucroute for lunch, that most Alsatian of dishes, my thoughts naturally turn to all of the things I haven’t yet shown you about our stay in that lovely city. It has a kind of fairy tale beauty, and the whole time we were [...]

When was the last time you attended a light show?  You can dig out your old love beads right now, because have I ever got one for you! We just got home from  a light-filled weekend in Geneva, where not only was there an exhibition of Light and Trees, but I was entranced by the light [...]

In the practically invisible little hamlet of St. Cirq, in the Tarn et Garonne, is a wonderful restaurant called L’Hirondelle, like the swallows that swoop over nearby fields.  The first time we drove through St. Cirq, after hearing about L’Hirondelle, we thought there was no way the tiny town had any sort of restaurant, let [...]

A friend asked me yesterday how we were doing, and I said “O, c’est la morosité ambiente, c’est la merditude des choses, c’est le moral dans les chaussettes.” I love the French expression la morosité ambiente. If there were such a word as morosity in English, it would mean the morosity that floats freely in [...]

The mystery scanners have shone their light deep inside Shel and have pronounced their dark verdict: we just have to wait and see for six more weeks.  This is good news, in that nothing drastic will be happening soon.  This is bad news because we have to wait and see, once again.  Sometimes we complain [...]

Last night, on the way home from Bordeaux, we stopped for milk.  Raw milk, from a mooing machine.  As they say in French “Je vous explique.” Let me explain. Not long ago we were in the florist shop getting a little gift for the pharmacist, who has proven herself to be the most diligent pharmacist in [...]

Would it be blasphemy to say that a good bottle of Riesling is a perfect expression of the harmony between heaven and nature?  I guess that depends entirely on your perspective.  Personally, although I’m much more of a red wine person, I am finding the Alsatian white wines to be pretty heavenly. Some of you would [...]

I want each and every one of you to feel like a kid in a candy store – a French candy store, that is!  Here’s your chance to win a sumptuous collection of candy, consisting of a wooden box of the iconic glazed chestnuts called Marrons Glacés (in this case with the added benefit of [...]

Once again a crowd gathered to hear the names of the dead read aloud. For 81 years the town has remembered those who died in the First World War, known here as la Grande Guerre, the great war.  It was great only in the sense of enormous, in that 1,400,000 French citizens lost their lives, [...]

We went to a little hippie festival the other day in nearby Septfonds, and I thought you might like a glimpse of French hippie life, country style.  First, let me say that the French word for hippie is baba cool.  You’ve got to love that, right off the bat. I’d read about this festival in a [...]

Last night we hosted a birthday party for 20 people.  It was a very American party, in that it was a total surprise, complete with the guests hiding behind a curtain, and then, on the count of three, shouting “SURPRISE !” which, amazingly, is the same word in French as in English.  It was also [...]

It will probably come as no surprise to you when I say that Bordeaux is all about the wine.  Oh, there’s good food, too.  But mainly, it’s all about the wine.  And the tourists.  I was expecting something different: a gracious old waterfront city where one could drink well while enjoying the town and the [...]

If you’ve ever wondered whether Santa and his reindeer come to France, here’s your answer.  These reindeer, in the small and extraordinarily lovely village of Yvoire, are the rustic, handpainted proof.  I especially liked them, because they were about as different from outlet mall reindeer as one can get, without having a species transplant.  They’re [...]

Those of you who are fans of French Letters photos will be glad to know that I finally bit the bullet and graduated to a grown-up camera.  Wow, there’s a lot to learn!  This baby has more menus than a Michelin 4 star restaurant, more buttons than my Grandma’s old button basket. But my new photo [...]