Author Archives: len

It’s bizarre, to use a favorite word of the French, that my preferred way of exploring France can be done from a café or from the apartment. I am fascinated by what I find in the newspapers, on television, on … Continue reading →

I have just a few minutes left of battery life. What would you write if your battery was about to die, your last words on the blog? Dread thought. It’s a lovely morning here on Boulevard Carnot near our apartment. … Continue reading →

Today I wake up at the epicenter of an ideological earthquake. The French rejected the European Constitution yesterday, 55 percent of the voters casting a “Non.” Here at the Deep Sun Café in Cannes, where someone forgot to turn off … Continue reading →

Fifi and Léonard received certificates from the Institut de Français this afternoon. Students and teachers gathered in the chateau’s grand salon for champagne, the ritual sing-a-long to Edith Piaf’s “La Vie en Rose,” and then the presenting of the certificates. … Continue reading →

Fifi receives her certificate from Frederic in the grand salon.  Tweet

My Avance I class artfully arranged on the steps to the Laboratoire, where we practiced French in little cubicles wearing headphones.   Tweet

Darlene’s Debutate I class after receiving certificates. Her teacher, Patrize, is in back row, third from left.  Tweet

Jean, left, shares a laugh in class with Hanz, a Swiss banker, and Yumi, a Japanese woman living in Nice.  Tweet

I had a feeling that my young fellow classmate from Germany, Axel, knew his way around a camera, so I asked him to handle the ticklish job of photographing Jean and me for DIVIDE, the literary magazine at the University … Continue reading →

I was looking at color patterns of the buildings facing the Villefranche harbor this morning when I took this photo. I didn’t even see the spectacular spokes of clouds until I checked the image on my camera afterward. What a … Continue reading →