Category Archives: Uncategorized

Darlene at the Aquarium in La Rochelle, where a rainy day had drawn big crowds to watch the fish. Here in Bordeaux, we’re packing up for the 8-hour train ride back to Cannes.  Tweet

Hotel Mercure Chateau Chatron, Bordeaux Darlene and I managed to get a surprising amount of sleep Monday on the night train from Cannes to Bordeaux. When we found our couchette, a room with two beds up and two down, a … Continue reading →

My youngest daughter, Roo, is 26 years old today. So it’s a good day to translate a poem about a superb gift and the passage of time. “Impromptu” is by Jules Aïm, the blind poet who, with his wife Sabine, … Continue reading →

Picasso painted La Famille, “The Family,” in nearby Mougins on September 30, 1970, at the age of 88, less than three years before his death on April 8, 1973. Tweet

It’s no coincidence that the café car on the Train à Grand Vitesse (TGV) looks like a spaceship. The train travels at up to 200 miles per hour, and inside it’s as quiet as a library. Darlene and I happily … Continue reading →

A boy at the Musée D’Orsay. Tweet

An old photo that never made it to the blog: Fifi and Léonard dancing at a soirée given by the Institut de Français after the first week of the first month, when everything was still new, terrifying, and incredible. ———————————————————- … Continue reading →

After checking into our quiet bed & breakfast in the 19th arrondissement, we rode the Metro most of the afternoon. All of the trains were as full as the one shown in the photo, and we had made the mistake … Continue reading →

Paul Cézanne’s “L’Estaque Vue du Golfe de Marseille” at the Musée D’Orsay in Paris. Tweet

Sophie Cavory, left, and Darlene yesterday at ESCOM, the school where Sophie followed up our Institut de Français training with two weeks of lively tutoring in French. Nina, the ESCOM administrator, presented us with two more handsome certifcates upon the … Continue reading →