Category Archives: Uncategorized

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 →

Every time I see this photo in my Picassa file I like it more, so today it makes its way to the blog, breaking my usual hard-and-fast rule that a photo must be taken the day it is posted. Joyce … Continue reading →

Yesterday my professor, Jean, prepared us for learning a small thing. He lowered his eyebrows and began speaking in a low, conspiratorial voice. He looked around the room, as if checking for hidden microphones. He then said he had spent … Continue reading →

Such an intangible quality, fame. You take the train from Villefranche-sur-Mer to Cannes on a crystal-clear Sunday in France, and you know there will be famous people there. Woody Allen and his wife Soon-Yi on Friday attended the opening of … Continue reading →

By the beach, we came to an area that was roped off and heavily protected by police. Very ordinary people were arriving, seemingly from shuttle boats from one of the big hotels. Perhaps because of the rope and the police, … Continue reading →

Nearby, a crowd had gathered to stare at a long line of empty black limousines. Each had the lovely logo of the festival painted on it, along with a driver in dark clothes who looked as if he was probably … Continue reading →