Mr Waley is unconquerable. I remember, for instance, the day when he was expected for the week-end at my brother Sacheverell's house in the country, and my sister-in-law and I, finding in the library a small and ancient book in... Continue reading

Happy the one who, like Ulysses, has taken a marvelous journey, or like him who won the golden fleece, and then comes home, full of wisdom and knowledge, to live among his family the rest of his days! Alas, when... Continue reading

The first "unknown" corpse exhumed at Verdun turned out to be Senegalese, so he was reburied and replaced by a white body. —From a review by Neal Ascherson of Jean-Yves Le Naour's book The Living Unknown Soldier: A Story of... Continue reading

In Paris, what used to be called middle age is disappearing. You stay young a long time, then go gaga. –Alfred Capus A Paris, ce qu'on appelait autrefois l'âge mur tend a disparaître. On reste très jeune très longtemps, puis... Continue reading

There used to be a few more grands magasins (major department stores) in Paris than there are now. When I first visited long ago, there was even still the Trois Quartiers, a store by Madeleine. It has been through many metamorphoses since then but has never seemed to be commercially successful. There was also the beautiful (from the outside) Samaritaine*, which closed ten years ago for extensive work that everyone understood the need for– frankly, the place was a firetrap with its narrow wooden escalators and crowded floors. At the time, the management said it would rehire everyone after the... Continue reading

All on the same beautiful Saturday afternoon, at the same time! A Muslim bride, in a white hijab.... and a Mediterranean-looking bride in a pouffy skirt.... a very pretty Chinese bride, who looked rich.... ...another bride, waiting for someone.... ...and another, whose man looked very much in love.... and a pretty bride in a sari! Continue reading

Because I am what my family calls the Queen of Guidebooks, I couldn't resist this "Paris Survival Kit" I bought in a Paris museum recently, while on the prowl for something completely different. Isn't it it cute? Look how there's even a little fake hole at the top for the display rack. I bought it because of the genuine information I found in it, such as a few places to eat, work, or send visitors; also because it's fun to see how real Parisians look at themselves– this book is aimed at them. The only foreigners to get their own... Continue reading

I was hurrying home to get there ahead of the delivery men when I passed a greengrocer where I have an old acquaintance I'm very fond of. I waved at him and we called out a greeting and I was still smiling as I turned back to the street. "Ah, le joli sourire !" said a man behind me. I turned around to see who it was. The man behind me looked roughly like the man in the picture above, but was smiling beatifically. "Vous êtes célibataire ?" he asked. I laughed and went on. Later, he came into a... Continue reading

I once saw a roomful of American women in Paris bidding on a small box of Kraft Mac & Cheese. The bidding went up to about $20 (in today's money). This summer, I went to a Walmart in the town where my mother lives. It was only July, but I guess after the Fourth is over, Halloween is the next big holiday. Anyway, the Halloween decorations and candy were out in force, taking up almost a whole aisle of the store. I was appalled. (Christmas started in September.) But of course, if you're an American and want to celebrate your... Continue reading

In the U.S., there are gated communities. Paris has its own versions– these private streets, which abound in the 16th arrondissement. Usually you have to know a code to get in. One of them, the Villa Montmorency in the southern half, Auteuil, even has full-time guards who patrol the streets and monitor the gates. Inside, behind the screen of trees, is one of the very few (or the only?) places in Paris where large private one-family houses exist with gardens and even swimming pools. As you can imagine, the Villa Montmorency been a favorite of the rich and famous for... Continue reading

A lot of important people live in Paris, and that means lots of cops. The especially unlucky ones get assigned this kind of duty. Continue reading

At the end of the summer, I lost a good friend. It was a shock– I didn't even know he was ill till the day of his death. I have had to go to my share of funerals in France, but this was the first time it has been for a close friend. I flew to his family's home city for the funeral, and for the first time, I went with the family to the graveyard. The graveyards in France look very different from American ones, which no doubt were modeled after British. In the U.S., cemeteries are full of... Continue reading

An English-speaking businessman who speaks near-perfect French told me this story. "One of my top employees was very competent, but everyone had a really hard time with her. She was so harsh and hard that I decided I had to have a word with her. "I called her in and said, 'You're extremely valuable to the company, but you have a problem. You've got to be nicer to people. Frankly, you're a bit of a garce.' " "She froze and glared at me. Then she relaxed and said, 'I forgot, you're not a native French speaker. You don't realize the... Continue reading

Yesterday I was talking with a Moroccan-Frenchman (born in Morocco, came to Paris 12 years ago) about time and how differently various cultures value punctuality. "Moroccans have a saying," he said. "In Switzerland there are watches; in Morocco, there is time." Continue reading

You may have noticed I've been gone a while. In fact I was living outside of France, and have just come back, a little grumpily, to my nice Paris apartment and my cat. It has been raining for the past two days and the garbagemen are on strike. The big news in the past two days has been the Air France débâcle, which, in case you haven't been following it, involves government subsidies, the loss of 2900 well-paid union jobs, a very strong pilots' union, and a couple of HR managers* coming close to being lynched by an angry crowd... Continue reading

Seriously? Once again, the video I want to watch is not available in my country. Which, when you are an expat, is actually a misnomer. I learned about the heinous Digital Rights Management blockage the hard way, buying movies in the USA I wanted to watch in France. (Obviously, this was back in the Stone Age.) After a long day, we sat down to watch the first much-anticipated movie. No matter what I tried, it wouldn't work. Cue sadness and frustration. Then fury. A friend who works in the TV business in LA explained that this is to prevent "abuse."... Continue reading

Went out for dinner tonight to a nice place in the 16th arrondissement and was surprised to see that since the last time I was there, they have added cheeseburgers to the menu. They are now officially fashionable in Paris. But not cheap. That's $33 a cheeseburger. Continue reading

It's fun to look at this old map of Paris, which I took a picture of at a map dealers, and see that Paris was once much smaller than it is now. Everything between the Bois de Vincennes and the Bois de Boulogne is Paris now. The project of Le Grand Paris was launched under French president Sarkozy, who is now fairly unpopular (although what French politician isn't, these days?!). The idea was to make Paris bigger, more of a match for sprawling London and big Berlin. However, the idea of giving up their power didn't appeal to the local... Continue reading

I took this picture of the Picasso Museum, one of the jewels of Paris's Marais, in March 2008. The Museum is in the Hôtel Salé, one of the private palaces built in the days when the Marais was the most fashionable part of the city, before the royal court moved to the Louvre and then on to Versailles. As you can see, there was already work going on to renovate it. The museum closed for "30 months" of renovation in August 2009, under the leadership of Picasso scholar and family friend Anne Baldassari, and with a budget of about €26... Continue reading

A nice surprise today in my email. Rue Rude received an award I had never even heard of, for "Best Ten Websites for Expats in France"-- a finalist. I was happy to see that The Paris Blog, an "overblog" of Paris blogs, came first. Laurie Pike does a great job of curating interesting and unusual posts about Paris. And whenever she chooses one from Rue Rude, the views go up! When you've been blogging for a while, like me (Rue Rude is almost to its 11th year!), you have to make many decisions about where you want to go with... Continue reading

Hope you are having a nice summer! Continue reading

Americans don't really pay much attention to World War I. We came in late to the war and lost few men compared to the other countries. But World War I was a great tragedy for Europe, and put an end to an optimistic era of belief in the unstoppable progress of civilization. European colonies saw their imperialist rulers tear themselves to pieces in the stupidest war in history, and knew they did not need to submit to this rule any longer. Germany and France and England lost a generation of young men. The English became pacifists. The French (most of... Continue reading