Happy Valentine’s Day Weekend

I feel it appropriate to consider those people and places that have had an important place in my heart — folks and towns that have changed me and set into place another piece of the jigsaw puzzle of life.

So consider…

Bonnes Fetes! (Happy Holidays!)

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Hi Doni,

Just my annual I’m-too-cheap-to-pay-for-an-international-stamp Holiday Card, but the sentiment is heartfelt. I’m still thrilled and in awe at how quickly and how great your news site has become (I almost hesitated when I said “news site”, it’s SO much…

Perfect London Morning

The English have traditionally taken a lot of grief about their cooking. Too bland, soft, mooshy, overcooked and pretty much just meat and potatoes are the usual criticisms. I mean really, with dishes named bangers and mash, bubble and squeak,…

The Fields Wore Burgundy - A Short Road Trip Through The Côte d’Or - Part 2

There will always be a soft spot in my heart for the appellation of Auxey-Duresses. I bought a case of the wine back in 2005. I had never heard of the appellation before but I tasted one at a wine…

The Fields Wore Burgundy - A Short Road Trip Through The Côte d’Or - Part 1

The plane hit the tarmac at Charles deGaulle-Roissy airport at ten o’clock on a brisk March evening. A lone figure, whose face was disquietly similar to mine, stepped out onto French soil, his sharp, square jaw set tight against the…

Paris Beach

Paris in August is a dreamscape, an empty limbo, a city slightly askew. This is the time for the yearly vacation when everyone leaves for the month for the South of France, Corsica or the Brittany coast. For those of us left here, there are the parks and movies or perhaps a weekend trip outside to the country.

And of course there is Paris Plage, Paris Beach.

French Lessons

I just bought my first Marxist newspaper today. The doorbell rang and a young woman in her twenties, outfitted in the obligatory green workman’s coat, stood at the door to my apartment and began to rattle off a sales pitch…

Sometimes, a Guy’s Habit Comes at Him Head-On, Hard-Boiled. That’s Right, His Fix. His Fiction. Pulp Fiction.

There’s a point in a reader’s life where he can take only so much angst, so much navel contemplation and so much soul-vomiting confession in his literature. The brain freezes up, short-circuits and runs to a book where the major…

April in Paris

Unlike the sentiments in the jazz standard by Vernon Duke and E. Y. Harburg, April in Paris is pretty miserable weather-wise. The air is damp and chilly, and we still wrap scarves around our necks against the cool gusts of…

Doug Cushman: Romania slideshow

I’ve returned from a trip to Romania where I spoke to the kids at the American International School in Bucharest. It was a great trip. However, it was also cold and wet and muddy, so I probably didn’t see it in…