Posts tagged ‘French history’
Bonjour, Arras!
I often tell people that one of the best things about France is the incredibly rich array of choices there is in terms of places to go, and things to see and do in this relatively small country. The diversity of landscapes, types of architecture, cuisines, local languages and dialects, and local and regional history, not to mention climate and geography, is quite simply amazing…
V-E Day, As Experienced by a French Child
“On the 8 of May 1945, I was alone in our house. My father was at work, and my mother had gone out with my brother and my little sister…Suddenly all the bells in the three churches of Les Riceys began to peal at once, which both startled and worried me….”
Book Review: David Downie’s “A Passion for Paris: Romanticism & Romance in the City of Light”
…I found myself instantly drawn in and not only interested, but mesmerized, by Paris of the Romantic Age as he has brought it to life….
A Conversation with David Downie, author of A Passion for Paris
“My early relationship with Paris was pugilistic. Then I became enchanted…I’ve been here about 30 years, and I have always tried to understand the spell Paris casts on people from all over the world…Why Paris? Why not Rome, or Amsterdam, or New York, or Tokyo, or San Francisco?”
One American Veteran’s D-Day Story
“…being a medic, in the front lines…we were shelled a number of times…Just goes with the territory…”
Lafayette, voila mes oncles…
…a couple of older gentlemen stopped and asked me if I needed help. When I answered in my far-from-perfect French, they knew I was a foreigner. “American?” they asked, and I nodded. Their faces broke into wide, warm smiles, they shook my hands enthusiastically, they practically embraced me. “We fought with your father, your uncles,” they said. “We fought with them, side by side…”
Writing from the Heart, Reading for the Road 