I teach a course on Franco-American relations each year at a local college. The first day of class, I always ask the students to write down adjectives describing their impressions of French people. The typical responses range from “sophisticated” to “frugal”; many of the students choose their adjectives based on interactions with the French while […]
When I was living in France, I used to count down the days (and save my centimes) to two exhilarating periods of sales in the winter and summer. Winter soldes typically begin in Paris the second week in January and last through the first week in February. Summer soldes usually begin the third or fourth […]
As I sat down to write this post on some of what I consider to be the best books out there on France and French culture, I had an extremely difficult time narrowing down my list. So, I decided to divide up my “Travel Reading” posts into different categories pertaining to French culture, language and […]