When I first set foot in Provence as a student over twenty years ago, the coldest winter in decades bewildered the south of France. Snow dusted palm trees and cypresses up and down the Riviera. Centuries-old fountains transformed themselves into extravagant ice sculptures. Le mistral, the notorious north wind that blows down the Rhône Valley,…

The artists got it. Immediately. They saw what Provence was all about and worked like mad to capture its magic on canvas. And mad is an operative word for one of the most famous of these aesthetically tortured souls: Vincent Van Gogh. A few days ago, I spent some time at the asylum where Van…

For the most part, Sundays are still sacred in France though not in the religious sense. To be sure, church bells ring and mass is said in les églises (churches) both large and small across the country. However, religion no longer influences French culture as it did for centuries. Recent reports put church attendance in…

In his 50’s classic “I love Paris,” songwriter Cole Porter endorses Paris in almost every season and weather: I love Paris in the springtime, I love Paris in the fall, I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles, I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles… Like Porter, I am a fan of…

If you are ever invited to a dinner party in France, what you won’t get is a tour of the home. Whether your French hosts’ abode is un appartement en ville (an apartment in the city), une maison à la campagne (a house in the country), or une villa au bord de la mer (a…

The French café is not just a place, it’s a way of life. Eat, drink, converse, read, watch the world go by… whatever your pleasure. Except you can’t smoke there anymore, of course. Gauloises and Marlboros are today as outlawed as absinthe was for most of the twentieth century. While it’s farfetched to think cigarettes…