Paris: rue du Dragon November 21, 2008

  Tonight I spend my last night at the apartment on rue du Dragon, a block away from Saint-Germain-des-Pres in the 6th Arrondissement on the Left Bank. This secluded one-bedroom apartment, with its full kitchen/dining room and expansive living room––featuring a fireplace and an entire wall of French windows, graced by full-length drapes the same [...]

Paris: Visiting Victor Hugo via Notre Dame November 18, 2008

You know you’re in Paris when you see this glorious sight. . . On my way to the roving, open-air market at the Bastille on Boulevard Richard Lenoir, I gasped when I looked to my left and glimpsed her majestic presence. Crossing the Seine at Pont de la Tournelle, I felt as suspended between the [...]

Paris: Viva La France! November 15, 2008

Arrived yesterday. . .     My friend Pat wrote today: “You picked the ideal time to be an American in Paris.” Now that we have elected “President Obama,” in France––as I found in Spain––Americans are back in favor. I guess we don’t seem so hopeless (read: stupid) after all.  A couple of interesting developments: [...]

Eating Heaven: Catalan Nueva Cocina at Cinc Sentits November 7, 2008

A friend emailed me: “What are you eating in Barcelona? You, of all people, not mentioning food . . .” So far, my dining experiences have proven mostly a comedy of errors: miscommunication with waiters, misunderstood menu descriptions (I read very little Spanish, but many menus are written in Catalan, anyway, which is a sufficiently [...]