My Own Random Small Tips for Visiting Paris
This summer I imagine a lot of people will be visiting Paris. It’s an easy city to get around in with a compact layout and excellent subway system. It, of course, has amazing history and architecture. There are hundreds of blog posts on what to look out for and what not to miss so I won’t go into the basics of visiting. But I thought it might be useful to offer some random small tips for visiting Paris that I discovered when I lived there. In Restaurants Neighborhood Life This…
Proust Captures the Spirit of my Hopeful Monday
Last week my husband flew to Ireland for work. It was not a hopeful Monday, more like sad Sunday. He travels once every couple of months and when he’s gone, we feel a slight tension in our family. Overall, we’re fine and with my three kids being older, it’s easier now than it used to be, but we still feel the absence. And inside the absence, a strange quiet yearning exists. We go on with school and work and home life but we’re all waiting for the five of us…
7 Heavenly Flowers That Will Enchant You in Hawaii
Hawaii is far away from just about everywhere on the U.S. mainland and crazy-expensive. Yet it’s enormously popular. Why? It’s the warm sunny weather, the lush landscapes, and the relaxing escape that comes with vacations. But most of all, for me, it’s the heavenly flowers. Interestingly enough, Hawaii had very few endemic plants before Polynesians settled the islands. They brought plants native to nearby areas where they lived like coconut palms, taro, mountain apple trees, etc. Later, settlers brought more decorative plants. Those plants, often native to South America, South…
The Most Insightful Memoirs About Life in France: Part 2
In my first article on memoirs about life in France, I covered stories of romance, food, gardening, and motherhood. Today, I’ll talk about some classics and my favorite memoir about the French lifestyle. Paris to the Moon Adam Gopnik lived out a lifelong dream of moving to Paris in the late 1990s, then wrote about it for The New Yorker. This is a more high-minded book, packed with Parisian history and cultural facts but full of humor too. Gopnik wittily describes the education he and his wife got in adjusting…
A Tribute to Plants in Paris
This year on the 4th of July, my husband and I took our kids to see the fireworks show by our neighborhood lake. It was in a park where 5,000 people peacefully sat in the dark and watched pretty flowers explode in the sky. As sweet as it was to see kids and teenagers running around on a warm summer night, I couldn’t help but think of the people in Nice, France a few years ago. That crowd had also gathered to watch fireworks for their independence day, but their…
