Sedulia

LATEST ARTICLES ( 315 )

• The Day of Being Nice

  The man urging people in the metro to be nice says that he himself is not especially nice and finds it Mission Impossible to ask people in the metro to be nice. Read more

  Posted on 13 November 2012 EXPAT, SELF EXPRESSION, TRAVEL

• Anomalies of French Life: the Vendée Globe

  

  I'd never heard of the Vendée Globe before I came to France. When I starting hearing the name on the radio, I thought it was Vent des Globes and couldn't... Read more

  Posted on 12 November 2012 EXPAT, SELF EXPRESSION, TRAVEL

• The Real Rude

  

  Not only is there a real rue Rude in Paris, but it's named, like most Paris streets, after a real person whose name was François Rude (and François means... Read more

  Posted on 09 November 2012 SELF EXPRESSION

• The Taxi Hold-up

  

  My favorite taxi driver was at the nearby taxi stand when I walked up, and we started up like old friends. This time I was on my way to a restaurant in a one-wa... Read more

  Posted on 07 November 2012 EXPAT, SELF EXPRESSION, TRAVEL

• The Lady Who... Asked for a Doggy Bag in a Paris Restaurant

  

  The artistic doggy bag at Commander's Palace, one of the best restaurants in New Orleans (which is saying something) A malicious gourmet I know here was regalin... Read more

  Posted on 06 November 2012 EXPAT, SELF EXPRESSION, TRAVEL

• Anomalies of French Life: Museum Mania

  

  Waiting in the rain for the Degas exhibit at the Musée d'Orsay Some German friends came for dinner last night. They had brought their three sons to Paris and... Read more

  Posted on 05 November 2012 CULTURE, EXPAT, SELF EXPRESSION, TRAVEL

• All Saints and All Souls in France

  

  The holidays of All Saints and All Souls, November 1st and 2nd, are ancient ones, going back to "our ancestors the Gauls" or Celts, who thought that at this tim... Read more

  Posted on 02 November 2012 EXPAT, SELF EXPRESSION, TRAVEL

• Give Us This Day Our Pain Quotidien

  

  Bread was always the "staff of life" in Europe, from the time of the ancient Romans and their "bread and circuses" to keep the masses happy (the modern... Read more

  Posted on 02 November 2012 CULTURE, EXPAT, SELF EXPRESSION, TRAVEL

• Toussaint Holiday, the Start of Christmas?

  

  Look at the line outside the Louis Vuitton store on the Champs-Élysées! It is the Toussaint holiday and even people whose children aren't on vacation often... Read more

  Posted on 02 November 2012 EXPAT, SELF EXPRESSION, TRAVEL

• Zola's Nana

  

  As Manet imagined Nana, the "plump blonde" demi-mondaine who enthralls le Tout-Paris I read a lot, but until recently I hadn't actually read many French... Read more

  Posted on 19 October 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE, SELF EXPRESSION

• The Night at the Préfecture of Antony: for Shame!

  

  A girl I know, from a proud and old but non-European country, has been trying to deal with the French bureaucracy for many months. She is in France legally, to... Read more

  Posted on 15 October 2012 EXPAT, SELF EXPRESSION, TRAVEL

• The Christening

  

  It has been rainy and dark in Paris these past few days, and I had been cooped up in the house all day. When the rain finally stopped around five o'clock, I... Read more

  Posted on 15 October 2012 EXPAT, SELF EXPRESSION, TRAVEL

• Almost Kidnapped

  

  "Did I ever tell you about the time Albane was almost kidnapped?" said my friend Élisabeth. I laughed. The word reminded me of the time one of my kids invited... Read more

  Posted on 13 October 2012 EXPAT, SELF EXPRESSION, TRAVEL

• The Singing Cabbie

  

  I was a bit late this morning and after walking a bit I was lucky enough to grab a cab. Lucky, because Paris is the worst city I have ever lived in for finding... Read more

  Posted on 11 October 2012 EXPAT, SELF EXPRESSION, TRAVEL

• The Unfair Verrière

  

  The verrière at the Grand Palais in Paris "You're not the one listening to the noise all day!" a woman I know retorted to her husband over dinner, as he... Read more

  Posted on 11 October 2012 EXPAT, SELF EXPRESSION, TRAVEL

• Answering in English

  

  I have to admit that I like being asked for directions. It makes me feel Parisienne, as if I really belong here. And I must look as if I do, too. Read more

  Posted on 09 October 2012 EXPAT, SELF EXPRESSION, TRAVEL

• Paris Fashion Week: the Designer Child

  For a little over a week, I've had a very pretty guest who is a friend of a friend. She got a much-coveted job as an intern for one of the big designers, just... Read more

  Posted on 08 October 2012 EXPAT, FASHION, SELF EXPRESSION

• The Auto-entrepreneur : "He Called Me by My First Name!"

  

  A guy I know here has just set himself up in business as an auto-entrepreneur,* which is a fairly new kind of status put in in 2009 for people trying to start... Read more

  Posted on 06 October 2012 CULTURE, EXPAT, SELF EXPRESSION, TRAVEL

• March of the Mourides in Paris

  I was over near Oberkampf and a man walked up to me and said (in French) "Can you tell me how to get to the Place des Vosges?" I pointed him in the right... Read more

  Posted on 06 October 2012 SELF EXPRESSION

• The Last of the Paris Street Peddlars

  

  Today I was in an office near the Bastille and suddenly, over the noise of the city and the nearby construction, I heard a once-familiar sound-- the ringing of ... Read more

  Posted on 17 September 2012 EXPAT, SELF EXPRESSION, TRAVEL