Tahitian tales (and the selfish desire to sail away)
I fell for the same Edenistic charms that Melville, Gauguin and Robert Louis Stevenson had all succumbed to. Tahiti, it was then.
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France
From medieval times to the Modernists (The surprise stories of anti Jewish prejudice)
What can any of us do in response to the newer challenges – of anti-Semitism today? I would simply start by saying please open your heart or mind to what Jewish people themselves say needs to change. All too often in recent years, Jews warning journalists, politicians and others about anti Jewish prejudice have been accused of playing political games, of effectively ‘crying wolf’.
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Finding our way (and learning new paths)
To truly reset, we need to get into the challenging terrain of changing our habits and habituating new behaviours – healthier, more productive ones.
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Covid’s crappiest for those most at risk
Its merciless, this disease. Worse still, it’s discriminatory, exposing existing fault-lines across society.
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Physical distancing is a way of life in this part of France
In my summer series reminiscing about previous holidays and travel both before and during the pandemic, my latest post is on post-lockdown life in one of France’s most sparsely populated regions.
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Vignettes in what used to be Vichy France
The more I’ve read around the subject and listened to lectures, the more I understand there’s a Myth of the Resistance. Sure, millions did resist the Nazis, and there are many reasons French people can stand tall and celebrate this history of Resistance. But there’s something about the June 18th anniversary which doesn’t quite work when you read Charles de Gaulle was seen as rather an oddball himself.
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Looking back, looking forward
The words, the single units, are overpowering scents of cheese. To my ear, the sentences are most troubling. They’re occupied provincial markets. Other times, they consist of warring articles and prepositions, hooting at one another as if they’re busily competing to reach the coast.
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The cage of beasts
Every now and again, my beasts will return – depressive intrusions, self-doubt, guilt and all that crap. Until then, I’m going to lose myself in Matisse’s landscapes.
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I’ll stick to night
It would be more romantic to keep staring at it, late at night, when most of the world is asleep; not to ever reacquaint myself to its dull campsites or experience adult day-time disappointment
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Calling all free Frenchmen (and women)
Paris has to be one of the most enthralling, and yet somehow enervating places on earth. Every single step for Parisians drains them of life as they complain about life itself.
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