It was a cool, grey spring day in Paris. I was standing in the Montparnasse Cemetery in front of the grave of the Romantic poet Charles Baudelaire, still a shrine to his many fans, who leave offerings … Read the article
In post-WWII Paris, Madame Claude ran the most exclusive finishing school in the world. Her alumnae married more fortunes, titles and famous names than any of the Seven Sisters. The names on her client list were epic—Kennedy, … Read the article
The Grand Mosque of Paris was built between 1922 and 1926 to symbolize the eternal friendship between France and Islam. It was also meant to express gratitude to the half-million Muslims of the French Empire’s North African … Read the article
The mass demonstrations and strikes in France in May 1968 severely challenged De Gaulle’s legitimacy and even fears of revolution.
Charles De Gaulle’s government was criticized within France, particularly for its heavy-handed style. While the written press … Read the article
On 6 June 1944 Allied forces began the long-awaited invasion of northern France. Operation Overlord, code-name for the Normandy landings, was the largest seaborne invasion in history. British, American and Canadian forces landed on a fifty-mile … Read the article
The House of Dreams has been maturing for twenty years. A book that took three to finally research and write. It is inspired by the story of Varian Fry, … Read the article
Rue la Boétie Number 21. I’ve passed by it hundreds of times. My mother liked to show me the 1930s façade with its stone arches. I’d noticed various … Read the article
Romantic-era novelist Alexandre Dumas may well have created the world’s first fiction factory in Paris in the mid-1800s, a factory populated by ghosts. How many of Dumas’ hundreds of millions of readers realize that the plots and … Read the article