Category Life in France

When you just need more color

I braced myself for a visit to Sennelier on a recent trip to Paris and bought myself a 48-pan watercolor palette. It was a bit of a production, as it involved ordering the plastic half-pans (mark this down, Francophiles, they…

Recapturing my creative self

The last couple of weeks have been a long, hard slog. Work took me to Berlin and to Paris, both, of course, glorious locations, though I mainly saw the interiors of our meetings and hotel rooms. Arrived home Wednesday, limp…

Late summer

On a summer evening some years ago, two of the South’s most celebrated writers, William Faulkner and Katherine Anne Porter, were dining together at a plush restaurant in Paris. Everything had been laid out to perfection; a splendid meal had…

French style and elegance

Perhaps it’s the charming backwater where I live, but I have noticed that, for all their vaunted style and elegance, the French do some extremely odd things. As in today’s photo, which is “something new.” I’ll say. And no, I…