London has turned out to be a fine city to host a modern Olympics. Lots of diversions, plenty of local expertise to make it all happen, good facilities, nice people, easy to reach … London is not new at this, though, having hosted twice before, including in 1948. But that was long ago, before the […]

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We continue to think of travel as difficult, but it really is not, in the abstract, compared to 10 years ago, never mind 50 or 100. Multiple flights, multiple varieties of ground transport … So, in Coventry, England. Going back to Abu Dhabi, UAE. How to?

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From 1982 until 1992, I visited London quite often. At least four extended stays in the city and the surrounding countryside. Twice, to cover Wimbledon, from start to finish, in 1985 and 1986. However, before today, the last time I was in London was 1993, and that was soccer-related, too. I was on my way […]

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Too bad it wasn’t December. Or January. Or February. Especially February, when the city has been dark and rainy for months with no end in sight and the idea of sun lures a man to the airport without complaint. It is hard to leave Paris like this, in early June. The birds singing and the […]

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  The City of Light was kind enough to stage the Spring 2012 edition of the “Salon Saveurs” food fair at the convention hall at  Porte de Champerret … beginning on June 1. Which was today. And we were there shortly after noon, having walked the half-mile from where we are staying, in the 17th […]

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  We are in the final days of the Paris trip, and we made sure we addressed some of the basics today, before it is too late. Several hours in Parc Monceau, watching the bourgeoisie run and play … a trip over to our favorite Paris restaurant … a walk under the Eiffel Tower … […]

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Two of the best barbecues I have enjoyed, in the past three years, have been in a leafy suburb of Paris. Didn’t see that coming. We Yanks don’t normally associate Paris with grilling large amounts of meat over a pile of glowing coals. A good reason for that: It’s apparently illegal to barbecue inside the […]

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Two goals for this trip: 1) Eat a lot of French food; 2) don’t break the bank doing so. A cafe/brasserie just up the street from where we are staying, in the 17th arrondissement, has contributed greatly to making this happen. Le Royal Pereire. We may have just been lucky this time around, given that […]

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On a macro level, I am fascinated by World War I. On the micro level, I am horrified by it. This was one of the most lethal wars in history. Far more French and British soldiers died in World War I than died in World War II — which is the last war most modern […]

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Wide tracts of Paris are less than green. A large park is never far off … but often it isn’t nearby, either. I’m thinking of the Marais, and much of the rest of the right bank of the city. Lots of stone and cement. It’s not as if Paris is Hong Kong, where you can […]

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