Totally unrelated to food


Pups of Paris

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

The French love their dogs, it is true. Pups pop up everywhere in Paris. Everywhere? Mais oui, and I’ve the photographic evidence to prove it. They’re hanging with their pals, enjoying coffee at the café (photo above)…

Château de Versailles, by night

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

Last week, I felt honored to be included in a special, private tour of Versailles by night. I’ve been interested in the 17th-century palace since I read this biography of Marie Antoinette, and saw Sophia Coppola’s film, but seeing its grandeur bathed in nocturnal shadows was both spooky and poignant. What did I see?

Holy hot hammam!

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

Have you ever been to a hammam? I hadn’t. Until last week, I’m not sure I could even accurately define “hammam” (it’s an Arabic word, meaning steam bath). Paris abounds with these Turkish baths, and when my friend Heather came to town, she had the bright idea of getting steamed and scrubbed. After extensive internet […]

Twenty years ago

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

I was only 14 when the events at Tiananmen Square took place. I remember the images — especially the lone man in front of the tank — but I didn’t understand their significance at the time. That all changed when I moved to China in 2003, and met some very brave people — some who […]

Foodie Wednesday, French vocab, and a blog I like

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Welcome to our weekly review of (some) French foodie news!
This week’s Le Figaroscope focuses on wine, offering a round-up of ten new Parisian hot-spots where wine is the raison d’être.
Among the “caves” or wine-cellars where you can eat, La Cave Edmond sounded intriguing. Le Fig says: Owner Thierry Burlot has filled cubby-holes with some 60 recommended wines, […]

CtB goes DIY (and some unfortunate news about overdue library books)

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

Ta da! Here are the results of my very first DIY project! I inherited this particle board dresser from a friend six years ago. I forgot to take “before” photographs, but it started out an uninspiring “birch” color, with various stains, scratches and ugly nicks.
I’d long wanted to paint it but was intimidated by the process, particularly […]

Olive

Monday, April 14th, 2008

I must confess that DIY took up most of my weekend, leaving not much time for cooking. My painted dresser looks very pretty, however, and I will post pictures of it when it’s dry and assembled (annoyingly, I forgot to take “before” shots — sorry).
In the meantime, I wanted to post some pictures of my […]

Working class cats

Friday, January 11th, 2008

Even before the New York Times published an article about New York City’s bodega cats, I have been in love with them. Lucia and I once saved a deli cat on Hudson Street from choking on sausage casing (by “saved” I mean that we chanted “Save the cat! Save the cat!” until a passerby actually stopped to […]