Tag Archives: Paris
Back with a Vengeance?
Congratulations if you are already aware that the storming of the Bastille in July, 1789, was not the beginning of the French Republic. (Turns out that launch wasn’t until 1792, and it didn’t last long.) The storming of the nearly empty prison, by a crowd of less than a thousand, had mainly symbolic weight […]
And Now for the Bright Side
It’s no secret that global stress levels are reaching unhealthy heights in these 48 hours or so of the countdown to Election Day in America. So, to help us all relax a bit, smile on one another and breathe deeply, here are a few notes about good things happening in La Capitale… Item – Now […]
The Rites of Spring
In France, the first day of May marries two traditions that have absolutely nothing to do with each another: offering a bouquet of lilies of the valley to one’s nearest and dearest, and celebrating International Labor Day. The noisy parade routes, jammed with union members and sympathizers waving banners, are lined with sausage stands […]
Rising Seine, Falling Snow
Blocks of ice are crashing off my roof as I write. Did pdv really just leave New England for Paris, or was it all a dream? To be snarkily honest, it is a bit hallucinatory to go from a town where two feet of snow merit a same-old-same-old shrug, where the municipal snow dumps rise […]
2016/2017 – The End of the Age of Enlightenment?
As many have pointed out, it’s hell to think that in this century, science and the principles of the enlightment would be fighting for acceptance, even survival. Yesterday, the Paris March for Science assembled, appropriately enough, in front of the Jardin des Plantes. A small band played. Two notables gave succinct speeches in defense of […]
Polling the Titanic
A quartet, to begin with. Paris is so damned beautiful. Unabashedly beautiful. Pdv has lived in/ known many cities, including Berlin, Tokyo, New York, Boston, Munich, London, Rio, Delhi, Mumbai. And yet after years that could have led to dull familiarity, I am heartstruck every time I go outside. Please consider the quartet of photos […]
A New Least-Favored Nation?
The cry of Job—why am I being so tested? Some years ago, while helping out in a rural Haitian clinic, PdV found herself wondering, along with most Haitians, how on earth one beautiful small country came to be singled out by fate or the Almighty for such extraordinary treatment. After the grand, once in history […]
POINT de VUE: PARIS 
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