Friday, 23 October Poor Paris. She has been getting short shrift in this Paris-Perche Diary; Covid-19 keeps getting in the way. First the two months of confinement during which we holed up in the Perche, then the subsequent period when Paris seemed sad and

Friday, 25 September As I was saying last week, before a fire interrupted me: Sometimes I look at the barn we are turning into living space out here in the Perche and am surprised it’s still standing. The masons, back from their summer

Friday, 18 September Today began like most second Fridays. I woke up and worked on my blog, walked the dog, ate breakfast and worked more on my blog, this one about progress on our barn reconstruction project, as well our growing knowledge of this

Friday, 4 September As a child I dreaded going back to school in September. During the summer my mind softened like overripe fruit and firming it back into academic shape loomed darkly in my psyche. The condition lightened a bit in early adulthood, then

Masonic dustFriday, 31 July Our place in the Perche this morning is more crowded than Paris. Or so it seems. We left the eerily quiet city early today in order to beat the heat (37°C/98.6°F) and the hordes of holiday

clouds approachingFriday, 17 July Every July my husband David and I have the same exchange. He says: “Summer is now here. Paris will calm down and empty out.” And I reply: “No it won’t. Not until August. July is one big traffic jam.

Friday, 3 July This morning I woke up at 5 to mild panic: I am supposed to write a blog today and I do not have a single idea. After a few minutes tossing and still not even a hint of a plan, I

Friday, 19 June Our third major renovation project in six years is now underway. After Berlin 2014-15 and Paris 2017-18, it’s the Perche 2020-21. Or so we hope. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from experience, it’s pay no attention

The Wild One amid the wild flowersFriday, 29 May On our walk through the Perche countryside this morning, it occurred to me that Tasha the dog has some striking similarities to Voltaire’s Candide. For those of you who have not read the eponymous

Friday, 15 May When it comes to French history, I should know better than to rely on the internet. I should know to go straight to my friend Diane A-C. Last entry I sketched the history of the May 1st labour holiday in France

Friday, 1st May It’s May Day, a day to celebrate spring and labour. With nature and work much on my mind this 46th day of our confinement, it’s a timely holiday.   Happy spring from my flower bedThe earliest known observation of the

Life under a Super MoonFriday, 17 April When we still had our Berlin life, I wrote about my husband David’s sixth sense, his inner GPS. At the time I believed this gift was limited to his ability to home in on a good

Friday, 3 April “More bubble baths,” I said last December, adding to the list of my resolutions for 2020. I had just walked out of a Neal’s Yard shop in London, where I was stocking up on their heavenly Seaweed & Arnica Foaming

Friday, 20 March Today it is hard to imagine that two weeks ago, when I last sat down to write this blog, my husband David had just flown to the US for a 10-day family visit. That he was planning to come back and

Friday, 6 March Sometimes I ask myself what it is about Paris that I love so much. Near the top of a long list is the fact that so many of her buildings and monuments were here hundreds of years before I was born

Creative skyFriday, 21 February We are nearing the end of a week here in the Perche. The days have developed a gentle rhythm, starting at 6, if I am lucky enough to sleep that long. I waste no time getting dressed as our bedroom

Friday, 31 January Today is a sad day, not because the sodden weather has merged Paris rooftop and sky into one lump of grey or because it’s too warm by 10°C/20°F for the end of January, but because come midnight

Friday, 10 January Think back, look forward. That is what January is for, especially one marking the beginning of a new decade. How do my musings from a year ago, for example, appear now? What might these 2020s hold?   Out with a bang: sunrise

Friday, 13 December Some words and expressions capture a concept so aptly they are untranslatable. Often that's because the meaning conveys a quality firmly grounded in the native culture. Gemütlich for example captures the homey cosiness that Germans need to get through winter, while

Friday, 29 November They say that just before you die, your whole life passes before you. That has just happened to me but, as of this writing, I am still very much alive. Though still recovering, from a 10-day whirlwind book tour of the

Friday, 8 November Next Monday I leave on a US book tour for my novel The Art of Regret and it’s fair to say I’m a little anxious. I will be doing six cities—San Francisco, Boston, Wayne, PA, Philadelphia, Washington, DC

Friday, 25 October The long, unusual walk I took two weeks ago in anticipation of The Art of Regret's publication* got me thinking about shorter, more pedestrian walks, ones made so frequently you can almost stop noticing all that is going on around you.

Wig shop, rue des Poissionniers Friday, 11 October The other day I took an unusual and instructive walk. It's actually a walk I have been thinking about taking since I revisited the Basilique de Saint Denis in 2015 because it relates to a novel

Friday, 27 September How odd that a trip to the Indian quarter of Paris should make me feel I am really home, that our Berlin life is really over. La Chapelle, as the quartier indien is known, stretches from the Gares du Nord and

Friday, 30 August Summer is winding down. At least I think it is. This past week in Paris the thermometer has climbed to a dog-day 34°C (93°F). But there are also crispy brown leaves piling up on the streets, as if we