HOLLYWOOD – AUBAGNE – PARIS: A TRIANGULAR JOURNEY

Posted on February 19, 2017February 20, 2017 by Susan Manfull

It’s Academy Award season, and as it was with me a year ago when I wrote of Marcel Pagnol, I am drawn back to Provence, in fact to his hometown of Aubagne. On this occasion it began last fall when I was discussing with my wife Benedicte, who is French, about the genre films that Hollywood is known for which might appeal to her. In the past couple of years she has become a fan of American westerns, so I thought Foreign Legion fare could be of interest. What I quickly ran up against though was tha...

FRANCE’S FABLED FOREIGN LEGION DEPLOYED TO MALI FROM PROVENCE

Posted on January 28, 2013December 30, 2015 by Susan Manfull

The complicated and factious situation in West Africa, now centered in the former French colony Mali, has been difficult to fully understand without a background in the long history and politics of West and North Africa, its people (especially the Tuareg) and the emerging network of terrorist groups, some of which are connected to al-Qaeda. Having a good map is helpful, too. Beyond a recent acquaintance with the Tuareg, a vague notion of the location of Mali’s famous Timbuktu, a mental imag...