50 YEARS AFTER THE DEATH OF ÉDITH PIAF, A TRIBUTE TO HER PACKS NEW YORK’S BEACON THEATRE

Posted on September 22, 2013December 29, 2015 by Susan Manfull

Throughout the concert, there were film clips of Piaf in concert, including on the Ed Sullivan Show Édith Piaf was surely smiling when Thursday night’s vibrant tribute to her life and music opened with a animated duet of La Foule by French singers Nolwenn Leroy and Zaz. La Foule—“The Crowd”—is about the chance encounter of two people in the midst of a festive crowd who, as quickly as they connect, they are separated. So much of Piaf’s life seemed fated for disappointment, but ...

ÉDITH PIAF DIED 50 YEARS AGO BUT HER ICONIC SONGS LIVE ON

Posted on March 3, 2013January 3, 2016 by Susan Manfull

Last weekend brought another snowy Sunday to New England….and to parts of Provence. It snowed unusually hard in the Var where Trobador reader Pamela O’Neill said she had to brush off several centimeters of snow from her car. But the roads were so icy she could not go anywhere. So, what to do? If she were on this side of the Atlantic, we would have asked her to join us…. And what does a small group of Francophiles do in New Hampshire? Ah, mais bien sur, they gather ‘round the piano to listen t...

THE SCENT OF A CRÊPE

Posted on April 10, 2011December 29, 2015 by Susan Manfull

I have been known to follow the scent of a crêpe into the depths of an unfamiliar Parisian neighborhood thereby compromising our timely arrival for dinner with friends; into the longest line in Saint-Malo—in August around the French holiday, Assomption—at one of Brittany’s oldest and clearly busiest crêperies; and into the intricate maze of the Tuesday market on a very blustery November day in Vaison-la-Romaine. I adore those thin French pancakes and when the scent of a crêpe wafts past my nose,...