MILLE-FEUILLE IN MANHATTAN: PINCH ME ’CAUSE I THINK I AM IN PARIS!

Posted on July 1, 2012December 30, 2015 by Susan Manfull

Serendipity, according to the Oxford Dictionary on my iPhone, refers to “the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.” The French don’t have a direct translation; but “un heureux hazard nous a réunis” or “a happy chance has brought us together” works just fine.It was pure serendipity—un heureux hasard—that landed us in Mille-feuille, a bakery in New York’s Greenwich Village, last Sunday morning. We were early for a rendezvous with our daughter and...

NINE NEW BELLS TO BE INSTALLED IN NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS: WHAT WOULD QUASIMODO SAY?

Posted on January 9, 2012November 24, 2015 by Susan Manfull

Paris’ famous Cathedral of Notre-Dame is about to celebrate its 850th anniversary. In anticipation of this major event, and amidst some controversy, the four bells located at the top of the North Tower—christened, as is the custom for all sacred objects, Angélique-Françoise, Antoinette-Charlotte, Hyacinthe-Jeanne, and Denise-David—will soon be removed, melted down and replaced. These four bells were cast in 1856, per the request of Napoleon III who wanted them to mark the occasion of his son’...

ESCAPE PARIS TO PROVENCE ON THE TGV

Posted on August 8, 2010April 22, 2017 by Susan Manfull

Perhaps you’d like to escape the sticky heat of Paris this August by traveling to Provence. You can do so in just a little over three hours in the quiet comfort aboard the high-speed train-- le Train a Grande Vitesse, or TGV, as the French call it. (Conversely, you can add a quick Paris TGV trip to your Provence agenda….although we don’t recommend doing so in August!) Powered by electric motors, the French TGV was originally conceived in the 1960s right after Japan launched its foray into hig...