Travel
Remembering a High School French Teacher
Ms. Graves, the French teacher, loved talking about Paris. She had one time been married to someone who we thought was rich because she had gone over to France, studied, visited, eaten great food, lived a life that she retold to us with a big smile, reliving each memory before a classroom full of fidgety, pimple-faced high schoolers, passing notes back and forth, trying to do as little as possible. I loved her stories and loved thinking about visiting the places she talked about, the Eiffel Tower of course, but the Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, the Louvre, eating cheese from just one store that sold cheese, salamis from one store that sold meat, croissants from the bread shop, it all sounded so wonderful.
Paris with Scott - explaining his long lasting love of Paris.
My first high school French teacher was Mrs. Stewart. She was always so positive and encouraging. I looked forward to each class. She instilled and encouraged a love of the language and culture that have stayed with me. I am very grateful.
Podcast: ‘Join Us In France’
If you want to travel in France and learn about French history, the Join Us in France podcast is a superb resource.
The podcast, which launched in 2014, was originally co-hosted by Elyse and Annie. They live in France and know it well. Annie was born in France but has lived in the United States. Although Elyse grew up in New York, she knows the language, the culture and the country’s history inside and out. Elyse, the native American, often seems more French than Annie who was born in France. Go figure. Due to time constraints, Elyse is no longer a co-host but still comes on the show as her time permits.
The podcast does a great job of explaining France and its culture to Americans. I especially enjoyed the episodes about driving in France, cheese and Le Marais. I also learned a great deal by listening to recent episode in which Elyse and Annie discuss the best places to see modern and contemporary art in France.
Each episode has show notes that are very helpful in planning a trip. For example, the modern art episode lists 18 museums around France to explore, including many new to me.
There are plenty of other resources to help travelers to France select hotels and restaurants. But this podcast will help you to understand France. Annie also offers self-guided audio walking tours.
Annie and Elyse were interviewed for Amateur Traveler episode 428 about Paris. The Amateur Traveler is a great podcast but if your destination is France, Join Us in France is the podcast for you.
French Museums Welcomed Record Numbers in 2023
Le Louvre had 8.9 million visitors in 2023, up 14% compared with 2022. Versailles had 8.1 million visitors, 18% of whom were Americans. Most, but not all, French museums reached pre-Covid levels of attendance.
Only the Pompidou Center had a decrease in visitors due to a strike in October. The Pompidou Center will be closed from 2025 to 2030 for much needed renovations 50 years after its opening.
Barnes & Noble Returning to Georgetown in DC
Gone from Georgetown since 2011, the the United States’ largest national bookstore chain will return to its original location at 3040 M St. NW, having signed a 33,754-square-foot lease for the same three floors, as first reported by the Washington Business Journal.
It’s nice to see Georgetown improving, especially with a new bookstore.
2023: DC’s Deadliest Year Since 1997
The nation’s capital recorded more homicides in 2023 than in any year since 1997, giving the District the fifth-highest murder rate among the nation’s biggest cities.
The 274 confirmed victims ranged from infants to octogenarians. They were killed in homes, in Metro stations and in motor vehicles; they were killed in alleys, in school zones and in public parks. They were slain on streets by acquaintances and strangers and in the crossfire of warring neighborhood crews, in double shootings and triple shootings. They died in the dark and the dawn and under the midday sun in all parts of Washington, from its poorest precincts to its busiest commercial and nightlife areas.
Paradise is Where You Stand
Pico Iyer writing in The New York Times:
As a constant traveler for 49 years now, I sometimes feel I’ve been zigzagging from one “paradise” to the next. From Tahiti to Tibet, from the Seychelles to Antarctica, I’ve found tourist posters conspiring with travelers’ hopes to present every place as a kind of Eden. Yet often it’s our very notions of paradise that intensify divisions. In Sri Lanka I’d realized that the island has so often been taken to be Arcadia — Arabs saw it as “contiguous with the Garden of Eden,” and an Italian papal legate announced that the waters of paradise could be there — that the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British and millions of us tourists have all scrambled to grab a piece of it.
Besides, if I really did come upon a calm and self-contained Eden, what would it have to gain from me? I, like any visitor, could only be the serpent in the garden.
All our paradise, our only hopes, had to be uncovered here, in the midst of real life and in the face of death.
Remembering Maison des Crêpes in Washington
I visited Washington for the first time as part of a weekend trip organized by my high school’s French club. We ate at Maison des Crêpes. I enjoyed it. The restaurant is long gone but I remember it and my trip when I pass by its former location in Georgetown.
The Streets of Washington blog recently shared this photograph of the Maison des Crepes on Flickr and explained its history:
Maison des Crepes originally opened as La Crepe in 1967 at 1305 Wisconsin Avenue NW in Georgetown. It was the creation of Paris-born Jacques Vivien (1925-2010), who began his Washington career as the maitre d' at The Jockey Club. Vivien was riding a fashion craze for creperies when he opened Washington’s first. He decorated the restaurant in French provincial style and had his waitresses decked out in Breton costumes. Eventually two other locations would open, and all would remain popular, especially with tourists, despite sometimes poor reviews from local dining critics. The original restaurant in Georgetown closed in the early 1980s.
This brought back nice memories. That weekend trip was wonderful.
You can read more about the restaurant here.