It didn’t go well for Jean Valjean. You remember. Sentenced to prison for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family. Served a total of nineteen years (after a couple of escape attempts complicated things). You don’t steal bread in France. You’d think I’d know better. In all honesty, I hadn’t dabbled in petty crime since the Great Coloring Book Theft of 1999. Of … Continue reading daily bread: a confession
You wouldn’t notice if you’re not looking for it. It’s just a lively, sunny street like any other in Nice. A few blocks from the beach. There are busy cafés, antique shops, little kitschy stores full of ancient-looking sewing materials or dusty Lebanese groceries. If you are looking, you’ll notice that this is a street full of pregnant women. You see them walking with friends or alone. … Continue reading call the sage-femme: notes from the life of a pregnant expat
We love to glamorize the wealthy and dead, as if fine clothes and cakes work to redeem suffering. Continue reading a vision in pink: the mediterranean villa fit for a baroness
Monaco is home of the eponymous Grand Prix, the belle-époque Monte Carlo casino, scores of luxury yachts, and–let’s not forget– actual royalty. Despite the evident glamour, I’ve always found a visit to the second-smallest country in the world surprisingly low-key. It’s the natural beauty that catches my eye: the hardy Mediterranean flowers and cacti clinging to cliffs, the clouds that drift across the mountains, the … Continue reading low-key glamour: monaco in an afternoon
The best thing about waking up in the morning–or returning to my petit chez moi at any time of day–is the view from my balcony: the brilliant bay outlined by mountains. I come from the part of Missouri that’s just barely not-Kansas. Deprived of elevation for so long, any hint of it makes me giddy. Mountains comfort in their grandeur: a constant illustration of perspective. When you … Continue reading attention abeilles: hiking the massif de l’esterel
Croissants & Conjugations 