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Much Ado About Paris

In case you want to know what it's like to escape to Paris these days

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Auvers-sur-Oise and the End of the Road for Vincent Van Gogh

May 20, 2022 by Hugh Nelson 10 Comments

Mountains at Saint Rémy

Planning the trip to Auvers-sur-Oise Earlier this week Brenda and I made a day trip to Auvers-sur-Oise, the burial site of Vincent Van Gogh. It was our first trip on a train outside of Paris in a couple years, and in the interim, the French national train network SNCF (Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer […]

Filed Under: Sight Seeing, Travel Outside Paris Tagged With: auvers-sur-oise, sncf-connect, van gogh

Some thoughts from France on Covid Vaccination Progress

August 6, 2021 by Hugh Nelson 16 Comments

QR code icon for the French anti covid app

Maybe because I’m 70 years old, I jumped at the first chance I had to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. Even better, I received the version from Johnson and Johnson, not only a trusted brand for floor wax (actually that’s SC Johnson – not the same), but also a vaccine that needed only one shot. I […]

Filed Under: Dining, Living, Travel Outside Paris

Technical Difficulties in Paris in 2020

January 4, 2021 by Hugh Nelson 26 Comments

Hugh and Brenda at the flower market on Ile de la Cité

Remember when the TV would occasionally show a screen saying that they were having technical difficulties? We had a few technical difficulties in Paris in 2020. Looking back, I have plenty of things to be thankful for. I’m not among those who suffered because of health problems or financial loss. The regulatory regime was a […]

Filed Under: Living, Travel Outside Paris

Halloween and Terror in Paris – 2020

October 31, 2020 by Hugh Nelson 4 Comments

There is Halloween in Paris Owing to American influence, there are shops with costumes and decorations. In our neighborhood, we haven’t seen kids go door-to-door soliciting candy, though I buy some every year hoping that they’ll catch on. Spooky Halloween decorations cover the common areas of our apartment building. On the streets, they are already […]

Filed Under: History, Living Tagged With: charlie hebdo, covid, terrorism

Bloomsday in Paris

September 26, 2020 by Hugh Nelson 28 Comments

James Joyce's Ulysses

Bloomsday in Paris and the Origins of the Lilac Bloomsday Run In 1979, my mother-in-law Beth Shaw ran her first Lilac Bloomsday Run in Spokane, Washington. My first time was in 1988. This year is my 27th year of competing in the race. My wife Brenda has done it a couple more times than I. […]

Filed Under: History, Living

Bartholdi and his Statue of Liberty

May 16, 2020 by Hugh Nelson 7 Comments

Diorama created by Bartoldi to show measuring and shaping of the plaster forms

The dictionary sums up what most of us know about Bartholdi and his Statue of Liberty. This brief description of a statue by a man we’ve never heard of conveys nothing of the quest and the ideas that produced this phenomenal work of art. The Statue of Liberty: a statue at the entrance to New York […]

Filed Under: History, Sight Seeing

“The Third Man” needed help from Peoria

April 13, 2020 by Hugh Nelson 10 Comments

The Third Man

With current restrictions in Paris on how and why we can leave our apartment, we’ve had to make adjustments in shopping routines, exercise routines, and certainly social routines. For instance, a couple times each week, my wife and I watch a movie together, sort of a date night for people in lockdown. Rather than choosing […]

Filed Under: History, Living, Travel Outside Paris

Need help with sleep – read Balzac

April 8, 2020 by Hugh Nelson 10 Comments

Both in France and in the United States, we seem to be in the worst of the COVID-19 problem now. There are shortages of equipment, rising numbers of deaths and infected, new outbreaks, and no quick fix on the horizon. We continue to be inundated with non-stop news, most of it bad. I’ve discovered that […]

Filed Under: History, Sight Seeing

Love in the Time of Coronavirus

March 23, 2020 by Hugh Nelson 22 Comments

Paris Marché Saxe

Much of the news each day is devoted to describing problems with a new coronavirus, COVID-19, which has been spreading over the world since the beginning of 2020. Typically people try to ignore it, hoping it will go away. Then suddenly it sweeps through in a terrifying manner, and there is panic. Governments are left […]

Filed Under: History, Living

A Tale of Two Cities – Part 1

January 29, 2020 by Hugh Nelson 10 Comments

Gaspard à la Nuit

I’m reading Charles Dickens’s novel, “A Tale of Two Cities,” in French. It is a story of London and Paris before and after the French Revolution. I’m only part way through, and not sure I understand everything that is happening. Here is what I know so far. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to pick up the […]

Filed Under: History

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Hugh Nelson and Brenda Prowse

Hugh Nelson and Brenda Prowse on Pont Alexandre III
Hugh Nelson and Brenda Prowse on Pont Alexandre III

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