Notre-Dame de Paris
It is now a little bit less than one year that Notre-Dame was burning. A French colleague alerted me in the halls of our office, and I went straight to Continue Reading →
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Category Archives: Europe
Umbria: After Hannibal by Barry Unsworth and the Canticle of the Sun by Saint Francis
A large house for a large family. Ancient walls whose stones protect from the summer heat. A large terrace for dining in the evening and from which in the morning Continue Reading →
Antwerp (Belgium): Will by Jeroen Olyslaegers
Antwerp is the city where my father was born, where my paternal grandparents met and got married before moving to Brussels after World War II. My father, born in 1941, Continue Reading →
A historic trip to Berlin
We arrived in Berlin on Saturday November 11, 1989. The Wall fell on the night of Thursday the 9th. You will kindly notice that I more accurate in my memories Continue Reading →
Oxford: « The Jewel That Was Ours” by Colin Dexter, “Brideshead Revisited” by Evelyn Waugh, and « The Last Enchantments » by Charles Finch.
I often travel to Oxford for an academic conference and I take this opportunity to visit some of the colleges. Saint Catherine’s, where the conference is organized and where I Continue Reading →
Prague: « The Unbearable Lightness of Being » by Milan Kundera
I visited Prague for the first time in the summer of 1989, a few months before the opening of the Iron Curtain. I remember one evening when we were walking Continue Reading →
Tbilisi: Avelum by Otar Chiladze
Does freedom bring happiness? After reading « Avelum », Otar Chiladze’s novel, you could have some doubts. The book is likely autobiographical to a large extent and describes the life, Continue Reading →
Vienna nights
One of my favorite area to wander in Vienna’s center is around the Kirche am Hof. It’s a labyrinth of narrow pedestrian streets leading, sometimes surprisingly, to small shaded places Continue Reading →
Walking London
About 25 years ago, during my stay in London as an intern in a law firm, the couple who had invited me to stay with them gave me a book Continue Reading →
Algeria, Iran and France: « L’Art de Perdre » by Alice Zeniter and «Disoriental » by Négar Djavadi
I have just read with a lot of pleasure two books by French novelists which trace back immigration itineraries by families, from their origins in Algeria and Iran respectively, until Continue Reading →