Moving Forward, Time to Reengage
As we enter into a brand new year of linguistic and cultural sharing, there is no better time to get ourselves reinvested in the things that we enjoy…or thought we enjoyed. It is only too easy to let the goals we make - to enjoy ourselves more or engage in fun, cultural, interesting activities - become a...
TAPIF Provides Opportunity to Test the Waters of French Living
“I’m going to teach in France.” Some of the most exciting words a young Francophile might ever hear themselves say. Such a simple phrase, but still it is capable of conjuring up daydreams of passing an afternoon drinking a café at a table the size of a nickel, that decorates a sidewalk patio twice the...
Nostalgia and Nourriture; A Recipe from La Réunion
Earlier this week, the Island of la Réunion celebrated its first anniversary as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a well-deserved honor for this beautiful tropical island in the Indian Ocean. The streets may be lined with coconut and palm trees and it may be surrounded by crystal blue waters, but la Réunion is anything but...
The (Dis)Covered Passages
For those of you who read my thoughts on Midnight in Paris, you may remember that I wanted to explore new neighborhoods here in Washington. I was inspired by that movie to revisit the walks that I took on Thursdays while I was living in Paris. Well, last Thursday, I took such a walk in...
Too Little, Too Late
Too Little, Too Late Why knowing just a little bit of French can spell big trouble Had I seen this picture back in 1987, I would not have learned the hard way that knowing a little bit of a language can be a dangerous thing. It was that summer when my husband (still just...
Tastes of Belgium in Washington, DC
Having lived in Belgium for 2 years, I had the luck of becoming not only a Francophile but, because Belgium is trilingual, a Germanophile and Dutchophile. No matter the language, the food was delicious and addictive. So when I moved to DC recently, I sought out all the places I could find to fulfill my...
Les Chiens Courtois
I spent the fall of 2008 and the Spring of 2009 teaching English in Lyon, France. When I first arrived, I kept seeing dogs running down the sidewalk, and I would think, “Oh how awful, a lost dog, how will it ever survive in this nasty old city?” Most of these dogs were French bulldogs*,...
Only in France…
My time in France is best remembered for me by the things that I can only do there. 1) Only in France can I get lost in Paris or other cities like Aix-en-Provence, Avignon, or Nice and feel at ease. They should call the quartiers or arondissements mazes instead. Instead of getting the feeling of...
Unlocking the Secrets of the French Language
During the year that I worked as an assistante d’anglaise near Lyon, France, I overcame a number of challenges (managing to rent an apartment without French papers in a sea of “déjà loué” responses, miraculously locating some approximation of Neosporin on a Sunday when all of France shuts down, semi-successfully sharing my English skills with...
Midnight in Boredom
Please don’t read this article if you have not seen the film: SPOILER ALERT Yes, I know: the new film by the prolific and world-wide known film maker Woody Allen is about nostalgia, and how men and women of each era have always dreamed of the glory and ideal life of a mythical Golden Age....
A Love Letter to Paris
Two weekends ago I took the Green Line downtown to go to the Landmark Cinema on E Street to see Midnight in Paris. If you live in the DC area and you have not been to this theater yet, you need to make the trip. The atmosphere is wonderful, especially for a Woody Allen film...
My Favorite Fête
I remember two years ago to the day. June 21, 2009. I had been studying in the small village of Tournan-en-brie, outside of Paris. At that point, I had only heard about the Fête de la Musique in France, not experienced it. But that day, a couple of classmates and I ventured into Paris to...
