Just 9.4 km (5.8 miles) north of Paris is the town of Saint Denis or as we here in France say the ‘commune’ of Saint Denis. What we mean is that it is independent of other towns in France as it has its own municipality. You can read further about our communes. I will quickly […]
I wrote a piece for the website crimemagazine dot com about the Islamist terrorists attacks in Paris. I start my piece as follows: Parisians woke on the morning of Wednesday, January 7, 2015, to an icy fog descending over the rooftops. Two days previously, on Monday, the children had returned to school after the […]
If you find nothing to see or do in Paris, then you should make an appointment with a shrink. And yes, I have had the experience of visitors to Paris telling me that they are bored because there is nothing to see or do in Paris! However, let us ignore them. In 2013 (latest […]
In 2012 I wrote an article for crimemagazine dot com about the murder of the honeymooning bride Annie Dewani in Cape Town, South Africa. Her husband, Shrien Dewani, was accused of having organised her killing in what was to look like a carjacking. The case against him has been thrown out and he is now […]
On Monday, August 21, 1911, a man walked from the Louvre carrying the Mona Lisa. He had stolen it. Incredible? Can’t happen? Today, it probably won’t happen, but in 1911 it did. I wrote about it for crimemagazine.com in 2012 and you can read my article when you click on the link. Here though […]
Many versions of who had created the Je suis Charlie slogan are going about. The slogan’s creator is Joachim Roncin, an artist and music journalist with the free magazine ‘Stylist’. Joachim created the slogan – three words in white and grey on a black background – almost immediately after the Wednesday, January 7th massacre […]
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It is a sad fact that the brutal and ugly face of anti-Semitism is being seen in France. However, let me make it clear immediately that I am not saying that the French are anti-Semites. What I am going to tell you is that a small number of people living in France are anti-Semites, but […]
It is always good to know when it’s school holiday/vacation time in France. So here are the dates: However, first you have to know that when it comes to school holidays/vacations France is divided into three Zones: A, B and C. Here are the Zones: A – Lyon, Grenoble, Toulouse, Montpellier, Nantes, Caen,Cleremont-Ferrand, Nancy, Metz […]
Planning a visit to France for 2015? If so, then you would want to know on which dates you will find the stores, museums and castles closed because it is a public holiday in the country. Here they are: April: Monday, 6 – Easter (Good Friday is not a public holiday in France) May: Friday, […]
Saints – real good people – are few and far between. And – to be venerated as such by the Holy See (Roman Catholic Church) is rare. In the first place one has to be dead, which is not so nice, is it? Secondly, the candidate’s life, virtues and holiness, like having miraculously cured an […]
For years I’ve been cutting things that interest me from newspapers and magazines. Note: I did this before the media had websites, and that now, because of the websites, I no longer do so. However, the cuttings I cherish and will keep until the newsprint dissolves into ash – or I dissolve into ash. So, […]
My latest true crime article is about Jack the Ripper. You can read it here : http://crimemagazine.com/jack-ripper-we-still-do-not-know-who-he-was Yes, my research shows that Jack the Ripper was not the Polish Jew Aaron Kosminski as announced recently and when you read my article on the true crime site – crimemagazine.com – you will see why I do. […]
You may be in Paris this Christmas. If so, you will undoubtedly visit the Notre Dame Cathedral and you will see and love the Christmas tree on the square in front of the cathedral. You may not however know that this tree has been gifted to the cathedral by Russia. Gifted, in fact, to […]
You’ve heard how expensive Paris restaurants are. Yes indeed they are, but lately restaurants, brasseries and even the smallest bistros have warm goat cheese served with salad on their menus. And at a very reasonable price: from €5 to about €9. In the past week I have three times ordered this dish – chèvres chauds […]
