Category: Articles

The following story made me smile. I hope in this dark time we are living in presently – thousands being killed in Syria for example – this will bring a smile to your face too. In 1899 a cemetery opened north-west of Paris in the commune named Asnières-sur-Seine. Nothing extraordinary about a new burial place [...]

Mona Lisa … It is a name which never fails to attract attention; to hit the headlines. It has done so again right now. Madrid’s Prado Museum has announced that it has had a copy of Leonardo da Vinci Mona Lisa in its vaults for some years, and has now discovered after a restoration which [...]

I am often asked how many people live in Paris. In a nutshell the answer is: within the city itself (intra muros) live 2,257,981 million people, whereas approx 13 million people live in greater or extra muros Paris. Intra muros Paris of 105.4 sq km ( 10,539 hectares) is divided into 20 arrondissements – districts [...]

There is a law in all civilized countries that a convicted criminal can not benefit financially from his crime. This is a law which does not exist in France. Therefore, yesterday (Thursday, January 19, 2012) the French publishing company Le Cherche Midi published the memoir of a man not only convicted for kidnapping but also [...]

Today, Friday, January 6, France commemorates the birth of Joan of Arc – Jeanne d’Arc – born 600 years ago, in 1412. It is said that the reason the French and the English nations do not like one another is because of Joan of Arc. And Napoleon thrown in too to make matters worse. Oddly, [...]

A Paris-based communications agency – Agence Présence – has undertaken a survey of the world’s major avenues, and found that Avenue des Champs-Élysées with the reputation as the most beautiful avenue in the world, is not the one tourists like most. The agency sent ‘customers’ to the shops and restaurants of 30 avenues and the [...]

    In 2011 Paris was again the city with the highest number of visitors. 15 million came here. And now I can say with certainty: the world loves Paris. The visitors also loved Paris’s museums, so that these also had a bumper year. Here are the official statistics: Louvre – 8.8 million visitors which [...]

  Warning: The devout, disregarding of which religious doctrine you follow, may find this article disturbing. You probably have a sprig of holly in your home this Holiday Season. But do you know that holly has nothing to do with stealing a kiss from the guy/girl you fancy but have not had the courage to [...]

You can read my new spoof article here or you can do so by clicking on thespoof’s column to the right.

You can find an interview with me here. I speak of my books.

The French are eager to know, finally, whether their aviation heroes – Nungesser and Coli – had flown non-stop across the Atlantic before Lindbergh. Soon, now, they may know. Charles Eugène Jules Marie Nungesser and Francois Coli left Paris’s Le Bourget Airport on May 8, 1927, to fly across the Atlantic non-stop.  The two aviators [...]

Today, 111 years ago – to be exact on 30 November 1900 – Oscar Wilde died in Paris. He died penniless. He was just 46 years old. For the last three years of his life, the married Wilde and father of two children, had moved from one rundown hotel to another in ‘self-exile’ following his [...]

You may wish to read my latest spoof article. You can read it by clicking  here or on the right of this page. And remember it is for laughs.    

Who does not love Paris? I know a few morons who do not, but now, that is another story. In any case, you live here, or you’ve lived here or been here on vacation.  And you took some splendid photographs. Now is the time to enter those photos in the Photo Friday Competition. Anyone can [...]

You may wish to read my spoof story about Berlusconi asking the Pope for Asylum and how the Pope had misunderstood. You can read it here or you can click on the column on the right. And remember it is just for laughs. And while you’re laughing you may like to give me a thumbs [...]

Sex and business do not mix. Now who said this? Whoever it was did not know what he or she was talking about. Here in France, the two go hand in hand. (I presume that so it does everywhere.) What I am talking about now is how French businesses (and government offices) are supplying their [...]

  The most beautiful city in the world – Paree – is even more beautiful at Christmas. And it’s still 1 month and 4 days from the big day, but there is already a feeling of cheer here. I think we are all pretending that there is no economic crisis in the world … and [...]

Well, what do you know: London has surpassed Paris as the shoppers’ mecca. Your money will even go further should you shop in Madrid or Barcelona. This is the discovery made by the EIU – European Economist Intelligence – operated by The Economist with its headquarters in London and offices in New York and Hong [...]

You are planning a trip to Paris? You will take the Metro (underground rail) to Montmartre (the hill of the martyrs) and to its Sacre Coeur Basilica and its Place du Tertre. It’s kind of a must when in Paris. But do you know that just around from the square there is a small museum [...]

  This French woman fed arsenic to 13 people. They included her 2 husbands, her parents, her parents-in-law, other close relatives, friends and neighbors. Here is my intro and you can read the full article on crimemagazine.com Marie Besnard: The Undertaker’s Best Friend In France, in the 17th Century, alchemists became wealthy grinding arsenic rock [...]