What is it?
The Daily Cure for me is trying to smell taste touch—really experience— something, each day, that reminds me that I'm alive and, mostly, happy to be here. A small moment that should go a long way, at least in theory.-
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Category Archives: FRANCE
Byrrh, not beer
Browse around the houses up and down the street here—this one included—and you might run into one of these: an old publicity card for Byrrh apéritif. I’ve been looking at this one propped behind our telephone for 10 years, without … Continue reading
A late happy 4th of July: Amber waves of blé
Like many of you, I grew up singing a national anthem about something I’d never seen: amber waves of grain. Not only had I never experienced them first hand; I certainly had no idea why one would sing an impossible … Continue reading
Posted in AROUND US, FRANCE
11 Comments
My kind of truck
Traffic—charmingly—doesn’t flow the way it’s supposed to. A tractor turns onto the road in front of you laden with logs that hang far off the back brandishing a red hanky. Your speedometer, accordingly, takes a nose dive. Or another, headed … Continue reading
Aromatic in three languages
French dirt inspires me. I get here, and I have to plant something, sink my fingers into the layers of spent or rich soil, finding a way to give life to another color another leaf-shape another perfume another future memory. … Continue reading
Posted in FRANCE, WHAT TO DO
Tagged aromatic plants, basil, chives, herb garden, herbs, parsley, rosemary, sage, thyme
6 Comments
Hit the road, Jacques
OK. I’m back in Italy, but yesterday a package I ordered a few days ago arrived from Amazon.fr: the French card game, Mille Bornes. The immediate effect of its arrival was that my memories zoomed back in time both one … Continue reading
Spring storm
Post #6 from our Easter week in Burgundy. Everything smells different right before it hits. The light changes. The temperature drops. Things are hushed, then windy. The gray grows in intensity overhead, while underneath roiling clouds, beiges turn to gold. … Continue reading
Pissenlits / dandelions
Post #5 from our Easter week in Burgundy. NOTE: I can hardly look at a dandelion without thinking of World War II, of hunger, of doing without, of survival and—despite all that— of happiness. I think, whether we like it … Continue reading
Posted in AROUND US, FRANCE
Tagged dandelions, eating dandelions, France, pissenlit, World War II
4 Comments
Let’s take the road less traveled by
Post #4 from our Easter week in Burgundy. Pull on your old jacket and your rubber boots. The weather is undecided and last night’s rain has left things saturated with wetness and a deeper hue. The snails and slugs will … Continue reading
Self portrait: The passerby
Post #3 from our Easter week in Burgundy. Not always, but often, I take a picture of myself reflected in a window or mirror not out of vanity, but out of some existential need to prove that “I was there”—there … Continue reading
Posted in AROUND US, FRANCE
8 Comments
One potato
Post #2 from our Easter week in Burgundy. I’ve always loved potatoes. And thirteen years of pasta and rice haven’t dimmed my passion. What, really, fills the cracks better than that earthy packet of starch? It’s no surprise, then, that … Continue reading
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