Hello Guys and Gals!

Francophiles keep popping up in my life, the latest being Roni Beth Tower with a fabulous new memoir out this month. Miracle at Midlife: A Transatlantic Romance chronicles a two year courtship between a divorced American attorney living on a converted barge in Paris and a clinical research psychologist working from her home in Connecticut.

Naturally, when Francophiles get together we love nothing better than to talk about all things French. And although it's true that every country has its own customs and rituals, it seems that the French have a unique way of throwing a bachelor party for a young man about to be married. I hope you will find it as entertaining as I did!

One Day in Paris

If you have but one day in Paris, I'd recommend you take yourself over to the Pantheon, a magnificent Neoclassical building with soaring Corinthian columns and a stunning underground crypt. Here is where the great and good of France are nobly enshrined. Luminaries such as Voltaire, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Victor Hugo and Emile Zola.

Meet Me in the Marais

Bonjour, Paris! The city sleeps late on Sunday in the Marais. This disinclination to rise and shine offers a visitor a rare chance to wander the deserted streets without doing much more than tracking shadows edging down the sides of the buildings.

Ravishing Ravel at Sainte Chapelle

Music can be found everywhere in Paris, not least in the churches. Last spring, while researching a trip in June, I came across a listing for a concert featuring the music of the French composer, Maurice Ravel, that would take place at Sainte-Chapelle the week we would be in Paris. What better setting for a concert? After all, Sainte-Chapelle, on I’le de la Cité, is widely recognized as one of the great architectural treasures of the western world, a Medieval beauty. So, too, it's neighbor, Notre Dame.

Le Musée des Art Forains

Of the thirty-plus locations that Woody Allen used in the film "Midnight in Paris," there wasone I didn't recognize, a part of Paris I had never seen. Do you remember in the film when Gil goes to the 1920s party and meets Adrianna in a room with a carousel? The whole idea was so enchanting, but where could it be? Going on-line, I discovered Le Musee des Arts Forains, the Museum of Fairground Arts. Quickly, I added it to a list of places to visit the next time I saw Paris. After all, if it was good enough for Woody, it was good enough for me.

Midnight in New York, Morning in Paris

Somewhere around midnight in New York, as I'm watching "Midnight in Paris" on my iPad, it occurs to me that Woody Allen’s Paris and mine are mirror images on one another. That both of us are besotted with Paris! And mad about the historic monuments and magnificent squares -- the Eiffel Tower, the Arch of Triumph, the Place de la Concord -- that add so much to the beauty of the city. Indeed, would Paris be Paris without them? At that point, I climb out of bed to compare my photographs with the fleeting images in the film. Starting with that of the Eiffel Tower.