November 3rd, 2011 | General, Travel
The skies wept over Ypres and Passchendaele. This was the place that my Dear One felt most drawn to. On the drive up, he read me key passages from Leon Wolff’s In Flanders Fields. I had spent little time studying that corner of the Front. I had read The Danger Tree...
November 2nd, 2011 | General, Travel
Serena our GPS seems to have an affection for countryside and tiny rural lanes. When departing Nancy, for instance, we found ourselves turning abruptly off what seemed like a sensible main road, twisting through a tiny village and up a steep track through a forest of...
October 31st, 2011 | General, Travel
What is not to love about this set of light-filled rooms on the second floor, with their old beams and serene quiet. The occasional vehicle rumbles by on the street beyond the kitchen. From the other side horses nicker conversationally. Gîte Les Tilleuls, “Lime...
October 30th, 2011 | General, Travel
The best laid plans may go awry but small inconveniences, what the French road system terms déviances, provide marvelous surprise. We could not have planned such adventures; we did not know that these were things we would want to do; we were in general completely...
October 28th, 2011 | General, Travel
I knew there was an upper town and a lower town in Bar-le-Duc; I was a little less clear on the difference in elevation. The Ornain and its fellow waterway the Canal of the Marne cut through the town’s steep hillsides from northwest to southeast. They plus a few...
October 26th, 2011 | Genealogy, General, Travel
I lay in bed and listened to the rain insistent on the roof. We would go to Liffol-le-Grand, I decided. Liffol-le-Grand is one of the small towns near Neufchatel, an administrative center of the American Expeditionary Force, which provided housing for soldiers. It was...
October 26th, 2011 | General, Travel
The visitor’s guide to Hattonchâtel opens with a discussion of geology established 150 million years ago as rivers cut down through soft strata leaving limestone bluffs to tower over the plain, a perfect natural fortification and a position that provides gorgeous...
October 26th, 2011 | General, Travel
Nicole insisted we go to the church in Marbotte, a key stop on the Salient circuit, on our first full day, a Sunday. In 2002 we obeyed the emphatic directions of a desk clerk at the hotel in Arles, heading into the Camargue instead of driving to our planned...
October 24th, 2011 | General, Travel
Frost was thick on the windshield of the rented Renault Scenic, the eight o’clock sky above Montsec palely blue, and sunshine reflected off the mist collected in the valley. Yesterday was long and mostly damp and gray until the fog burned off midafternoon. The flight...
October 15th, 2011 | General, visual arts
Whitecaps foamed on brown Susquehanna waters and gusting winds snatched at tickets and threatened the frame tents sheltering crafts people and food vendors. It was only a little past noon and already Deesigns by Deena was packing up. Necklaces with cross-sections of...
