Jeanne Koré Salvato

Lafayette

Lafayette

s we approach the Fourth of July in the States, my thoughts naturally turn to Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette. A French aristocrat from the Auvergne region, he was born in 1757 and died in 1834. He was a commissioned officer at the age of 13! Lafayette statue...
to wait

to wait

ait (v.) c. 1200, “to watch with hostile intent, lie in wait for, plot against,” from Anglo-French and Old North French waitier “to watch” (Old French gaitier “defend, watch out, be on one’s guard; lie in wait...

juneteenth 2.0

uneteenth is about to become a national holiday! I thought I would do something interesting, which is leave the post for last Juneteenth as it is, and give an intro for the following couple of reasons. When I re-read this post, I noticed that I said something about...
books à la française:  the sequel

books à la française: the sequel

strolled into a used bookstore in Versailles, France.  It’s true.  On the one hand, you’ve got the beautiful gardens of the Versailles Palace, not to mention the Palace itself.  And then, on the other hand, there’s a used bookstore.  Well, I did live there in...
summer reads à la française

summer reads à la française

t’s the season for summer book lists to begin to appear.  And I thought, how about some books translated from French that are fun to read? NOMany fine literary achievements will be excluded from this list. No Proust, with his lounging about and daydreaming about...
afficky

afficky

o and behold, we recently celebrated Africa Day on 25 May.  An Irish friend reacted to my surprise that there was an Africa Day in Dublin.  She was surprised I was surprised and sent me this lovely map. So, I decided to hunt around and find celebrations of...