
Postings from Godot
happy holidays
You may be wondering why I am bringing up the holidays already.
thanksgiving
One of the fun things about being an expat in France is when French people tell you what’s wat in America.
rien (nothing) + Édith Piaf
Rien, nothing, is a fascinating word.
tango and tragedy
French movies are an interesting way of looking at French culture.
anything for a laugh
Not long ago I stumbled upon the French essayist Montaigne, a real meanderer of the mind, if ever there was one.
questions à la française
There’s a French expression se remettre en question. It’s tricky to translate literally, but if you did, it would come out like this: re-put yourself in question.
La Seine à la Montaigne
We had a famous Wordsworth professor who would say, “My glance fell upon such and such in a Wordsworth poem.”
cemetière montparnasse
I’d like to continue the story of the cemetery in Montparnasse.
welcome (back) to the first post
This post is the very first one ever published. We launched on Bloomsday in 2020 on June 16th. And since this Friday is Bloomsday 2023, I thought it would be fun to visit our earliest inspiration.
pilgrimage
A cemetery in Paris, anyone?
blablacar
All methods of transport become precious in a French transport strike, even a non-Uber, non-Lyft ride share called BlaBlaCar.
tea on the loose
When we use the term “haute couture,” we think of fashion. But something else goes by this name.
Chanel
When we think of the word “fashion,” we see that it has an interesting dual meaning.
what is Paris without fashion?
I recently spent a day in Paris at two stores near the Champs Elysées, the fancy boulevard in Paris.
Renzo Piano
One of the joys of being an expat living in another country is that you come across something, such as an architect …
Centre Pompidou, the sequel
One of the interesting things about being an expat, living in another country, is that one thing leads to another.
beaubourg
On my recent trip to Paris, I chose to stay close to the Centre Pompidou near the lively section of Paris called le Marais.
before
Haven’t we …
the wait
Here, in the Gallerie Bessieres located in Chatou, is a photo by Serge Najjar, called The Wait.”
The final votes of the People’s Choice are in!
For those of you who are new, we were inspired by The Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, who chose seven debut novelists as finalists for a prize.
the people’s choice
Here is a refresher of each of the seven books we’ve read to have our own version of the contest sponsored by the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn.
The Five Wounds
The last novel in our series of seven, The Five Wounds by Kirstin Valdez Quade, features an unusual background.
winter
One thing about winter, it seems to me, is that the forward motion we so normally enjoy is not really what we experience during this time.
solstice d’hiver
Instead of our usual chatty musings, I though it might be nice to pause.
enfin bref (in short)
We are in the thick of the World Cup finale. So just a few words from yours truly on the subject.
Coupe du Monde 2022
The Beautiful Game.
charles mingus
Many great jazz musicians have enjoyed fame and success in Paris. Charles Mingus, the great bass player and jazz composer, was one of them.
happy thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving!
terminale
This is the time of year when high school seniors are madly preparing their applications to go to college. Did you ever wonder what this might be like in a foreign country?
un mot
One day, before school correspondence between teacher and parent had gone on-line, my daughter came home with un mot from her teacher.
pétanque II
In last week’s post we learned (more or less) how to play pétanque, or should I say we learned how pétanque is played.
pétanque
Pétanque is a game which originated in the south of France, played on a dirt or gravel surface.
brood
The word “brood” is a double entendre, meaning a brood of chickens or even a brood of children, and also “to brood,” which brings to mind someone like Heathcliff in Emily Brontē’s novel, Wuthering Heights.
i wait, therefore I am
What is waiting, anyway? Actually, we all know how to do that well, right? But let’s see what a couple of artists have to say.
foreign banking
In a word, don’t do it! I would like to take you on an imaginary, virtual trip to two different banks to change your home address.
a Godot moment
Everybody is enamored of the ending of Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot.
les numéros
The other day I looked at the expiration dare for some tofu. 11/7/22, I read. July 11? What kind of fool does that Food Co-op take me for? This is September!
Build Your House Around My Body
This novel by Violet Kupersmith is the fifth in the series of seven debut novels selected last year by Brooklyn’s Center for Literary Fiction.
la rentrée
Welcome back to September, whatever that means for you.
summer reads: the sequel (réprise 2 ) + math
I strolled into a used bookstore in Versailles France. It’s true.
saying hello in France
Recently one morning, a friend said to me, “Bonjour. Comment allez-vous?” This is a picture perfect greeting in some cases, but there are a few exceptions.
Bastille Day
When we hear the phrase, “The Storming of the Bastille,” we fell it’s a rousing moment in French history.
The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois
Who was W. E. B. Du Bois? First, to pronounce his name. Du Bois rhymes with “Du Choice.”
summer reads à la française: une reprise
It’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?
bloomsday
Bloomsday has come and gone, although James Joyce’s novel Ulysses will still be 100 years old throughout 2022!
happy birthday to writing4godot
REETINGS ! Happy two year anniversary to the blog! And thanks to you who read it avidly or from time to time or even once in a while. Much appreciated! The following post is from June 16, 2020. The 16th of June is the day in the year 1904 that Joyce set his famous...
big extravaganza x 2
Bloomsday is a comin’.
la FNAC plays jazz
I once read that someone would so rather read what it is like to live in a country, say France, than to hear about the tourist highlights. Now, some of the tourist highlights are very important …
merci
In spite of it all, we have to have a laugh.
do readers have an age?
I’d like to begin with by brainy, fun cousin’s remarks about readers of a certain age.