Blog

Modern Art 1860-1970. Part 1. Post-Impressionists.

Modern Art 1860-1970 Post-Impressionism. When we use the phrase “modern art” we tend to think of artists like Robert Natkin, an American who died in April of this year.  This picture is called “Farm Street”.  He claimed that a painting meant no more than the materials used on its surface.  I struggle in no uncertain […]

Posted 10 years ago

Armistice Day in France

  Marshal Foch Armistice Day is a solemn day here in France, but there is none of the moving pageantry or marking of the event that one sees in the UK.  I have just been watching on SKY TV as the UK remembers … and it always moves me to tears. The Armistice was signed […]

Posted 10 years ago

Marianne. Snippets of French history.

 Marianne as depicted by Delacroix (1798 – 1863), violent, charging in to battle, bare-breasted (insinuates Amazons), walking on the dead, insouciante despite horror and destruction all around her. There are several symbols of France (as indeed there are for most countries) and the most commonly seen one is Marianne.  It seems to be sometimes referred […]

Posted 10 years ago

Christian Dior – snippets of French history.

When I looked up Christian Dior I was expecting to find all sorts of fascinating things, but there really isn’t anything…. Christian Dior was born in Normandy in 1905, one of five children.  His father was a wealthy businessman.  Christian’s parents had high hopes for him, but he was determined to be an artist.  As […]

Posted 10 years ago

Running your own business, being self-employed.

A bit of a sweeping statement, but I sometimes think that only people who run their own businesses  really know what work is.  If you are employed by somebody else, you go in to work, do whatever it is you have to do, then go home again.  You get paid for it.  It may be […]

Posted 10 years ago

Speaking French; language and its idiosyncracies.

Today a friend asked me if, when I speak in French, I feel that my personality changes.  The friend, Annie, is French, but lives in Australia.  The question surprised me because I had often felt that I am a different person when I am in French mode, so to speak. It was such an interesting […]

Posted 11 years ago

How do you dial 999 in France ? Living in France.

The emergency services in France are excellent. The national emergency numbers in France were not widespread till the 1970s (1937 in the UK).  Although a skeleton system had been in place for several years, operators (through whom the calls were made) closed for lunch (from 12.00 till 2.00 or even 3.00) and at night, and […]

Posted 11 years ago

Food during the Prussian seige of Paris 1870-1871. Snippets of French history.

The French emperor, Napoleon III, declared war on Prussia on July 19, 1870, because his military advisers told him that the French army could defeat Prussia, and that such a victory would restore his declining popularity in France. Wrong!    “The Dove” painted by Chavannes (1824 – 1898). The French were ingenius in their use of doves, pigeons and hot air balloons for getting messages […]

Posted 11 years ago

French history in a nutshell. Napoleon’s mother.

  Maria-Letitia Ramolino 1750-1836 There isn’t a great deal to say about Maria-Letitia, mother of Napoleon, because she was an uneducated woman who kept no diary, wrote no letters and received few.  She was born in to a family of very minor nobility in Corsica, one of three children as far as we know.  She spoke […]

Posted 11 years ago

Rulers of France after the French Revolution. Kings, emperors and presidents.

Napoleon Bonaparte 1804 – 1814. Defeated by the British at the Battle of Waterloo.   Napoleon II (1811 – 1832) was the son of Napoleon I and his second wife, Marie of Austria.  Napoleon named his son emperor when he (Napoleon I) abdicated, but the child never actually ruled. He was “emperor” for just a few […]

Posted 11 years ago

Books now available on Amazon:

A Call From France
French Sand
Kefani: An African Childhood
The Man With Green Fingers
Saying Nothing