About a year ago, my mother decided it was time to finally visit Paris. She’s wanted to go since she was a kid, but life–as it often does–got in the way. She retired last year and after much deliberation applied for her passport. And then she started hearing about the gilets...
Almost exactly a month before a fire damaged Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, Mr. Pretty and I sat on a concrete bench on one of those narrow pathways below the roads, on the bank of the Seine. We ate choux à la crème from Popelini, and I very specifically recall eating a choux filled with […]
So what does one do when you land in Paris without a real plan? I mean, we flew there on a whim after not being able to get to Mexico–there wasn’t a whole lot of real forethought involved. Luckily, I’ve been to Paris a few times before. I knew how to get from the Charles […]
I occasionally have super dumb ideas. Like that time I decided I could totally make it to Isla Mujeres, Mexico (flying through Cancun and a nonrev ticket) during Spring Break and Carnaval. Yeah, you know, like last week. It’s okay–you can laugh. I sure as hell did after all was said...
Let it be known that I’m not very good at beach vacations. Despite many summers spent on the Schuylkill River in a dragon boat here in Philadelphia, I remain ridiculously pale with a tendency toward burning to a crisp (even under five layers of extra strength sunscreen). There’s...
Not to boast, but I’m lucky. Not in that great “I’m a lucky charm” kind of a way–hell, my mother-in-law won’t let me stand within a 40-yard radius of her at a casino because I am decidedly unlucky in that capacity. Put me next to a slot machine, and...
I won’t lie: the first time I went to Paris, seeing the Mona Lisa at the Louvre was a very big deal to me. For most people I suspect that’s true. Even for folks who don’t know much about art, or have no real interest in art, getting a peep at the Mona Lisa is […]