Reading about the recent protests in France brought to mind my own brush with demonstrators and the law when living in Paris decades ago. After classes at the Sorbonne, I used to walk over to Presses Universitaires on Rue Soufflot to look at the beautiful books I couldn’t afford. These…
In 1976, while working in Paris teaching ESL to middle managers at a French language school, I splurged and bought two tickets to the Béjart Ballet. I wasn’t making great money so this was a big expense. I had a hot first date, however, and wanted to have a special…
In 1973, fresh out of grad school and after an unhappy spell in law school, unable to land a job teaching in American community colleges, I found two job postings on a UCLA international job bulletin board. One was to teach English at a brand new university in Constantine, Algeria.…
I lived in Paris for several years in the 1970s. Things were cheaper then–five francs to the dollar–but gourmet dining in fine restaurants was out of my reach. I usually ate at North African restaurants, or enjoyed the humble, bland faire at the Cité Universitaire. I nevertheless had vicarious methods…
George Whitman just died at the ripe old age of 98. He opened the famous Left Bank bookstore Shakespeare & Company in 1951, renaming it in 1964 in tribute to Sylvia Beach’s bookstore of the same name that closed at the onset of World War II. She ran…
