I’d Be Even More Excited If I Could Skip The Fourteen Hour Flight — International travel never used to bother me. Now it does, but please don’t tell me it’s an age thing. No need to answer. It’s an age thing. My last flight from France back to the west coast of the US where my friends and family all live wiped me out…

Sorry, no stories of French village life today. I’m writing to say I’ve had it with right-wing jerks who care for nothing but money, power and self-promotion — The French term that roughly means ‘Enough, already. I’ve had it . . .’ is J’en ai marre de . . I first heard it from a French journalist I knew. Although we shared the same political views, he seemed to be in a constant state of anger about almost…

I don’t understand why I bother — Thanksgiving is coming — which means nothing in France and nothing to my British partner. Since I lived in the States for a good part of my life, I do have nostalgic memories of huge Thanksgiving cook-a-thons which were always more fun than the actual meal, but I am British…

Is the desire to let it all hang out a courageous effort to gain deeper understanding, or self-indulgent, inconsiderate, maybe even boring? — Earlier this year, as part of a series, A New Start At 60, the Guardian published an article about my decision to move to France at 68, alone and knowing no one in the country. In the Zoom interview, I talked about wanting to prove to myself that I wasn’t…

And fears that maybe I’d bought a turkey. Not the edible kind — I can’t even remember the last Thanksgiving dinner I ate. In the nine years since I’ve lived in France, I’ve met up a couple of times with American friends and we’ve tried to pull together something resembling a traditional meal, but the efforts were mostly memorable for how awful they…

And I had to find a way to get back to France — Was I heartbroken at being so unceremoniously dumped? No, I’d had a gut feeling about him all along. Was I worried about how I’d lug several heavy suitcases from the Barcelona Airport to the train station and then, once back in France, to my new abode in a distant village…

But Eczema & Asthma Are Only Two Conditions Affected By A Malfunctioning Immune System — About eighteen months ago, I started a new eczema treatment called Dupixent. It is not an overstatement to say that it changed my life. My only regret is that I‘m in my seventies and had endured a lifetime of uncontrollable itching, bloodied sheets and clothes, and, at times, intense pain…

A taco in name only — We went to a wine tasting a few nights ago. A dozen or so people sitting around a long table, sniffing and sipping. Murmuring terms like assertive and astringent, making notes about this cuvee, that appellation. Then we slurped down oysters and ate tiny gougères filled with local chèvre from…