Spend too much time in your head and you miss what’s really going on — It’s alarming how much time I can spend in my head. Driving to Intermarche, I’m vaguely aware that the vineyards have been harvested, I notice that the car behind is drawing closer and will probably try to overtake me, but mostly I’m replaying a conversation from a couple of hours…

Sarcasm? Moi? — A little lesson on how not to start the day. Do not under any circumstances enter into a discussion with the opposite sex about the difference between male and female brain power. Just don’t. Unfortunately, I didn’t follow my own advice. It happened quite innocently. I remarked that the electric…

This year I’m hoping for a happier celebration — If accepting my 70th birthday was difficult (an understatement) I’m finding it even harder to accept that my upcoming birthday will be the last of the relatively youthful (depending on your perspective) 70s. Next year, if I’m lucky, will be the big 80. I can’t even imagine. An excerpt from…

But that was before Carrie Bradshaw said what she said -now I’m just angry — Learning a few months ago that I needed an artificial hip was a bit of a jolt. I’m 78 so it’s hardly surprising that my right hip was ready to retire. Still, I felt my body, or at least one hip, had let me down. Fortunately, it all went well…

I wasn’t exactly prepared . . . — Ten years ago, when I announced my intention to move from the United States to France, the two questions I was asked most often were: ‘Won’t you be lonely?’ followed by, ‘What if you get sick?’ Since I was 68 and moving by myself to a country where I knew…

Unless it’s raining and there’s no food — Attendance at the grand re-opening of the Maison du Peuple was low. Pouring rain — possibly one of the Mediterranean Episodes that occur during the autumn months in this part of France. Intense bursts of heavy rain that wreak havoc in the vineyards where the vendange (grape harvest) is also…

To some, it’s an irresistible urge — Sure I’ve posed for pictures in the sunny yellow fields around Carcassonne here in southern France. Fully clothed though. Going bare in the blossoms has never crossed my mind.

His angry outbursts destroyed our marriage — Maybe it started with my mother. Normally even-tempered, she’d occasionally erupt in fits of anger over something seemingly trivial. As my sister and I looked on wide-eyed, she’d scream and clutch her hair then let forth a torrent of cursing that quickly cowed her daughters into submission. Years later, married…

And Mother Nature Is Ready To Act Up — One of the many, many things I didn’t think about before I decided to move to France was the possibility of being attacked by a wild boar. Or getting accidentally shot by a hunter who may have thought I was a wild boar. Or facing a steaming plate of civet…