I’ve been in awe of Benjamin Hall ever since I started following his stories as a war correspondent for FOX. Perhaps it’s because I am the daughter of a World War II war correspondent who served in the OWI (Office of War Information) in China, Burma, and India, who grew up hearing stories from m…

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This week, in wine-growing France, from Bordeaux to Burgundy and beyond, grape pickers are out in force, swarming vineyards like ants to bring in the earliest harvest in 500 years. Here in Meursault, where I now live, the vendanges began on Monday, the 17th of August. Last year, they began at the end of August.

To say there has been much anguish in Franc…

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Seersucker is difficult to find in France these days, and the iconic fabric – perfect for warm weather – would be very welcome now as the country is ablaze in the worst wildfires the country has seen since the end of World War II.

Reading about the weather, several friends in the States have e-mailed me asking how I was and if the fires were threatening …

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“Oh, you should see the cherries!” I told my friend Marsha during one of our regular phone calls. “The trees are full of pink, ripening fruit. They look like happy emojis.”

I now live in France (in la Côte d’Or in Burgundy, where my daughter, Annabelle and Marsha’s son, Brian, now live); Marsha, lives in New Hampshire, but we speak daily and share confid…

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Baron Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) was a French aristocrat and lawyer whose studies of ancient Greece and Rome led him to a lifelong appreciation of the Olympic Games. In 1874, when de Coubertin was 11, Germany began a six-year excavation of ancient Olympia. Out of the ground came 40 monuments, 130 statues and bas-reliefs, 6,000 coins, 13,000 bronze …

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I shall not be going to see “Melania,” the American documentary film co-produced and directed by Brett Ratner (“Rush Hour 1, 2, and 3” “X-Men, The Last Stand,” et al).

It features a behind-the-scenes look at First Lady Melania Trump in the twenty days leading up to her husband Donald Trump‘s second presidential inauguration.

“Melania” will celebrate its w…

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Katie Couric Should Get Another Colonoscopy; She’s So Full of Crap

Here’s a follow-up on Charlie Kirk vs. Charlie Hebdo, on Islamic extremism in France. I was riveted to see how Senator John Fetterman wiped the floor with Katie Couric. My mother would have washed my mouth out with soap if I spoke like that, but I think the four letter word is acceptable …

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How Citroen’s Deux Chevaux (the tiny “2hp” vehicle actually produced nearly 9 hp; the original version weighed less than 1,300 pounds, was quite peppy, and got nearly 50 mpg) went from being a cheap, cute car for commoners to a chic, chère voiture for jaded tourists who’d been there, done that.

It didn’t happen overnight. The basic 2CV was created by Cit…

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In mid-October, I always bought two chrysanthemum plants to brighten my front doorstep in Montecito, California, where I lived with my husband for fifteen years. The outdoor plant stand at Trader Joe’s, overflowing with a panoply of colored mums, reminded me how much I loved seeing this French flair flourish in Burgundy, when we would visit our family i…

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Turning Up the Heat in a Small French Village

In Burgundy, where I now live after the death in California of my husband of 50 years, 2025 experienced the hottest summer on record. It could have been disastrous for this year's grapes, as temperatures soared over 100 degrees in July and then again in August. Luckily, most of the vineyards in the Côte d'Or …

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Since the brilliant infiltration into Iran's secret nuclear sites and leadership by Mossad (Israel's spy agency) allowed Israel and the U.S. to destroy most of Iran's capacity to exterminate the Jewish state and much of the western world, I have been reflecting on spies that I have known or known about. Of course, the secret of Mossad's outstanding succ…

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This past March, I escaped France again for 10 days in Switzerland. The paperwork that the French demand, to not only become a French resident but to get a French driver's permit, (even though I have a valid California permit) has been overwhelming. And I needed some TLC for a broken wrist that th…

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One Language, Two Worlds

My late husband, Richard, loved to quote his hero, Winston Churchill. His favorite was about the U.S. and England being separated by a common language. He first quoted it not long after we were married when I'd just spilled something. “Could you bring me the cl…

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Of Sailboats and Stinkpots in Old Cape Cod

My mother, Betty, put it this way: “Your father never met a wooden boat he didn’t like.” I’ll add, “Unless it was a stinkpot.” A stinkpot is the not-so-affectionate name sailors give to any boat propelled by a motor rather than sail; they are noisy, dirty, and smells of oil.

That is, until my father realized that…

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Don’t Blame Thomas Jefferson, S’il Vous Plaît

“For several weeks now, Sir, I have wanted to order from you a shipment of Meursault. But the season has been so rude that I thought it would be better to await milder weather. The delay has lasted to the point that I now find myself with a pressing need. I ask you therefore to send me immediately two hundred…

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Since moving to France in April of 2023 (following the death of my husband of 50 years), one of my greatest pleasures has been rushing to pick up my two grandchildren at the one-room schoolhouse in the tiny village of Monthelie.

I couldn't wait to hear what they had for le déjeuner!

I already knew that they loved school and didn't mi…

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Last January, one of the first things my son-in-law wanted to know was if I'd found a " boy toy" after spending a week at Lavey-les-Bains, following our Christmas holiday in Burgundy, where half of us now live. The other half lives in Australia.

The renowned Swiss thermal waters lie under les Dents du Midi, that rise above Lac Léman in the Swiss canton o…

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A few years ago, I wrote for the Santa Barbara News-Press about how I came into possession of two Nantucket Baskets – as famous on the East Coast as the Kelly and Birken bags are in Tokyo, Paris, and London.

The straw baskets, with carved sea life on the wooden lids, were recognized for their intrinsic value and reminded me of genteel summer times, of al…

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French and UK Health Care Lacking

It was Easter Sunday 1962. After a week of Paris's tourist sights, staying in a charming tiny hotel on the Seine, my husband and I decided to pack a picnic of baguettes, jambon, and fromage and rent a Vespa for a day's adventure to Chartres cathedral (about an hour outside of Paris – sans traffic). The cathedral is parti…

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I have been wondering why former First Lady Michelle Obama did not show up for President Jimmy Carter's funeral. She claimed she had a “previous engagement.” Sorry, that excuse doesn't fly – at least not with me.

I'm sure many other Americans – who are also paying close at…

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