… or a long weekend in Lisbon. Like last year, I was very fortunate that Filo, my Portuguese friend, welcomed me in her home and introduced me to this part of her country. During my stay in Lisbon, I enjoyed a warm weather, quite exceptional at this time of year even for this area: the day temperature was as high as 26-27 degrees, transforming this … Continue reading Portugal North & South (II) …
What a better way to discover a country and its culture than being introduced to them by a native guide? Moreover, when this guide is a caring friend, who invites you in their home and shows you their favourite spots, travelling to a foreign country not only becomes an immersive experience, but also a wonderful holiday. I have been very fortunate to have such friends … Continue reading Portugal: North & South (I)
When we visit Portugal and the United Kingdom today, it seems quite absurd to compare the one with the other: geography, climate, culture, architecture, food… everything looks so different. And yet, if we investigate the history of these two countries, we soon discover that they have formed a long-lasting relationship, now regarded as “the world’s oldest alliance,” which can be traced back to 1147 and … Continue reading England & Portugal: a long-standing alliance
The last time I stayed in London was in September 2019, before the pandemic. I had organized a family weekend around the visit of the William Blake exhibition at Tate Britain. Though I travelled to Scotland twice since then, and went last year to Cambridge via London, I did not have the opportunity to stay a few days in England’s capital again. A few months … Continue reading A summer weekend in London
From Glasgow, it was very easy to visit the charming islands of Arran, known as “Scotland in miniature”, and Bute. Both islands being in the Firth of Clyde, sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre Peninsula, they are ideal destinations for a day out, especially for people living in urban areas like Glasgow. The 3-day tour to Mull was a real immersion, not only … Continue reading May in Scotland: Part 3 – The islands
The second leg of our journey in Scotland lasted nine days. If our base remained in Glasgow, we divided this stay into two different themes: first, the exploration of the cultural and architectural treasures of Scotland’s biggest city (4 days), and second, several excursions in the Isles of Arran, Bute, Mull and Iona (5 days). When I planned our stay in Glasgow, I expected to … Continue reading May in Scotland: Part 2 – Glasgow
Two years ago, I enjoyed so much my trip to the Highlands, that I promised myself I would go back to Scotland. I thus convinced my American friend, Lynda, to meet this Spring in Scotland and celebrate there our birthdays together. We carefully organized a two-week trip in the central and southern parts of Scotland, from Edinburgh and the Borders to Perthshire and Fife the … Continue reading May in Scotland: Part 1
“We are now on the point of leaving [Livorno] for Florence, where we have taken pleasant apartments for six months, which brings us to the first of April, the season at which new flowers and new thoughts spring forth upon the earth and in the mind. What is then our destination is yet undecided. I have not yet seen Florence, except as one sees the … Continue reading The Shelleys in Florence
From the aristocratic Grand Tour in the 17th and 18th centuries to today’s mass tourism, Florence has attracted millions of students and amateurs of Renaissance art. Last January, a century after Miss Lucy Honeychurch’s trip* and armed not with a Baedeker’s but with a Lonely Planet travel guide, I wandered from the Piazza della Signoria to the Ponte Vecchio and strolled alongside the Arno. And … Continue reading A long weekend in Florence
… or “mad, bad and dangerous to know”, as Lady Caroline Lamb—one of his lovers—described him? Last April marked the bicentenary of Lord Byron’s death in Missolonghi, Greece, where the poet is still remembered as a national hero: a lifelong supporter of liberal causes, in 1823 he joined the Greeks in their fight against Ottoman rule. Among the events organized to commemorate the life and … Continue reading Lord Byron, the first European superstar…
Since Isaac Newton, Cambridge’s famous scientists have brought many discoveries to the world. Last July, during my two-week programme at Cambridge, I also explored the scientific side of this temple of scholarship. Join me in a stroll around Downing College, and admire with me some of the scientific treasures displayed in four specialized museums, all conveniently located in the same area: the Sedgwick Museum of … Continue reading Scientific Cambridge
Why do we feel sometimes that there is a gap between the sciences and the humanities? Or that science seems to struggle to be integrated into the cultural sphere on an equal footing with arts or literature? Where do these impressions come from? “Natural philosophy,” as science was called from antiquity to the 19th century, was not always looked down or as a threat by … Continue reading Science & Art in Britain’s “Modern” History
In July I enrolled in an international summer programme at the Institute of Continuing Education, Cambridge University. I had already participated in such a programme in 2018, before the pandemic, and enjoyed it so much that I wanted to renew that experience one day. As I just got my Master degree at Lorraine University in June, I decided to treat myself with a two-week course … Continue reading A two-week holiday in Cambridge
or a short but intense immersion into “Shakespeareland”! A touristic circus for some, a place of pilgrimage for the Bard’s fans, I found that Stratford was worth the trip, especially for experiencing a play at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. I invite you to follow me in this memorable journey of discovery. An original edition of the Folio (1623) photographed at the Wren Library, Trinity College, … Continue reading An excursion to Stratford-upon-Avon…
The fundamental idea of quilting came to America with the first settlers, especially from northern countries, such as Holland and England, where women had quilted petticoats, jackets and bedcovers for extra warmth since medieval times. They even developed such elaborate and beautiful quilting patterns that sets of bed furnishing were often mentioned in wills. Certain patterns grew up in specific areas and became so easily … Continue reading Patchwork quilts: an American folk art
When time came to select a place for my retirement, I decided to settle in Nancy, a town that I had often visited when my children were studying there. Its rich architecture and cultural life, its beautiful parks, a vibrant atmosphere with more than 50.000 students, were some of Nancy’s assets which attracted me. These last few years, it has been a pleasure for me … Continue reading “En passant par la Lorraine…”
When one thinks about Regency England, a writer comes immediately to one’s mind: Jane Austen, whose novels describe the life of country gentlefolk during that period. And yet, the growing, educated, middle-classes started to dwell in London suburbs and develop a new way of life. Among them, John Keats and his circle of friends wrote breakthrough poetry, which disturbed Britain’s establishment. Considering Keats’s aesthetic of … Continue reading Keats, a Regency poet
…or rather, a modest introduction to Shakespeare’s world! More than four centuries after they were created, why haven’t Shakespeare’s plays lost their magic on us? According to Harold Bloom and Stephen Greenblatt, an answer to this question may be found in Shakespeare’s ability to enter deeply into almost every character he deployed. This skill seems to have been his signature — what John Keats called … Continue reading My own Shakespeare
Composed after a walk in the countryside, Keats’s ode ‘To Autumn’ is regarded as “one of the most nearly perfect poems in English”. How did John Keats reach such a stylistic achievement in writing on a quite banal subject—Nature’s bounties in Autumn? Autumn has always been my favourite season for its display of Nature’s splendours, especially the rich palette of colours offered by the trees … Continue reading Essay on ‘To Autumn’
To what extent is a knowledge of mediaeval literature relevant to “modern” literature (from the 19th century onwards) or else to our “modern” civilisation? The revival of interest in mediaeval history and art started in the mid-18th century and widely spread throughout Europe, together with the national sentiments which began to flourish in each country: politicians were seeking in the past some glorious symbols to … Continue reading Mediaeval literature in today’s world
Real or imagined? The non-fictional and the fictional in Francis Godwin’s The Man in the Moone (1638) and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726). In these works of fiction, the characters and societies described, as well as the travels recounted by the narrators, were imagined by their authors. Generations of critics and scholars, though, have tried to decode and to analyse elements of reality or of … Continue reading Gulliver & The Man in the Moone
The eternal student - anglophile version 
You must be logged in to post a comment.