In the preface to the book Grand Bordeaux Châteaux: Inside the Fine Wine Estates of France, Philippe Chaix describes discovering Bordeaux as a bewitching act: on…
View More Architecture with Heart in BordeauxCategory: Travel
I have always enjoyed travel but since I have hit upon the idea of writing literary adventures that happen as I’m gallivanting, I can’t wait to book trips to the cities where my favorite literary heroes and heroines have lived.
I’ve had some thrills along the way. Imagine my surprise when I found a museum dedicated to a French Empress in Parma, Italy! When Napoleon I was exiled, Marie Louise of Austria took her role as the Duchess of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, holding court in the Riserva Palace on Strada Melloni. I have another shocking surprise during my walk-through of her former home there so I urge you to read Rococo Style in Italy to see the other French courtier I found there!
In Stalking Petrarch in Parma, I return to the Italian town where I visited as many places as I could find where the poet might have walked, his role as a clergy in the region guaranteeing I set foot in at least two places he’d visited often. It was such a thrill for me! My post Seeing with New Eyes find me in Paris shadowing the places where Edith Wharton and her lover Morton Fullerton had lived or met as secret lovers. Paris is one of my favorite cities for literary adventuring.
Beyond my own literary travel adventures, I am inspired by design or art that brings a place alive. In Traveling Through the Looking Glass, I am inspired by Timothy Oulton’s design of the Glazebrook House Hotel in the UK, his references to Lewis Carol’s Alice in Wonderland the perfect segue between design and literature. And in Impressions of Venice, I illustrate one of Sophia Khan’s favorite books A Daughter of Venice with her striking watercolors of the Italian town. You really should click through to see her art—it’s hauntingly beautiful.
Celebrating Shakespeare
Celebrating Shakespeare The 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death is April 23rd, the date he passed in 1616 at the age of 52 believed to…
View More Celebrating ShakespeareIt Is Time to Experience More
Experience more. It sounds like a simple directive but how many of us really take the time to savor what is happening right in front…
View More It Is Time to Experience MoreThrough the Looking Glass into Devon
Through the Looking Glass Into Devon “‘What is the use of a book,’ thought Alice, ‘without pictures or conversations?’” “What is the use of a…
View More Through the Looking Glass into DevonDining with History
A month from Sunday, I’ll be winging my way to Paris to attend Maison & Objet, and I’m thrilled to say I’ve been invited to…
View More Dining with HistoryCinderella in the South of France
Cinderella in the South of France “From morning until night, Cinderella worked very hard. She carried water, got the fire going, cooked, cleaned, and washed.…
View More Cinderella in the South of FranceHorace Walpole Shops The Decorative Fair
The books I’ve been reading about Horace Walpole since I returned from my trip to London to attend The Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair in…
View More Horace Walpole Shops The Decorative FairA Definition of Fleeting
“O nature, merciful and cruel mother, when do you have such power and such contrary wills, to make and unmake things so charming?” —Petrarch Petrarch,…
View More A Definition of FleetingDream of Venice
When JoAnn Locktov asked me to contribute a poem to the book she was planning to publish in collaboration with photographer Charles Christopher, I didn’t…
View More Dream of VeniceOde to The Panther
During my first trip to Argentina in 2004, my bucket list included visiting the Buenos Aires zoo. This was not a wish born of an…
View More Ode to The Panther