I flew to Paris a few days ago from Bismarck. A distance of 4,397 miles. I left my house at 11 a.m. CDT and arrived at my hotel in the center of Paris, with layovers, just 18 hours later. On the plane (I was in steerage) I was given two pretty good meals, an unlimited supply of alcohol, five bottles …
When Thomas Jefferson left the United States in 1784 to serve as his fledgling country’s ambassador to France, he was still reeling from the death of his wife, Martha, and the remnants of political scandal in Virginia. Looking for a new beginning, Jefferson traveled in and beyond France whenever his job allowed, collecting items and ideas he would bring home …
What if Jefferson had not gone to France in 1784? What if he had never left the United States? How would things have been different? Jefferson had turned down two previous high-level government invitations to take up a diplomatic post in Paris. He finally made the journey in July 1784 because his wife, Martha, was dead, because he was still …
I’m organizing a cultural tour of Jefferson’s France, so I have been reading about those amazing years, between 1784 and 1789. If ever we had a perfect ambassador to France, it was Thomas Jefferson. His oral French was never great, but he was precise and disciplined, and his command of French prose was excellent. He loved France almost as much …
Places I’d like to visit again? Monet’s Garden. Claude Monet, one of the giants of Impressionism, is among Dorette’s and my favorite artists. We’ve seldom missed an opportunity to see his work. We’ve also twice visited his estate near Meudon, France, a short train trip from Paris. Traveling with us last year was Avery Dusterhoft, Dorette’s granddaughter, who brought along …
Facebook friends know I buy, read and mostly keep a lot of used books. Call it an obsession. My most recent acquisition is titled “France Will Live Again: The Portrait of a Peaceful Interlude 1919-1939,” by Samuel Chamberlain. It was priced at $3 new in December 1940, a bit less the other day for the frail used copy. For the …
I shot this photo in Monday of a professional dog walker in the Bois du Boulogne, the large park on the edge of Paris, which figures in Marcel Proust’s novel, “A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu.” Over my lifetime, I’ve read this work more than once in English translation (all 3,031 pages in seven volumes), and some of it in …
Somewhere on the coast of the English Channel, 73 years ago today, was my father, Garland Crook, a 19-year-old from the piney hills of Mississippi. He joined the U.S. Army at 17, not long after the attack on Pearl Harbor. His mother had to sign a document to allow him to join up at so young an age. Eventually, he …
Versailles and the Palace de Versailles were on the agenda for Alexandria, Va., photographer Jeff Olson on his last full day in France.
The Tuesday market in Le Bugue — that’s where Alexandria, Va., photographer Jeff Olson, his wife, Joanne Plager Burke Olson, and their other traveling companions spent their morning. Le Bugue, located on the banks of the Vézère River a few kilometers before the confluence of the Vézère with the Dordogne at Limeuil, is a commune in the Dordogne department in southwestern France. …
Alexandria, Va., photographer Jeff Olson captured these scenes in Salers, a commune in the Cantal department in south-central France, on his recent trip.
Alexandria, Va., photographer Jeff Olson and his traveling companions, including his wife, Joanne Barclay Burke Plager, and Dean Plager and Barclay Jackson, has an “incredible day and tea in Salers, a commune in the Cantal department in south-central France. It is famous for the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée cheeses Cantal and Salers. It is also famous for the Salers breed of cattle …
On his recent European trip to France, Alexandria, Va., photographer Jeff Olson ended his boat travel in Mâcon, a small city in east-central France in the department of Saône-et-Loire, located in Burgundy. From there, he and his group headed west by automobile to Massif Central, an elevated region in south-central France, consisting of mountains and plateau with numerous castles and parks. Their …
The recent travels of Alexandria, Va., photographer Jeff Olson and his wife, Joanne Plager Burke Olson, took them to the commune of Port-de-Vaux in Ain department in eastern France, where hungry swans and ducks were their marina neighbors.
Alexandria, Va., photographer Jeff Olson’s travels in France on Sunday and Monday took him through 14 locks from Saint-Leger-sur-Dheune to Chegny and then to Fragnes, all located in in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Bourgogne.
Scenes from Le Crest, Chateau De la Verrerie in La Creusot and Saint-Léger-sur-Dheune in France caught the eye of Alexandria, Va., photographer Jeff Olson during his recent trip.