Culture & Ideas

Planning a Trip to France? Start with the ‘Join Us in France’ Podcast

If you’re planning a trip to France—or simply want to deepen your understanding of French history and culture—the Join Us in France podcast is a superb resource.

Launched in 2014, the podcast was originally co-hosted by Elyse and Annie, two women who know France inside and out. Annie was born in France but has also lived in the United States, while Elyse grew up in New York yet speaks the language fluently and has an encyclopedic grasp of French culture and history. Ironically, Elyse, the American, often seems “more French” than Annie, who was born there. Due to time constraints, Elyse no longer appears regularly but still joins when she can.

The podcast shines in the way it makes France approachable for American listeners. I especially enjoyed episodes on driving in France, French cheese, and Le Marais in Paris. Another episode on modern and contemporary art in France introduced me to 18 museums across the country, many of which I hadn’t known before.

Each episode comes with detailed show notes—an invaluable aid for trip planning. Unlike the many resources that focus mainly on hotels and restaurants, this podcast helps you understand the soul of France.

For additional perspective, Annie and Elyse were also featured in Amateur Traveler episode 428 about Paris. Amateur Traveler is a podcast I listen to often, and it covers destinations around the world. But if your focus is France, Join Us in France is the podcast to follow.

La Maison de Molière: A Living Tradition in Paris

Comédie-Française, Paris – In this elegant room, theater patrons can enjoy refreshments. © David H. Enzel, 2023

As a lover of France and its language, walking into the Comédie-Française feels like stepping into the heart of French culture. Founded in 1680 by decree of Louis XIV, it is the world’s oldest active theater company and the only state theater in France with its own permanent troupe of actors.

Its main stage, the Salle Richelieu, stands within the Palais-Royal complex in the 1st arrondissement. The setting is both grand and intimate — a space steeped in history yet alive with contemporary energy.

Often called La Maison de Molière, the theater honors the playwright most closely tied to its legacy. Though Molière died before the company was formally created, the Comédiens-Français still perform his plays and pay tribute to him each January 15.

The Comédie-Française is often associated with the classical repertoire, but creation has always been central to its mission. In 2023, I saw a modern staging of Médée d’après Euripide that showed just how vital and daring the troupe remains.

If you speak French, it’s worth buying a ticket. Sitting in that gilded hall, you’re not just a spectator — you’re part of a living tradition more than three centuries old.

Salle Richelieu, Comédie-Française, Paris © David H. Enzel, 2023

Helen Reddy (1941-2020)

Singer Helen Reddy, born in Melbourne, Australia in 1941, died in Los Angeles on September 29, 2020, at the age of 78.

Her first hit came in 1971 with a cover of “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from Jesus Christ Superstar. It remains my absolute favorite of her songs — tender, emotional, and beautifully sung. A year later, she released what would become her signature anthem: “I Am Woman.” It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1972. Reddy was the first Australian-born artist to top that chart — and the first to win a Grammy.

I’ve always loved Helen Reddy’s music. Her voice was strong and expressive, and her songs made an impression that lasted. “I Am Woman” was more than a hit — it was a declaration of presence and power, especially at a time when those words carried weight.

Reddy’s life wasn’t easy. She had a kidney removed at 17 and lived with Addison’s disease. Still, she built a career that was both groundbreaking and lasting, and her music continues to resonate.

‘The Intern’: A Charming Comedy

I enjoyed watching The Intern (2015).

Robert De Niro plays a healthy but lonely 70-year-old retired widower named Ben Whittaker. Ben worked as an accomplished executive who ran a company selling telephone books. Ben wants to connect and be useful to other people. He starts by going to Starbucks each day but that doesn’t get him the human interaction he craves. One day, Ben sees an ad from an online women’s clothing vendor seeking to hire “senior interns.” The firm is loosely based on Google. Ben applies by uploading a video and gets the job. He’s assigned to work directly for the CEO Jules Ostin played by Anne Hathaway. The interaction between the two characters is charming.

The film was written and directed by Nancy Meyers, who also wrote and directed Something’s Gotta Give, a 2003 film starring Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton. That film is about a man (Jack Nicholson) approaching senior citizen status who has a taste for younger women. I also enjoyed that film so I guess I have a taste for Meyers’s work.

Manolhla Dargis, writing for The New York Times explains in magnificent prose that:

The director Nancy Meyers doesn’t just make movies, she makes the kind of lifestyle fantasies you sink into like eiderdown. Her movies are frothy, playful, homogeneous, routinely maddening and generally pretty irresistible even when they’re not all that good. Her most notable visual signature is the immaculate, luxuriously appointed interiors she’s known to fuss over personally – they inevitably feature throw pillows that look as if they’ve been arranged with a measuring tape. These interiors are fetishized by moviegoers and Architectural Digest alike, ready-made for Pinterest and comment threads peppered with questions like, “Where do I get that hat?”

Although I wish I could write the way Ms. Dargis writes, I think the film has something meaningful to say about the way older and younger people can relate to one another in the workplace and elsewhere.

It seems that the film was a hit in South Korea for just this reason (WSJ). South Korean viewers appreciated the healthy and positive energy emanating from Ben, the character ably played by Robert DeNiro.

I did too. And besides, what’s wrong with some eiderdown in one’s life?

Film: ‘Ida’

Anna, a young woman training to be a nun in 1960s Poland is on the verge of taking her vows when she meets her only living relative for the first time and learns that she is Jewish and that her real name is Ida Lebenstein. Together they discover what happened to Anna/Ida’s family.

This jewel is only 82 minutes long and every moment makes good use of the viewer’s time. The story is one example of the decimation of Poland’s Jews during World War II. But in the end, this is not a film about Poland or the Holocaust – but about life.

The film, which came out in 2013, is in black and white. The places photographed are ordinary yet the cinematography is stunning. Each scene looks like a black and white photograph made by a Magnum photographer using a Leica camera. Łukasz Żal is a superb, young cinemaphotographer born in Koszalin, Poland.

Ida is played by Agata Trzebuchowska. Her character is sweet, innocent and beautiful. Her aunt Wanda – Agata Kulesza – is also a fine actress.

Pawel Pawlikowski directed the film. He was born in Warsaw in 1957. At the age of 14, Pawlikowski left Poland to live in Germany and Italy, before settling in Britain. In 2004, he directed My Summer of Love with Emily Blunt and Natalie Press.

This film touched me deeply and left me thinking for a long time about what’s important and what’s not. It is among the best films I have seen.

Tracing Quotations

Quote Investigator is a website that fact-checks the reported origins of widely circulated quotations. According to Wikipedia, the website was started in 2010 by Gregory F. Sullivan, a former Johns Hopkins University computer scientist who runs the site under the pseudonym Garson O’Toole. Many of the quotes examined on the site are emailed to him by readers.

O’Toole is also the author of a book entitled Hemingway Didn’t Say That: The Truth Behind Familiar Quotations. The New York Times reviewed the book in 2017 and confirmed that Gregory F. Sullivan is indeed the author of the website.

Sullivan “tries to track down correct information about the provenance of sayings by utilizing the massive text databases that are being constructed right now along with other quotation history resources.”

The site reports that it had more than 4.2 million visitors between June 1, 2021 and May 31, 2022. It’s a free site.

The Library of Congress also hosts a list of quotation reference websites. However, many of these websites, unlike Quote Investigator, do not cite an original source. Even so, it is a good resource.

The Washington Open: Tennis in the Nation’s Capital

The Washington Open is the only professional tennis tournament in the nation’s capital. It takes place every summer at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park, a venue chosen at the urging of Arthur Ashe, an early supporter of the event.

Venus Williams at the Washington Open – © David H. Enzel, 2022

As one of the key lead-up tournaments to the US Open in New York City, the Washington Open holds an important place on the tennis calendar. It is an ATP 500 event on the ATP Tour and a WTA 500 event on the WTA Tour.

The tournament dates back to 1969, when it was called the Washington Star International. It was played on clay courts until 1986, when the surface changed to hard courts. In 2011, the event added its first women’s tournament, held separately in College Park, Maryland. The following year, the men’s and women’s events were consolidated at the Washington venue. In 2023, with the discontinuation of the WTA’s Silicon Valley Classic, the event merged into the Washington Open — creating the first and only joint-500-level event on the ATP and WTA tours.

Andy Murray at the Washington Open – © David H. Enzel, 2023

Champions Over the Years

Notable men’s singles winners include Ken Rosewall, Jimmy Connors, and Andre Agassi. Agassi (1990–91, 1995, 1998–99) holds the records for most titles (five) and most finals (six, including runner-up in 2000). He also shares the record for most consecutive titles (two) with Michael Chang (1996–97), Juan Martín del Potro (2008–09), and Alexander Zverev (2017–18).

On the women’s side, champions have included Sloane Stephens, Jessica Pegula, and Coco Gauff. Magdaléna Rybáriková (2012–13) holds the record for most titles (two) and co-holds the record for most finals (two) with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (runner-up in 2012 and 2015).

Liudmila Samsonova at the Washington Open semifinal in 2023. She was defeated by Coco Gaugh, 6-3, 6-3. © David H. Enzel

My Experience

I began attending in 2016 as my interest in tennis grew. Over the years, I have watched and photographed many outstanding players at the Washington Open. They are all remarkable athletes and a joy to see compete in person.

Maria Sakkari at the Washington Open – © David H. Enzel, 2023
Coco Gauff defeated Maria Sakkari, 6-2, 6-3, to win the Championship of the Washington Open – © David H. Enzel, 2023
Gaël Monfils playing at the Washington Open in 2023. He won the tournament in 2016. – © David H. Enzel, 2023

Sources: Wikipedia | Tournament Website | The Washington Post

Laura Pausini

Laura Pausini is an Italian singer who rose to fame in 1993 with her debut single “La solitudine“, which became an Italian standard and an international hit.

Over the years, she has released fifteen studio albums, two international greatest hits albums and one compilation album for the Anglophone market only. While she primarily sings in Italian and Spanish, her versatility extends to recordings in English, French, Portuguese, and Catalan.

What draws me most to Pausini is her glorious voice—powerful yet beautiful, with a resonance that seems to project straight into my soul.

My Favorite Audiobook Narrators

A great narrator can elevate an audiobook, while the wrong voice can ruin the experience. Over the years, I’ve come across narrators whose performances consistently add depth, clarity, and emotion to the books they bring to life.

Here is a list of exceptional narrators, in no particular order. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. Please feel free to suggest other favorites in the comments—I’m always looking for new voices worth listening to.

  • Scott Brick
  • Fred Sanders
  • Mark Bramhall
  • Michael Beck
  • Christian Rodska
  • John Lee
  • Sean Runnette
  • Seth Numrich
  • Roy McMillan
  • David Rintoul
  • George Guidall
  • Elizabeth Knowelden
  • Alan Medcroft
  • Orlagh Cassidy
  • Arthur Morey
  • Ray Porter
  • Rob Shapiro
  • Lauren Ambrose
  • Suzanne Toren
  • Pun Bandhu
  • Emma Griffiths

Last updated: January 31, 2023

Stacey Kent, A Lovely Jazz Singer

Stacey Kent is an American jazz singer with a glorious voice. She was born in 1965 in New Jersey and is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College. Her paternal grandfather was a Russian who grew up in France. He later moved to the United States where he taught Kent French. Once she learned French, it was the only language she spoke with her grandfather. Kent travelled to England after college to study music in London, where she met saxophonist Jim Tomlinson, whom she married in 1991.

Kent may be better known in France than in the United States. Her album Raconte-moi was recorded in French and became the second best selling French language album worldwide in 2010.

Kent has also faced serious health challenges. In a 2004 interview with Robert Kaiser of The Washington Post, Kent recounted that she’s been in comas three times caused by brainstem encephalitis:

Each time, baffled doctors were not certain they could bring her back. The last coma was in 1999, and Tomlinson nursed her through it. On doctors’ advice, he brought records to her hospital room. When she awoke he was playing Mildred Bailey, one of the great jazz singers of the ’30s. “There’s just so much emotion in that voice,” Kent says. “It’s a cry - even when she’s singing a happy song.”