From the first days of January and Mardi Gras, held on February 25 this year, Louisiana celebrates a French tradition that dates back to the Middle Ages — the carnival. The line-up includes floats and bead necklaces in New Orleans, and masked horse riders and Cajun songs in the countryside. This is the world’s biggest show enjoyed for free every...
Before becoming president of France, Jacques Chirac was a vagabond in America during the 1950s. At least, that was the story he liked to tell. Jacques Chirac, who passed away on September 26, was a friend to America and would tell anyone willing to listen. One such person was President Bill Clinton, whom he met in Washington in 1995 less...
With the recent republication of her hit memoir Life With Picasso and a gallery show opening on August 3 in New Orleans, artist Françoise Gilot remains more current than ever in the seventh decade of her career. “A painter, his model, and an intelligent woman, she is a superb witness to Picasso as an artist and to his views on art.”...
The house at 2306 Esplanade Avenue where Edgar Degas lived and painted from 1872 to 1873 has received the Maison des Illustres label from the French minister of culture. This is the second site in the United States to be recognized in this way, along with Marguerite Yourcenar’s house in Maine. The label was created in 2011 to showcase “residences that...
Edgar Degas is renowned for his paintings of young ballet dancers and horse races, and his series depicting women ironing. A lesser known painting is that of New Orleans. He travelled to the city in 1872 to see the American side of his mother’s family, who worked as cotton and textile merchants. The painter saw this six-month stay as a...
Major U.S. cities are attracting an increasing number of tourists and expats in search of new and original experiences. For those looking to make the most of New York, Miami, Los Angeles, or Chicago, here is a selection of guides written by French travelers. Destination New York, the very first Francophone guide created online [caption id="attachment_71497" align="aligncenter" width="670"] The third...
Music holds sway in New Orleans. In Faubourg Tremé, a book published in French and English on October 12, Parisian photographer Alexis Pazoumian studies the role of music in the reconstruction of the city ten years after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans has always held a deep attraction for photographers. Lee Friedlander, Bernard Hermann, William Claxton, and George...
Who or what is responsible for the hurricanes Harvey and Irma that recently devastated the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Global warming? Urbanization? Or perhaps Nature itself? Natural disasters were equated to some divine punishment until the 18th century — a theory that dates back to the Flood. After destroying land and sea, God personally promised Noah to never...
Sixteen years before they founded New Orleans, the French established a settlement on the Gulf of Mexico, a town now called Mobile, in Alabama. To celebrate the bi-centennial of its annexation by the United States, Alabama is organizing a symposium on its French heritage this weekend. We asked Steve Murray, director of the Alabama Department of Archives and History, to...
