by Anne Swardson | May 29, 2024 | Architecture, France, Paris
Who could be knocking at the apartment door? It was a weekend afternoon, when repair people don’t work and most of the residents of our building go away. I opened the door to find two of my neighbors, who very politely asked if they could come in. A first in our 12... 
by Anne Swardson | Apr 28, 2024 | Architecture, France, Paris, Poverty
The façade of the Defense Ministry building on the Boulevard Saint Germain bears the holes and pockmarks of German bombing in 1918. It’s one of many reminders that wars have time and again been fought in France’s capital city. The ministry moved to a modern complex in... 
by Anne Swardson | Apr 14, 2024 | France, Paris
I’d been thinking about my friend Joel Stratte-McClure ever since I heard that some swimming events of the Paris Olympics will be held in the Seine. A river that, right now, contains “alarming levels of bacteriological pollution,” a nonprofit foundation said last... 
by Anne Swardson | Mar 17, 2024 | France, French, Paris
Reprinted with permission from The Washington Post. See below for a response from the grown-up Louise. October 5, 1997 PARIS — Less than a month into the French equivalent of second grade, my daughter has met the enemy and it is a fountain pen. Wrestling with... 
by Anne Swardson | Feb 19, 2024 | birding, Panama, Travel, Walking
I used to think birding was ridiculous. Tramping around all day with a big camera and binoculars to find small flying creatures whose goal is to stay unseen? Then I tried it. In Panama. This is not as strange as it seems, or least, no stranger than choosing Panama for...