by Anne Swardson | Nov 3, 2024 | Election, France, Virginia
Imagine: The head of a governmental jurisdiction orders his underlings to scan the electoral database and remove anyone who might not be a citizen, without clear standards of proof. More than 1,000 people are turfed off the rolls. The national government files suit to... 
by Anne Swardson | Jun 28, 2024 | Election, France, Paris, Virginia
I took a train to vote in the French elections. But it’s not as simple as that. For starters, I was in Virginia. Second, France has never seen an election like this one. The chaos began when President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the French parliament on June 9 after his... 
by Anne Swardson | May 9, 2023 | food, France, Paris, Virginia
Is compost about birth or is it about death? This is just one of the questions I have been pondering as I try to adapt to the American way of compost. In Paris, composting your food waste has recently gotten very easy. You put it in a little brown container, walk to... 
by Anne Swardson | Feb 6, 2023 | Antique, Colorado, Paris, Virginia
One of the few drawbacks of living in Paris is the feeling of being separated from your roots. I don’t mean family, who can almost always visit or be visited. I mean not being in the place where most of my cultural references were formed. Instead, I live where aging...