Festival America : festival des littératures d'Amérique du Nord, Vincennes, Canada, Etats-Unis, Mexique, Cuba, Haïti, salon du livre, café littéraire, lectures, débats, rencontres, expositions, films,...

At the arrival of autumn in Switzerland, you might be surprised by a procession of beflowered cows and traditionally dressed herders filing down the mountain.

Once a month, I'll send you a little miniature post with cultural, historical, and travel observations and fun facts.

Office correspondence is weaker when requested with common women's language

Switzerland doesn’t have a feast of thanksgiving, but it does have the opposite: A day of fasting. Say what? Here’s the full story of the Swiss federal fasting day, including its history and how it’s celebrated.

For one weekend (or so) every year, sites across the European continent open even their typically closed doors to visitors for free or at minimal cost.

Freddie Mercury fans celebrate former Queen singer's 80th birthday in front of Montreux statue.

Though we had family travel in July, August landed as the true summer-vacation month, replete with nonstop activity and a solid rest-and-reset, too.

If many countries have a holiday to honor laborers, why isn’t it an international holiday celebrated on the same day?

Today, the Inside Literary Prize, the US’s only literary prize judged by incarcerated readers, announced its 2026 winner: The Book Censor’s Library, by Bothayna Al-Essa, translated from…

Once a month, I'll send you a little miniature post with cultural, historical, and travel observations and fun facts.

Once you have a taste of the Swiss highlights’ highlights, you’ll know why you need to come back to see Switzerland in more depth.

I postmortem each month shortly after it ends. Previously, I used these posts to hold myself accountable on progress toward my annual goals. Starting in January 2023, I broadened these posts to address more generally my observations and experiences for the month. (To read previous months

Around 80,000 people took part in the traditional Swiss National Day farm brunch on Saturday. They visited one of the 283 farms offering regional specialities and fresh produce.

No reason not to celebrate a national day when you don’t know the exact date of your country’s launch, right? Might as well pick one and go for it, like the Swiss.

Once a month, I'll send you a little miniature post with cultural, historical, and travel observations and fun facts.

Turns out the Tour de France has never really been about the cycling. (Okay, well, a little—especially these days.. But definitely not at first!)

We’ve had so many amazing road-trip experiences in France across so many regions, all with their own unique flavor. Favorites are hard to choose, but I did my best!

Incredibly, it’s already time for me to post about the books I finished in the second quarter of 2026, with my particular favorites in bold, as always.

A list of the books I read in the first three months of 2026, with my particular favorites in bold, as always.

I’ve noticed an interesting confluence of holidays celebrating their nation’s founding over the three countries where I focus most of my energy these days: France, Switzerland, and the United States.

The prep work ahead of the summer vacation season continues, but I’m making good progress on most (but not all) fronts.

Each year on the first official day of summer—June 21, the day after the summer solstice—France (and the rest of the world, so I hear) celebrate Make Music Day.

Once a month, I'll send you a little miniature post with cultural, historical, and travel observations and fun facts.