Things FUSAC likes

French Hollyhocks are not “French” Hollyhocks awaken memories for people just like Proust's Madeleines. My neighbor Kerry in Montana once said to me when she sees hollyhocks she is transported back to the streets of Helena Montana where she grew up. The hollyhocks would grow in every crack and corner and defined summer to her. Charlie from Seattle says "I remember the hollyhocks from the big country garden of my grandmother and the big city of my mother, they have such special memories associated with them." Another Montanan, a cowboy poet named Wally McRae, wrote a poem about his grandmother's “French” hollyhocks. For him hollyhocks bring back the memory of his grandmother's need for beauty in the hard-knock landscape of eastern Montana. It is only as an adult that he realizes how important it is to have beauty and not just a useful food producing garden. In reading his poem I was curious as to why he called them “French” hollyhocks. Are they really French? And so I did som…

Tea is considered a British thing. But tea is the second most widely consumed beverage in the world, 1000 billion (is that a trillion?) cups a year! And tea time is the best example of British "art de vivre". Since the French thrive on "art de vivre" they too have found a love for tea and tea time. Things have changed since the 1980s when my landlady Mme Cahierre made one pot of tea per week, left the single tea bag in it all week and simply diluted and warmed a tiny bit of her brew with hot water each day. Tea consumption has tripled in France in the last 20 years, but it is still small 230g per person per year compared to the British 2.3kg per person. Just look at these lovely spots for tea in Paris. Some of our favorite places for tea in Paris (and beyond) Thé-ritoires in St Germain des Prés, Paris Imagined as a family home where you just drop in, like a house where you set down your bags and stay as long as you want. A place to spend time reading, writing and telling …

Pershing Hall an informal American embassy in Paris. Past, present, future. Pershing Hall Past When the rue Pierre Charron was created in 1864, Napoleon III by Imperial Decree ceded the land to Duc Galliera. In 1878, the land at number 49 was given to the Comte and Comtesse de Paris by the Duchesse Galliera. In 1878 the land was sold to the Vicomte de Paris, and between 1879-1882 the original building and stables were constructed by the Vicomte.  The building remained a private residence through WWI when it served as General Pershing's American Expeditionary Force's headquarters during the war.

Today the rue Pierre Charron runs from Avenue George V to the Champs-Elysées. Created in 1864 (under Haussmann's reorganization?) the street had two prior names and was longer. In 1879, it was divided into 2 separately named streets Pierre 1er de Serbie and Pierre Charron (16th century theologian and philosopher), hence the building numbers start at 44!…