Ardèche and Drôme don’t get the same wow-level publicity as other parts of France, but don’t let that sway you away from visiting. You’ll be surprised at the history, culture, and beauty it offers.
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Outside the United States, the very much beloved Julia Child, so frequently cited and lovingly lauded and even spoofed in books and films, is a relative unknown.
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Quiet and focus on the personal front and anything but quiet and focus on the world stage. Goodness gracious, January. Goodness gracious.
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The story of how Switzerland, a country with nothing inherently to do with chocolate, has come to have so much to do with chocolate.
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Always a long internal debate each year to put this list together, but I finally got it done. Here’s my list of the best of the best books I read in 2025.
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In order of roughly the date I finished reading them, here’s the list of books I read in the fourth quarter of 2025. As always, I’ve put my favorites in bold.
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I didn’t achieve everything I set out to achieve in 2025—some of the aspirational goals remain aspirational—but I gave every item on my list my best effort.
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The dragons of Switzerland, naturally, are dragons of the Alps. And, it turns out, the legends might have some basis in truth.
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What struck me the most about November 2025 its speed in passing. I would have sworn the first week of the month’s activities had happened only yesterday.
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Saint-Rémy-de-Provence exceeded the our expectations for good restaurants. I enjoyed the food too much to remember to take pictures!
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Saint-Rémy-de-Provence exceeded my expectations for a base of stay for seeing Provence, provided you have a car.
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The last quarter of the year always feels like such a headlong rush, doesn’t it?
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Swiss cowbells aren’t the average, run-of-the-mill cowbell most of us elsewhere around the world know and shrug off. Oh no. The Swiss cowbell is a serious thing indeed.
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The books I finished reading in Q3 2025. My favorites, as always, in bold.
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September felt like a lot of ramping up and getting back into gear with one big break in the middle.
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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.
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We spent our August vacation seeing and experiencing new things and, in general, shaking up our usual daily routines from start to finish.
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A little overview on what’s involved in the Swiss form of wrestling and how the nation used the sport to unify the country in the early 1800s.
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