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Autumn in Vermont

Fall Foliage, Pumpkins, Halloween!

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Paris/Hollywood

France's fascination with American movies is well known.  Just walk around Paris and see the kiosks advertising what's playing in les Cinemas.

Equally Hollwood is enchanted with the City of Light.  Our correspondent in France bring us news of the new expo at Hotel de Ville (city hall) "Paris Seen by Hollywood." Without question Paris is the foreign city most portrayed in Hollywood films. We discover that over 800 movies have been shot either in Paris or in re-creations of Parisian scenes.

Sophisticated stories, romantic comedies, and the famed detective thrillers are all part of the
cinematic heritage.   The memorable Audrey Hepburn films such as Funny Face and Charade recall the era in the 1960's when it was ever so chic to be and film in Paris.   Who can forget the Hepburn film Sabrina (with Humphrey Bogart as a Yale alum executive) where Audrey runs
off to cooking school in Paris? 

Or Silk Stockings (1957) the cold war comedy with Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse?

Sabrina (1954) with Oceanliner scenes, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) with Marilyn Monroe (also oceanliner crossing scenes) or Audrey's How to Steal a Million (1966) (great Citroen DS 19 shots),  form part of this wonderful cinematic experience.

In contemporary times the Da Vinci Code (2006), Midnight in Paris (2011) an interesting Woody Allen film, and Hugo (2011) by Martin Scorsese round out the list.   

Paris Seen by Hollywood is on exhibit until 15 December 2012 at Hotel de Ville.  It's free and well worth the time!

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Chinese Moon Festival Celebrated in Paris!

Fete de la Lune


Our correspondent in Paris reports that the Chinese Autumn Festival has been honored
right ouside the City hall for the 13th Arrondissement.

The 13th is home to an increasingly large Chinese ethnic community and is thus celebrated
outside Town Hall near Place d'Italie.   These pictures were taken recently one evening during the Autumn Festival.

Moon Cakes!

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Day of German Unity

3 October 1990-2012

A few thoughts on the Day of German Unity would be incomplete without mentioning HOW is happened.

The fall of the Berlin Wall, a piece of which stands in the UN gardens in New York, was instrumental in bringing the unity of the former "German Democratic Republic" LOL, East Germany, with the truly democratic Federal Republic in the West. 

One must thank the largely Lutheran church demonstrations in the East during the Autumn of 1989, the unwavering  freedom agenda of Chancellor Kohl  and U.S. Presidnt Ronald Reagan, and even Russian leader Gorbachev for "blinking."   The rest is history, as they say.

The united German state is about freedom.  Foreign Minister Westerwelle stated before  the UN General Assembly--

 "As we Germans have experienced what it is to lack freedom in the course of our own history, we will always stand by those who, wherever they are in the world, call for freedom. For freedom of opinion and for freedom of religion. For freedom of the press and for artistic freedom.


Freedom has a daughter. It is tolerance.

And freedom has a son. It is respect.

Respect for other people.

Respect for what is important to others. Respect for what is sacred to others.


Freedom therefore does not mean freedom from responsibility. Freedom always means free­dom to shoulder responsibility."