Sometimes we are drawn to a place because of what we hear about those who lived there. This week we celebrate Women’s Day and, with travel in mind, I thought of the great women who brought world attention to the place where they lived. There are the obvious like Madame Currie, Golda Meir, Eva Peron, Laura Secord or Florence Nightingale. There are many and we each have our own reason for who we would highlight. I asked myself this a few days ago and by process of elimination I came up with my special twosome. Last Updated ( Sunday, 12 October 2008 )

Friday, October 31, after 17 years of operation, the Musée d’art américain, the American art museum in Giverny, France, the Normandy village where the famed French impressionist master Claude Monet lived and died, will close its doors for the last time. Last Updated ( Sunday, 12 October 2008 )

Now what?  Luttez contre l’effet de serre, créez des forêts. The electric sign is giving me orders.  What am I supposed to do?  The first part is conceivable.  I can fight against the greenhouse effect by turning off the lights, reducing my personal methane output, and eating raw food.  But how do I create some forests?  The last time an out-of the-blue—or maybe out-of-left-field—statement like this stopped me in my tracks, I had gotten on an elevator in Washington and saw a sign reading, “Be good to your heart.  Consider taking the stairs.”  Stopped, as I was, in my tracks, I had nothing better to do than consider taking the stairs, which I did at some length while the elevator went up nine floors Last Updated ( Sunday, 12 October 2008 )

Ghost Town feels very much like a cinematic stew. Antisocial and repellant dentist Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais) has a traumatizing near-death experience and can see dead people (The Frighteners). The ghosts can’t move on due to unfinished business (Casper and many others) so they need his help (The Sixth Sense). Last Updated ( Sunday, 05 October 2008 )

When it comes to Fashion Week, location is everything. Well okay, maybe not everything. The clothes are important too, as are the models and the ritzy after-parties and the high-profile guests. But a show's venue can have a huge effect on how a collection is received. The right music, set and lighting can enhance a designer's work, calling attention to every detail from the length of the zipper to the width of the hemline to the right blend of chemicals that produced the perfect shade of tangerine. Last Updated ( Sunday, 05 October 2008 )

Most people now know the quotation, “A rose is a rose is a rose…” But others know it as “Rose is a rose…” Can you see the difference?  The first quote refers to a flower and the second refers to a person. The quote is by the American writer Gertrude Stein. But which if any is the real Rose? Last Updated ( Sunday, 28 September 2008 )

What really constitutes Home? Is it a physical place, a state of mind, of heart, a place in time (not necessarily the one you are presently living in), or another person? Could it be all of the above and others I have not thought of? Last Updated ( Sunday, 28 September 2008 )

Comparisons began to be drawn between the two first ladies from the moment the British press went Carla crazy when she accompanied Sarkozy on a state visit. Bruni stepped off the plane appropriately dressed for a chilly March day in London. Indeed it was her choice of outfit that led to her being likened to Jackie Kennedy - a sobre three-quarter length charcoal belted wool coat worn with black ballet pumps, and accessorised with a typically 1960s pill box hat, black leather gloves and the kind of vintage handbag usually favoured by the Queen. Last Updated ( Sunday, 28 September 2008 )

Many people want to improve their French and would like to do it during a family vacation. There aren’t so many options but I’ve finally unearthed one that might fit the bill. Last Updated ( Sunday, 21 September 2008 )