Below are posts associated with the “France” tag.
🔗 linkblog: European troops arrive in Greenland to boost the Arctic island's security
It’s a sign of how crazy everything is right now that this is just one of sevral political developments contributing to my current anxiety.
affiches de cinéma dont je me souviens
Ayant grandi dans l’Église de Jésus-Christ des saints des derniers jours, c’était normal que je m’engage comme missionnaire mormon à l’âge de 19 ans. Comme j’avais déjà beaucoup étudié le français, on m’a affecté au service missionnaire en France et en Suisse, où j’ai donc habité entre 2007 et 2009.
Mes souvenirs de cette période de ma vie sont un peu compliqués. Comme je n’ai plus les mêmes croyances religieuses, j’ai certains regrets. Comme c’était quand-même très cool de vivre en Europe francophone pendant deux ans, j’éprouve quand-même de la nostalgie pour cette saison de ma vie.
🔗 linkblog: Etats-Unis : un chercheur français refoulé pour avoir exprimé « une opinion personnelle sur la politique menée par l’administration Trump »
C’est du n’importe quoi, ça. Quelle honte, ce pays.
🔗 linkblog: NASA, Yale, and Stanford Scientists Consider 'Scientific Exile,' French University Says'
I mean, I’ve always wanted to live and work in France, but I’ve never wanted to feel like I would have to.
🔗 linkblog: In France, a family reckons with World War II Allies' legacy of rape and murder'
If there were such a thing as a good army fighting a good war, it would be the Allies in World War II. It’s wildly irresponsible to overlook the awful things done by that army in that war for the sake of holding both up as “good,” though.
🔗 linkblog: What France and America Know About Each Other'
This is clever, spot on, and sometimes hilarious.
in memory of a mentor
This morning, Mormon studies scholar Dr. Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye passed away after a years-long struggle with cancer. Melissa was an amazing scholar, fantastic mentor, and just great person, and I think a lot of people—even just those who knew her professionally—are going to be spending time writing, thinking, and crying about her today and in the weeks to come. Other people will have more, and more important, things to say than I do, but I’m deeply grateful for Melissa, and I want to show that gratitude by sharing a few thoughts of my own.
🔗 linkblog: Macron Shifts Rightward, and Charts a New Course - The New York Times'
My political views have shifted a lot over the past decade, and I think my attitude toward Macron demonstrates that pretty well. When he was first elected, I was pretty excited. I was fed up with the American right but not ready to identify with the left, and the idea of a new centrist party emerging out of nowhere was inspiring.
In the years since, though, I’ve moved steadily leftward—not least because Macron has demonstrated the ways that centrism tends to cede ground to the right on important issues. It’s been disappointing to see.
the missionary with the expired visa
Over the past few years, I’ve been slowly digitizing a bunch of analog letters, keepsakes, and other things that I think are worth keeping a copy of in the Day One journaling app (and, more importantly, in a PDF export from Day One). My current project is copying over a bunch of old emails that I sent friends during the two years I served as a Latter-day Saint missionary, and in the email I was copying this morning, I wrote about a time when I was working as the legal secretary for the mission and had to do an audit of our legal documents because:
🔗 linkblog: Lyon-Barcelone avec la RENFE. ça vaut quoi ? - YouTube'
Il y a peu d’occasions de voyager en train chez moi, et je dois donc profiter de ce genre de vidéo pour vivre un peu l’expérience. Comme la SNCF et les CFF me manquent ! Je n’ai pas d’expérience avec la RENFE, mais je suis impressionné par ce que je vois ici.
🔗 linkblog: Paris Turns ‘Little Belt’ of Train Tracks Into Green Spaces - The New York Times'
Faudra que je visite la petite ceinture un jour !
🔗 linkblog: Top French Court Upholds Abaya Ban in Schools - The New York Times'
A secular state is good, but French laïcité consistently goes too far.
🔗 linkblog: En France, près de 300 élèves se sont présentées en abaya à l'école, malgré l'interdiction - rts.ch - Monde'
C’est bien stupide, une telle interdiction. Je suis pour un état séparé de la religion mais contre un état qui essaie de supprimer une religion minoritaire.
des crêpes proustiennes
Ma fille aime bien les crêpes au Nutella, et ça fait un petit moment qu’on n’en a pas fait. Comme elle est malade depuis quelques jours, c’était le bon moment ce soir de reprendre cette petite tradition. En mangeant ma première crêpe, j’ai été rempli d’un tas de souvenirs, comme si c’était la madeleine de Proust. Je n’ai pas envie d’écrire sept tomes sur le sujet, mais pourquoi pas un petit blog ?
delightful radio program on British 'ghost stations'
During my two years living in France and Switzerland, I fell deeply in love with travel by rail. But alas, I live in a particularly rail-unfriendly region of a rather rail-unfriendly country. One of my guilty internet pleasures is consuming rail-related media so that I can feel like I’m having train experiences anyway.
Geoff Marshall’s YouTube channel is a favorite of mine. Le Ferrovipathe and Urban Traveler are a couple of Francophone channels that I like much more, but that produce less content. That said, I’d gladly rewatch Urban Traveler’s #TourDeFranceEnTER or Tour de Suisse en train series, which make me ache for the experience of taking European rail.
a nearly-forgotten memory of failing to stand up to Islamophobia
[Mit einem Glasdach überdachter Vorplatz des Staßburger Bahnhofs, by Dr.-Ing. S.Wetzel, is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0]
I don’t remember exactly where we were, but I’m pretty sure it was near the Strasbourg train station. Maybe we were in the station, or maybe we were somewhere nearby. We must have come to Strasbourg from Colmar, where we spent most of our time. It was a shop of some kind: Were we buying breakfast? Day passes for local public transit? I can’t remember for sure.
🔗 linkblog: Maxwell Institute Podcast #157: Latter-day Saints in the French Imagination, with Corry Cropper, Daryl Lee, and Heather Belnap - Neal A. Maxwell Institute'
Such an interesting book. I’m going to have to get a copy to read one day.