Emile Zola’s Portrait of Les Halles

By on May 3, 2001 in Archive

Zola made these notes for his 1872 novel, Le Ventre de Paris (The Belly of Paris). A friend and champion of the Impressionists, he modeled his character, the painter Claude Lantier, after Paul Cézanne, and in fact his preliminary notes resemble an artist’s sketchbook.

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Seafood Restaurant; Padstow, Cornwall, England

By on February 12, 2001 in Chef's Page

Once a year in may, the market traders of Dieppe take the ferry to Newhaven and set up their stalls in Bartholomew Square in Brighton, just off the sea front between the Palace and West piers.

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My McDonald’s

By on February 3, 2001 in Culture Shock

My first encounter with McDonald’s was like a sitcom episode. A young and energetic émigré from Moscow, I arrived in Boston in 1981. By a stroke of good fortune I managed to get a job at an architectural firm, even though I could barely speak—let alone understand—basic English.

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