By Gary Lee Kraut Feb. 2009 – I didn’t come looking for Parisian dining when I set out to explore French restaurants in Philadelphia. I came instead to examine the ways in which chefs and restaurateurs present French cuisine in the City of Brotherly Love and to decide which I would recommend and return to given the opportunity. The round-up that follows is the fruit of extensive though not exhaustive investigation. Some will contend that I was more interested in the overall… Read more

Though it’s unlikely for a traveler to set out solely to visit French Philadelphia, every visitor to the City of Brotherly Love inevitably passes views and reminders of French culture and Franco-American relations. Glimpses of Franco-Philly connections from the time of the American Revolution to the present are found in ways great and small throughout the area from Penn’s Landing to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and beyond: from the statue of George Washington, made by a French artist,… Read more

Paris, Jan. 18, 2009 – In the waning days of the Bush administration, McDonald’s France decided it was finally time to get on the Obamania bandwagon and start promoting their burgers as pure American. You might have thought that that’s how they were promoted all along, but during the dark side of the last eight years the emphasis was on how integrated McDo (its nickname in France, pronounced Mac-Dough) was into French and European society, culture, and agriculture. Someone would pick on… Read more

This is a photo of the Parade Grounds at Valley Forge where on May 6, 1778, the Continental Army celebrated news of The French Alliance, the treaty that threw the weight of Louis XVI’s France onto the side of the United States of America in their fight for freedom from British rule. Valley Forge is where the Continental Army under Comander in Chief George Washington was encamped and trained for the winter and spring of 1777-1778. It’s now a National Park. Here’s the National Memorial… Read more

I hate to contradict more spiritual travelers, but for me actual travel is not “all about the journey.” It’s about the people, the place, and me (or you) among and within them. It’s about being local. Travel local while you can and save “the journey” for when you’re reflecting on things back home. That’s what I say–or at least that’s what I find myself thinking this afternoon having traveled to Dunkin’ Donuts in West Trenton, New Jersey.   It’s a new Dunkin’ Donuts, across… Read more