Dec. 2009 - I had lunch this fall with the Count of Breteuil, after which he gave me a tour of his ancestral home, the Chateau de Breteuil, 21 miles southeast of Paris in the Chevreuse Valley. It was a fascinating, friendly, informative afternoon in the company of a man of easy-going charms who introduced himself with an “Enchanté, call me Henri.” I’m fascinated, both personally and professionally, by the way individuals, place, culture, and history fit together and/or play… Read more

By Lynn H. Miller The Marquis de Lafayette first met George Washington in Philadelphia in the summer of 1777.  At 19, the marquis had left his wife and baby in France to pursue his heroic dream of helping to win America’s freedom. His reckless venture had been opposed by his family and by the Court of Louis XVI, but still he came. From almost his first meeting with Washington, Lafayette claimed the general as the father he had never known since he was only two years old when his own father… Read more

“Humanity has won its battle. Liberty now has a country.” The Marquis de Lafayette wrote those famous lines soon after the French-American victory at Yorktown, Va., in 1781. It was a victory that assured both the defeat of the English in the American colonies and Lafayette’s fame as a hero of the American Revolution. In 1783, treaties signed in Paris officially gave that country its name on the map of the world: the United States of America. That same year, Lafayette also earned… Read more

May 2009 – Republican U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee declared an end to Freedom Fries last week when he converted to Francophilia. On April 25 Senator Alexander gave the Republican Weekly Address in which he explained that Republicans can now applaud “the contrary French” whose president “runs around sounding like a Republican.” He further explained that if Republicans had it their way the U.S. might be eligible to join France in the European Union. And if we were more… Read more

Not only is Congress eating French fries but Republicans are now claiming that Democrats aren’t Francophile enough. On April 25 Senator Alexander gave the Republican Weekly Address in which he explained that Republicans can now applaud “the contrary French” whose president “runs around sounding like a Republican.” He further explained that if Republicans had it their way the U.S. might be eligible to join France in the European Union. And if we were more like France then our energy… Read more