John Singer Sargent’s painted “Madame X”—a portrait of Amelie Gautreau, an American of French descent—while they both lived in Paris during the Belle Époque. In it, she is standing at a table wearing a slinky black dress and looking to her left. However, the painting showed the right strap of her dress as if it […]
I took a walking tour to an emotional place that doesn’t exist, the former Seneca Village in New York’s Central Park, a place where hope both dwelled and was crushed, in the nineteenth century. As I followed one of the knowledgeable Central Park conservancy guides, I learned that Seneca Village was the first community of […]
It’s no wonder that President Roosevelt called Campobello “My beloved island,” and returned to vacation there summer after summer. Leaving the Downeast Maine town of Lubec and crossing the FDR bridge over Johnson Bay, you reach Canada’s New Brunswick province and Campobello Island. After stopping at the drive-in Canadian customs and immigration, continue to the […]
To me there is no better word to describe my wanderlust. May be related to having always lived on an island—Cuba, Puerto Rico and now Manhattan—that gives me a longing to break out of an insular world. Or maybe a gypsy was my real father. I’m not sure. Whatever the reason, I don’t want a […]
“We’re canceling the rest of our vacation” I said to my husband as we drove past one massive stone gate and approached a second one, leading up to the castle that loomed ahead of us, feeling like we’d been time-warped to the 15th century. We were approaching the Parador Conde de Gondomar—situated in a strategic […]