A Bastille Day Love Letter To France

A world without Chartres, without Mont Saint-Michel, without Pernand-Vergelesses, without Monet and Matisse, without the oysters of Brittany, the butter of Normandy, and the quenelles of Lyon, and without autumnal strolls through the Luxembourg Gardens, and a spring gallivant up the Boulevard Saint-Germain would be a world of acute poverty.