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Michele Kurlander profile

Michele Kurlander is a 67-year-old Chicago corporate lawyer, writer, small business and womens issues advocate (past president of the Chicago Area Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners) mother of three grown children, and grandma of six. She fell in love with France and all things French many years ago when she first traveled to Europe as the chaperone of a younger cousin in 1967. She travels back to France at least once each year ( often two and three times), whenever her addiction overwhelms her. and keeps up her far from fluent but passable French by reading detective stories by George Simenon about Inspector Maigret. Some of her fondest memories of Paris are (i) sleeping on a bench on the third floor of Shakespeare & Co. one year, and waking to the bells of Notre Dame; (ii) spending her "big" birthdays (50, 60, and 65) in France (the first two entirely in Paris, the most recent both in Paris and in an old stone cottage in a small hamlet in the Aveyron). Michele actually imagines sometimes that she is a resident of Paris, and has developed a number of ex-pat friends, favorite cafes and neighborhoods etc. Her favorite places include eglises St. Severin and St. Gervais, Cafe Panis, the little park across from the Cluny Museum, the Luxembourg Garden, and the Kong Restaurant above the Kenzo store near Pont Neuf where Carry Bradshaw from Sex and the City had lunch with Alexandre Petrovsky's ex wife.

Stories

Around and About Paris: Book Review (Books)
Story created: 2011-03-28 11:55:23.964835
Aveyron: Week in "La France Profonde" (Tour France)
Story created: 2010-02-24 04:25:21.019421
Daytrip to Monet's Giverny Spring Gardens (Tour France)
Story created: 2011-05-17 11:08:49.378260
Favorite Places Near Notre-Dame de Paris (Paris + Day Trips)
Story created: 2004-03-01 00:00:00
Giverny: Monet Redux (Paris + Day Trips)
Story created: 2003-12-30 00:00:00
How I Know I Was French in Another Life (Lifestyle)
Story created: 2010-02-08 23:46:52.713825
In Love and in Paris - Special Places To Share (Paris + Day Trips)
Story created: 2006-02-09 07:09:52
Le Petit Dakar: Senegalese and West African Dining in The Marais (Dining, Bars + Tea)
Story created: 2004-04-07 00:00:00
Paris Day Trip: Auvers sur Oise and Van Gogh's Last Days (With Video Tour) (Paris + Day Trips)
Story created: 2011-09-22 23:39:12.372752
Planes Trains and Foie Gras (Memoirs)
Story created: 2006-07-26 13:02:07
Starbucks in Paris - for or against? (Dining, Bars + Tea)
Story created: 2004-02-04 00:00:00
Wonderful Weirdness in Paris - The Dali Code & Other Paris Stories (Books)
Story created: 2009-12-21 11:44:05.945457

Comments

Lovelorn

  • Madame. I would not take my comments too seriously. I adore Monsieur LeStrange's articles. They often bring a bit of ...

Lovelorn

  • Why, Monsieur Picot, are you so sure that c'est impossible for Monsieur to have been the primary cause of the ...

Lovelorn

  • Why is it no possible that Monsieur is the one who has fallen out of love? That he has been ...

Are the French Rude?

  • Howard and Cathy: I'm afraid I will have to enter the fray here. Howard, I agree with you. And Cathy, ...

Are the French Rude?

  • I have had "well meaning" friends warn me for years about the rudeness and anti U.S. sentiments of the French ...

Ordinary

  • Budd: It may be Rue d'Alesia. I did just bit of sleuthing, and note that one of Monsieur LeStrange's articles ...

Ordinary

  • I totally agree with Karen, Celeste. The point (and joy) of the LeStrange article is the personality vignette, not where ...

Impresario

  • Love the description of your long term relationship with Jean-Pierre, one of those characters who could not exist here in ...

April 2010 Paris Events

  • Hi, Lisa. Love the monthly list . It is very helpful. I'm coming back to Paris at the end of ...

France’s Notaries Stand Their Ground

  • Fascinating! As a lawyer here in Chicago, where the duty of notaries is just to authenticate signatures, I am amazed ...

Look Out for French Drivers

  • Actually, Robert, what I find the most frightening about driving in France are those damn Peripheriques. Tried years ago, with ...

Paris Discoveries

  • Hi, Karen. My two cents - Two of the many ways that I've used to discover parts of Paris that ...

Love on a Full Stomach

  • Yes, I can spell. Please ignore the mis spellings in the comment I just posted. It IS late and I ...

Love on a Full Stomach

  • First of all, it is to laugh, as always! It looks like 2:44 pm here in Chicago, but my body ...

Destinations I Love

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Michele Kurlander photo

Michele Kurlander photo
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