Blog Archives

Cannes, El Sid, and Six Green Beans

Posted on May 10, 2016 by ronbase — 2 Comments

Every year about this time I think of Cannes, El Sid, and six green beans. El Sid was my nick-name for Sid Adilman, the legendary Toronto Star entertainment reporter. For years in May, El Sid and I would head for the…

Tagged with: Afred Hitchcock, Cannes, Cary Grant, Chet Baker, Cote d'Azur, France, Gore Vidal, Grace Kelly, Hotel Carlton, Hotel du Cap, Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen, Moulin des Mougins, Norman Mailer, Paul Newman, Riviera, Sid Adilman, Terry Jones, To Catch A Thief, Toronto Star, Toronto Telegram
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A Month In Provence: What? I’m Not In Provence?

Posted on September 9, 2015 by ronbase — 3 Comments

The black bulls are charging outside our apartment in Uzès. We are in this medieval French town to spend the next month experiencing the joys of Provence. Who knew about bulls? Les tauraux are part of the tradition and commerce…

Tagged with: A Year in Provence, Anduze, Avignon, Boulevard Gambetta, Brigadoon, Comté cheese, Fete Votive, France, Gardon River, Grotte du Trabuc, Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, Languedoc-Roussillon, Le Bec a Vin, Le Grau-du-Roi, le Pont d’Avignon, Ménerbes, Nîmes, Paris, Peter Mayle, Place auxHerbes, Pont du Gard, Provence, San Quentin la Poterie, The Duchy, the Gard, Uzes
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The Cutting of the Olive: Lessons in Life and Cooking From the South of France

Posted on August 26, 2015 by ronbase — Leave a comment

I have learned how to cut an olive in half. I now know that in order to make pissaladière, a traditional and very popular French pizza-type dish, one sweats the onions, one does not brown them. Adding olive oil to…

Tagged with: Barcelona, duck breast, Escoffier, figs, France, goat cheese, Le Pistou, moules pesquieres, olive oil, olives, Paris, Petra Carter, pissaladiere, Provence, Ritz Hotel, Uzes
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How We Won The War–and Those Other Guys Didn’t

Posted on August 18, 2015 by ronbase — Leave a comment

The building where the Gestapo tortured, maimed, and killed hundreds of French men and women, and from where thousands were dispatched to gas chambers in the east, sits at fourteen avenue Berthelot near the River Rhone in central Lyon. Lingering…

Tagged with: Alan Turing, Bletchley Park, Churchill War Rooms, Edward Prince of Wales, England, France, Hermann Goering, Hitler, Imperial War Museum, Klaus Barbie, London, Lyon, Marshal Pétain, Prince Philip, Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth, The Imitation Game, The Museum of the Resistance, Third Reich, Vichy, Winston Churchill, World War II
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Standing In Airports, Holding A Book, Listening To Stories

Posted on December 21, 2012 by ronbase — Leave a comment

This week a reader of The Sanibel Sunset Detective novels e-mailed me several questions, ending with this one: “Why does a man with ten published books to his credit spend his time hawking a handful of them in an airport?”…

Tagged with: Another Sanibel Sunset Detective, Captiva Island, Chicago, Ford, Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, France, Galapagos Islands, Germany, Hitler, James Patterson, Nazis, Ontario, Pete's Time Out, Sanibel Island, Shanghai, The Sanibel Sunset Detective, Windsor, World War II
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El Sid, The Cannes Cannes, and Six Green Beans

Posted on May 16, 2012 by ronbase — Leave a comment

Every year about this time I think of El Sid and six green beans. El Sid was my nick-name for Sid Adilman, the legendary Toronto Star entertainment reporter. For years in May, El Sid and I would head for the Cannes…

Tagged with: Antibes, Cairo, Cannes, Cannes International Film Festival, Cary Grant, Chet Baker, Cote d'Azur, Croisette, Dusty Cohl, Eden Roc, Egypt, France, French Riviera, Gore Vidal, Grace Kelly, Hotel Carlton, Hotel du Cap, Hotel Majestic, James Mason, Jerry Lewis, Joanne Woodward, Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen, McKenzie Porter, Mena House, Moulin des Mougins, Nice, Norman Mailer, Paul Newman, rue D'Antibes, Sid Adilman, The Toronto Star, The Toronto Telegram, TIFF, To Catch A Thief, Toronto International Film Festival
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