In the midst of this season of overindulgence, I thought I would post about one of my favorite people from history, Catherine de Medici (1519 – 1589), Italian-born wife of Henry II, king of France, and one of her favorite… Read More
On a hot June day in 1559, King Henry II of France galloped toward his jousting opponent at full speed. His opponent was the young captain of his Scottish Guard, Gabriel Count de Montgomery. Montgomery had begged to be allowed… Read More
On a recent trip to France, we passed by many châteaux in the Loire valley, each more magnificent than the next. The Loire valley is not very close to Paris—it’s about 110 miles from Paris to Chateau de Chambord, for… Read More
It’s Sunday and we’re at the airport, heading home. It’s been an amazing trip.
We left Lyon for Normandy on Wednesday. On the way, we stopped overnight in the Loire region and visited Chenonceaux, a Renaissance chateau that belonged to … Read More
On Friday I blogged about a notorious mother, Agrippina, in honor of Mother’s Day. Today’s Evil-Mother-Blog is about Catherine de Medici (1519 -1589), the staunchly Catholic queen of France, who gets at least part of the blame for starting the… Read More
Marie Curie, who with her husband won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work with radioactivity, left behind papers which are so radioactive they are kept in a lead-lined box. Researchers must wear protective clothing to see them.
Bill Bryson, A Really Short History of Nearly Everything