French Language

PARIS — French scholar Jacqueline de Romilly, a specialist on ancient Greece, a prolific writer, and one of the first women to join the prestigious Academie Francaise, has died. She was 97. Ms. Romilly died Saturday at a hospital in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, said her publisher, Bernard de Fallois. President Nicolas Sarkozy called Ms. Romilly “a great humanist whose voice we will miss.’’ The scholar was known for her works on ancient Greek literature, tragedy, and thought.

LA SEDUCTION: How the French Play the Game of Life By Elaine Sciolino Times, 338 pp., illustrated, $27 In the Middle Ages, the word seduction had moral and religious connotations and was used to describe an effort to lead someone astray. Over time, it became linked to romance and, more broadly, characterized any attempt to experience pleasure by overcoming someone else’s inclinations. In “La Seduction,’’ Elaine Sciolino, former Paris bureau chief for The New York Times, reminds us that no one plays the game better than the French — and suggests, with...

PARIS - Alain Robbe-Grillet, an avant-garde author who dispensed with conventional storytelling as a pioneer of the postwar "new novel" movement in France, died Monday. He was 85. Mr. Robbe-Grillet died at Caen University Hospital in western France, where he had been admitted during the weekend for cardiac problems, hospital officials said. He was among the most prominent of France's "new novelists" who emerged in the 1950s, including Nobel Prize laureate Claude Simon, Michel Butor, and Nathalie Sarraute.

PARIS — French scholar Jacqueline de Romilly, a specialist on ancient Greece, a prolific writer, and one of the first women to join the prestigious Academie Francaise, has died. She was 97. Ms. Romilly died Saturday at a hospital in the Paris suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt, said her publisher, Bernard de Fallois. President Nicolas Sarkozy called Ms. Romilly “a great humanist whose voice we will miss.’’ The scholar was known for her works on ancient Greek literature, tragedy, and thought.

PARIS -- Writer Henri Troyat, who fled Russia's revolution as a child and went on to become one of France's most prolific, popular, and respected authors, died Friday, the Academie Francaise said. He was 95. Mr. Troyat wrote more than 100 works, including novels, biographies, and plays. Many of his biographies focused on major Russian figures, including Tolstoy, Catherine the Great, and Pushkin. Mr. Troyat's fictional tales were often involved, epic sagas that drew comparisons to the novels of the 19th century.

Along with the approach of New England winter come travel fantasies. Someplace warm and sandy may come to mind first, but for many of us, France remains eternally high on the list, whatever the season. This winter, feed that fantasy with recollections from 25 women on how they have experienced life in France and meet the people and places that remain so clear in their memories. If there were one theme that runs through this collection, it might be "connection. " What connects these non-French women to France?

LA SEDUCTION: How the French Play the Game of Life By Elaine Sciolino Times, 338 pp., illustrated, $27 In the Middle Ages, the word seduction had moral and religious connotations and was used to describe an effort to lead someone astray. Over time, it became linked to romance and, more broadly, characterized any attempt to experience pleasure by overcoming someone else’s inclinations. In “La Seduction,’’ Elaine Sciolino, former Paris bureau chief for The New York Times, reminds us that no one plays the game better than...

Aquitaine Bar a Vin Bistrot 500 Legacy Place, Dedham 781-471-5212 www.aquitainededham.com Dinner: Sunday through Wednesday, 4 to 10 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday, 4 to 11 p.m. Lunch: Monday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Brunch: Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Accessible to the handicapped Major credit cards accepted Writing about restaurants is an odd business. If you were to be served the same exact dish at an unknown dive and an upscale restaurant, you’d likely rave about the food from the dive and be less impressed at...

EUNICE, La. -- Here in Cajun Country, it's all about the music. It beckons from each doorway, lures you down each dusty road. It's not the soulful sound of Delta blues, nor the thumping backbeat of Nawlins jazz. Here amid the crawfish ponds and rice fields of southwestern Louisiana, it's the fiddle and the accordion -- the lilting language of Acadiana -- that rule. On the other hand, it could be all about the food. Order crawfish étouffée in, say, Detroit, and you probably will get a blank stare.

The Huffington Post will launch a new site in Spanish early next year to be called El Huffington Post. The American news and opinion website announced the new site Monday with PRISA, the parent company of the Spanish newspaper El Pais, with which it will produce El Huffington Post. The move is the latest by The Huffington Post to extend its reach outside the U.S. market. This year it launched versions for the United Kingdom and Canada. Monday's statement says previously announced French language sites Le Huffington Post France and Le Huffington...

Aquitaine Bar a Vin Bistrot 500 Legacy Place, Dedham 781-471-5212 www.aquitainededham.com Dinner: Sunday through Wednesday, 4 to 10 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday, 4 to 11 p.m. Lunch: Monday through Saturday, 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Brunch: Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Accessible to the handicapped Major credit cards accepted Writing about restaurants is an odd business. If you were to be served the same exact dish at an unknown dive and an upscale restaurant, you’d likely rave about the food from the dive and be less impressed at the fancier place.

PARIS - Alain Robbe-Grillet, an avant-garde author who dispensed with conventional storytelling as a pioneer of the postwar "new novel" movement in France, died Monday. He was 85. Mr. Robbe-Grillet died at Caen University Hospital in western France, where he had been admitted during the weekend for cardiac problems, hospital officials said. He was among the most prominent of France's "new novelists" who emerged in the 1950s, including Nobel Prize laureate Claude Simon, Michel Butor, and Nathalie Sarraute.

PARIS -- Writer Henri Troyat, who fled Russia's revolution as a child and went on to become one of France's most prolific, popular, and respected authors, died Friday, the Academie Francaise said. He was 95. Mr. Troyat wrote more than 100 works, including novels, biographies, and plays. Many of his biographies focused on major Russian figures, including Tolstoy, Catherine the Great, and Pushkin. Mr. Troyat's fictional tales were often involved, epic sagas that drew comparisons to the novels of the 19th century.

EUNICE, La. -- Here in Cajun Country, it's all about the music. It beckons from each doorway, lures you down each dusty road. It's not the soulful sound of Delta blues, nor the thumping backbeat of Nawlins jazz. Here amid the crawfish ponds and rice fields of southwestern Louisiana, it's the fiddle and the accordion -- the lilting language of Acadiana -- that rule. On the other hand, it could be all about the food. Order crawfish étouffée in, say, Detroit, and you probably will get a blank stare.

Along with the approach of New England winter come travel fantasies. Someplace warm and sandy may come to mind first, but for many of us, France remains eternally high on the list, whatever the season. This winter, feed that fantasy with recollections from 25 women on how they have experienced life in France and meet the people and places that remain so clear in their memories. If there were one theme that runs through this collection, it might be "connection. " What connects these non-French women to France?

By Johanna Kaiser, Town Correspondent Boston's French Cultural Center has expanded access to its electronic library to Francophiles nationwide making it the first French language e-Library in the country. The Marlborough Street center had previously allowed only New England residents to access their e-Library of 550 eBooks and eAudiobooks, but the center has removed the geographic restriction to registering for a library subscription . The electronic library consists of contemporary and classic literature, biographies, travel guides, and other genres, as...

NEW YORK -- Joan Diener, an actress who starred in the original 1965 Broadway production of "Man of La Mancha," died Saturday of complications from cancer, said her grandson, Ethan Marre. She was 76. After a bit part in the 1950 Broadway comedy "Season in the Sun," Ms. Diener won a role in the 1953 musical, "Kismet," playing the voluptuous Lalume. She later starred in the London production of this Arabian Nights musical. After a dozen years away from Broadway, Ms. Diener played the country wench Aldonza in "Man of La Mancha," a...