The Small Miracle of Bongarant
Chapels, memory, and the strange history of color
Latest
Coming soon
This is Now We Live Here, a brand new site by Keith Christiansen that's just getting started. Things will be up and running here shortly, but you can subscribe in the meantime if you'd like to stay up to date and receive emails when new content
Peaches on the Pavement, Apples in the Grass
Notes on fruit, neighbors, and the habit of ignoring what’s right in front of us
What the Fuck is Chanson, Anyway?
How France’s most poetic genre turns heartbreak into performance—and why it still sounds familiar if you grew up on soul and sad ballads.
Associations, Calendars, and the Rhythm of French Life
September in France: The Season of Sign-Ups
From Ballads to Trap: Six Decades of French #1 Singles
From orchestral ballads to trap beats, what France was listening to tells you as much about the culture as the charts themselves
Subscribers! Quick Video + A Question for You
I may have a lot of ideas (and maybe not enough names for them)
Now What? The Geography of Smell
From French markets to New York delis—how scent carries belonging and loss
Making Do, French Style
A chicken carcass, a couple of carrots, and a pot of lentils can be dinner if you let them.
Mutant Disco -The Other Side of the Mirrorball
Cristina’s bizarre bilingual disco debut wasn’t just satire—it was the only disco song made by a member of the Velvet Underground.
Sundays at the French Market (and an Easy Tomato Pistou Salad)
the slow rituals rewiring my weekends
Songs I Brought With Me, Songs I Found Here
A look back through my own writing on French music—from NYC to Marseille rap to lost and found disco crates
Soundtrack
Scopitone - France’s Atomic Video Jukebox from the 1960s
The Technicolor jukebox movie machine that brought pop, glamour, and risqué charm to cafés and bars—decades before MTV.
Table & Foraging
The Blackberry Border
A tale of two jams with improvised blackberries in Britain, & deliberate confiture in France
Leaving the US
Sundays Without a To-Do List
Letting go of the American urge to always be doing, and learning the value of time that asks nothing from you.
Soundtrack
Le Scopitone Francais
France’s short-lived 1960s video jukebox that brought pop music to life in Technicolor
Table & Foraging
A Jar of England Summer
Country lanes and hedgerow jams in suburban London
Leaving the US
Book Boxes, Phone Ghosts, and a Queen or Two
A casual scroll through the UK phoneboxes - all pictures.
Soundtrack
Contact and the Strangeness of Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot, bad singing, curated rebellion, and what music taught me about France
Table & Foraging
Slow and Popular Food Options
Snail racing in 2 countries: In England, they race for sport. In France, they race for survival—and sometimes end up as dinner.
Leaving the US
Go Sit Somewhere Else
We're housesitting again, this time in the UK
Culture
Already Gone
Summers in France & Les Grandes Vacances
Soundtrack
Still Learning the lingo /Awkward in Translation
French Coldwave, mispronunciations, and Franco-British cross Channel punk
Culture
What France Understands About Protest That America Doesn’t
With over 3.5 million protesters in a single day and 4,000+ farmer actions in 2024 alone, France treats protest as civic duty—not spectacle. Meanwhile, 132 million Americans line up for Black Friday