Pissing in the Paris Opera — Queuing to pee is for cis women as inescapable as taxes and death. It is something we are just used to, somewhere in our life we just accepted it. The queues are a sacred place to check our phones, chat with our friends, or even connect with strangers over the…

For the first Friday evening in a long time, I went to pray at my synagogue. It is an hour’s metro ride from my place in Paris. It has a security vestibule: when you enter you have to wait for one door to close before opening the next one. I…

My aunt told me: “Your great-grandmother, the one who gave you your third name, she had a scar on her forehead, because she was hiding in the basement during a pogrom, but a cossack found her and kicked her head.” What happened after, that I don’t know. Does my aunt…

It’s Oh Not So Quiet — Every couple of years, the internet finds new ways to discuss the distinction between bad luxury and good luxury. Bad luxury is tacky, it is in your face, it is loud, it is logos everywhere, it is nouveau riche. Good luxury is muted, classy, good quality, elegance, timeless, “you wouldn’t…

Matchmakers, French startups, and gefilte fish — A couple of months ago I submitted a short story to a short story contest organized by Hey Alma, a feminist, Jewish, American online media (hey, nobody’s perfect). It was supposed to be under a certain number of words and “Jewish, whatever that means”. Anyway I lost the contest, so…

The willingness to pay for a date — “Who pays for the first date?” is such a fun question to ask during a girls’ night, I am surprised they don’t have an episode dedicated to such an essential matter on Sex and the City. So I took the matter into my own hands like a wannabe Carrie Bradshaw…

Cooking and overthinking: my two favorite hobbies “À cette heure où je descendais apprendre le menu, le dîner était déjà commencé, et Françoise, commandant aux forces de la nature devenues ses aides, comme dans les féeries où les géants se font engager comme cuisiniers, frappait la houille, donnait à la vapeur des pommes de terre à étuver…

For the rehabilitation of Mrs. Bennett — My grandmother once told me: “Jane Austen novels are money stories, not romance stories”. Yes, she is a great English teacher, but she nearly spoiled the fun of reading Austen’s novels and she certainly is in contradiction with the “Bridgerton” trend in pop culture, which tends to only focus on…

“I would prefer not to” — Bartleby, the (French) Scrivener — During my first strategy class at HEC Paris, we worked on a case on Southwest Airlines, an airline that managed to reduce cost, especially by creating very effective employer training. As the professor asked, “why wouldn’t this be possible for Air France?” …