Cycling through the fifties
Tuesday, 23 Sep 2025 8:47 AM MYTBy Helen Hickey SEPTEMBER 23 — One of life’s milestones, well for me at least: my very first cycling trip. It’s been a long time in coming, going by my decade-old column celebrating my first entry into the world of MAMILs, Middle Aged Men in Lycra, or rather MAWILs, the female equivalent. That’s when I joined my local cycling club in the northwest of Paris to escape the four kids, the animals and kitchen on a Sunday morning. I’d be up with t
Paris Olympics: Time for the City of Light to shine
Wednesday, 15 May 2024 8:04 AM MYTBy Helen Hickey MAY 15 ― We are on countdown here in Paris, less than three months to go before the City of Light opens her doors to the Olympics in late July, followed by the Paralympics Games which run from August 28 to September 8. It’s been exactly 100 years since she last hosted the games, a piece of trivia I picked up while visiting the Musée Carnevale where they had an enormous decorative vase commemorating the 1924 Paris Olympics on d
No empty nest, but a pooch in a pouch
Published on MMO 25 July 2023 I should have known better. That’s evident in some of my friends’ reactions: “Whhhat? You have a puppy...?”...
Why I will be voting for Emmanuel Macron this Sunday
Friday, 08 Apr 2022 7:45 AM MYT By Helen Hickey APRIL 8 — Our election cards arrived in the post this week — two neat little envelopes...
Could mindfulness be the answer?
JANUARY 19, 2021 — It’s been a surreal year — a global pandemic, Brexit and the carnage left behind by Donald Trump’s presidency — even...
Teaching about freedom of expression
OCTOBER 30 ― I am a teacher. And like the million other teachers here in France, I am finding it hard to come to terms with the tragic ...
Seeking refuge in the Alps
We headed to the cooler climes of the Alps in early August to try out an idea that’s been brewing for a while: a refuge-to-refuge trek....
Bees are brilliant
Mornings were challenging enough getting four kids up for school plus Tom and myself to work. Then the animals started to arrive. Days...
Giving back during a gap year
JANUARY 16 ― When someone mentions taking a gap year, visions of backpacking around the world absorbing different cultures, sights and...
‘Vive La France’ and ‘Vive Emmanuel Macron’
Relieved and overjoyed. That’s how many are feeling right now in France, safe in the knowledge that the Republic is in the right hands,...
