Marcel Proust

Conductor Ion Marin was presented today with the French Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters "for his immense career, for his tireless friendship for France, for the constant connection he has established" between France and Romania, as French ambassador in Bucharest Laurence Auer said at the award ceremony.

Intimate letters, personal photographs and rare manuscripts that once belonged to French writer Marcel Proust will go under the hammer in Paris, Sotheby's auction house said May 2.

The collection of some 120 items from the "Remembrance of Things Past" author's personal archives even includes a hand-corrected proof of one of his well-known works.

For many of us who lack the sparkling genius of creating an iPhone or discovering a theory of everything, eating and reading are life's two great pleasures combined, hence the great success and abundance of cookbooks.