Rue Rude doesn’t bother with warnings about not drinking too much on New Year’s Eve. But she’s got a pointer on a more obscure tradition here:
In France you are not supposed to say Bonne année until it’s actually New Year’s Day. It’s bad luck to say it early. This is one of the subtle things […]

We all spend time comparing French traditions to those from back home (wherever home may be). But few of us go as far as Nardac does, creating this beautiful chart (on her Holy Smokes!!! blog) after polling friends around the world on their Christmas dinner.

Click here for more charts and what it all means.

And you thought your French accent was bad? It’s not as horrendous as this woman’s. She’s one of many custom characters from a company that “rents” them to websites. You can change her hair color, jewelry choices, and voice, then type in whatever you want her to say. But you can’t do a damn thing […]

Sometimes it’s warranted when Americans make fun of the French. Jacques Chirac is being roasted over the coals stateside for trying to influence casting of The Da Vinci Code in exchange for easing open the doors the Louvre to filmmakers. Reports Newsweek:
He suggested they cast his daughter’s best friend [Sophie Marceau]—an actress of some acclaim […]

[from Blogshares]

This morning I planned to go to Etoile to shoot the traditional, if rare, view of the Arc de Triomphe blotted out by a Parisian blizzard. As part of the preparation I turned on radio France-Info to get the weather forecast. It said snow in Brittany was coming here, to be followed later in […]

It’s been a long time since we have had a “real” winter. Not only is it cold (well for us, not for Pensylvanians of course!!) but on top of that it is regularly snowing. It’s really unusual in Paris and I simply love it even if it makes it difficult to run my bike.

Click here […]

A block away from my apartment, my local cobbler, Silvio, has gone completely nuts since Christmas. Using sticky letters, he’s posted his web site address on his door and is advertising lawyers, photographers and a Japanese restaurant down the street. He’s also looking for an up-and-coming cordonnier who’s comfortable around Blake machines and enjoys punching […]

“Avoid cliches like the plague,” a college journalism professor warned. I guess I’m a rebel—some of them I just love. I know the Eiffel Tower is cheesy but I never get sick of it. Especially when paired with a beret, as in this cute new illo on the Technorati blog search site. Aw.

Chloe Sevigny’s starring in another quasi-edgy film, only this one’s an ad for a jewelry company and there’s no, um, happy ending. There is, however, a dance scene in it, ripped off step for step from the ‘64 Godard film Band of Outsiders.

[via The WOW Report]