No need to be a French major at Tuskeegee to know that ennui is simply not the same thing as boredom. Like everything Gallic, there are NUANCES. There’s the hysterical, desperate kind of ennui smoldering in every overflowing ashtray throughout Sartre’s writings. Or the dribbly, socially diffused kind of ennui known as mièvrerie -—the sugary […]

As we have all heard by now, Brokeback Mountain earned a buttload of Oscar nominations today. If you think such a story of repressed homosexuality is a thing of the past, read Rue Rude’s heartbreaking story about a modern-day, real-life version.

Even if you’re not a night owl, you’ve got to check out the website for Le Paris Paris, the club at 5, avenue de l’Opera in the 2nd. It’s got some of the best boite shots in recent memory. Gridskipper says of the club:
they tend to score name DJs and europunk acts — but […]

Just for fun: Nicolas Sarkozy’s team of the French political party UMP just bought the keyword “Le Meur”, as you can see in Google France… I find it quite funny, it would be even more fun if now the socialist party does the same !

A Fistful of Euros is (ahem) accepting nominations for (cough, cough) best expat blog. We’re just sayin’.

America may be a land of war-mongering, obese SUV-drivers, but by golly, they sure know how to give customer service over there. How many times have you reminisced about simple conveniences that are but fantasies in France? That’s what crossed our mind when we read this on Etienne Marcel:
Recently, I was complaining about the inconvenient […]

Just as Etienne (above) found a way to convey the idea of a paperboy to a Frenchman, Hillary at the blog 13 found herself explaining another uniquely Anglo notion:
…Lorna and I are trying to explain comfort food. The French people are looking puzzled. “It’s warm and soft things.” Blank faces. “OK. This is what it’s […]

Over the weekend in this space we discussed one lamentable aspect of school for kids in France, and today Andie in Paris shares another:
Etienne and I have always noticed the distance the parents at the crèche (daycare) take with one another. There are 8 kids in Gab’s group who have been with each other 5 […]

Any excuse to run a cute cat photo. But this is related to Paris. Oh, yes. You see, the extreme cold in Paris has forced this cat at Chez Thompson to wrap itself in the curtain to keep warm. OK, I’ll shut up now.

The truth about BHL (pronounced BI-ATCH-elle, stands for Bernard-Henri Levy) is simple: he’s simplistic, bombastic and a megalomaniac. That’s why it doesn’t come as any surprise when Garrison Keillor rips him and his new book, Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville, to tiny little bits. Almost anyone could find BHL’s generalisations embarassing. But, […]