La Régalade is one of this city’s most beloved classic bistros. Founded by Yves Camdeborde in 1992, it was left in the hands of Bruno Doucet, a chef who (high praise) didn’t ruin it. I visited this bastion of bistronomy last year, loved my meal, but never returned. I suppose that distance trumped delicious. How excited [...]
Today at the bank, a young clerk was wearing shorts! Her off-black sheer tights couldn’t disguise the fact that she was wearing short-shorts to work at a conservative bank. On the way home, I saw a heavily-made-up woman wearing a sheer blouse that was off her shoulder and nearly off her elbow, along with tight [...]
This scale that I photographed in the Luxembourg Gardens is always a mystery to me. Why on earth would someone weigh himself/herself there?! Mind you, I never saw anyone step on it, so I guess they are not that successful. Anyway, French people are gaining more and more weight. According to the main study on [...]
Although you’re unlikely to see any of the grey flannel suits and pencil mustaches that one might associate with the Parisian jazz scene there are a number of cafes and brasseries around the capital that are populated, on the occasional night, by large Frenchmen and Jazz Manouche kings. With a smattering of dark overcoats and [...]
I love going to the Marché aux Puces at St-Ouen (M° Clignancourt). Every time I’m there I find yet another stand to adore and obsess over. I actually went to check out the Chantal Thomass stand, and yes, I’d live there, but there nothing strikingly original. I got a lot more excited about the adorable [...]
The man in the jaunty suede jacket and the casually woven scarf paused at the meat section of the grocery store and gazed down at the choices. He clutched his throat whilst he gazed at the selections. Without pause, he picked up a packet of Bellota Bellota ham from Spain – by far, the finest [...]
French farmers from all over the country drove their tractors all the way to Paris (some left their farms on Sunday) to protest the rising production and administrative fees in a year when the prices of their goods have gone down, making the costs higher than the profits. Over a thousand of the tractors drove [...]
The Spanish artist Javier Requejo sent me a link to his portraits rendered in wire. Pretty cool! Here’s the French president. Click here to see Beyonce and others.
Hysterical! Click here for the slideshow of how the Chinese, Japenese, English and Germans see France. Above is how cultivated Americans see the country, and below, the Fox News watchers. Thanks to Just Another American in Paris for finding this. (For non-French speakers, the descriptions below are Stinky Cheese, Strikers, Communists, Dirty People, Rednecks, Old [...]
Parisians have the reputation of being very blasé, of having seen and done everything and of not being very sensitive to anything. Stéphane Lecourbe had the idea of turning this reputation into a slogan: “I love rien, I’m Parisien,” which not only rhymes perfectly, but also sounds pretty funny. I cannot say it’s a real success [...]
