The Dominique Strauss-Kahn scandal may be turned into a movie. That is – a porn movie. There is, however, a hitch: The company that plans to make the movie doesn’t have any money. It is appealing for investors. The company is My Porn Production (what else?) and it needs €200,000. That is $276,000 / £172,000. [...]

A stone’s throw from Avenue des Champs-Elysées and just around the corner from the Arc de Triomphe runs rue Le Sueur. It is not a very long street and it is quite narrow. Unless one lives on the street there is perhaps no reason to walk along it. But it is the Paris street with [...]

I was taking a mid-afternoon nap when I heard “thud, thud, thud, thud, thud.” I tried to sort out what it could be… sounded like luggage going up or down stairs. I figured maybe it was the girl upstairs, moving something. As I lie there, thinking up plotlines for my web series, my dog starts [...]

My friend Claire works in a small business part-time and had a frightening experience recently. The store owner, Claire’s boss, had been alone in the boutique on a Saturday in May. A man came in wrapped up in a scarf and trenchcoat and hat, even though it was a warm day. He kept looking around, [...]

I previously wrote about the ubiquitous ‘Defense d’afficher’ signs that can be seen painted on municipal walls around France, but my attention was drawn recently to another variation on this message. This one was a small white plaque screwed into a brick wall in a non-descript back street, but what particularly stood out was the [...]

Many, if not most, apartments in France come with a basement space for storage. They are called caves. I discovered last week that someone was squatting in my cave. Not in person, but with their junk. How did someone get into the nook, which was locked with an industrial-strength serrure? She simply ripped the hardware [...]

Paris’ 13th arrondissement has never been one of the chic areas of Paris. From the 1930s to the end of the 1950s it was a sort of gangsterland. The arrondissement’s Rue Tolbiac that runs west-east (Paris’ streets are numbered from west to east) through it was where the mobs roamed and ruled. The mobsters weren’t vicious.  They didn’t [...]

These two police officers may look cool on their bikes, but they also give parking tickets to cars! About 5 million parking tickets are given every year in Paris. Their price –11 € for an empty meter, 35 € when you’re parked in a forbidden area– are said to be increasing this year. Two-wheeled vehicles [...]

They take squatting seriously here, apparently. I was walking home recently, around 11PM and noticed a noisy protest going on down the street, which was hampering traffic. I turned down my street and then noticed police tape. Dammit. Right in front of my building. I crossed to the other side of the streetand asked a [...]

It’s a strange thing how trends work in France. Many things here become fashionable only after the Americans have started the fashion. Offhand I can think of: blue jeans, living in former industrial spaces, and the riots of 1968. Sometimes this is a good thing; but there are certainly American trends I would not like [...]