The France Telecom suicides debacle is one that is both grossly fascinating and completely bizarre. It just goes to demonstrate how differently the French think about their work and options in life. While the 24 suicides over the past 19 months are very linked by the horrific and oppressive working conditions at Orange—part of me [...]

Kiss and tell is bad enough, but dreaming of kissing, then telling, well that’s just—weird.
As if Princess Diana hadn’t suffered enough in life, former president and well known ladies man Valéry Giscard d’Estaing has written a book called The President and the Princess, in which a French president who eerily resembles himself meets a British princess, who is the [...]

Today’s the day I stop complaining about French bureaucracy. After fretting about what I might be getting myself into, I made a long trip into the bowels of the 15th arrondissement to pick up a wallet that my friend Joe had lost (or more likely had stolen) when he was visiting Paris back in July. [...]

I witnessed something yesterday that I never in a million BILLION years thought I would ever see in Paris, ESPECIALLY in the very serene, very upscale and very calm Jardin du Luxembourg.
There was a good old-fashioned catfight between two middle-aged women.
 I was quietly sitting in a chair meditating on how to be more successful [...]

“J’en ai marre” is one of those great little expressions, hard to translate word for word and completely baffling to Google Translate. It means “I’m fed up” and that’s exactly how I feel about a little situation that’s developed on our corner. Since there’s a small supermarket there, there’s often someone hanging out, bumming a [...]

The more I try to learn about the police, the more I understand why Inspector Clouseau was so confused. Although the police are organized and adminstered at the national level, they are also responsible for enforcing the law in municipalities. And don’t mistake them for the gendarmes who are technically part of the military but [...]

 
Enjoying a bottle of wine with friends on the banks of the Seine has long been one of the joys of living in France. No container laws here! But alas, oui, there actually are laws banning the consumption of alcohol in public. Up until now, the French police have simply turned a blind eye to [...]

There was a bit of dustup over the new film about Coco Chanel. The film, which opened last week, tells the story of the legendary couturier’s rise to fame and is being advertised all over town. Too bad the posters slated for buses and the subway showed the actress Audrey Tautou smoking. Under the Evin [...]

A Paris court has decided  to permenantly shut down the controversial “Our Body” exhibition in the city. Several groups had protested about the ethics of displaying sliced and preserved dead bodies, particularly as it is suspected that several may be executed Chinese prisoners. Last Tuesday, the Judge Louis-Marie Raingeard decided to order the closure of this event, subject to [...]