Making its way around the Internet right now is a primer on France, perhaps useful for people planning a first-time visit: THE NATION France is a medium-sized country situated in the continent of Europe. It is an important member of the world community, though not nearly as important as it thinks. It is bordered by [...]
I took this shot at rue Denoyez, a street located in the 20th arrondissement that you have to visit if you come to Paris and are looking for an off-the-beaten-track place to see. It’s one of the rare streets in Paris where graffiti and all kinds of street art are tolerated by the Paris town hall. [...]
Check out Bluto croon “Sittez-vous,” and “Ma cherry” in this 1956 Popeye cartoon entitled “Parlez-Vous Woo,” in which he impersonates a French-accented radio announcer known as “The International.”
Here is the trailer from one of Elizabeth Taylor’s memorable films, The Last Time I Saw Paris, made in 1954 also starring Van Johnson, Donna Reed, Walter Pidgeon, and Eva Gabor. Based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, it’s about an ex-pat couple living the Paris high life in the late 1940s after WWII [...]
A friend at Bookspread reports from the Salon du Livre The Salon was divided in, roughly, five zones: comics and manga, children’s books, e-books, French publishers and international stands (Argentina, Nordic countries, Lebanon, Hungary and Poland were among them). The only book in English that I found was a fake guide to Beirut, but there [...]
Can a country be considered a brand whose values, attractions and cultural gifts should be promoted like a product or service? Absolutely. Here’s an interesting approach by France’s primary multilingual reference portal, France.fr. Commentary (English/French) from figures like Elie Wiesel, Moby, Jeff Koons, Marc Jacobs, Roberto Cavalli, and Kanye West, among others, serve to remind us [...]
Don’t go thinking this is one of the latest French car models. It’s a very old one from the ’50s – in excellent condition I must say – that I photographed Saturday on rue de Richelieu. Those of you who remember the TV series Columbo (starring Peter Falk) may even have recognized his car (well, his was [...]
Like America, France has its own wild west. It’s called the suburbs. Les banlieues are hotbeds of political and social discontent, but they are also places of tremendous creative energy, freedom and hope, says Richard Dailey, who is launching NOS STATES in an attempt to bottle that energy. Indeed he’ll have to work carefully. In [...]
l’Art France is one of a handful of Paris cooking schools getting onboard with the cocktail trend. I enlisted the company of friend and fellow drinker from my old local, Marette, and off we went for some shaker-schooling. Friendly staff shuffled us into a room with about 16 others already crowded around a long shiny [...]
Some great new developments for the Anglophone community here in Paris. First of all, musician Maggie Kim, a New Yorker, will play a concert on February 4…in her home. It will be the first “Hidden Concert” in a series (not unlike Hidden Kitchen!). From her website: Following in that grand tradition of “If you build [...]
