After years of complaining about the lack of pancakes in France, I’m at it again but this time to moan about pancakes attempting to infiltrate the palates of French people all across the Hexagon. I have mixed feelings about this, obviously.

These were part of a freebie bag handed out from a road toll booth leaving Paris. It looks like the packaged brioche company, Pasquier, is testing out a revolutionary new product: pancakes.

To be fair, these pancakes were not horrible, but I wish they had been giving out free wine.

All great cities have one thing in common: once you have visited their renowned monuments, museums and historic sites, there remains much to explore.  And so it goes with Paris.

After you have seen every room in the Louvre and every impressionist masterpiece in the Musée d’Orsay, there is still le Centre Pompidou, l’Orangerie, le Musée Rodin, le Musée Picasso — and these are the well-known museums.

There are plenty of unknown museums, too, places that even some Parisians haven’t heard of or visited. These overlooked cultural institutions are never crowded, even on Saturday afternoons, and on weekday afternoons they can be downright deserted.  I love that.

The photo above was taken at le Musée des Arts et Métiers at the end of a weekday afternoon and, as you can see, I nearly had Clément Adler’s bat-inspired flying machine ”Avion III” to myself.  L’avion is one of the museum’s gems, along with a copy of Foucault’s pendulum, which hangs in the adjacent Saint-Martin-des-Champs church.

Atelier les Quatres is a studio/shop consisting of four young, talented textile designers creating fun and funky prints, designs and illustrations for pillows, napkins, dishtowels as well as T-shirts, baby clothes, canvas bags and one-off ideas like masks and found ceramics. The studio includes Eve-Marie Bousquet, Rachel Pelquin, elsako, and Hélène Georget, and on Saturdays they open their doors to the public to see what they are making and of course, to shop. They all work independently but a couple of them collaborate on other project. Most of the work is made in a limited edition and all of it by hand. It is ambitious yet fresh and fun. It seems they work hard but don’t take things too seriously. Bright colors, birds and other animals, sunglasses are silkscreened onto their respective objects giving them a new life and attitude.

36, rue du Fer à Moulin, 75005

Just next to Madonna in Paris is this adorable rendition of Einstein, carrying a sign, “Love is the answer.”

The Louis Hachette Prize 2009 was awarded last week to the journalist François de Labarre and the photographer Enrico Dagnino for the reporting distributed by Paris Match, “Immigrants: rêve brisé,” (”Immigrants: Broken Dreams”) taken on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa in Italy. This investigation, a unique proof of the Human Rights violation by the Italian state, has alerted the European Union and the United Nations. The reporting pictures have been widely broadcasted in European press: la Repubblica, Die Zeit, Afrique Magazine, l’Illustré, il Corriere della serra… and have been screened at the photojournalism festival Visa pour l’Image 2009. In 26 years, the jury has only rewarded three photographers with this prize, generally reserved to written press journalists: in 1990 to Jacques Langevin for his photographic reporting Sous les balles à Pékin; in 1998 to Hocine for his picture of the Algerian woman, and this year to Enrico Dagnino.

As an American living in Paris one question I seem to be asked relatively often, by French and non-French alike, is “oh, France, don’t you love the food?” or “Isn’t the food amazing?” To which, perhaps being a bit of a rebel inside but also not able to be dismissive and flattering, reply something like, yeah; it is ok-cheese, butter, magret de canard are great, but what about diversity? And then I go into a tirade about how Asian food has been bastardized here and how shameful that sushi restaurants put cheese on their menus in what must be a way to ease French culinary anxiety. My point being that yes, French appreciation for good, slow food is wonderful but it is too insular and living in this city after New York seems sleepy food-wise.

In the weekend Financial Times Arts & Leisure section was an article titled “Ripe for Revolution,” about the Omnivore festival in Deauville this weekend, and it’s founder, Luc Dubanchet, who started the monthly magazine of the same name with the goal of trying to shake up the French food world which he found boring, stuffy and complacent.

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As an American woman, I find I have always taken for granted how easily it is to talk about one subject or another with other women. We girls can talk about anything from our innermost feelings to sexual positions with our men without batting an eye. On the other hand, I have read repeatedly from books written by other expats that this sort of freedom of speech is a big fat no-no among French women, even for those who have been friends for years. Dommage! (Too bad!)

Even one of my French clients shudders if I ask him if he has a date in the evening…and he is a man. I mean from my perspective what is the big deal? The good news is it looks like things might be changing, even if just a bit.

The other night I was standing in the kitchen chatting with a friend and we were rambling on a little about this and a little about that when it finally happened, the sex talk was brought up. Tintilating talk and a few laughs later, I realized I hadn’t had much of this kind of conversation since I had been here. It seemed so natural to me, but then I realized who I was talking to…a French woman!

So, I decided to ask, “It’s my understanding that this sort of conversation is taboo amongst French women; even for those who have known each other for years. N’est-ce pas?”

“Yes, that is true, but things are changing. And do you know why?” As soon as she asked, I knew the answer. I blurted out, “Sex & the City!”

“Oui, bien sur!”

Wow, who knew a television show could have such an impact on an entire culture! Well, I say kudos to the show and kudos to the French who have decided being more open is actually fun. C’est très bien! So for you expats, you still may want to check the private subjects at the door when talking to a French person, but who knows, maybe in the course of the evening you will be able to bring them out to play after all.

A strike by air traffic controllers is expected to last until the end of this week. But it is only affecting flights from France to other European countries. If you are scheduled to fly to or from France and the U.S. or other non-European countries, you should be OK.

Velib bikes are fine and all but ever since trying out a bunch of different kinds of vélo électrique (electric bikes) at an expo a couple of years ago, I can’t go back to regular bikes. It’s not that I’m lazy (ok, maybe I’m lazy at times), it just seems like an obvious choice to have options in life: to pedal or not to pedal, that is the question. The ideal situation for me is to be able to both pedal when I want, then to switch to electric power when I need! Those latter situations being up a hill, on a long, straight stretch of road or when I’m tired. Or perhaps when dire consequences call for it, like being chased by a rabid French poodle. You never know. This bike folds up all nice and neat so you can just bring your bike “package” with you instead of leaving it outside.

There’s a shop in the 13th arrondissement of Paris that is worth a looksee. Buzibi offers the quintessential vélo électrique for people who might share the same sentiments as I do about riding bikes in general. Purchase one or better yet, rent one at reasonable prices: 5 euros an hour or 49 euros for the weekend. (See the rates for exact pricing and long-term rental information.) Or! Go to the vélo électrique store yourself to see all the models and to test drive one and see what you think.
67 rue Croulebarbe, 75011, 01 47 07 16 75

When booking a trip to Paris it is important to arrange good travel insurance. The following travel tips have been brought to you by travelsupermarket, the price comparison website.

• Always give your travel itinerary to somebody at home to keep safe.
• Carry the smallest amount of cash possible with you just in case you are a victim of theft. Make use of traveller’s cheques and keep a credit card for emergencies and any big shopping purchases you may wish to make in Paris.
• When you arrive at your Parisian hotel/ apartment make sure you obtain a safe deposit box if available. Never leave passports/ money in your room.
• Allow more time than you think you will need to get to the airport, it is better to be safe than sorry. Charles De Gaulle airport can be extremely busy so also ensure you have enough time set aside for your journey home too.



• Make sure you know what your allowance is for duty free, an embarrassing queue forming behind you is not ideal. The duty free in Paris can be extremely tempting.

By taking these steps you will significantly reduce the possibility of having to claim on your travel insurance. To find cheap and reliable travel insurance, visit moneysupermarket.com and use our price comparison checker.