David Jaggard
Service Not Always Included: Dealing with French Salespeople, Part One
Customer, Serve (Or Whatever) Thyself
One day last week, I needed to buy something. So I went to a store, was greeted by a salesperson, asked for help finding the product I wanted, found it, paid for it, exchanged cheerful goodbyes with the staff and … Read More
A Peek between the Balance Sheets: France’s Ministers Reveal their Wealth
Even Money Deserves a Little Ski Vacation...
Notice to readers who don’t follow French politics because there’s no iPhone app for it yet: we’ve been having a little scandal around here recently. It all started late last year when accusations began emerging that the now-former budget minister, … Read More
The Long Gear-Grinding Road, Part Four: Driving (Legally!) in France
They Can't Teach You Everything in School...
As I recounted in Part Three of this series last week, one of the high points of my life to date was obtaining, at exorbitant human and financial cost, a French driver’s license. I had been to driving school, studied … Read More
The Long Gear-Grinding Road, Part Three: I Take the French Driving Exams
Just Relax, Do Your Best and Pay Up
I could see the writing on the wall. And yet, though I was in darkness, with anguish and affliction all around me, I feared not. Because the writing was a question about speed limits projected on a screen in an … Read More
The Long Gear-Grinding Road: Getting a Driver’s License in France, Part Two
On the Highway to Hell (Or the Suburbs)
Some years ago a Kafkaesque set of circumstances arose, the end result of which was that I had to go to school to learn how to do something that I had already been doing for 30 years: operate a motor … Read More
Getting a Driver’s License in France, Part One-B: An Aside About Signs
Welcome to the Navigational Jungle!
Like politicians, non-stick frying pans and condoms, I don’t always live up to my promises. Last week, I promised to write this week about my on-the-road lessons in French driving school. But then I realized that there is an aspect … Read More
Among the Brutes: The Salon de l’Agriculture and Other Bestial Behavior
Sometimes It Pays to Act Like an Animal
The pig population of Paris peaked last week. One reason for this was the Salon de l’Agriculture, the annual farm and food fair that turns half of the pavilions at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center into a gigantic barn, … Read More
Another Man’s Poison: The Meat Market in France
Do Not Read Before Eating! Or During! Or After!
On the evening of December 25, 1870, the then-legendary restaurant Voisin’s on Rue Saint Honoré gave a lavish and now-legendary Christmas banquet. Of course, there were many lavish banquets in Paris back then, as there are now, but what made … Read More
Paris Shop Signs: From the Ridiculous to the Sublimely Ridiculous, Part Six
Who Is Al Cool and What Is He Trying to Say?
It’s that time of year. The time of year when we all get that old familiar feeling. The feeling that comes from enduring week after week of cold days, long nights and relentless rain and snow. The feeling that makes … Read More
Post No Bills (etc.): The Ugly Efforts to Keep Paris Beautiful
What Exactly Is the Logic Here?
Here’s something I’ve learned from living in a city: for many people, the range of vocal expression between distress and exuberance is surprisingly narrow. In other words, when I hear yelling in the street, I often have a hard time … Read More