“Tu es tout en foufelle aujourd’hui!” That’s Ch’ti (or Picard, a language spoken in Northern France) for “You look great today!” To hear it pronounced, click on the video below starring two former Parisians, photographer Maxime Dufour and Pascal Biencourt, … Read More
VIVE LE MINITEL! Believe it or not, the clunky Minitel, the forerunner of the Internet introduced by France Telecom 26 years ago, lives on. A million of the networked boxes, now used mainly as telephone directories, are still in use, … Read More
STREET PARTY The area around the Canal Saint Martin, known for its community spirit, has been blossoming with new boutiques, restaurants and cafés for the past 10 years. On Friday, Sept. 12, the shopkeepers on the Rue de la Grange … Read More
ROOM WITH A VIEW No, a flying saucer has not landed on the roof of the Palais de Tokyo; that green capsule perched atop the contemporary art museum is the Everland, a temporary one-room futuristic hotel designed by Swiss artists … Read More
SUNDAY SONGS Alexandre (Castagnetti) and Clément (Marchand), two scruffy, good-natured thirty-something French musicians, have won the hearts of the French with their Chansons du Dimanche, bouncy, humorous songs composed and recorded on Saturday – often while the pair sits cross-legged … Read More
EGALITE? Some interesting statistics came out on the occasion of International Women’s Day on March 8, the most disturbing being that French women’s average gross annual salary is 18.9 percent lower than that of men in the private and semi-public … Read More
THE PRICE OF A CUP OF COFFEE Since value-added tax on restaurant bills will soon drop from 19.6% to 5.5%, the French Ministry of the Economy has sponsored a survey of current prices in 2,500 French restaurants and cafés to … Read More
“I hope you realize that your reviews are subjective?” queried a food-loving friend the other day. Duh. And you can also catch a place on a bad night. It’s one of the reasons why I don’t like reviewing poor meals. … Read More
Without wishing to minimize the very real plight of those immigrants to France who are denied papers and (all too often) living quarters, I did note a wonderful side to the French approach recently while passing a group of homeless … Read More
Without wishing to minimize the very real plight of those immigrants to France who are denied papers and (all too often) living quarters, I did note a wonderful side to the French approach recently while passing a group of homeless … Read More
