Le Blanc – Where the French Franc is Still King
In Le Blanc (a town of 7000 souls in the Indre département) shopkeepers are happy to take French Franc banknotes for anything they sell – and they do a roaring trade. For with euro-strain on the gain and the 11-year old eurozone under intense speculative attack and looking vulnerable, some think they may be [...]
CityJet Arrives in Brive
France’s newest airport, Brive Vallée de la Dordogne, has formally opened to International flights, with a regular connection by CityJet into London City Airport. The arrival of CityJet Flight FY5260 on 25 June 2010 marked the start of a 3 times a week service to London, at least until September. CityJet (Air France/KLM subsidiary) uses [...]
Official Unhappiness Over Holiday Home Lets
A boom in the use in France of specialist, person-to-person, second home and holiday rental sites, is leaving the national tourist authorities less than happy. Local tourist offices say should holiday-home owners continue to drift to such sites they will obviously stop using similar fee-based facilities offered by regional tourism boards – who have their [...]
25 Dead in Mid-Summer Flash Flood
The killer flash flood which struck the Var mid-June has left at least 25 people dead, with 13 still missing – among them holidaymakers in campsites, a baby and a number of elderly people attempting to flee their homes. Devastating storm waters rose more than 10m in a matter of minutes flooding homes and causing [...]
Gites, solution or problem – an open thread
Are Gites the solution or the problem? Hundreds of expats moving to France in recent decades have gone down the rural gites path to supplement retirement incomes or in many cases as a full-blown business. Plenty are the problems and difficulties, joys and pleasures. This open thread is for you to use and exchange views [...]
70 years later is France again “occupied”?
As President Nicolas Sarkozy and members of his cabinet flew to London to participate in celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of L’Appel du 18 Juin – which stiffened French resistance in 1940 to Nazi German occupation – rightwing groups across France staged flashmob “Sausage and Booze” Apéros to protest at a more recent “occupation”. Facebook-organised [...]
C’est Pas Normal
Guest Blogger: editor@st-cere.com Here we go again… happens every year and in every season. No matter what the weather does these days, it is, according to the French around here… not normal. It snows in December… c’est pas normal. (Look, I know that is not good French, but, that is how they say it around [...]
World Cup 2010 Widget
Who plays who, where, when… what was the score? Now you can get all this info and more at the mere hover of your mouse. Have a play with this extraordinary chart, courtesy of the Spanish newspaper Marca. Want to follow your flag? Just click the image above to open a new window and then [...]
Indigestible “Sausage and Booze” Apéro
Just as authorities thought they were getting the hang of policing France’s newest youth fashion – Flashmobbing public squares and parks for drink-ins or “giant apertifs” – the Apéro-tiffers have changed recipe and raison d’être. Le Point reports that the Paris Prefecture of Police was meeting urgently with the organisers of an event called for [...]
Festivals 2010 – The Very Best of France
Summer in France and suddenly there’s a feast of festivals, a banquet to delight even the most jaded palate. Music pours out of concert halls perfuming long evenings like lavender fields around Grasse. The festival culture grips towns, villages, hamlets, cities and regions which all compete fiercely to roll out ever more extensive menus of [...]
Light and Textures – a Watercolour Workshop
A workshop by Robert O’Brien, a leading American water-colourist is to be held at Latitude Cultural Centre, laToulzanie, Cajarc, June 19-26, 2010. Robert O’Brien AWS NWS will be returning to Latitude for his third workshop — Painting the Light and Textures of Southwest France — in the beautiful Lot Valley. Students will paint, en plein [...]
Want to Celebrate the 4th of July?
The Clubs France-Etats Unis and AIT International Club of Toulouse are holding their annual 4th of July Picnic at the Lac de St. Criq in the Gers, 45 minutes from the centre of Toulouse. The club can be contacted here and welcomes members and non members to its summer event, says club President Tony Perla. [...]
Canine Speed-Dating Hits Paris
Doggie-dating — the latest tres BCBG(*) Sunday afternoon tea dance fad — has taken Paris by a yelp, if not a storm. In the circumstances, should we be surprised? The French capital’s pet population is said far to outstrip that of any rival European city. French doggie-dating got started in Paris – where-else? – on a [...]
Think You Know France?
Paris, Perfume, and Pranks We all live here, so we know all there is to know about La Belle France … don’t we? Give this National Geographic quizz a try. Then when you’re done, tell us your score in the comments. France Quiz Me? Well, actually — 9 out of 10 — (he says very [...]
Dijon – So Much More Than Mustard
Dijon stages the 4-14 Festival from July 9 (reprinted with permission: Paris Insights – The Blog) Tom Reeves has been named official blogger for the second annual 4-14 Festival, in Dijon held between July 9 and 11, 2010. The festival brings together American and French musicians and chefs to celebrate friendship, food, music…and fun! Last year, [...]
Ici Radio France Londres
On June 18, 1940 Charles de Gaulle leader of the Free French Forces, launched his famous “Appeal to all the French” – a call , from the studios of the BBC in London, for resistance to the German occupation. L’Appel du 18 Juin – one of the most important speeches in French history – called [...]
EasyJet’s Cloud-Cam to AVOID Chaos
The budget carrier EasyJet, has unveiled a ‘cloud-cam’ device to detect volcanic ash plumes and designed to ensure that the global flight chaos sparked by the Icelandic volcano will never happen again. The airline said the technology could detect ash clouds from up to 100 kilometres away. The technology developed by NILU-Norwegian Institute for Air [...]
Latest English-language Films Showing Now
English Language Films on General Release in Cinemas in France Fan of film but not sure what’s on the general release circuit in French cinemas right now? Here we list major English-language movies presently showing throughout France. Wherever possible, our cinema page includes links to the official websites of the moves we’ve listed. Clicking the [...]
