Paris Pâtissier Offers a Diamond for Epiphany
This New Year could prove a jewel for some lucky punter who gets in line for a very special Galette des Rois (Epiphany pastry) on sale at Olivier and Isabelle Guérin’s Paris boulanger-pâtissier (Boulangerie de la Gare, Andrésy, Yvelines 78700). For, determined to celebrate the pastry shop’s third and toughest anniversary in style, the enterprising [...]
The Scent of Black – Truffles and Cahors Wine
Want the low down on Cahors truffles, terroir and wine? GrapeRadio lays it out in this 27 December 2010 YouTube vidcast In the Cahors region of France, black truffles are almost literally as valuable as gold in the culinary world. Prized for their glorious scent, black truffles are fungi that grow exclusively on the roots [...]
Sarkozy-Merkel and the U.S. of Europe
In a deal done at Deauville in October the French and German leaders effectively signed up the rest of the EU to a federation thus ensuring that Germany does not foot the entire bill for saving the embattled Euro, according to a post-Christmas analysis by the Wall Street Journal. The proximate cause of the problem? [...]
France Moving Right as Europe Collapses?
Could France move sharply right in the 2012 presidential elections, as voters grow fearful of a shattered Euro, EU state insolvencies, economic insecurity, immigration and secularism (read Islam)? That certainly is the belief of some political observers after Marine le Pen, the shrewd 42-year-old lawyer and heiress presumptive to the leadership of the Front National, [...]
Socialists Shamed by Street Prayers
French Socialists have been shamed into taking a stand on street prayers as the political fallout continued from the controversial and widely condemned remarks by Marine Le Pen, presumptive heiress to the leadership of the Front National, regarding Muslims praying in public places. After some embarrassing political shilly-shallying, the Socialist Party -– still struggling to [...]
Pompiers Man the Wrong Pumps … oops
Rather than putting out fires Parisian firemen have, allegedly, ignited a right proper smokey, heat-filled blaze … in a porn magazine. This being a family newspaper we have omitted the pictorial “proof” but Le Parisien has no such qualms. Le Parisien reports that the French National Firefighters Federation, the FNSPF, has laid a complaint with [...]
Christmas Holidays Start in Driving Snow
As Christmas school holidays began and the country hit the highways to spend Christmas with friends and families, Le Parisien warns drivers to expect more snow ice and difficult driving conditions in most places. The paper later added that France might consider making winter tyres compulsory on all vehicles if harsh winters were to become [...]
Wikileaks Saga – Some Revealing TV Clips
“Democracy without transparency is no democracy, it’s just an empty word” – a Wikileaks spokesman. “Are you a spectator or an active participant” – former Wikileaks spokesman Daniel Domschiet-Berg (now part of the rival internet leaker, OpenLeaks) This report was made by Swedish TV before the recent arrest of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and released [...]
Muslim ‘Occupation’ Remark Sparks Rage
Remarks comparing Muslims who take over streets in parts of Paris and elsewhere for Friday prayers, with the Nazi German occupation of France during World War 11, have provoked outrage across the political spectrum as left and right jockey in the run-up to the 2012 presidential race. With predictably routine anger mainstream parties across the [...]
Try Marchés de Noël for a Last Minute Shop
Christmas Markets around France are the best place for a last minute gift shopping trip. Full of character, locally made food and handicrafts, mulled wine, spicy cakes, cinnamon goodies and lots of seasonal warmth and good cheer. This website Marchés de Noël en France provides full details of every market in the country showing many [...]
More Snow and a Big Freeze Expected
More extreme cold is expected this week across much of France and conditions may cause more snow starting Wednesday December 15, just a week after a deep snowfall plunged Paris into total chaos. Patrick Galois, a Meteo France forecaster says the week ahead: “will be dominated by freezing temperatures, and snow with the early limited [...]
SocGen Staff Demand Kerviel Kompensation
An undisclosed number of the 157,000 staff employed globally by Société Générale , an institution now synonymous with rogue trader Jerome Kerviel, are threatening to sue their employer for 15,000 euros each for “damage and strain” in the wake of the affair. Although a Paris court held that Kerviel alone was responsible for the 5 [...]
Cantona’s Goalfree Bank-Run
Soccer hero Eric Cantona inspired internauts but failed to impress the home team December 7 as France’s much hyped bank-run disrupted very little if any business at the nation’s 25,000 bank outlets. But that doesn’t mean the wider message failed to hit the mark. Cantona may not have persuaded the 98% of his countrymen that [...]
Having Trouble Saving? Try the Miser Wallet
When we were kids and building societies still tottered up your daily balance in ponderous paper ledgers, my mother organised her household budget by putting the weekly shopping money into separate envelopes. When that was gone nothing more could be bought until the following week. Today such habits are dying or dead. Our spending is [...]
End of the Road for the Tabac?
Angered at nicotine withdrawal as government moves to lift all restrictions on the free circulation of cigarettes in France, the nation’s tobacconists are puffing up black smoke and stormy warnings about threats to 120,000 jobs. The Assemblée Nationale December 8 however voted down the proposed dismantling of remaining restrictions on the free movement of tobacco, [...]
Season of Goodwill and Christmas Cheer
‘Tis the season of goodwill …. and early snowfalls across France. In the mood of the month here is some festive music rendered, in some of the clips, by groups participating in Random Acts of Culture, a welcome idea now starting to spread. First off here with nine million hits on YouTube is the Hallelujah [...]
Could Cantona Cause a Bank Run?
First the French Finance Minister wagged her finger, then a top banker weighed in and now the media are in full flow, Cantona’s efforts to provoke a bank run in France on December 7 just scored a goal. As we blogged here earlier Finance Minister Christine Lagarde is “irritated”, according to Le Figaro, by Cantona’s [...]
Should We Join String-up-a-Banker Day?
French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde is, according to Le Figaro “irritated” by the increasingly popular Cantona call for depositors to crash the banking system by mass ATM withdrawals on December 7. Her irritation is understandable but then so is that of the former professional footballer and his Interweb-networked campaigners. For as the “most serious economic [...]
