En vedette
Posts

Posts

Paris Quotes (France, La Seine …)

Paris Quotes (France, La Seine too) To be Parisian is not to have been born in Paris, but to be reborn there. — Sacha Guitry ... here's what Paris is: it is a giant reference work, a city which you can consult like an encyclopaedia: whatever page you open gives you a complete list of information that is richer than that offered by any other city. Take the shops... in Paris there are cheese shops where hundreds of cheeses, all of them different, are displayed, each labelled with its own name, cheeses covered in ash, cheeses covered in walnuts: a kind of museum or Louvre of cheese... Above all this is a triumph of the spirit of classification and nomenclature. So if tomorrow I start writing about cheese, I can go out and consult Paris like an enormous cheese encyclopaedia. -- Italo Calvino in Hermit in Paris Two days and three endless nights later we arrived in Paris... Paris looked much bigger than Bordeaux, but much uglier. The bread tasted flat. Everything, even the sun…
Voir Plus about Paris Quotes (France, La Seine …)
  • Avatar of Lisa
  • 22 mars 2020
  • 0

Bill & Rosa’s Book Room

What is Bill & Rosa's Book Room ? 

First of all, for us, a Book Room is a comfortable place to spend some time. Think of it as the reading lounge on the ocean liners of yore. Our maître-mots are

Read, Write, Relax. Buy, Borrow, Donate.

Bill & Rosa's Book Room has several aspects. It is a USED BOOK SHOP and a LENDING LIBRARY. There are many novels of all genres for sale plus non-fiction, biographies, history, some poetry, cookbooks, cats, books on Paris or France, memoirs and children's books. Most books are in English, but also in French and even a few bilingual. Prices start at just 2€.

The lending library has four sections :

The Sylvie and Henry Noullet Library: novels mostly in English Bill and Rosa's Library of the American West includes novels, non-fiction and art books in bo…
Voir Plus about Bill & Rosa’s Book Room
  • Avatar of Lisa
  • 14 mars 2020
  • 2

Moving in France?

This article is about moving WITHIN France, if you are moving TO France see our other article. www.fusac.fr/moving-to-paris/

If you're moving from Briaire to Le Falgoux or Limoges to Salers or some other place change within France a very practical website offered by the French Public Service allows you to officially update your address with public service and administrations when you're moving in France. In one fell swoop and a few clicks you can inform the EDF, vehicle registration, tax, social security, carte vitale, retirement, unemployment offices and other administrations of your new address.

Plus this form works not just for moving in France and your physical address but also for updating:

email address, landline phone number, mobile phone number

They call this service The Teleservice of Service Public.

You'll need certain ID numbers (client numbers, social security number, carte grise...) …

Voir Plus about Moving in France?
  • Avatar of Lisa
  • 9 mars 2020
  • 0

Learn French! Speak Easy puzzle: Grin and bear it!

Speak Easy puzzle: Grin and bear it! Learn French! Enjoy this Speak Easy puzzle of expressions in English with the words BEAR in them. The word Bear refers not to just the animal, it is also a verb meaning to carry a weight (to bear, past tense bore). Then there is the homonym bare an adjective or verb for being naked. See if you can match the English expressions up with their French equivalent. It's a fun way to learn French and  some new idiomatic expressions to enrich your vocabulary. This Speak Easy puzzle comes from volume 1 of a series of three books of 48 puzzles available on : https://store.fusac.fr or at the FUSAC Book Room (a new place you just have to discover!) 42, rue du Chemin Vert, Boulogne, M° Porte de Saint Cloud Hear the story of how John and Lisa encountered a grizzly bear in Yellowstone Park. Bonus Vocabulary Grizzly is a large North American species of bear also known as a silvertip bear. French = Grizzli Grisly means disgusting and b…
Voir Plus about Learn French! Speak Easy puzzle: Grin and bear it!
  • Avatar of Lisa
  • 4 mars 2020
  • 1

Understanding the Municipal Elections in France

First: what is a Municipality? In France a municipality is referred to as a « commune ». The French word commune appeared in the 12th century, from Medieval Latin « communia », meaning a large gathering of people sharing a common life; from Latin « communis », things held in common. It consists of the municipal council and the executive which is the mayor and deputy mayor. The mayor, elected by the councillors, is solely responsible for the administration. But he can delegate some of his functions to one or more deputies. In Paris there is a council for the whole city and for each arrondissement. The term hôtel de ville designates the building which houses la mairie. The terme mairie designates the communal administration since the Révolution of 1789. In smaller towns mairie is used for both the building and the administration. Who is elected in the Municipal Elections in France? All French municipalities will elect their local councillors for 6 years all at the same time. …
Voir Plus about Understanding the Municipal Elections in France
  • Avatar of Lisa
  • 28 février 2020
  • 1

Made in France, My 2019 Diary

For 2019 I decided to try to find Made in France products each time I made a purchase and keep a Made in France Diary.

Skip the intro and jump right to the latest entry.

The idea sprang from my exercise diary. I write down on my calendar each time I get some exercise, riding my bike, taking a walk for errands or fun or taking a class. Keeping a diary helps me to keep that focus and make sure I move. I have a nice record of my constitutional outings. It is very satisfying to be able to look back and see that I pretty much get my requisite 30 minutes each day, plus needing to make an entry on the calendar gets me up and out; I get both satisfaction and encouragement.

I decided to apply that to my Made in France year. I'm keeping a diary, technically a monthly of what I buy and if it is MIF. I'm not going to be obsessive and buy ONLY MIF, like this guy Benjamin Carle who in 2014 made a project of transforming his life and …

Voir Plus about Made in France, My 2019 Diary
  • Avatar of Lisa
  • 29 décembre 2019
  • 0

Interview: authors of 90+ Ways You Know You’re Becoming French

FUSAC: You two created 90+ Ways You Know You’re Becoming French, a very popular book that grew out of Shari’s article on the same subject. You have since received, read, listened to, overheard, gathered “becoming French” examples from countless non-native Francophiles, including residents of France, would-be residents, tourists, language teachers, students wishing never to leave, culture mavens and many people who have battled it out with each other in our comments section as to who has racked up more Becoming French badges of honor. But wait! What about YOU? You’ve both been here since the 1980s. It’s Turn the Tables Time! What are several ways that YOU know YOU’ve “become French”? (Or not?)

HAVE NOT BECOME...

Shari Leslie Segall: They say that one’s “formative years” end at the age of two--that after merely twenty-four short months on this earthly orb, you already are who you’re gonna be. I don’t know if that’s true, but I do know that, since my father …

Voir Plus about Interview: authors of 90+ Ways You Know You’re Becoming French
  • Avatar of Lisa
  • 12 novembre 2019
  • 0

Paris/France and… colors

Per our May 4, 2019, post, “Paris/France and…” is a new series wherein “and” leads us to categories (such as food groups, the classical elements, etc.) whose subcategories link to the city/country we know and love. Today’s entry focuses on Paris/France and Colors, per the spectrum that might have hung in your high-school physics class back in Blue Ash, Idaho or Yellow Pine, Alabama or Red Lick, Texas.

RED:

If you have not visited the legendary Moulin Rouge (“Red Windmill”) cabaret in person (or even if you have), certainly do so via their website. By the time you’ve clicked on absolutely everything--that’s: absolutely everything--that’s clickable on, you’ll feel as if you’ve just been treated to a whirlwind masterclass on Parisian history, culture, cuisine, facts, and figures (the latter in the numerical and, appropriately, corporeal sense). Whew!

And from author Dale Gershwin:

“On her way to the stairs Leslie …

Voir Plus about Paris/France and… colors
  • Avatar of Lisa
  • 29 septembre 2019
  • 0

French Economics: an industrial rebirth ?

Factories are timidly returning to the French landscape. In the first six months of 2018 thirty five of them cropped up! While this doesn’t constitute a full-fledged dawning of a bold new day it does offers a few encouraging rays of light. The Hexagon (that’s France to the French) lost more than 600 factories in the past ten years. In 2009 alone 224 were abandoned. Neighboring Germany is a completely different story. In this same period, 2008 to 2018, Germany’s industrial production increased by 25%, while France’s industrial activity declined by 3 % according to Trendeo, a firm which monitors French employment and investments. But now with these new factories we have a a promise of better days ahead. A further indication of this renaissance can be seen by taking a look at the annual trade fair Made in France. MIF, the brainchild of Fabienne Delahaye, launched its first edition in 2012 with 80 stands and 15,000 visitors. The 2018 edition held in November at the Porte de Ve…

Voir Plus about French Economics: an industrial rebirth ?
  • Avatar of Lisa
  • 29 juillet 2019
  • 0