Our latest articles about life in Paris - Page 15 sur 27

The Seine – A fleuve, part 2

Continued from our previous article what follows are a few more suggestions to better acquaint yourself with the river Seine, this magnificently extraordinary fleuve. Pay homage to Django at Samois sur Seine Jean «Django» Reinhardt (23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953) was a Belgian-born, Romani French jazz guitarist and composer, regarded as one of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century. He was the first jazz talent to emerge from Europe and remains the most significant by far. In 1951, Reinhardt retired to Samois-sur-Seine, near Fontainebleau, where he lived until his death. The popularity of gypsy jazz has generated an increasing number of festivals, such as the Festival Django Reinhardt held every last weekend of June since 1983 in Samois-sur-Seine. (The festival appears to be moving definitively to Fontainebleau for security reasons). Samois-sur-Seine is a town in the department Seine-et-Marne in Île-de-France. The town extends for about six kilometers along the r…

The Seine – A fleuve, part 1

A specific word in French indicates rivers that end in oceans : fleuve. Getting my hair cut the other day in Boulogne Billancourt not far from the Seine I asked my coiffeuse, an immigrant like myself, if she knew anything about the Seine. « I know it’s a floose » she replied. Everyone in the salon erupted in laughter. This fleuve is no floose. Traversing Paris under 37 bridges on it’s 776 kilometer run from a plateau north of Dijon to the English Channel at Le Havre, the Seine, steeped in history with a capital H, is one of five principal ocean-flowing rivers in France. The Loire is the longest at 1010 kilometers. La Garonne, Le Rhône and Le Rhin are the others. Until joined by the tributary Aube, the river carries the first of its noms-de-fleuve, the Petite-Seine. Farther on, augmented again by the Yonne at Montereau, it is the Haute-Seine until Paris. Then it is the Basse-Seine to Rouen and, finally, the Seine-Maritime to the sweep of the sea. The Seine everybody sees is in …

French Hollyhocks are not “French”

French Hollyhocks are not “French” Hollyhocks awaken memories for people just like Proust's Madeleines. My neighbor Kerry in Montana once said to me when she sees hollyhocks she is transported back to the streets of Helena Montana where she grew up. The hollyhocks would grow in every crack and corner and defined summer to her. Charlie from Seattle says "I remember the hollyhocks from the big country garden of my grandmother and the big city of my mother, they have such special memories associated with them." Another Montanan, a cowboy poet named Wally McRae, wrote a poem about his grandmother's “French” hollyhocks. For him hollyhocks bring back the memory of his grandmother's need for beauty in the hard-knock landscape of eastern Montana. It is only as an adult that he realizes how important it is to have beauty and not just a useful food producing garden. In reading his poem I was curious as to why he called them “French” hollyhocks. Are they really French? And so I did som…

Tea in Paris

Tea is considered a British thing. But tea is the second most widely consumed beverage in the world, 1000 billion (is that a trillion?) cups a year! And tea time is the best example of British "art de vivre". Since the French thrive on "art de vivre" they too have found a love for tea and tea time. Things have changed since the 1980s when my landlady Mme Cahierre made one pot of tea per week, left the single tea bag in it all week and simply diluted and warmed a tiny bit of her brew with hot water each day. Tea consumption has tripled in France in the last 20 years, but it is still small 230g per person per year compared to the British 2.3kg per person. Just look at these lovely spots for tea in Paris. Some of our favorite places for tea in Paris (and beyond) Thé-ritoires in St Germain des Prés, Paris Imagined as a family home where you just drop in, like a house where you set down your bags and stay as long as you want. A place to spend time reading, writing and telling …

Saint Denis: Two types of kings

Follow the red line from the sacred to the profane in the town of Saint Denis where there are two types of kings; from the Basilique Saint Denis, the burial place of the kings of France to the Stade de France where the kings of football play.

The metro runs to the foot of the Basilica then there is a red line traced on the sidewalks between these two monuments so you won't get lost in the spaghetti of Saint Denis and the autoroutes. From the Stade de France there are a choice of well marked metros to get you back home or you can continue to walk along the Canal Saint Denis to Porte de la Villette.

Take an audio guide tour of the Basilica and learn about the kings of France, and funerary monuments as well as Gothic architecture. The Basilica is a major work of Gothic art, this church was the first to place a great importance on light, a symbol of divinity. It was designed b…

Gigantic numbers – just try to count that high!

1000 billion or one trillion? It's the same thing, but it depends who you ask. In any case they are gigantic numbers. While reading an article recently in the French press where the budgets are flying through the roof again I saw the figure 1000 milliard and wondered why the journalist used that method for writing the figure, why not use trillion. In any case they are gigantic numbers. Well come to find out the French, the British (who finally agree on something with the French) and most of the rest of the world have different words than the U.S. (nothing new here, especially when it comes to measurement) for expressing these giant numbers. To try to understand the terms here is a list of them. As you will note the system for naming numbers used in the U.S. is not as logical as that used in other countries (like Great Britain, France, and Germany). In these countries, a billion - bi meaning two and -llion referring to million - logically has twice as many zeros as a million, …

French Like Moi: City of Light Bulbs

By Scott Dominic Carpenter author of French Like Moi

Listen to Scott read City of Light Bulbs

Surprise is the highest form of pleasure, and it’s easier to find than people think. You don’t have to invest your 401(k) in Powerball numbers to enjoy the fruits of unpredictability, or even travel by Amtrak. No, it turns out you can simply move to Paris, where the ordinary so often leads to adventure.

It went like this. Shortly before Anne returned from the States, I finished painting the walls and pushing the furniture back in place. During my final check, I discovered the bedroom lamp had burnt out. This led me to hoof it to the local supermarket, which stocks bulbs of various shapes and sizes.

Only after I returned home with my trophy did I realize my error.

In France, the base of a bulb is called a culot, a word derived from cul, which translates as “ass.” Although ungentlemanly in some contexts, c…

Made in France: A long history and current products

Made in France: A long history and current products When you think made in France you perhaps first think of food, then of luxury, then maybe of industry. France has a long history of creation of wonderful products and inventions such as the chip in your credit card, the minitel, which preceeded the internet, watches and knives. FUSAC has selected a few of our favorite historical products that are still made in France as well as some new concepts. Cocorrico! as they say! Bilum You probably never wondered what happens to all of the huge canvas posters used to present exhibitions when the exhibition is over. Or what happens to lifejackets from AirFrance flights at the end of their lives. Or how about the shirts worn for just one game by the PSG. Well Bilum, founded in 2005 by Hélène de La Moureyre, has teamed up with the museums, exhibition halls, AirFrance and the PSG and many others to create bags and pouches of all sorts from their « waste ». A made in France prod…

Rosa Bonheur, Broad with a Brush

Does the name Rosa Bonheur mean anything to you ? Hint: She was the most well-known female French painter in the 19th century, the first woman painter to receive the Legion of Honor (presented by the Empress Eugenia herself). Still no bells? She painted animals. Still no idea? Well don't feel bad it seems most French people don't know who she is either. In fact despite being French, born in Bordeaux, growing up in Paris and then living in a château with menagerie on the edge of the Fontainbleau forest, she was in fact more well known and her paintings were more appreciated by the English and Americans. She was so famous at the time that Queen Victoria, who had a love for animals as well, requested Rosa visit her. It is even hard to find her paintings in French museums. Many were sold into private collections and some are now seen in American museums. But she is very much worth knowing especially if you have a fondness for animals…

Triple Exposure: street photographer Cartier-Bresson, Atget, Ickovic

Four exhibitions this summer presenting three famous street photographers, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eugène Atget and Paul Ickovic, have been organized in three Parisian venues: The Musée Carnavalet, the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson and the BnF. First in a groundbreaking double exhibition, the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Musee Carnavalet have brought together their collections to showcase the essence of Paris as seen by two great photographers, Eugène Atget and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Street photographer EUGÈNE ATGET: VOIR PARIS Perhaps Eugène Atget’s (1857-1921) early theatrical career aided him when he switched to photography; self-taught, he began immortalizing the “petits métiers ambulants” (pushcart merchants) of Paris in 1897 when he was 40 years old. Due to Haussmannian development and the construction of the Metro, the “old Paris” he loved was disappearing; he wished to document it before it was gone. Arriving at dawn with an enormous view camera …

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