Archives des The French - FUSAC Paris Classifieds

English Books Paris: What’s New at Bill & Rosa’s Book Room

Each month in the Book Room online, we recommend newly published books.

BAD JEW Combining memoir, history, and political essay, an acclaimed French journalist of Polish origin delves into his family’s past in this searing, nuanced investigation of Jewish identity and what it means in the diaspora versus Israel today. What is a Jew? There are as many answers as there are Jewish people. Written four years ago, and now available in English with a new introduction, Bad Jew speaks intelligently to our current crises. A striking portrait of the identity fever that has overtaken the Israeli right, and a moving family saga. It follows three generations, three Jewish men, each involved in public life in his own personal way: Piotr Smolar’s grandfather, a passionate Polish communist, who led the resistance in the Minsk ghetto during World War II; Smolar’s father, who opposed the communist regime in Poland in 1968 and had to flee the country; and Smolar himself, …

Bill & Rosa’s Book Room

Where is Bill & Rosa's Book Room?

At the newly renovated Porte de Saint Cloud! Not far at all from the centers of Paris or Boulogne-Billancourt.

Exact address: 42 rue du Chemin Vert 92100 Boulogne-Billancourt. See the map

Metro line 9 to Porte de St Cloud; Busses: 22, 42, 62, 72, PC

When is Bill & Rosa's Book Room open? Click for hours 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 with a western bent. Our maître-mots are

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

Bill & Rosa's Book Room has several aspects. It is first a USED BOOK SHOP and a LENDING LIBRARY. There are many novels of all genres for sale plus non-fiction, b…

Popcorn America’s favorite snack

USA National Popcorn month is October. (It was established 30 years ago by the Popcorn Board.) National Popcorn Day is 19 January and Popcorn Lover's Day is celebrated on March 12. Decidedly America loves popcorn and so does FUSAC. Corn itself is very American and goes way back before the first Thanksgiving. There is archaeological evidence that popcorn was available in Central America 9000 years ago. Popcorn was an important food for the Aztec Indians, who also used popcorn as decoration for ceremonial headdresses, necklaces and ornaments on statues of their gods. Americans today grow and eat lots of corn and most of the snack foods they eat are corn based. This is different from France where many snacks are potato based. Popcorn is scientifically known as Zea mays everta. Popcorn is a whole grain and is made up of three components: the germ, endosperm, and pericarp or hull. The 4 most common types of corn are: sweet, that you can eat right off the cob; dent, more …

When the French are less French

When the French are less French This is the installment that our French hosts, cousins, counterparts, entourage have dreaded. When the French are less French. (We offer it, however, with tender feelings, hoping that will matter.) For years, FUSAC’s Hints for Newcomers-Hindsights for Oldtimers column has explored Anglo-French cultural and linguistic differences, the behavior and words that separate Parisians from Peorians, Niçois from New Yorkers, Cabourgais from Clevelanders. But while some of those differences are so profoundly embedded in millennia of national identity as to seem eternally immutable, others have begun melting away. Blame globalization. Blame the ubiquitousness of U.S. TV series. Blame students sent on exchange programs and executives sent on voyages d’affairs. Blame the “cool” appeal of Anglo jargon or the difficulty of fitting French verbosity into 140 characters. Whatever the reason, here is a (merely) four-category list of evidence that the gaping gulf is…

The Saints on the map of Paris

Whether you walk across Paris or look at the metro or street map, you often see places named after a Saint. Such familiar names as St Genevieve, St Denis, St Vincent de Paul etc... Have you ever wondered who were these saints on the map of Paris and what their history was? We did! Here is a bit of history on the Saints on the map of Paris.

Sainte Geneviève

Logically the patron saint of Paris, St. Geneviève, is the one you come across most often. Her statue by Paul Landowski graces the Pont de La Tournelle in the 4th district. There is also one in Jardin du Luxembourg. She is on the front of Notre Dame as well. The Catholic church is celebrating the 1600th anniversary of Genevieve this year. A relic, her index finger, and her sarcophagus is in a chapel dedicated to her in the church of St Etienne du Mont a church in the 5th arrondissement on the Montagne Sainte Geneviève where she lived and prayed.

She was born in Nanterre in about the …

Click and Collect at Bill & Rosa’s Book Room

Follow the links below to view pdf files of the current inventory of Bill and Rosa's Book Room. More than 7000 titles!

Available for Click and Collect pick up or delivery, just email fusac.office@gmail.com with your selection, we'll send you a link for payment via CB (or take check or cash when you get the books) and arrange for pick up.

Are you in the Yvelines? Free delivery to these towns: Villepreux, Les Clayes-sous-Bois, Plaisir, Feucherolles, St Nom-la-Bretèche, Rennemoulin, Fontenay-le-Fleury, Noisy-le-Grand, Bailly. Minimum order 25€.

Anyone who orders 5+ books will receive a free copy of Elaine Sciolino's La Séduction (A book about France and the French and how seductions of all types, not just sexual, make them tick.)

The inventory list is organized by Sections and within the section by author. To find out more about a particular book you could copy the ISBN number and do an internet search. Nearly all of them …

We love Le Chat and he is setting up on the Champs-Elysées!

From 26 March to 9 June, the City of Paris hosts a temporary installation of twenty monumental bronze sculptures of the famous "Le Chat" by Philippe Geluck on the Champs Élysées. The exhibiton is called LE CHAT DEAMBULE. The famous fat, but highly intelligent and well dressed tomcat takes up residence in central Paris, before undertaking a grand tour of France including Bordeaux, Caen. The sculptures continue on to Luxembourg and Brussels arriving for the inauguration of the Le Chat and cartoon drawing museum in 2023. Don't miss this fun event that will be reminiscent of the Botero sculptures on the Champs in the early 1990s.

If you haven't yet discovered this ironic cat it is time you did. He's the central character in more than 20 cartoon albums and has some pretty funny observations on the quirks of life. In thirty-eight years, Le Chat has entered the hearts of all generations with his good nature, his humor, his humanism and his very particular way to tackle …

Virtual visit: Black & White: an aesthetic of photography

The Black & White exhibition has been hung, everything is on the walls, but the public is kept at bay.

After three (!) attempts to open the exhibition to the public "Black & White: an aesthetic of photography Collection of the National Library of France", the Rmn - Grand Palais has innovated and put virtual tours online until 18 June. Their hope is that the public will enjoy the exhibition anyway, but FUSAC reporter Judith Bluysen was not convinced.

The Noir & Blanc : une esthétique de la photographie exhibition presents black and white masterpieces from the photographic collections of the National Library of France (BnF), exceptionally brought together for the occasion. Nadar, Man Ray, Ansel Adams, Willy Ronis, Helmut Newton, Diane Arbus, Mario Giacomelli, Robert Frank, Wil…

Women Scientists International women and girls in science day

International Women's Day is 8 March. But I didn't know there was a day dedicated to Women Scientists - I should have suspected it though. This year and (every year) it was 11 February. We missed it, but we can still bring forth Women Scientists and doubly honor them for International Women's Day. These three were pioneering women scientists, two American, one French, who surrounded Rosa Bonheur, the namesake of our Book Room.

Natalie Micas was Rosa Bonheur's partner in life. She was a painter, like Bonheur, but also an engineer. She was born in Paris on the 26th of April 1824. Nathalie Micas was represented in the Hall of Science at the World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chica…

Brighten your day. Books are the perfect antidote for the gray and gloomy.

At Bill & Rosa’s Book Room, we have the perfect antidote for the gray and gloomy winter weather: books, a lot of them, to suit all tastes and demands! Iasmina has selected a few to help pass the time and brighten your day. All our books are pre-loved so you'll love the prices too!

Tea Time for the Traditionally Built (4€), The Full Cupboard of Life (3€) The Kalahari Typing School for Men (4€) by Alexander McCall Smith

There’s nothing better to take your mind off the cold and the rain than a plunge into the world of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, a series of detective novels by Alexander McCall Smith. Travel far away from rainy days with this novel set in Botswana and featuring Precious Ramotswe, the founder of the first and only female-run detective agency in the country. With unique characters, a good dose of kindness and vivid descriptions of Botswanan life, these are detective novels like no other. These thre…

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