I love this post at The Paris Blog as we close out November and jump into December.
November 30, 2007
November 29, 2007
Il est arrivee!
Does it get any bigger than this? The iPhone arrived in France yesterday. Viva la revolution!
my paris
A few weeks ago, after reading Ruth Reichl’s Comfort Me With Apples, I added a post about how we each have our own Paris. Since then I’ve been giving a lot of thought to mine. My Paris has grown with me, evolving and maturing with the eyes that I see it through. I’m hoping to dedicate a post to each of My Paris’ in the month of December.
Paris #1: Living with a family in the suburbs. An awkward teenager in a world of beauty and high fashion. My first coffee. Meals that included a course just for cheese. French language induced headaches.
Paris #2: Independent. A fresh high school graduate, very lost—literally and figuratively, no doubt. Dashing from museum to monument to church (and repeat), trying to take it all in. Clinging to any piece of Americana I could find (Hard Rock Café, TGI Fridays) after weeks of everything foreign.
Paris #3: An apartment above a violin shop. Shakespeare & Co. The parks. Old friends. A tiny kitchen. Meals consisting of pastries from the patisserie across the street. Quiet afternoons wandering and writing.
Paris #4: A perfect hotel room in the Latin Quarter with a loved one. Lounging on park benches, picnicking at the Eifel Tower, brunches and dinners, watching, watching, watching . . . the people, the city, the river. . . my paris.
November 27, 2007
reality check
Paris is one of the easiest cities in the world to romanticize. So easy, in fact, that we often forget the reality of the outskirts Paris. Away from the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, there is a far more troubled Paris. Yesterday’s news served as a reminder of these internal struggles.
From The New York Times:
For a better understanding of this Paris, I recommend picking up Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow by Faize Guene. It’s a Paris that a tourist will never know otherwise, and it’s a Paris that demands attention.
November 19, 2007
black monday
As if the strike wasn’t enough. It’s a bit like adding insult to injury this week in Paris. According to The Canadian Press (as well as other sources): ”Tokyo has unseated Paris as the world’s culinary capital.”
That’s according to Michelin Guides, the French bible of gastronomy, which announced a Tokyo edition Monday – its first outside Europe and the United States. Michelin’s Tokyo guide awarded 191 stars to 150 restaurants in the Japanese capital, the most number of stars awarded in any city. Previously, Paris had the most stars, at 65.
Eight restaurants in Tokyo, including two sushi eateries, received Michelin’s highest three-star rating. But Paris can still claim to have the most top-rated restaurants, with 10.
Click here to read more.
November 16, 2007
more strike
There is only so much you can do with strike coverage, which is why I love this article from the Associated Press: “AP Paris Staff Commutes Creatively“
November 15, 2007
book club: americans love paris
If my hypothetical Everything Paris Book Club is still in existence in 2010, I’ve no doubt this book will make the list: A History of Americans in Paris written by the two-time Pulitzer Prize winning biographer and historian David McCullough.
Highlights from the AP article:
“History isn’t only about politics and the military and social issues. It’s about literature and poetry and theater and music. … I’ve been fascinated for a long time with how much of American history has taken place in France, more than any other country than our own, and how much France and the French have been an influence on the United States and our way of life.”
. . .
McCullough plans on writing about Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Edith Wharton, Langston Hughes and many others. He will note the fabled Parisian adventures of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald in the 1920s, but not at length because “a lot of that is very familiar, and also because they were such self-promoters that I’m more inclined to write about other people.”
. . .
McCullough acknowledges the love-hate relationship between the U.S. and France, from accusations that Jefferson had been corrupted by his time abroad, to the recent wave of antagonism brought on by French opposition to the Iraq war. But he believes that understanding the French is a way of understanding ourselves.
McCullough’s work-in-progress is currently untitled. Simon & Schuster have slated it to release in 2010.
November 13, 2007
the french love to strike
This upcoming Wednesday has been a red letter day in my life for several months now–it marks the beginning of the new and improved Eurostar service between London and Paris, cutting the transit time between the two cities down to 2 hours and 15 minutes.
And so in true French tradition, the transport workers have chosen this week to threaten to strike.
November 9, 2007
beaujolais nouveau: a reason to celebrate!
One of the best parts about starting this blog has been a heightened awareness of all things having to do with Paris and French culture. New discoveries lurk around every corner.
Latest Discovery: Jour du Beaujolais Nouveau! (more…)
if we had a book club…
The book club strikes me as a distinctly American phenomena. I like to imagine that the French have been having impromptu conversations about brilliant works of literature for as long as the cafe has been lining the streets of Paris. And yet, I can’t imagine them organzing something with a title so mundane as a “book club.” But one never knows…
Nevertheless, it strikes me as grand fun to have a book club about France. Hypothetically speaking, if I were to start one today, I’d encourage everyone to pick up a copy of The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn.
I stumbled across it on accident on the Borders new non-fiction table the other day. Paris? Le Cordon Bleu? Food? Endorsement by Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat, Pray, Love)? Sold.
I can barely wait to slip out of work early, pour myself a glass of red wine, build a fire, and curl up with this new find. Until then, I’ll content myself with the excerpt provided by npr.
