Right about now, when people look out their windows in most of France (and other parts of the world), they’re seeing snow covered trees, houses, streets…well snow covered everything. It’s February, so that kind of weather is not surprising but it’s fairly depressing after a while. So, to cheer some of you up, maybe it’ll be a good time plan a trip to somewhere warm. How about Cannes? It’s not exactly warm there at the moment but in a a short month or two, it should start heating up. This year, will you decide to go the the Cannes International Film Festival in May? How about attending any number of the conferences, trade shows and exhibitions coming up in Cannes like MIPTV or IDEF to name just a few?

It’s probably not too early to reserve a place to stay in Cannes, and if you’re going to the Cannes Film Fest, there’s a very cool accommodation in Cannes, perfect for the celebrity lookiloos. This fully furnished, two-bedroom, luxury apartment for up to three people, not only has gorgeous views of the sea but there’s a terrace with a direct view of the Croisette and the red carpet right in front of the Palais, where the stars line for their close ups! This is ideal for the celebrity star gazers and worshippers.

Back to finding accommodations in Cannes. Born to Host has a long listing of various luxury villas, apartments and yachts to rent while you’re in the City of Luxury whether you’re going to the film festival or not. They will find places for you to stay any time of year, although the best time to visit Cannes, of course, is during warm months.

Born to Host
Email: info@borntohost.net
Telephone: +33 6 37 44 07 44 (Marine) or +33 6 03 44 28 77 (Maurice)
Website: accommodation cannes

The last year or so in L.A. has proven that food trucks not only have evolved far past their “roach coach” days but also have inadvertently contributed to reducing people’s carbon footprints. These roaming restaurants that come to you, offer anything from gourmet Korean tacos, grass-fed beef hotdogs, cupcakes, Banh Mi, BBQ, sushi, crepes – you name it, you can probably find the meal on wheels you’ve been looking for. I like the idea of the Green Truck running on vegetable oil, using biodegradable containers and serving organic food. The only glitch is that the food is not local, which is understandable in L.A.

France has had food trucks for many years in the form of pizza trucks in the south and French fry trucks in the north, not to mention the awesome cheese trucks, butcher trucks, bakery trucks… oh! and roasted chicken trucks and more. Aside from the pizza and fries trucks, I haven’t seen much innovation in rolling fast food until recently, and this one is pretty cool.

Taking food trucks to a whole new level and incorporating today’s “green” needs, Christopher Mauduit and Fabrice Vanderschooten launched Hippo Facto last November near the city of Caen, which is located in north west France just about 10 miles inland from the English Channel. What’s not to love about it? Pulled by Percheron draft horses and dedicated to sustainable living and organic, local products, Hippo Facto couldn’t be more brilliant. Respecting the environment and serving fast organic and local fare that’s simple, healthful and creative, you can order fruit/vegetable juices, tartines, soups among other offerings. The containers are also compostable.

You’re right, I can’t imagine a food truck like this in a megalopolis such as Los Angeles. Picture the road rage of people behind the horse and buggy! Hippo Facto seems to work where they are. Of course, it takes them two hours to get to Place de la République in Caen. That’s all good considering there’s no fossil fuels involved, they don’t live in a speedy world and besides, some people commute longer than that in cars every single day. Now THAT’S crazy.

Hippo Facto
Every Wednesday & Friday
Place de la République – Caen France
On Weekends, they’re on the coast:
Bernières-sur-Mer, Lion-sur-Mer and Courseulles
Website: Hippo Facto

What, you’re only welcome if you speak English? AND you’re a biker? Seen in Mesvres, France (Burgundy).

The grace and beauty of window design in France never ceases to amaze me all year long. But with Christmas being one of my favorite times of year, I MUST get out to see the festive displays. This is when true artistry emerges. The beautiful window display below is from Fabrice Gillotte, who happens to be a MOF of chocolate. Not only is he a master of his craft, his stuff is cute! And different. I LOVE his Santa.

Fabrice Gillotte, Chocolatier
21, rue du Bourg
21000 Dijon
Telephone +33(0)3 80 30 38 88

From the nytimes:

NOTHING about Châteauneuf-du-Pape is sleek or polished. It’s a rough-and-tumble wine, sometimes ungainly and fierce, but just as often warm, open, generous and full of pleasure.

It can be intense and complex — it’s not at all simple. Yet it sometimes can be as friendly as a big good-natured dog. Occasionally, it’s too friendly.

I was thinking about the overbearing side of Châteauneuf recently after the wine panel had completed a tasting of 20 bottles from the 2007 vintage. For the tasting, Florence Fabricant and I were joined by two guests, Vanessa Treviño Boyd, sommelier at Adour, and David Gordon, wine director at Tribeca Grill, which offers what is most likely the widest selection of Châteauneuf in New York.

We found some wines we liked very much, yet on the whole the 2007s left me unexcited. Stylistically, they presented Châteauneuf’s too-friendly side. Châteauneuf is always a big wine, but these wines were huge — full of lush, opulent fruit with powerful, jammy flavors.

If you like fruit-bomb wines, you will love …

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via

We’re getting ready to take off to spend the holidays in the U.S. so we’ve been frantically buying gifts and stocking stuffers. We came across these kitschy boxes of liqueur-filled chocolates. Unlike those little sugar bottles filled with God knows what liqueurs (we got those too!), these use dark chocolate without the sugar crust, they explain what the liqueurs are and where they are from in France AND they are in cute little shapes. Here’s what’s inside: Armagnac du Sud-Ouest (in an armagnac cork), Marc de champagne (champagne cork), Kirsch d’Alsace (cherry), Mirabelle de Lorraine (mirabel plum), Calvados de Normandie (apple), Cognac de Charente (barrel), Pastis 51 (bottle).

It’s a fun gift and perfect stocking stuffer. You can probably find them all over the large French supermarkets like Carrefour, Auchan, etc..

By the way, these have the real deal inside, no watered-down anything.

This little shop in Dijon wants you to know one thing and they’ve put it on their window loud and clear: Désolé. Nous ne vendons pas du made in China / Sorry, we don’t sell items made in China.

Sad news. Kiki the Parisian tortoise has died at age 146. News

From the telegraph:

The film, “La France change, ma région doit changer” (France is changing, my region should change) shows an eco-friendly house with solar panels on the roof, smiling schoolchildren and a mother hugging a little girl in a sunny garden.

A voice-over boasts about Mr Sarkozy’s achievements since 2007, and the benefits of living in France.

But the French TV channel Canal+ has discovered most of the footage was bought from Getty Images, and shot thousands of miles away in the US.

The family house used in the video is in Escondido, California – and UMP party bosses even failed to spot that a car parked outside it has US number plates. The class of happy schoolchildren from a mix of ethnic backgrounds live in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. And the mother with her child in the garden is really in..

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It’s old news and you’ve probably already heard that the infamous chain of malbouffe shrouded in arches of gold has invaded the Louvre. I can’t say I’m thrilled about it but face it, all those millions of American tourists ogling the Mona Lisa have to eat somewhere.

We wondered why they didn’t put the Belgian chain equivalent, Quick, in place if they were to do a fast food joint, but I suppose those finicky palettes want the best. After all, billions upon billions have been served.

So, anyway. Not long ago, I was hanging out with one of my friends in Paris and we realized we’d been walking for a long, long time. Our feet were tired and we needed to rest. We hadn’t been paying much attention because we were chatting so much. We happened to be right at the Louvre, so my friend says, “Let’s get something to drink at Le Café Marly.” I’d never been so I was game.

Le Café Marly has a terrace in one of the most prime locations in Paris: in the Napoleon courtyard of the Richelieu wing of the Louvre. We were seated immediately on the terrace facing the Louvre pyramid and it’s very chill there and awesome for people watching. The waiters seemed stiff and aloof but I’m sure it was because they were being watched. I say this because later when I went upstairs to use the restrooms and from where I took the shaky video (below), the waiters suddenly got all flirty with us.

It’s not cheap here at Le Café Marly but I suppose you’re paying for the view. My friend ordered a glass of champagne and it cost 15 euros. I ordered a teeny, tiny coffee at 5 euros. I can’t attest for the food here but I’ve heard it’s okay but very expensive. So if you’re on a budget, either decide you’re going to have a little splurge day, or pass and head on over to McDo’s!

Le Café Marly
93 rue de Rivoli, Cour Napoléon du Louvre
Telephone: 01 49 26 06 60
Hours: 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily
Metro: Palais Royal

From the nyt:

A marvelous painting of a gourmand at his table hangs in the Musée Carnavalet in Paris — a portly, pink-faced figure happily gorging on a regal casserole, with a bottle of wine at one elbow and a luscious-looking soufflé at the other. It is traditionally believed to be a portrait of Alexandre-Balthazar-Laurent Grimod de la Reynière, an aristocrat notorious in Napoleonic France for gratifying his palate with the same abandon as his contemporary the Marquis de Sade showed in indulging carnal desires. Whether or not the painting is actually Grimod’s likeness, it captures the eccentric, omnivorous spirit that made him not only a gustatory symbol in the Paris of his day, but the grand-père of all modern food writers as well.

Starting in 1803, Grimod, whose family fortune had largely been lost during the Revolution, financed his voracious appetite by writing a series of best-selling guidebooks to the culinary wonders of Paris — its famous delicatessens, pâtissiers and chocolatiers — including the first reviews of an alluring new institution called le restaurant. His Almanachs des Gourmands were something new, the Michelins and Zagats of his era, and their offbeat style reflects the author’s larger-than-life character. Grimod was born in 1758 with deformed hands, one a birdlike talon and the other a webbed pincer. But he was not one to be held back, so he had learned to write — and dine — with metal prostheses. A social butterfly, he became a successful theater critic in Paris before the Revolution, survived the Terror and amused himself later by hosting literary salons in the cafes. And, of course, eating.

It was on the trail of Grimod one day last summer that I passed through the vaulted arches of the Palais Royal, opposite the north wing of the Louvre, and into a vast, empty courtyard. In Grimod’s day, the Palais Royal was the heart and soul of Paris, a rowdy entertainment center filled with brothels and sideshows that, despite its louche ambience, also boasted some of his favorite … continue reading

I think I’ve lived too long in France because when I saw this ad booklet from a supermarket chain, everything looked fine, nothing out of the ordinary. No French person would find anything unusual about it except my sweetie.

^{Click on the image to enlarge it}

He screams, “foire au gras! foire au gras!” Me looking at the ad, “et alors?” (So?) He continues, “for your blog!” Me: “It’s just an ad.” Him: “Yeeessss, but it’s GLORIFYING fat. Does that not seem blogworthy?” Me: “Fat is good, though.” Him: “They’d never celebrate and dedicate the virtues of FAT for FIVE pages in an American food ad, EVARRRR. Let alone sell tubs of fat, which they’re doing here.” Me: “Oh yeah.”

Some people seem to have a need to know what it’s like to live like a hamster, and if you’re one of them, here you go. Hamster Hotel! Located in Nantes, live like a king hamster, eat seeds, run in a hamster wheel and sleep on hay, all for the *bargain basement* price of 99 euros. Free wi-fi, hamster people!

Hamster Villa
2, rue Malherbes
44000 Nantes, France

Pack up your car with your friends and family to spend some time in England. For their 15th anniversary, Eurotunnel is have a sale, and it’s pretty good. For a month from November 17th to December 17th (it should’ve been from the 15th to th 15th!), a roundtrip from Calais to Folkestone (or vice versa) and traveling on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, will cost 15€ only. The sale is good for same day trips but if you want to stay longer, just buy a second roundtrip ticket from the other direction (provided it’s during this month and on a qualifying day.) If you’re coming from England, it costs £15. This fee is per car so if you have many people in your car, it still only costs 15!

More information or call 08705 700 800.

NOTE: Quote promotional code: 15 years

If for any reason you go to the St. Jean restaurant in the cité médiévale of Carcassonne, it should be for the ambiance. On a warm summer night outside facing the ancient ramparts, Niko singing his fun Frenchified songs of bossa nova, other Latin tunes and maybe some Stevie Wonder songs with a pleasant French accent, it’s just the beginning of a overall awesome evening or afternoon.

The food is pretty good for such an unabashed place for tourists. Noteworthy: The cassoulet (regional specialty) is really delicious. However, a small gripe from me: the portions are just too huge. However, some many gobs of people will clearly welcome the copious quantity of food.

After finishing the appetizers,

which are huge,

and the main dish…also gargantuan,

here’s the steak tartare someone in our party had;

isn’t it a lot? Yes! I wonder how anyone can polish off that amount of food in one sitting. Oh wait, we did.

Generous portions really do not form solid grounds for complaining; I do realize this unfair grievance. Some people would call that a perk. Afterall, the dishes were rather tasty and the whole experience: live music, dining comfortably alfresco, to-die-for backdrop, excellent company, friendly staff – made everything fabulous. Highly recommended.

Le St. Jean
Restaurant – Bar – Glacier
1, place Saint Jean
Cite de Carcassonne France
Telephone : 04 68 47 42 43

From the cult of mac:

Apple today opened the first of a series of stores planned for Paris. The first, located near the famous Louvre art museum, coincided with the release of the Musee du Louvre iPhone app showcasing among other exhibits, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

The Paris store, first reported in 2008, includes a 7,700-square foot two-story layout with diamond-shaped windows.

Apple will quickly open a series of stores in France, including a location in Montpellier in the southern portion of the country. By the summer of 2010, the Cupertino, Calif. company hopes to open its third location in France, near the Garnier opera house.

Ron Johnson, an Apple retail senior vice president, said France could witness the fastest growth of the company’s chain of stores.

Order your Thanksgiving dinner and have it made for you, so you don’t have to try to fit a turkey in that tiny, French oven! If not that, perhaps you’re traveling or just don’t want to deal with it at home. How about going out for a real, Thanksgiving dinner à la américaine? The Bistrot Saint Martin is offering a feast for Turkey Day to eat in or take out, but reserve now as long as there are still openings. The in-restaurant dinner is 30€/person and includes:

Take out dinners include:

Bistrot Saint Martin
Telephone: 06 32 75 98 05/01 46 07 73 68
Email: lesaintmartin@yahoo.fr
Website: The Bistrot Saint Martin

Couple Embracing

^{Photos of Cluny, France}

The medieval village of Cluny (in the Burgundy region of France) was declared a UNESCO Heritage Site in 1979 and remains a legendary and awe-inspiring point of interest for millions of visitors who come to France every year. Its focus is the Romanesque abbey, founded in 910 by William the Pious (the Duke of Aquitaine) when Cluny was the center of religious reform and efforts were made to restore monastic life. It was the largest church in the world until the construction of Saint Peter’s in Rome. During the French Revolution, the Wars of Religion and its aftermath, the abbey was sold, looted and operated as a quarry. Most of it was demolished and systematically dismantled until 1823. Despite this terrible turn of events, one transept of the church survived and remains standing, as well as 18th-century convent buildings and 15th-century abbots’ residences.

A recent installment has been placed near the transept. It’s a movable screen to create the illusion showcasing the rest of the church, sections that are actually no longer there but were re-created in 3D using augmented reality technology. It’s pretty cool. I took a short video of it (below):

Guided and non-guided tours also include a 10-minute, 3D film Maior Ecclesia, which inculcates a sense of the majesty and purpose of what was once the Christian world’s largest church.

More Visitor Information

Abbaye de Cluny
Palais Jean de Bourbon,
71250 Cluny France
Telephone Number: +33 (0)3 85 59 15 93
For more information:
Email: aymeric.pathier@monuments-nationaux.fr
Websites: National Monuments of France, Cluny Office of Tourism
General Admission Fee: 7 € / Free admission for children under 18 (except for groups)
Open: May 2 to August 31 from 9.30 am to 6.30 pm; September 1 to April 30 from 9.30 am to noon and from 1.30 pm to 5 pm.
Closed: January 1, May 1, November 1, November 11,
December 25

Virgin Vacations is offering travel packages from the U.S. to Paris to spend Thanksgiving. The travel deal starts at $749 and includes:

• Round trip air on available air carrier
• 6 nights hotel accommodations in Paris
• Continental breakfast daily
• Hotel taxes and service charges
• Mandated Fuel Surcharges

  Package price excludes airport taxes and fees.

  Find out more about it.

We stopped in Collioure, France on our way back from Barcelona almost a month ago and were impressed and surprised to find such a hidden gem. Collioure is only about 25 kilometers (about 15 miles) from the Spanish border, and if you’re ever in the area, it’s worth a visit. I would never describe anything with (or ever use the word) “enchanting” but it is just that in this unexpectedly gorgeous French port village. By the way, we ate at a restaurant called Copacabana, which has a beautiful view of the sea. It’s a very touristy place we randomly chose but the food was really tasty and the service was extraordinary. I took some photos and made a slide show below:

Thanks to William Lamy for the use of his music.

Yesterday wasn’t the best time to go to Dijon, let alone any city in France because of the farmer protests. We usually know about these things in advance, but silly us, we didn’t watch the news on Thursday (or lately for that matter), like we usually do! Needless to say, when we arrived in Dijon, the traffic was très pertubé, and that wasn’t the only thing perturbed. The farmers were all over the city setting fires in the roads, throwing around trash, hay and animal poo (It smelled!), lighting huge bomb firecrackers, and making a huge mess causing hours of traffic delays. Once we got parked, which took forever, I took these photos. I’m lucky I had my old little camera in my purse.



And we noticed that the police were hiding far away from the rowdy agriculteurs.


Here’s a :30 video I took:

Following Sarkozy’s horribly embarrassing nepotistic naming of his 23 year-old son to the powerful political post inside EPAD, the reactions are numerous. Many college students are requesting to be adopted by Nicolas Sarkozy so they’ll have a better chance at “finding” a good job; people are outraged, defenders are insisting little Sarkozy got elected! Whatever. WHY do you think he was elected? A few words: HIS DAD’S URGING. Duh,people.

Anyway, this one’s my fave. It’s a hilarious spot advertising a fake iPhone app called, “L’application Jean Sarkozy pour L’iPhone.” You don’t need to speak French to understand what that’s all about.

Here’s a silly fun ad from the U.S. explaining why things are better when they’re French. Soooo….. I haven’t seen French maids like that in the seven years I’ve lived in France – NOT saying they don’t exist but anyway…

via (Thanks, LA Frog!)