there’s a swedish site (by photographer jonas carlson) featuring breathtaking 360 degree panoramic views of some galleries inside the louvre in paris.

navigate around the rooms by clicking on the screen and dragging your mouse (or pen) around and you might get happily dizzy!

it’s the next best thing to being there in person. in fact, i’m sure some people would say it’s BETTER than the real thing; at least you don’t have to wait in line, and your feet won’t get tired.

make sure to look at the ceilings too!

click here: panoramas in the louvre

today is supposed to be blog day or was it a few days ago? or tomorrow? i’m not sure but anyway, in appreciation of it, here’s a list of recommended sites related to france (not yet listed on whytraveltofrance.com):

photographs

ahah…Le jardin de marandon – photographs that capture the moment
images – raw imagery of paris
versapics – just photographs, no text photoblog
grand magasin – candid photos

mac and gadgets

mac bidouille – as a mac fanatic, i cannot leave out this excellent french site on all things mac (hardware)

tags: blog day 2005

[via bignewsnetwork via AFP]:

The [french] government is preparing a list of strategic economic sectors in which it may act to block foreign interests from gaining control of French companies, Industry Minister Francois Loos said.

Read the article here

tempted to put this in the “weird” category, i’m just going to leave it in “news” feeling that somehow, it’s not considered weird in france.

a court judge in france has ordered nestle to reopen a flailing factory in the south of france – despite the event that upon its closure, nestle found new employment (or offered early retirement) for ALL 427 employees. nestle is dazed and confused and denounces that the court ruling breeches its basic freedom to manage its own operations. read the article here: Nestle forced to reopen loss-making coffee factory

This sets a strong precedent (or continues it) which will keep foreign investors (and even french investors and businesses) wary about launching any kind of business operations in france. you see, apparently your company has to go BANKRUPT before you can close. If your company is profitable, you have to keep operations intact despite singled out factories in operation suffering heavy losses.

this cartoon-like, precariously tottering tower of squished clocks sits in front of the paris train station, gare saint lazare, located not far from the paris opera. a perfectly depicted idea of a big city such as paris, with its millions of people, places, businesses and government – totally dependent on time.

though life in france takes a break at lunch, everyone still has one eye on the clock.

click here for the free desktop wallpaper of this photograph (2048 x 1536 pixels) of the front of gare saint lazare. (this is free for PERSONAL use only. for commercial use, please contact me.)

there was a tragic fire in a building in paris which resulted in 17 dead and 30 people injured.

this forces me to wonder about the laws in france regarding SMOKE DETECTORS, if, of course, they exist. after a quick search, i found nothing. in fact, i don’t think i’ve seen one smoke detector YET since i’ve moved to france (about 3 years ago). i wonder how many lives could have been saved (over the last couple of decades) if they only had smoke detectors?

today there’s been a lot of talk about how americans are obese. guess what? they’ve been on average obese for decades. that’s old news. (of course they also said that 73% of americans will be obese or overweight by 2008. yikes!) anyway, the REAL news today is that the newcomers of fatville are (drum roll…) THE FRENCH! for all the french people who’ve said to me (upon realizing i’m american), “Oh, but you’re not fat!” i have something to say to YOU: “hey frenchie! YOU’RE FAT!“

a big thank you to (only i know who) for posing for this picture. thanks, fat french man!

ok, everyone, it’s time to cook up a huge vat of leek soup

click here to enlarge picture

on my way to cafe mabillon in paris to meet my family, i saw this unusual sort of street performer making beautifully sculpted fish, birds and flowers. he used carrots, beets and turnips to carve exceptionally detailed art pieces. i wondered if he was able to use his talents in a restaurant or some kind of design firm for display work, instead of sitting on the sidewalk along blvd. saint germain receiving loose change from passers-by. i do hope someone spots him and offers him some interesting projects.

to celebrate the end of summer with a bang, check out the festival, ‘rock en seine‘ taking place august 25 & 26, 2005 in st. cloud. the lineup looks fun and what’s better than finishing off the summer with music in paris? not much! location: domaine national de saint-cloud. prices 39 euros for one day, 65 for both, if purchased online and 40 euros at the door for the day.

LINEUP

thursday, august 25, 2005
michael franti & spearhead
port minor
the arcade fire
queens of the stone age
pixies
the subways
athlete
the sunday drivers
hot hot heat
jurassic 5
stuck in the sound
flying pooh
hushpuppies
alkaline trio
vitalic

friday, august 26, 2005
la phaze
amp fiddler
ssaian supa crew
foo fighters
franz ferdinand
asyl
goldfrapp
baby shambles
feist
robert plant
hopper
herman dune
the departure
the film
sayag jazz machine

for more info, check out the rock en seine site.

i don’t think this drink would be that popular in english speaking countries. ya think?!! wouldn’t waiters enjoy saying, “would you like a bottle of pschitt?”

who says france is so expensive? now you can rent a bike in lyon for just 1 euro/hour ($1.22/hour). with the first 30 minutes being free of charge, if you ride from one bike station to another in less than a half an hour, your commute is free. details are here: velovgrandlyon (in french)

[via wired]

the bright orange bag was screaming for attention…with good reason.

popcorn, in france, is obviously an american thing. rarely have i seen popcorn packaging that DOESN’T look like an american flag–all stars, stripes, red white and blue on parade; if you could hear it you’d hear, “THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER!” “OH BEAUTIFUL FOR SPACIOUS SKIES”…yes, it’s THAT loud.

no french person i know eats popcorn. they just don’t like it, they don’t get it or they just feel like ignoring it. people wonder, “how could you EAT SUCH A HUGE BOWL (BUCKET SIZE LIKE I LIKE IT!) OF POPCORN?”

it’s easy.

a man from the village of audruicq, in the north of france has won the french national lotto FOR THE SECOND TIME – with the SAME NUMBERS! 27 years later. [via guardian]

In a small, quiet village in Dordogne, France (Southwest France), a British couple’s plans are currently being drawn to install a racing track – of all things. not just racing cars, but 50 to 80-year-old Ferraris, Bugattis, Porsches, Bentleys and Jags, probably some of the worst kinds of environmental polluters ever.

Dordogne is one of the few remaining treasures in France, known for its natural beauty, beautiful countrysides and friendly locals living a clean, peaceful life. People go to Dordogne to have take a calm break from city life, an environment that is respectful of nature and healthy living.

Luckily, the plans not going unchallenged as locals and associations unite to stop the unwanted project in their tracks. [via guardian]

though i’m usually not much of a soda drinker, my newest thing is ricqles (pronounced REEK LESS). though i like to pronounce it like RICKLES. it makes my french friends laugh. right now, it’s hot and this minty freshness nicely hits the spot. it sort of reminds me of a combination of 7up and mint mouthwash – but is better than that!

now to the picture. yes. one has less rickle goodness than the other and no, i didn’t open either one before they were ready for their closeup. i bought a 6-pack of these and there was one that clearly did not contain the 25 cl it claimed to have! i don’t think i would have even noticed but these are my rickles!!!

i mean to say, SOME Dutch – and the answer to that question is definitely YES. i know because i recently met a dutch couple (i’ll call “amsterscam duo”) that bought land and a house in france with the intention of converting a portion of their property into a gite, a b&b a la francaise – except PLEASE PAY IN CASH! no one is going to declare income paid in cash, everyone knows that.

a gite in france is one of the easiest money-making entities to establish without the hassles of incorporating a new business that comes with floods of redtape, auditors and other financial controls. with a gite, you’re SUPPOSED to simply add that to your declared income each year. i don’t have a problem with that, in fact, if i had a gite, i might not declare cash payments either. GASP!

however, the nursing of the boob part is where amsterscam duo accepts a monthly social welfare check from france in the amount of 600 euros ($730) per month. granted, this is not very much but this funding (called RMI) is meant for poor people, unemployed people that exhausted their unemployment funding; in other words, people that really need this kind of funding. like all RMI recipients, they must at least, make an effort to LOOK for work. a new legislation to control the exploiters of this system, is to reduce a percentage of the check each time a job is refused. not a problem for amsterscam duo.

you see, they don’t speak french, so while they can make all the effort in the world to seek employment, it would be nearly impossible for anyone to hire employees that don’t speak french. hence, their check will NEVER be reduced, and they will be able to collect…basically for how long? FOREVER. (so why on earth would they ever want to learn french?)

is anyone getting mad about this yet?

why should i care? i’m a bit grumpy about this because i work A LOT as an independent business owner, pay my taxes, do everything legally etc – and i have a conscience to NOT exploit the french system (albeit flawed, admittedly). I KNOW. I’M LAME THAT WAY.

i wish i were dishonest! i’m SO STOOOOPID.

big changes to the social welfare system are coming and why? because it’s being exploited UP THE WAZOOO! that’s why. yeah, there are hoards of people living off RMI (and have been for years, decades even), working for cash and living the good life, never having to pay one single centime in taxes. maybe these changes will take a while but after sarko is elected prez, the merde WILL HIT THE FAN.

i won’t be laughing then, nor will i even be gloating or be happy for that matter. no, i don’t wish ill for these exploiters; they will just have to figure something out. by that time, they’ll have probably stock piled a bunch of savings.

back to amsterscam duo, batman! this is what i think is going on with them (though i’m only speculating on part of this here): they took an early retirement in holland, so are collecting monthly checks on that. they are now collecting the french RMI (which they can do forever) AND they are earning CASH for their gite. heck, that’s probably not a millionaire’s salary but dishonesty lies in the RMI factor. who’s gonna pass up free money?

now. my question is: is there a correlation between this dutch scam to the increasing number of dutch people moving to france? (also the number of RMI recipients jumped drastically in 2004)

there are so many merchant signs that are from the 50’s, some even earlier than that, and i love them. i’ll be posting photos of some of them, but please feel free to post your own photos of signs in france on this site. this particular photo was taken in decize, france, about an hour’s drive west of nevers.

i guess when places like this stay in business over several generations, there’s no need to change the signs. hopefully, each generation wanted to be a baker!

While listening to this bluegrass/country band sing Doc Watson’s “Keep on the Sunny Side of Life” I was temporarily sent back to the bible belt to “Southern anywhere town USA.” You know, in a small, dark, smokey divey bar/club bathing in the smell of fried food and beer with velvet (black light) Elvis memorabilia hanging crooked on the greasy wall…

But alas, i heard the singing of the chorus “…on zuh sonny side of la-eef” and it catapulted me back to real life, my life in france last Sunday to a humungous warehouse in “etang sur arroux,” a village in Burgundy. the warehouse is run by the organization, ‘Emmaüs‘ an international humanitarian organization helping nations in need by selling donated goods to the general public 3 days a week (wed. sat & sun 2pm-6pm). emaus in etang sur arroux is basically a gargantuan yard sale of epic purportions; there are endless rows of furniture, clothes, books/cds, kitchen wares, appliances, sports equipment… you name it, they probably got it but be warned, lots of things are fairly junky.

for example, there are tons of skiis but if you can find a matching pair, consider yourself extraordinarily lucky. your best bet is to find books for cheap and a few pots and pans for less than 2 euros.

more costly, though more purchase worthy is a tiny collection of organic products from africa, sold by a friendly vendor who also serves a mean (and i mean excellent) cup of coffee. (no nasty burnt starbucks here!) i bought organic quinoa, tea, coconut jam, coffee and chocolate.

this place is a definitely recommended “looksee.”

if you’re not into rummaging through piles of junk, come anyway and enjoy this unusual (if not surreal) outing by hanging out in the furniture section for an organic cuppa joe and listening to a pretty good band if you’re into a little french twang.

a plane from panama to martinique crashed today in venezuela. there were no survivors. among the passengers were 153 french citizens.

heartfelt condolences to the grieving families.

[via AFP]

Fodor’s just posted their take on the 50 Best Restaurants in the world. Click here to:

See zee list.

As always this grand statement is subjective as hell but i still find it very cool that 10 out of 50 restaurants are located in France.

Thought it was time to post another cute picture of Lulu playing in a field of hay. see? dogs DO smile.

[More smiles here and here]

Click here to access the site

Here’s a neat site of Parisian bloggers: (most blogs are in French):

Les blogs parisiens par station de métro

Parisian blogs by metro station.

no, i’m not talking about the kind in a package costing 10 centimes (10 for 1 euro at freres tang!) which includes flavor packets (i especially do not care for the packet of fat with bits of unknown and wildly questionable brown “meat.”)

i know i live in france, land of world gastronomic snails, confit de qqc, cassoulet, creamy, buttery gobs of everything — applied to my thighs – call me crazy but it’s just that once in a while i have a need for…ramen, the authentic kind: fresh noodles, miso, chashu, moyashi, green onions and the like. i’ll travel anywhere in france for a tasty bowl from the land of my ancestors. yes, really! just TELL ME WHERE IT IS, PLEASE. (i had to go to l.a. to my favorite ramen joint, ‘asahi ramen’ on sawtelle blvd for this bowl of misoramen. that is too far and now i have jetlag.)

These have got to be the most dangerous (so-called) vehicles EVAR. It’s a microcar (aka voiturette) with these specs: lo-cylinder, sans permis (that’s right, you don’t need a permit to drive this itty-bitty tonka toy) – AND these quadracycles with a hardhat don’t go very fast either; I heard the speed maxes at around 30 mph (50 km/H). The drivers? Well, they’re usually sporting solid silver hair, riding low (you know, viewing THROUGH the steering wheel), no education in road safety, magnifying glasses AND squinting, slow reflexes, blahblah and on and on. NO I AM NOT LYING ABOUT THIS.

WEIRD SIDEBAR: the makers of these snailmobiles also make Formula 1 cars!

Back to the equation:

extremely SLOW vehicle + NO DRIVER’S LICENSE + OLD PEOPLE DRIVING + no driver’s ed = ?

The answer to the equation is the title of this post.