anyway, i saw these 3D’s bugles “goût bacon” which doesn’t mean bacon flavored, but rather, smoked-ham flavored. i was more fascinated by the packaging than the actual smoked ham flavored bugles, which i’m thinking is more of a temptation for french people. i dunno. i found the slab of ham pictured below the “goût bacon” sort of unappetizing; i didn’t think the packaging even tried to be enticing – which makes me believe that packaging, in fact, doesn’t matter here.

we bought them anyway to try (an experiment!) and not by the merit of its packaging. i didn’t like them at all. however, they didn’t lie: they tasted exactly like smoked ham. i was at least relieved that they didn’t taste like “paprika.”

lulu decided to explore another village in burgundy this week. tamnay-en-bazois (originally named tamenayum in 1359), is a small village in burgundy known for its pottery from local artisans. it has a population of 175 inhabitants. we visited the large warehouse of pottery and their space outdoors because we highly support independent artists and artisans in france, and love discovering their work. sadly, we only found very few pottery items made by people in the region and realize the reason for the dwindling numbers of local artists.

i’d guess that there was about less than 5% of hand-crafted, locally produced pottery actually residing at the warehouse. the rest of the pottery looked like replicas of different styles of pottery massed produced and made in china. though the chinese-made pottery is significantly cheaper, it is surely inferior in quality (not to mention, copies of other people’s designs) and at the same time, forcing the french indie artists to quit, as they cannot compete and survive against the low prices of products coming from china. i certainly hope the independent french artisans and artists do not disappear entirely.
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Lulu Lundi* – every lundi (monday) is dedicated to an adorable boston terrier, lulu – you’ll find photos of lulu in different places around france and travel information each week.

we’ve taken a lot of road trips in france and feel this little tip may come in handy when in need of a toilet whilst roadtripping. knowing this little tidbit of information can help you avoid places like you see in the photo. unless you don’t mind that level of roughing it, read no further.

if you appreciate an uneventful rest stop with extremely clean toilets, look for the nearest “total” gas station. they are hands down the most conscientious about the cleanliness of their restrooms, and always have accessible stalls for wheelchairs. mileage will vary with all others, but total is consistently clean, even the tiniest total station in hodunk france, where ever that is. [related: public toilets in paris free beginning feb 1]

this is france’s minister of economy and finance, thierry breton. my brazilian friends would not like his little gesture in the picture, but i digress. i just listened to monsieur breton on a short podcast chez loic le meur, and it confirmed one thing i know about politicians: they lie AND make no sense. whether it is a big fat blatant lie, or a lie by omission, they do it; there are NO exceptions.

breton talked about how entrepreneurs should come to france because they don’t have to pay investment tax….after being in business for 6 years. his words, “come to france, you don’t pay taxes.” he neglected to mention that business owners still have to pay for their own and their employees’ state social taxes, which are not negligible plus their retirement, which comes to about 50% in taxes. then, they have to pay for l’impot sur les sociétés (IS) (business tax) , which is from 15% to 33% of taxes depending on your profit. you also have to pay la medicine du travail: the annual physicals for everyone, and you have to pay for the taxe professionelle (sounds a lot like a business tax but renamed to add another tax fee) and that tax varies depending on where you live. you also have to pay for capital gains taxes if applicable. i’m not finished yet! you also have to fork up for l’imposition forfaitaire annuelle (IFA) (annual taxation fee), which sounds like another made up thing just to squeeze more juice from the entrepreneur business owners – you must pay this fee if your company made more than 300,000 euros.

sound good entrepreneurs? then come on down!

in france, pigs find the coveted truffle and people eat them, but in china people find truffles and feed them to pigs. not for long! according to an article in the sydney morning herald, chinese truffles get mixed in with french ones and are selling for more than their worth.

there’s a big stink on the side of french truffle farmers feeling threatened by newly discovered troves of chinese truffles, declaring that the chinese truffles are inferior in taste. time for an official taste test!

[via sydney herald]

airfrance.com is offering excellent fares to paris right now: book tickets by january 31 and fly through March 31. Prices include:

• $320 round-trip, New York to Paris

• $434 round-trip, Chicago to Paris

• $442 round-trip, San Francisco to Paris

for more info: 1-800-237-2747 or visit airfrance.com [via vagablond]

my french inlaws came to see us while we were in the u.s. and we decided to take them to new york. the first morning we went out for breakfast and i ordered bacon, eggs, potatoes, toast. i LOVE a huge breakfast. my french mummy in law thought it was gross to eat that much food in the morning. me rolled eyes. that’s the best time to eat a huge meal. an american breakfast like that is considered a meal for dinner in france. i was actually thinking, ok, you think THAT’S gross but eating cassoulet, which is gobs of beans swimming in duck fat at 10pm at night is NOT gross?!

now i’m in france so when i want a breakfast like that, i have to go to…wait…no one serves breakfast like that, at least where i live in burgundy – so i have no place to go. this makes sense; why should anyone serve an american breakfast in france?! i miss it sometimes, though.

if you’re in the south of france and are desperate for a big breakfast like i’ve described, you can go to stars and bars or café de paris in casino square in monaco and in paris you can go to breakfast in america. of course, if you’re traveling in france from the u.s. or from another big breakfast eating country, you probably don’t need to have an american breakfast, and might prefer the french experience: a bowl of café au lait and a crispy light buttered baguette or flakey croissant will do, right? not knocking those; not knocking those.

i really miss going to DUPAR’S in l.a. for the best, most unrivaled pancakes, the GOD of pancakes man has ever known – and served all day long. i wonder if eggs n things and the flying biscuit are still as good as they used to be, too. anyway, for pancakes in france i end up making breakfast at home unless i feel like traveling on a train a few hours for a cuppa joe and crispy bacon, eggs, cheesy potatoes and maybe a wedge of orange.

i’ve heard about loads of expats having a hard time finding bacon in france, which leads to ranting and cursing the living hell out of our francophone home country. i should consider myself lucky because we go to a nearby farm for organic produce, eggs and meats, and amazing bacon. many of you are nowhere near a farm and might not be able to find the same quality bacon BUT! never fear, you CAN and WILL find bacon in paris; i swear. no, it’s not smoked ham or bits and pieces of fat lardons. you just need to ask the butcher for de la BARDE. french people don’t pan fry them and eat them crispy and on their own. they usually wrap bacon around other meats in a terrine or a roast – but it IS bacon, thinly sliced, just like you need them to be for breakfast! (or for a BLT or a BLAT). happy eating.

one of the biggest kicks i get out of being in france is when i find something i’ve never seen before, and it makes me do a double-take. after three years of living here, france still does not disappoint. (closeup here)

i almost got whiplash during my second glance at this 2.2 liter box of ready-made, real, fluffy eggwhites. the ingredients: beaten eggwhites, sugar, E412 through E415 (these are: guar gum tragacanth acacia gum; gum arabic xanthan gum respectively) used as emulsifiers, stabilizers, thickeners and gelling agents. a french lady standing next to me was equally perplexed. we both thought they looked gross.

placed between the snack sized mousse au chocolate, from a slight distance, these oeufs à la neige looked like tofu, a very, very large box of tofu. i should know better than that; i’d never find tofu in these parts but it stood out amidst the long aisle of refrigerated desserts. just wishful thinking on my part.

my preference would be to use fresh eggs and prepare them myself.

these are the type of things that would work in the u.s. if they don’t exist already (using, of course, way more chemicals), but in the u.s. they might hide the actual view of the whipped egg whites and put a nice label with a photo of luscious, fresh looking and perfect egg whites ready for your next dinner party’s mousse au chocolat. you know, for the busy executive that is obliged to entertain clients, but as a busy executive, he/she must find shortcuts to save on time but hopefully not on quality, and only half-lying when declaring everything was made from scratch. something like that.

back to the fluffies. suddenly it made more sense. to the left of the egg whites were plastic bottles of crème anglaise. put crème anglaise and oeufs à la neige together and what do you get? ile flotante!

though it has been done before, the tour de france next year will go outside of france to stage the launch of the tour de france 2007. n’importe quoi! whatever. why the hell is it called the tour de france if it starts in england!? i have nothing against london, in fact, i used to live there and it’s one of my favorite cities in the whole world – but c’mon. [via itv]

Links: Tour de France in the Dreaded Creusot, Tour de France Route on Google Earth, Le Tour de France 2006 Route

last year renault began selling the cheapest new car on the market, the logan, a collaborative effort with romania’s dacia (which is owned by renault) – originally intended for developing countries where people have a lower purchasing power. i finally got to see one up close and personal and found it…basic and on the underwhelming side.

admittedly, i already was against it – based on the fact that renault promised a low cost yet quality car that would cost only 5,000 euros (over $6,000) for a basic model with no extras (really nothing). so cheap! there are bikes that cost more than that. anyway, the rock bottom price created a major buzz worldwide especially france and many french people got on renault’s waiting list to buy the cars once they arrived from romania. but right before they unveiled the new cars in france and after being deluged with interested buyers, renault made an announcement that the base price would change from 5,000 euros to 7,500 euros ($9,200). i thought that sucked on the part of renault. that significant increase in price was sparcely reported compared to the pimped global PR when it was supposed to sell at $6000.

renault decided to sell the logans in romania for 5,000 euros. they, however, forbid french people to go to romania to buy the same cars for 5,000.

weirdly, that didn’t seem to deter most french people interested in it and the logan is still highly sought. buyers even have to wait four months, this is probably the only case where depreciation works backwards. the logan, it seems, appreciates because people are willing to pay more if they don’t have to wait. (yes,they’d rather have a used higher priced logan than wait for a new one at a lower price. weird.)

why is the car so cheap? the logans are made in romania, but are now made in china and (will soon be made in) india, countries with obscenely cheap labor costs. using parts from old models, such as the renault clio and modus and the nissan micra – also brings prices down considerably whilst also getting rid of old stock. they also used the same rubber strip for both sides of the car (most cars have different strips for each side). also they saved by making a basic looking car using easy to make parts.

the logan, the “people’s car” of france!

[the making of the logan, businessweek]

you’ll be happy you stopped by today because after today, your life will be that much richer. if you have even a pinch of curiosity, you’ll get the real scoop on poop by playing this unique flash game called la machine à caca (the poop machine) created by a french flash game team. it has been waiting for you. ah, don’t poo poo this opportunity, you’ll have loads of fun.

did ever want to know what your poop would be like before it came out? sure you did. and you do! first select one of two different kinds of “stomachs.” pick 3 dishes from the choices of food at the right and drag each to a box at the top; this will be the food that goes into the machine (your stomach), presumably food you’d eat, then the magic happens! after your selection, press the red button and the machine digests your food just like your own stomach would. after the bits and pieces of food have been digested, the machine poops it out of its faucet opening which ultimately represents your..you know. next, find out what your poop will look and feel like based on what you’ve eaten. did you eat too much rice and potatoes? expect a hard time. eat too much candy? guess the dire consequences.

remember, this is a game afterall, and you do win if you pick the right happy meal. but the real fun is in seeing what will result by experimenting. in truth, you really should know what you’re putting into your body.

la machine à caca is probably one of the cutest educational games ever considering it is about crap. when hovering over the foods with your mouse, it informs you about the value of that particular food as well as going into disgustingly crappy shitty horrifyingly detailed information about the texture of your doodoo. after you’ve played, it suggests how you can change your diet to create a better quality of…log.

this flash game is exceptionally well done from the adorable fun graphics to the playful soundtrack of dipping timpani drums. NOTE: the game is in french but you can easily guess what the little shit is saying. credit of la machine à caca goes to flash game team: development/programming: groug; graphics/design: trip

now, go do your duty and play the La Machine à Caca game now!

[a big thanks to midoritech for emailing me about this gem!]

l’église saint laurent de béard was declared the 31st “site clunisien” meaning it is part of a powerful benedictine order, the cluny order founded in the 10th century, strangely on september 11th. it was also declared a historic monument in 1972. [enlarge photo]

the church had been in a state of extreme disrepair since 1952, then a storm in 1966 violently damaged the roof. a non-profit association (l’association des amis) began efforts to restore it beginning in 1967. it took decades. i love the simple design of the stain glass windows, which were remade beginning in 1989 and completed 10 years later in 1999 (the new windows were exact replicas of the original design) done by Jean Mauret.

inside was nearly entirely empty except for three kneeling stools and a very humble but beautiful ceilinged shrine (click here to enlarge photo). i do not know what happened to the rest of the chairs! i think the walls were recently sandblasted, because they were practically sparkling, if limestone had the ability to sparkle. i sort of loved the sparceness of the church and had an urge to rollerblade in there. we wanted to go up to the bell towers but the access to the stairs were nowhere to be found. i would have loved to have taken a photo from afar, of lulu up in the towers.
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Lulu Lundi* – every lundi (monday) is dedicated to an adorable boston terrier, lulu – you’ll find photos of lulu in different places around france and travel information posted exclusively each week on www.whytraveltofrance.com

more macnerdy stuff! Widget AquaMac will keep you current on AquaMac News in French about all things Mac, DSL, hardware, software & other related products. From the comfort of your Dashboard, have the latest news from AquaMac delivered to your desktop. Note: You must have a Mac (duh) and it must be running on Tiger.

Download Widget AquaMac now

“Les grandes personnes ne comprennent jamais rien toutes seules, et c’est fatigant, pour les enfants, de toujours leur donner des explications.”

Translation: Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to always have to explain things to them.

it seems like forever since i’ve thought about the book, “le petit prince“ (the little prince) by french author, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry but the subject happened to come up in a post by food blogger rowena who mentioned it was one of her favorite books. since it had been so long, i had to read it again last night. yup, it’s an amazing book, just like i remember it – i rarely recommend books but i have to recommend little prince. it looks like a children’s book but it’s really a novella for adults. the little prince, a touching tale about a young prince from a small asteroid that explores the galaxies then finds earth, will (hopefully) affect you. on the surface it is a simple story and it is an easy read but underneath you’ll only find unbelievably rich philosophical ideas – introducing a dialogue about the meaning of life, the choices we make in our lives and our potential as human beings. it’s actually much more than that.

i wondered what kind of person Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (writer, illustrator, poet, pilot) must have been like, after having written and illustrated such a remarkable work. it didn’t surprise me to find a quote by his wife Consuelo Gómez Carillo (also a writer), “He wasn’t like other people,” she wrote later in Mémoires de la rose, “but like a child or an angel who has fallen down from the sky.” of course, that was Saint-Exupéry at his best; it was openly known that he wasn’t perfect, and was often away philandering with other women. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry died at age 44 in 1944 during a flight he piloted in which the plane crashed in southern france. no one could determine the exact cause of the crash and remnants of the wreckage were not found until nearly 60 years later in 2000! i don’t think they looked very hard over the years…

some notable little prince trivia:
1. de saint-exupéry wrote the little prince during the summer and fall of 1942, while he was living in long island, new york.
2. the little prince was first published in english in 1943. the first french edition did not appear until 1946!
3. de saint-exupéry’s image appeared on the old french 50-franc bills
4. the international airport in de Saint-Exupery’s hometown of lyon is named after him.
5. there’s a musical version of le petit prince by Richard Cocciante and starring canadian singer, daniel lavoie.
6. the little prince is translated into over 150 languages.

[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]

for those of you who are unable to use maps on ipod i mentioned the other day, this might be the next best thing for you. the german company, hot maps has detailed, easy to use street maps online. their directory of maps includes german cities but there are other major cities from around the world on the website including the paris map. it looked like it would be extremely helpful for those days you really need a good map to negotiate the winding streets in the city of light.

continuing along the subject of my post about french 60s and 70s music video clips, here’s another gem of a resource. this blog features music from all decades, however. the specific target theme: french girl singers (bloggers words: that make you *sigh*) kept by a dutch blogger based in amsterdam and obsessed with delicate french filles chanteuses, the blog, filles sourires, will get you all caught up on french music from female oldies to today’s teen pop singers – french girls singing now, and back in the days of black and white monochrome tv sets. at the moment, blogger Guuzbourg is running a special feature called, “en duo” (french girls singers singing with someone else). there are great finds here with interesting tidbits about music and musicians, fun music link resources – and there are mp3′s to download on his site as well. [filles sourires was inspired by the equally excellent blowupdoll blog]

lulu, my s.o and i were taking a walk down this street, alongside a canal, and i saw this store front with the vedette brand sign.

me: “who’s that old lady?”

s.o.: “that’s la Mère Denis; her real name was jeanne denis; she was the spokesperson for vedette’s washing machines; she was sort of a “brand” for vedette a long time ago.” she was the reason that company became successful.

vedette, in french, means “celebrity” but the corporation, vedette, was a french household appliance company. (after several buyouts, vedette is no longer a french company, and fell into the hands of transnational group fagor, which is a company from spain.)

i’m normally not a big fan of brands sporting an old lady’s face but there’s something sweet and comforting about her, something that leaves you with the feeling that la Mère Denis is your beloved grandma and she’s always ready to make you happy by baking you a million of your favorite cookies (or tartelettes since we’re in france).

apparently mostly everyone over the age of 20 is familiar with la Mère Denis even though the commercials with her began in the 70s. they lasted into the 80s and when la Mère Denis died in 1989 they continued to run the commercials just a little while longer. what were the commercials like?

vo: “Vedette mérite votre confiance.” (vedette deserves your confidence.)

la Mere Denis with a country accent: cé ben vrrlai ça! (c’est bien vrai ça) (that’s so true!)

la Mère Denis and her short slogan for vedette has remained warmly remembered even today. (she even has an entry in wikipedia!) she indeed lived up to the meaning of vedette, even posthumously. click here to enlarge photo