10 to 15 MILLION mobile phones are sold in France every year (72% of people in France use cel phones). What happens to all of the old phones? What did you do with your old cel phone that no one else wanted?

If you have an old mobile telephone that is just sitting around your house and eventually will get thrown away in the garbage, instead, please think about taking it to a France Telecom or Orange office/store. They are obligated to take them back for recycling and that way, your phone will probably not end up in a landfill. While millions of phones do end up in landfills, if more people knew about the recycling programs, the risk of horrible environmental problems could easily be avoided.

The batteries in cel phones are particularly insidious because if, for example, just one battery (made of Nickel Metal, Nickel Cadmium and Lithium) reaches a water source, it alone can contaminate 600,000 liters (158,503 gallons) of water.

Once your mobile phone is received at France Telecom or Orange (same state company), it enters into one of the following channels:

- Re-use: phone is good condition or need minimal repairs are refurbished and resold to countries that have lower buying power.

- Re-use: parts are separated to be recuperated and used for repairs.

- Recyling: old and damaged phones are dismantled, sorted according to materials and recycled.

- Disposal: Material that cannot be recycled, recovered or refurbished is collected and disposed of to landfills or incinerated. France Telecom claims that less than 1% of the entire collected phones goes to landfill or incinerators.

Foire de Paris – April 28 – May 8 – Paris Expo – Porte de Versailles; Hours: 10am to 7pm; Saturday & Sunday 9:30am to 7pm; May 5 until 11pm

Entrance Fees
Individuals: 12 €
2 Day Pass: 18 €
Under 14 years: 7 €
Under 7 years: free

Note: Babysitting is available for up to 2 hours maximum for kids ages 4 – 10 years old. (Hall Eight); Also 20% discounts on SNCF round-trip train tickets are available (see the site for details); Dogs are not allowed. (What!!?)

For more information: Foire de Paris (in French)

Most of the world’s street art is, however, scattered all over, which is fun too because you’ll end up eventually being happily surprised by it as you come across it serendipitously. That takes some time, so for people who’d like to see a lot more art concentrated in one place, they can visit “Senseless Acts of Beauty”, a growing online gallery of the world’s graffiti (they call it “good” graffiti).

The site began a couple of years ago with photos originating from an exhibition of Urban Pictographs and Petroglyphs in Budapest. Choose from nearly 80 cities to view the photos of graffiti. The largest numbers from one city come from Paris, so it’s a fun way to see street art in Paris all without getting tired feet.

If you have photos of graffiti art, you can share them by easily uploading them directly on Senseless Acts of Beauty.

Senseless Acts of Beauty – Paris

See Other Cities

Da Vinci Code fanatics from the U.S., Australia and the UK (sorry rest of the world) can take a quest online, which is a contest to win a trip for four to Paris, New York, London or Rome, plus other prizes. It is a huge publicity campaign for the movie, The Da Vince Code starring Tom Hanks and Audrey Tatou (from Amelie) disguised as a game contest filled with puzzles and questions. The movie premieres next month.

The quest requires that you register for a Google home page account (which is free) before you can go on to play 24 daily puzzles that must all be solved by May 11, the end of Phase 1 of the contest. The puzzles incorporate characters, themes and symbols from the story. After solving a puzzle, you will then have to correctly answer a question that tests your knowledge of the story. You are allowed to solve the puzzles in any order.

Once you complete all of the 24 daily puzzles correctly and before the due date of Phase 1, you will be sent to complete a form where you must enter your Google ID and submit it to receive a time stamp of your puzzle completion time. You then have to complete the contest’s entry form and submit it for another time stamp, marking your contest entry time.

Only the first 10,000 qualified players (who answered all 24 puzzles correctly and filled out and submitted their puzzle complete and entry form) can move on to the final phase of the contest. Good luck!

Go on the Da Vinci Code Quest now

[related: Send online postcards of da Vinci Code Paris]

Knowing that the rate of survival after a cardiac arrest/heart failure is only 2-5%, the city aimed for a radical improvement of those statistics by training the entire population of Montbard to use the defibrillators – stressing that this training was particularly important for families with at-risk patients. They also taught basic first aid training that included Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR). In too many cases, waiting for the paramedics to arrive, can be too late. This intervention, does not, however, replace the paramedics. It’s best seen compared to fire extinguishers: Just like fire extinguishers help put out fires until fireman arrive, the defibrillators make it possible to help the survival of the patient until paramedics arrive.

Other cities in France have since followed suit and have begun CPR and defibrillator training as well as placed similar kits in their cities..

Heart Attack Facts
1. The chances of survival after a heart failure decrease by 7 to 10 % each minute.
2. When the witness has access to a defibrillator quickly and is trained, the rate of survival is 50 %.
3. Chewing an uncoated aspirin right away, at the first sign of chest discomfort or distress, can reduce the amount of damage to the heart muscle during a heart attack.
4. Studies show the most common time for a heart attack to occur is Monday morning. Saturday morning ranks second. Another common time is during the early morning hours, when blood platelets are stickier.
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Lulu Lundi*- features Lulu, our favorite Boston Terrier somewhere in France every Monday.

In the same spirit as French candies playfully linked to the idea of body parts, these mustard dispensers are associated with bodily functions. (click on the photo to zoom out and see all of the mustard toilets). The idea of toilet mustard containers makes me laugh because it’s silly but it also makes me cringe at the same time.

These mustard toilets were in the la Musée de la Moutarde / Mustard Museum housed at the Amora/Maille mustard factory in Dijon. Both of these brands are now owned and operated by Unilever. You can take tours of the museum for only 3 euros, and I was looking forward to seeing the factory but the tour doesn’t let you see the factory! It is a bit misleading when they say there are tours AT the mustard factory. When we got there, the tour guide did not hesitate to state the disclaimer: “…Of course you all KNEW that this tour only takes you into the museum and NOT to the factory.”

Me: “NoooOOOoo!!!”

The little mustard toilets were the most interesting things in the tour, I’m sorry to say. Well, some of the old posters in the museum were pretty cool I suppose. The tour is a bit of a tease since we were at the factory and could smell mustard during the entire tour. We were probably just on the other side of the wall from the whole making of!

Mustard Trivia
1. Mustard plants are part of the cabbage family.
2. Today, nearly all of the world’s mustard seeds are grown in Canada.
3. Maurice Grey & Antoine Poupon were French mustard makers and their original store is still in Dijon (but now it’s called Moutarde Maille. Maille was also a mustard maker.).
4. The mustard Grey Poupon is made in Oxnard, California.
5. French’s Mustard has no relation to France or anything French and the company sent out press releases emphasizing this information during the “freedom fries” year of French bashing in the U.S.
6. When you order a salad in French restaurants, the dressing is usually made of a Dijon mustard vinaigrette.

[For the history of Dijon Mustard, click here]

Le Ciel est Bleu is a French company dedicated to multimedia conception, interactivity and experimentation. One of their coolest projects is a brilliant sound toy called, La Pâte à Son originally commissioned by the Cité de la Musique. It is not just a sound toy to tinker with but it is also a compositional tool made to encourage kids and adults alike to experiment with music creation.

Initially, the screen will open up with a an example of pre-composed compositions. Sample and play different tunes by pressing on the bottom left red button. You can get a feel of what is possible by listening, then experimenting yourself with the various buttons and gadgets (instruments, switches, and transporter pipes, tubes, drums, strings). You’ll see that the little clay pieces (the Pâte) flow through the assorted pipes and instruments to create a certain sound or rhythm. You’ll be able to alter the tempo, the key, change octaves or melodies or creating something completely serial. Turn on the help balloons if necessary, which is located at the bottom right corner (click on the question mark).

When you’re ready to become the next Maurice Ravel or Claude Debussy, or even other composers like M here’s what you can do. First clear the checkerboard of all the instruments by pressing on the red button located at the top right corner of the playing board. All gadgets fall off the board. To begin composing, select any of the tubes and instruments on the conveyer belt at the bottom, then put them on the checkerboard to where you’d like them to go. The tubing must connect so that the clay pieces flow and do their thing to create sounds. You can rotate the pieces by hovering over them then clicking on the arrows.

It’s an absorbing exploratory world that can take you deep into the roots of your personal style and creativity then bring it outward in the form of musical expression.

Le Ciel est Bleu plans to launch the sequel to La Pâte à Son called FluxTunes. FluxTunes is planned to be released some time this year.

Ready to create your masterpiece? Click here: Pâte à Son

Inspired by Pretzelbug’s comments in yesterday’s post, here are some tips and links if you happen to find yourself wanting to get a crash course in French before coming to France, Belgium or other French-speaking countries.

Free Online Resources to Learn French – There are several internet sites that offer free online French courses you can take at your own speed, one of the best ways to effectively and quickly (from home) grab a lesson or more. Below are some sites:

French Assistant
The French Tutorial

Online French Vocabulary and Verb Conjugators – Without a vocabulary base, how will you learn French? These sites will help you learn some words and help you figure out how to conjugate them.

French Verb Conjugator
Le Conjugugeur
Vocabulary Builder
Elisabeth’s vocab builder in French every other Sunday

Listen to French – Get your ears used to hearing French. Even if you have a French music or movie in the background, it helps to have it on so your brain can get used to French so when you arrive, it won’t sound totally foreign.

1) rent and watch movies in French and set the subtitles to French too. Oftentimes, you can check out music and dvd’s at public libraries.

2) French radio (click here for French internet radio sites and podcasts);

3) Read French papers or books. Go online to read the European news (in French) that will get you used to reading and also help to be familiar with recent local news.

—Here are free online books in French: Gutenberg Library, and Classics and Social Sciences
—Here are French newspaper sites: Agence France Presse, Le Monde, Liberation, Paris Match (like People Mag)

4) Listen to Music in French

Find Native French Speakers in your Area
If possible try to do a language exchange with a native speaker of French. Or try to find a French conversation group to sit in.

10 important phrases in French to know while traveling – You already know the most obvious, right? (merci, bonjour, oui, non, s’il vous plait, au revoir)

1. Where is the toilet? / Où sont les toilettes?
2. It’s an emergency! / C’est une urgence!
3. I don’t like ______. / Je n’aime pas (find out the words for what you don’t like.) i.e., Je n’aime pas les’escargots (I don’t like snails).
4. Do you accept credit cards? / Acceptez vous les cartes de crédit?
5. A carafe of water, please. /Un carafe d’eau s’il vous plait (for free water)
6. Excuse me, the bill please./Excusez moi, l’addition s’il vous plait.
7. There’s an error. / Vous vous etes trompé.
8. I’d like to change rooms. / Je voudrais change de chambre. (because you’re not satisfied with your hotel room.)
9. N’essayez pas de m’arnaquer!/ Don’t try to rip me off!
10. I need something for diarrhea. / J’ai besoin d’Immodium (Immodium is the product you need from the pharmacy)

If all fails:
I don’t know how to say it in French / Je ne sais pas le dire en français
I don’t speak French / Je ne parle pas français
I don’t understand / Je ne comprends pas
Do you speak English? / Parlez vous anglais?

I know there are tons of others so feel free to add your own phrases and hints in the comments.

Many people have emailed me asking to alert them to any concerts with Francis Cabrel. He’s going to be in concert on June 23 in Belgium, though, not France:

Francis Cabrel in Concert
June 23, 2006 – 8:30pm – Cost 55, 45, 35, 25 Euros
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels – Salle Henry Le Bœuf
23 Rue Ravenstein, 1000 Bruxelles
Info + 32 2 507 84 44
Tickets + 32 2 507 82 00

This concert is taking place in the largest concert hall at the Palais des Beaux-Arts but by American standards (and compared to the Olympia stadiums in France), it’s a smallish recital hall that fits 2,100 seats. That’s going to sell out quickly but it’ll be a memorable, intimate setting if you go; almost like you’re getting a private concert by Francis. It’s best to reserve your tickets by phone at the number above if possible to get a good seat (The seats you can buy online are far away from the stage). The first 2 rows are already reserved.

The BOZAR Website (you can purchase seats online): Francis Cabrel in Concert and see the seating plan here (downloadable pdf file).

[More about Francis Cabrel]

Rarely, if ever, do I find myself talking about someone’s testicles, let alone EATING them but this is France, and when in France, kooky word combinations like “eating” and “balls” will come up in the same sentence. That is the beauty of France.

These pink candies called, Coucougnettes (a cute word for testicles) won the Best Candy Award during the 44th Salon International de la Confiserie, the ultimate prize in candy making. It is made from an almond paste exterior (crushed roasted caramelized almonds mixed with splashes of ginger Eau-de-Vie and Armagnac. The interior is appropriately comprised of a whole, grilled nut (an almond that has been dipped in dark chocolate).

The marketing campaign of these Coucougnettes is fun and playful. The poster read,

“Offer these Coucougnettes in the name of the person of your choice (there’s a tag on the bag o’ balls that says, “________’s Coucougnettes” (and you fill in someone’s name in the blank). Then it lists some “statistics”:

- 7 out of 10 women admit to have been unfaithful to their husbands at least one time.
- 6 out of 10 do not dare cross the line but think about it.
- 5 out of 10 have not yet found the ideal man to do it with.
- On the other hand, 99 out of 100 men swear to have stayed faithful.
-Knowing that in the world there are 4 women for every 1 man…

There’s only one thing left to do, women, and that is to be unfaithful with these Coucougnettes!

I love how in France, things like reproductive organs and infidelity can be coupled with candy and it’s made to be fun, taken lightly and eaten with humor and without moderation.

I always thought that! Dark chocolate is a necessity, not a superfluous “item” in our lives. It has not only been determined to have health benefits, but it has been heard that some even call it a health food (you know, high in antioxidants, has blood thinning compounds that lower blood pressure; plus it helps ward off some of the factors associated with heart attacks and stroke). As a favorite, chocolate (dark and milk) is a comfort food, and comfort foods make us feel good and if we feel good, that is healthy, right?

Also, didn’t the 19th century French writer (famous for Physiologie du goût (The Physiology of Taste)), Brillat-Savarin say, “Chocolate is health”? I’m with him.

Whether dark chocolate is good for you or considered a luxury item, one thing is clear: France determined that is is no longer a luxury product, which means that the nearly 20% TVA (value added tax) on it is now a more palatable 5.5%. Wheeeeeeee! In any case, I don’t know why the French government decided to change this and I don’t know why it only applies to dark chocolate and not milk chocolate but I’m okay with that.

Every single day 13,000 smokers die. Why? Because they smoked! That duh-ism is so hidden in mainstream society that French film maker, Nadia Collot had to do something about it. She wondered, “…why are cigarettes seen as simple modern products to consume, when they are really dangerous substances being consumed?” These questions coupled with the death of her long time smoker father from lung cancer, inspired her to spend the last five years working on a unique documentary that exposes the sad and horrid schemes of the powerful and the evil tobacco industry.

Example of the tobacco industry’s tactics: In order to face the 8% decrease in tobacco consumption in western Europe, they began focusing their financial recovery efforts on Africa. They made cigarettes so cheap to buy, they were practically free and it was noted that cigarettes were cheaper to buy than water. This tactic of going to poor countries is a common method used by the industry. They make cigarettes extremely accessible by being dirt cheap to groom a whole new generation of smokers, then they quickly get these smokers hooked on nicotine for the rest of their lives.

Excerpt from the documentary: “Did you say I’ll feel better smoking Phillip Morris?” “Yes!! You’ll feel better and here are the reasons why…” (from an American commercial)

Nadia Collot was fortunate enough to find “moles” working in the tobacco industry to give their candid, inside knowledge so the film is filled with information that has been hidden from the general public.

The film is a timely event and joins hands with the anti-smoking campaign just launched by the European Union.

Tabac, La Conspiration /The Tobacco Conspiracy
92 minutes / A Franco-Canadian Production
For more information: Tabac, La Conspiration de Nadia Collot (in French. There’s a movie trailer there too.)

Now playing in theatres in France (For specific theatres and showtimes, click here)

There are definitely more interesting things to do in Cagnes-sur-Mer than cramming a bunch of people into a photo booth with Lulu. In this case, we just couldn’t resist. We were seeing our friends off to Italy and what could we do at the station while waiting for their train to arrive? Photo booth!

Rather than recommending the obvious travel itinerary for Cagnes-sur-Mer (beach, Renoir Museum, medieval village), here’s something completely cool. If you visit the Chateau Grimaldi, be sure to go to the section dedicated to the cabaret singer, Suzy Solidor (1900-1983). She was one of the first symbols of emancipation in France during the 30s. In 1933, she opened “La Vie parisienne” a cabaret club exclusively for women. Suzy Solidor did not hide her sexuality and sang songs that overtly revealed that she was gay.

After the opening of her cabaret, Suzy Solidor became her best PR agent and asked several of her Bohemian painter friends to paint her portrait initially to be exhibited in her cabaret.

There are one hundred and fifty paintings of this lady and she was known to be the most painted woman in the world. The Château Grimaldi houses over 40 of her portraits, many of which were painted by the most well-known artists of the time like Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.

Château-Musée Grimaldi
Place Grimaldi, Haut de Cagnes, 06800 Cagnes-sur-Mer Telephone: 04 93 20 85 57 or 04 92 02 47 30 – Entrance fee: 3 euros
Hours: April 30 – September 9: 10am to Noon; 2pm to 6pm. October 1 – March 31: 10am to Noon; 2pm to 5pm. Closed: Tuesdays and November 1 to 21.
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Lulu Lundi* Mondays feature Lulu, our favorite Boston Terrier in France.

I commend the cities that are making an effort to do something about this unhygienic issue by providing bags to assist owners to take responsibility for properly disposing of the waste. Only!! I wish they could’ve approached the issue by thinking a little bit beyond just the poo prob.

These sac à dog dog bags come from a company that also makes the dispensers but the bags are not biodegradable bags. Doh! In fact, their website talks about how convenient it is to use plastic bags you get at the supermarket. That is no good! Plastic bags like this filled with poo will not biodegrade. I suppose the saving grace is that by 2010 is that supermarkets in France will be required to use biobags made of a derivative or corn. But until then, why oh why can’t they use bags that biodegrade in about 40 days like these bags (BioBag Canada, you rule!)? I couldn’t find any companies in France that made bags like this but I will do some more research on it. (we usually pick up bags in the U.S. and bring them back to France.)

Back to France. What does this mean? Within 4 years the dog poo in these particular bags will go to a landfill but won’t break down because of the bags. 4 years of dog poo going nowhere, people! The big disconnect for me is that France this year released another campaign concerning reducing garbage because they are running out of landfill space. So why why WHY!!!? I am going to send some letters to the company and to the city where I found these bags. I get a feeling that they were so concerned with the city’s dog poo problem that they suffered some tunnel vision to stamp out this immediate issue without thinking about the bigger picture.

If you live in France and see these bags, please contact the city’s mayor to alert him to more environmentally friendly alternatives. Also, please contact the company dispensing non-biodegradable bags. Their contact information is on the bag.

[related: Plastic Bags Banned in France]

When wine is made, after its fermentation it goes through another process called, “fining” during which time new ingredients are added to drag down silt and other debris to the bottom of the barrel; this step separates the wine from the solids. It is done in order for the wine to be as clear (versus cloudy) as possible. Some ingredients used to fine wine are the following:

1. egg whites; 2. cow blood; 3. gelatin made from animal bones; 4. isinglass (from fish bladders usually from sturgeons); 5. casein and potassium caseinate (milk proteins); 6. Bentonite (clay) 7. polymers (which is vegan but not organic)

All the of the above are obviously icky and non-vegan, except for the clay and polymers. Luckily, sometime in the 90s Europe banned the use of cow’s blood as a wine clarifier (done to reduce the spread and transmission of Mad Cow Disease) That said, there are probably older vintage French wines out there that were cleared with cow blood and made before that law was passed. Sorry for being the devil’s advocate, but at least you know the wines made after the 90s didn’t use cow blood (weren’t supposed to, anyway).

Some good news: the most common fining ingredients in France are the egg whites and the natural clay. Also, a few French vintners do not even practice the fining process at all, so there are some wines out there that are naturally vegan, though you may find some of them to be cloudier than others. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the equivalent of Thunderbird, America’s favorite wino wine.

How does one know if a French wine is vegan or not? Wine producers are not required to list ingredients that were used in the fining process on their labels. Another problems is that some organic wines might be organic but that doesn’t mean they’re vegan. And some vegan wines are not organic. I’d think that someone who goes as far as practicing veganism, would definitely prefer organic, but people have different reasons for being a vegan.

The only thing to do to be sure a French wine is vegan is to directly contact the wine producer and ask them yourself. Or, if you buy wines from a trusted wine merchant, they can find out for you; they can conveniently let you know not only which wines are vegan, but which vegan wines are the best.