^{[photo courtesy of Neverends]}

If you’ve been curious about what lurks beneath the City of Light, check out the underbelly of Paris by visiting this  Flickr group without having to go there yourself and contending with the olfactory assaults, strange critters and damp, dark secret, scary places.  Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating but I’m glad others have gone down there first to share their photos! Click here to see the photos.

and other wines. Global Warming is going to seriously crimp your wine life…well, and your life in general.

“Say Goodbye to French Wines. Wacky temperatures and rain cycles brought on by global warming are threatening something very important: Wine. Scientists believe global warming will “shift viticultural regions toward the poles, cooler coastal zones and higher elevations.” What that means in regular language: Get ready to say bye-bye to French Bordeaux and hello to British champagne. [LA Times]

Say Goodbye to Light and Dry Wines. Warmer temperatures mean grapes in California and France develop their sugars too quickly, well before their other flavors. As a result, growers are forced to either a) leave the grapes on the vines longer, which dramatically raises the alcoholic content of the fruit or b) pick the grapes too soon and make overly sweet wine that tastes like jam. [Washington Post]

Say Goodbye to Pinot Noir. The reason you adore pinot noir is that it comes from a notoriously temperamental thin-skinned grape that thrives in cool climates. Warmer temperatures are already damaging the pinots from Oregon, “baking away” the grape’s berry flavors…”

[From Top 100 Ways Global Warming Will Change Your Life]

“The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.”
- Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

Sorry for the late notice but today beginning at 2pm, Saturday, September 29, 2007 – there will be a Manifestation sur le Parvis des Droits de l’Homme du Trocadéro in Paris to support the people in Burma. It’s organized by Info Birmanie, Dr Sein Win, the PM of the Union of Burma, will be present. Please attend.

Metro : Trocadéro
Website: Info Birmanie for more information and to find out how you can help
Up to Date News about Burma (blog): The Burma Campaign in English

For more information on protesting countries other than France, click here (Facebook acct. req’d) or click on “more” to continue reading. (more…)

The good things about the Apple Expo, where we dropped by earlier today on our way home from the north, WERE the apples available from the Macgeneration booth. Thank you Macgeneration! [a note: Apple USED to provide real apples at the entrance of the expo for everyone, but no more. Steve Jobs, why are you so cheap? They're apples. They're cute and healthful and make people happy. AND they're in SEASON.]

Back to the expo. No places to sit down and people sat on the floors along the walls and in the stairwells. NO iPhones in sight! I also wanted to take a look at the new iPods but there was only ONE iPod Touch available (that I could see) in that whole expo and the crowds were ballooned around it, and I really didn’t feel like negotiating through all that body guarding, body density and…body odor.

Is this a rant? NOOOOOoooooooooo. I still feel it’s worth a look on Saturday (last day of the expo), because it’s so much fun to people watch. I think French geeks dress a little better than American ones. Also, I did notice that the new iMacs were about 100 euros cheaper than on the Apple online store in France. Lastly, there’s a booth called Goldway that has really good prices on all kinds of things. You can bargain like crazy, too, especially on the last day.

Yesterday in Calais (northern France) at the Cité Europe mall, we took a break to have a drink, and I got a kick out of the bill when we asked for it. It tells you the total in euros and pounds. Pounds, I guess, because there are probably more English people shopping at Cité Europe than French. France is dirt cheap if you live in England and make the short trek across the English Channel!

If you just stand somewhere in the mall and listen, you’ll realize that most people around you are speaking English. It’s disorienting, if you ask me.

There’s a Tesco (isn’t it normally a grocery store?) at the Cité Europe mall but you won’t see any food sold there, strangely. The store is jam-packed with booze! Cheap, cheap, wonderful booze. On the weekends, there’s a queue outside with people waiting to get there cheap, cheap, wonderful cheap booze. It’s cheap. Very, very, cheap.

Sometimes it takes wandering over to Venice, Italy to run into a French chocolate maker. We spent last week in Venice (which was so omg fabulissimo) and stumbled into this chocolate shop. There will be no pics of all the chocolates we sampled because we ate them. I couldn’t stop sampling them to take photos if my life depended on it.

To tell you the truth, before entering this shop, I didn’t even know about Jean-Dominique Gellé, who won 1st place for Master Chocolatier in France (2006). We were eavesdropping overhead the conversation inside this yummy shop to discover all that.

Here’s his story and online shop, Chocolat Morand, based in La Clusaz, which is in an exclusive alpine resort village in France. Oh! Here’s the info for the chocolatier in Italy: Cioccolateria Vizio Virtu. LOVE that place.

“AssistiveWare will demo its assisitive technology products in the ordiTICE booth ED007-008 of the Education Solutions Centre of the Apple Expo (Paris, 25 – 29 September).

On Wednesday, a 2 to 3 hours special session on Assistive Technologies for Mac OS X is scheduled in Apple Expo’s main conference room from 14:00 to 17:00. Organized by ceRHTic on behalf of Apple, the session will include presentations by Mr Biard (hospital Raymond Poincaré) on how to access a computer, by Mr Danigo (APF) on why and how to use a computer for communication, by Mr Ortie (AFM) on what a person with a disability can produce with a computer, by Mr Niemeijer (AssistiveWare) on Mac software solutions for people with disabilities.

During the other days, daily presentations on assistive technology will take place in the School Performance Area of the Education Solutions Center: Tuesday 14:00 – 14:45, Thursday 12:00 – 13:00, Friday 17:00 – 17:45, and Saturday 13:00 – 13:45. Please sign up for the latter presentations on the ordiTICE site.”

Orange has yet to announce the price structure for the service for iPhone but you’ll probably have to sign on with Orange (France Telecom) if you buy a new iPhone in France. Of course, there have been some hacks to unlock the service provider’s exclusivity…

A related reminder: The Apple Expo in Paris starts today.

[related: New Apple Products]

Some links: Article NY Times, Marcel Marceau, Inspiration for Michael Jackson’s Moonwalk (video)

The immensity of the Château de Versailles may overwhelm you (and your tired feet), which is perhaps why some travelers in Paris simply don’t make the trek there (just 10 miles southwest of Paris). Versailles is royally humungous. So, if you do courageously make it to Versailles, you will realize after visiting the Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors), the King and Queen’s grands et petit appartements, the chapel, the Opera, art galleries, staterooms, salons, and chambers…whew – there are still remaining sights outside the palace: the fountains, canals, Marie Antoinette’s Domain and Hameau (Hamlet), the Grand and Petit Trianon, and of course the seemingly never-ending gardens and park areas. “Seemingly” especially if your feet are beginning to wonder WHY you’re walking so much.

Even the distance from the front parking lot to the entrance of the chateau, is quite a trek. And that’s with VERY comfortable, walking shoes!

Back to exploring the garden area. Once you exit the Château and look at the vast stretch of gardens, which are farther than the eye can see – you might feel like NOT exploring anymore. I wouldn’t consider that unreasonable.

However, you’ve come all this way to visit one of the most famous and shiny World Heritage Sites, the grand palace of French kings and queens (and tens of thousands of servants). You shouldn’t have to let your feet dictate your life or your visit.

Solution: Rent a golf cart. This is what we did and it is so, so, SO worth it. You’ll zip around saving precious time by NOT dragging about and resting every 10 miles or so of walking – and you’ll get to see everything.

You will possibly even feel “refreshed” instead of utterly exhausted at the end of the day.

Golf Carts for Rent at Versailles
* 7 euros per 15 minutes
* Must be over 18 years old and have a valid driver’s license.
* Rent at the green kiosk to the left of the back of the château.
* 4 people or less allowed.
* Positioning System – narrative of where you’re visiting
* Music – it’s a bit too loud and annoying (especially if you get lost)
* Golf carts are electric

If you follow their map, a route for golf carts, you might lose your way because the map is not quite correct (I swear!). You will have to figure some of it out yourself but anyway, if you stop to visit Marie Antoinette’s Domaine, and the Grand and Petit Trianon, it could possibly take you about 2 hours (56 euros). It should take about an hour if you do not make any stops. (28 euros)

A Note: If you take a wrong turn, the golf cart will automatically stop. In that case, simply back up and turn around.

Related Links: Official Chateau de Versailles, Wikipedia

“For a fee, this French Web site will provide tailor-made alibis for your trysts, including fake bills, receipts, and phone records.

France is famous for its relaxed attitude to affairs of the heart (and loins). Unlike in the Anglo-Saxon world, the existence of extra-marital affairs — from the fictional Madame Bovary to former President Francois Mitterrand — is taken for granted there. French men even have a term for their mistresses: Le cinq á sept (the 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.). Now French adulterers are being offered a discreet and tailor-made service to help them indulge in their dalliances without getting caught.

The Alibila Web site offers a service for people “suffocating” in their family situation who need some air, or for those in the throes of a “passing adventure” who don’t want to jeopardize their marriage. It offers would-be philanderers a range of services, costing €19 ($27) upwards, including diversionary phone calls, merchandise from fake conferences, and invitations to non-existent weddings.

The service is the brainchild of…” Read the article at Businessweek

Thought I’d take a different angle of the very popular ancient Greek sculpture, L’Aphrodite aka Venus de Milo and her admirers at the Louvre.

We went to a pharmacy in Paris and bought potassium for someone and this is what it looked like on the box…Hey!

Don’t try to hide a letter with a hyphen.

On several occasions we’ve been recommended this tapas restaurant called “Pinxo” in Paris and since we’re staying in the area at the moment, we decided to finally check it out last night. A note here: all the people who recommended this place at the same time curiously added that some of the dishes aren’t up to par with others. “Which ones?” we asked. No one could remember.

Pinxo, serves dishes in 3 small and beautiful portions, and all the dishes ordered are placed in the middle of the table. which openly invites sharing at the table. Like our friends, I’m only going to focus (mostly) on what we thought was excellent.

^{Skewered Sauteed Baby Squid and Sweet Pimento with Garlic and Ginger Crisps}

^{Steamed Vegetables and Prawns in a Garden Herb Broth}

^{Spicy Shrimp with Rice and Spring Onions Cooked in Coconut Milk}

^{Scallops with Asparagus on a bed of zucchini spaghetti with a
side of Puree of Potatoes and Asparagus}

Final note: Regarding the desserts: we ordered 3 different desserts and thought they didn’t quite meet the level of the other dishes’ excellence. Having said that, we would very much like to return to sample other items on the menu.

Pinxo
9, rue d’Alger (area near the Louvre)
Paris 75001 France
Telephone: 01.40.20.72.00

According to Trifter.com

“Richart chocolate might be only the fourth most expensive chocolate in the world (at $120 per pound), but it is made up of 70% Criollo cocoa from Venezuela, which is considered to be the best quality of chocolate in the world. The cocoa used in the chocolates is finely ground, to give a smooth taste to any taster. To match with the finest chocolate, the best varieties of almonds, raspberries, strawberries and other exotic species are used…” See the other world’s most expensive chocolates

Spotted at the airport today: a purse with a hand-held type showerhead with piping as a handle. The purse was round and black with white polka dots. Thought it was fun.

There are several prints from 1910 by Villemard at the La Bibliothèque nationale de France that show what the artist envisions in the year 2000: Flying firemen and police, flying cars, robotic hair dressers, chemical dinner (because there is no more food I suppose), heating with radium at home(!) and more fun ones. See the Prints here

[via]

I guess they’re not SECRET, anymore.

“BROYE-LES-PESMES, France – A French space-surveillance radar has detected 20-30 satellites in low Earth orbit that do not figure in the U.S. Defense Department’s published catalogue, a discovery that French officials say they will use to pressure U.S. authorities to stop publishing the whereabouts of French reconnaissance and military communications satellites.

After 16 months of operations of their Graves radar system, which can locate satellites in orbits up to 1,000 kilometers in altitude and even higher in certain cases, the French Defense Ministry says it has gathered just about enough information to negotiate an agreement with the United States…” Read the full article at space.com

Very Cool News From Gadling:

“…local Parisians are battling the onslaught of foreign pop culture in their own special way. The concern here is for the future of the bohemian Left Bank. This swath of bookstores and cafes is practically hallowed ground in the French capital; the arrival of a McDonald’s would be almost sacrilegious.

To prevent this from happening, the local city council has established a fund of more than $42 million to prevent large corporations from muscling in. The money is to subsidize the sale of any building in the area so that only bookstores, cinemas, and other bohemian ventures can purchase the property and move in. Large companies will simply be barred from the market.”

Not that it’ll change anything or even prevent anyone from using this term, but a French Police Union is taking Le Petit Robert dictionary to court for including a reference to police as “connard de flic” (f*cking pig) in its latest 2008 edition. The union is demanding that this item be removed from the dictionary but the company Le Petit Robert states they, “would not under any circumstance allow its choices to be dictated by external pressures….it is not intended to disparage or dishonour anyone but to describe language in all of its richness and multiple usages, from its most elevated form to the colloquial.

[via]

I was just about to walk into this place when my sweetie says, “Where are you going?”

“In this store.”

“That’s not a store. That’s someone’s house.”

Makes you wonder about what the inside looks like…

Today Apple France will be making a announcement to French and European journalists invited to their “special” press event. Is it possible that the iPhone will be made available in everyone’s favorite hexagon, finally? What will the price structure be, seeing that they just reduced iPhone’s price by $200 in the U.S.?? (You poor early adopters!)

Or will they be reiterating new products revealed just two days ago in the U.S., namely the new iPods (iPod Touch, Classic, Nano and Shuffle)? At the Apple Store France, it looks like they’re already available to order (and should be sent out by September 28th). The 8 gb iPod Touch is 309 euros ($420) and the 16 gb iPod Touch is 409 euros ($556). So as usual, they are much more expensive in France than in the U.S. (In the U.S. they’re $299 and $399 respectively.) No surprise there.

A fun music find: The Lovers is a French band (Marion Benoist and Fred de Fred) based in Sheffield, England. Their style is a melange of perky pop, kitsch, quirk, and sex with sense of humor. They’re hard to describe but have often been compared to Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg. Though it’s been said that some songs are so seedy that they’d make even Serge blush (if he were alive today). Besides, doesn’t a French guy named Fred de Fred fire up any curiosity? Take a listen.

TheirSpace (Sample their music here)
Website: The Lovers
Article: The Lovers

[via]

Talented and silly illustrators world-wide were asked to contribute their take on the Mona Lisa at Nick Mag’s Magazine Gallery – but this prompted a Mona Lisa meme at Drawn! Submit your version of Mona Lisa there. [related: Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa Men Have Framed You]