From 5pm December 31 (tomorrow) til Noon January 1, 2008, Paris will be offering FREE transportation on its metro service and bus lines. That’s awesome!

Happy New Year!

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Silly scatological Christmas spirit from South Park. (sung in French)

Watch the video

A balloon that floats above Paris’ André-Citroën park monitors the air pollution levels every hour. If the balloon is green, your lungs have nothing to worry about since it means the air quality is good. A red signifies poor air quality and orange means mediocre air quality. All findings are recorded on the Air Quality Now website.

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OMGOMGOMG! N’oubliez pas les paroles, the very entertaining game show has arrived. I love the American version, “Don’t Forget the Lyrics,” hosted by Wayne Brady. They seem to find the most awesome contestants. The show is basically “Who wants to be a millionaire” slyly merged to a Karaoke quiz where the contestant must sing a selected song and complete the missing lyrics in the song. Fun!

Now, the very same show has come here to France, the French version with my favorite host, Nagui. Love him. (He’s also the host for the excellent music showcase, Taratata) It started last Saturday but since we weren’t around, we missed the premiere! That is ok because the second show is tonight at 7pm on France 2. I hope it’s as silly as the American version.

All songs will be in French. Won’t they run out of songs? Just kidding.

N’oubliez pas les paroles

Animal Teapots

From Networked_Performance:

The 4th edition of the Pocket Films Festival, organized by the Forum des images, will take place at the Pompidou Center, Paris, France, from June 13-15, 2008. The 2008 registration forms for the Pocket Films Festival are online.

International Call for Projects: We are looking for all types of audiovisual participatory projects using mobile technologies. Categories: CINEMA SCREEN and MOBILE SCREEN – Main Jury Prize for each section: 1,500 euros. Cinema Screen is open to all films shot with mobile phones and / or digital cameras. Pocket Films also launches this year a section open to all video contents developed for portable screens, Mobile Screen.

The Pocket Films Festival, festival of mobile video creation, organized since 2005 by the Forum des images, a major cinema center and film archive created by the City of Paris and dedicated to explore the relations between cinema, cities and society, with a strong emphasis on educational perspectives.

Since 2005, Pocket Films has gained international recognition for its exploration of the artistic possibilities of the mobile telephone as pocket camera, as well as the place this tool occupies in our everyday lives from social and aesthetic perspectives.

Pocket Films Festival

From AFP:

Snail’s egg caviar anyone? It may sound like a challenge to the taste buds, but the salty, pink-white delicacy could be gracing hundreds of French tables this Christmas.

Caviar and champagne are a byword for the festive season in France, while a dozen “escargots” — or snails — cooked in garlic and parsley butter and served in or out of their grey-brown spiralled shells, are a much-loved staple.

But a couple of snail farmers from Soissons, in the Picardie region northeast of Paris, found a way to roll two delicacies into one: their snail caviar, called “De Jaeger”, hit the shelves in October.

Dominique and Sylvie Pierru ditched their old jobs in 2004 — he as a construction worker, she running a fine food market stall — to set up their snail farm, and start work on a recipe for caviar.

The next three years were spent perfecting a way to harvest the eggs of their 50,000 gasteropods, reared on an open-air diet of herbs and cereals, and to tenderize them without altering the taste.

The result: small, cream-coloured pearls that burst on the palate to reveal what the producers describe as “subtle autumn flavours with woody notes.”

The Pierrus recommend serving the caviar on a…”

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I’ve been doing the last minute shopping thing! I tried not to but, anyway. I thought I’d mention this GPS as a gift idea. We have an older model but LOVE this thing. We don’t get lost any more (and believe me, we’d get lost a LOT.)

Yay. You can use this nifty Tom Tom Go GPS in all the places you travel in the car (and walking around).

Get the traveler in your life a fun gadget, and they’ll never have to deal with unfolding maps (and having to refold those things!) again.

Tom Tom Go GPS

Some Sarko Gossip FWIW from Time:

It was just two months ago that the French media shrugged off their curiosity about President Nicolas Sarkozy’s divorce from his wife Cécilia, and said they would not pry into the private life of their first-ever single President, nor care which women he chose to date.

Yeah, right. That cool vanished on Monday, with the unveiling of Sarkozy’s new love interest — the singer and former supermodel Carla Bruni, whose previous companions include Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton. The conservative daily newspaper Le Figaro — which strongly supports Sarkozy — on Monday splashed a quarter-page photo of Bruni on its front page, which is typically reserved for dry political news, under the headline: “The president’s girlfriend.” Bruni’s photo appeared next to an article predicting a tough week ahead for Sarkozy’s reform program, over which trade unions are planning mass strikes. The President’s happier news lay tucked inside the “France Politique” section, where one half-page showed three more images of Bruni, 39, including one of her without trousers, her flawless bare legs crossed on a couch next to her acoustic guitar. Although the Elysée Palace has refused to comment on the reports, three national magazine covers will feature the new couple this week, according to the newspaper.

News of Sarkozy’s new relationship first broke on the website of the newsweekly L’Express. The magazine’s editor Christophe Barbier told a French television talk show on the weekend that Bruni, a friend of his, had told him that she was involved with Sarkozy. That confirmed mounting rumors that Sarkozy was not alone in his palace bedroom.

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From Luxist:

For Louis Vuitton lovers the ultimate gift might be the Ultimate Travel bag. The company has teamed up with fashion editor of the Times of London, Lisa Armstrong, to create the bag which is being auctioned in aid of CLIC Sargent, a London-based charity benefiting children with cancer. The bag is inspired by the silhouette of the Eole bag but has two separate compartments trimmed in purple leather. The bag also includes a passport cover, cashmere eyeshades and a blanket, a computer case, a transparent toiletries kit, a foldable jewelry kit, a laundry pouch and an evening leather clutch. Bidding ends December 18th.

Some are calling Kindle an amazing reading device from Amazon, but others, like French Designer Philippe Starck, have some issues with its design. I hate to admit it (seeing that Philippe Starck designed this) but I don’t find this digital book reader a very pretty designed gadget either. Watch the video here.

More about Kindle

From the internet journalist:

^{(Image credit: Luc Doudet)}

The Chêne-Chapelle (Chapel-Oak) of Allouville-Bellefosse is the most famous tree in France – actually, it’s more than just a tree: it’s a building and a religious monument all in one.

In 1669, l’Abbe du Detroit and du Cerceau decided to build a chapel in (at that time) a 500 years old or so oak (Quercus robur) tree made hollow by a lightning bolt. The priests built a small altar to the Virgin Mary. Later on, a second chapel and a staircase were added.

Now, parts of the tree are dead, the crown keeps becoming smaller and smaller every year, and parts of the tree’s bark, which fell off due to old age, are covered by protective oak shingles. Poles and cables support the aging tree, which in fact, may not live much longer. As a symbol, however, it seems that the Chapel-Oak of Allouville-Bellefosse may live on forever.

[source]

Why Travel to France is acting a little kooky and will continue to do a bit more of that today. I’m in the process of switching servers because I’m getting so much more traffic on the site than ever before. I’m not complaining. Thanks, visitors!

While I’m in geek mode, if you are looking for a great company that can host your server, I highly recommend Liquid Web. They are simply the best. Excellent and highly skilled customer service 24/7 – 365 days a year. That includes being open at 3am on Christmas! If you ever have any problems, they are on it right away. (Do you think you can find a French server company open on the weekends, let alone on Christmas? Answer: NO.)

Liquid Web
4210 S Creyts Road
Lansing, MI
48917-9526, U.S.A.

Just a gentle reminder that Christmas is in TEN DAYS! Here are some movie gift ideas for people who love France and films (including yourself!) This short list is hugely far from being complete and it’s always hard to make a selection. I know I should’ve listed more but I only have so many minutes available to blog today. This time around, I tried to include some current films and more light-hearted French films (and films by French directors or films about France), which, by the way, is no easy feat given the prodigious list of heavy French movies that inevitably end with someone killing themselves…more specifically, jumping out the window. The end.

No, no. Not much doom and gloom on the following list (well, maybe just a teeny tiny bit.):

Movies

Killer Tomatoes Eat France – The razor-toothed tomatoes return in “Killer Tomatoes Eat France,” affectionately known as Part IV of the Tomatoes Trilogy. This time they’ve developed an appetite for dining a’ la Francaise! Filmed in France, the juicy plot unfolds as the evil professor Gangreen (John Astin) and his bungling henchman Igor (Steve Lundquist) create a new strain of tomatoes to devour the country. Only a young American tourist claiming to be Michael J. Fox (Marc Price, Skippy from “Family Ties”) and his girlfriend (former Miss Universe, Angela Visser), who’s one hot tomato herself, can stop them!

Les Ripoux – Rene (P. Noiret) is a “ripou”, a rotten cop who makes ends meet by accepting bribes, presents and free drinks from the people he should be putting in jail. When his partner retires, he must team up with Francois (Lhermitte), a young police school graduate with a righteous attitude. He is hard to break and Rene has to trick him. This light comedy does not pretend to be a realistic picture of French police. Rather, it is the opportunity to have fun and discover unusual underworld characters.

Wasabi
Wasabi mixes action, comedy, and a tiny amount of drama together with the action being more of the comic book variety, like what you might see in a Jackie Chan film. There’s not a whole lot of substance and it would never win any awards, that doesn’t matter because this Luc Besson team up with Jean Reno, is a fun, lighthearted, silly movie.

La Grande Bouffe – tale of four world-weary middle-aged men (superbly portrayed by Marcello Mastroianni, Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Piccoli and Philippe Noiret) who decide to gorge themselves to death in one final orgiastic weekend full of gourmet food, call girls and a hefty, lusty schoolteacher.

Paris, Je t’aime – Celebrated directors from around the world, including the Coen Brothers, Gus Van Sant, Gurinder Chadha, Wes Craven, Walter Salles, Alexander Payne and Olivier Assayas, have come together to portray Paris in a way never before imagined.

Babette’s Feast Babette, a French refugee in Denmark, plans a huge meal for her employers, nuns from a village church. Although they are secretly concerned about what Babette, a Catholic and a foreigner, might do, the sisters allow her to go ahead. Babette then prepares the feast of a lifetime for the members of the tiny church and an important gentleman related to one of them.

La Vie en Rose – a critically-acclaimed biopic about the legendary international singing icon Edith Piaf, whose voice and talent captivated the world. Starring award-winner Marion Cotillard (A Very Long Engagement, A Good Year) in an astonishing performance, the film is a portrait of a remarkable artist born into poverty who survived using the only gift she had: her voice. Piaf’s tragic life was a constant battle to sing and survive, to live and love, with no regrets.

The Dinner Game – Each week, Pierre (Thierry Lhemitte) and his friends organize what is called as “un dîner de cons”. Everyone brings the biggest jackass he could find as a guest. Pierre thinks his champ -François Pignon (Jacques Villeret) – will steal the show.

Tour de France 2007 4-Hour The Tour Rediscovered – This video presents a storybook triumph in the midst of real-world adversity. After perhaps the darkest hours in the history of the Tour de France, the 2007 race concluded with a ray of sunshine and glimmers of hope that the sport of cycling has entered a new era that will be free of doping scandals and marked by restored trust in the minds of its millions of fans.

Movie Collections

The Brigitte Bardot Collection – A great Bardot set for both those who’ve seen her best known films and those looking for an introduction to one of the great sex symbols of all time.

Jean Renoir 3-Disc Collector’s Edition – A group of rare films by Jean Renoir, arguably the greatest director the medium has ever known, for under $20.

Beauty and The Beast – Criterion Collection – This is definitely not the Disney version. While it remains faithful to the plot of the classic fairy tale by Leprince de Beaumont, Jean Cocteau’s 1946 French romantic fantasy is the product of a sophisticated, mature sensibility in its tones and textures and, above all, in its surprising emotional power.

related: Shopping Guide for Francophiles

[sources: Amazon, IMDb]

For your listening and viewing pleasure, here’s a music video of M singing with Sean Lennon. Video

aka The Nike of Samothrace

About The Winged Victory of Samothrace
Modern excavations suggest that the Victory occupied a niche in an open-air amphitheater and also suggest it served as an altar, within view of the ship monument of Demetrius I Poliorcetes (337-283 BC). It stood on a rostral pedestal of gray marble from Lartos representing the prow of a ship, and represents the goddess as she descends from the skies to the triumphant fleet. Rendered in white Parian marble, the figure originally formed part of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods. Before losing her arms, which have never been recovered, Nike’s right arm was raised, either to bring a trumpet to her lips as she is depicted on contemporary coins or to crown the naval victor. The work is notable for its naturalistic pose and for the rendering of the figure’s draped garments, depicted as if rippling in a strong sea breeze, which is considered especially compelling.

The statue’s outstretched right wing is a symmetric plaster version of the original left one. Various other fragments have since been found: in 1950 one of the statue’s hands was found on Samothrace and is now in a glass case in the Louvre next to the podium on which the statue stands. As with the arms, the figure’s head has never been found. The statue now stands over a supplementary platform over the prow that allows a better contemplation but was not present in the original. The different degree of finishing of the sides has led scholars to think that it was intended to be seen from three-quarters on the left.

A partial inscription on the base of the statue includes the word “Rhodhios” (Rhodes), indicating that the statue was commissioned to celebrate a naval victory by Rhodes, at that time the most powerful maritime state in the Aegean.
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“Mathlete” meaning a Math athlete!

From AFP:

The world’s fastest human calculator broke his own record on Tuesday for working out a 200-digit number using nothing but brain power to produce the answer in just over 70 seconds.

Alexis Lemaire, a 27-year-old Frenchman, correctly calculated the 13th root of a random 200-digit number from a possible 393 trillion answers.

The so-called ‘mathlete’ produced the answer of 2,407,899,893,032,210 in 70.2 seconds, beating his previous record of 72.4 seconds, at London’s Science Museum.

A computer was used to produce a random 200-digit number before he sat down to calculate the answer in his head.

The museum’s curator of mathematics, Jane Wess, said: “He sat down and it was all very quiet – and all of a sudden he amazingly just cracked it.

“I believe that it is the highest sum calculated mentally.

“He seems to have a large memory and he’s made this his life’s ambition. It’s quite remarkable to see it happen. A very small number of people have this extraordinary ability; nowadays there is only a handful.”

Lemaire, who attends the University of Reims in northern France, began demonstrating his prowess by finding the 13th root of a random 100-digit number but gave up trying to improve his performance when he calculated an answer in under four seconds in 2004.

Like an athlete, he trains his brain daily for the far harder task of finding the 13th root of 200-digit numbers.

A French court ruled that Amazon.fr must stop its free delivery.

The court gave Amazon 10 days to start charging for the delivery of books, which should at least allow the company to maintain the offer through the end-of-year gift-giving season. After that, it must pay a fine of €1,000 (US$1,470) per day that it continues to offer free delivery. It must also pay €100,000 in compensation to the booksellers’ union.

Retail prices, particularly of books, are tightly regulated in France. (read the article from MacWorld)

A Sidenote: Amazon France offers books in English!

From IHT:

As one of eight children born to parents who came to France from a mining area in the south-east of Morocco, I grew up in a housing project near Valence, in the kind of high-rise blocks that everyone saw in the scenes of torched cars and street battles on television in the rioting in 2005 and again a few weeks ago. In both instances, the unrest was sparked by allegations of police harassment but exclusion and joblessness were also key factors.

The paradox is that the rioters, for all their alienation, behaved in a very French way. Like farmers and union members who go readily into the streets, they wanted to be listened to.

What is dangerous is that people have reached a point where they see violence as the sole way of calling attention to their misery and, while I am horrified at the violence, I understand the hopelessness and anger behind the riots.

You need to look at the realities of life in the tower blocks of the urban periphery. Here there are three basic sources of income: what was known in my family as “the fruit of your labor,” i.e. staying in school to get the education that would lead to earning a good living; relying on welfare benefits; or getting into the underground economy of drugs and crime.

There will always be people who slide into the last two alternatives. The real problem comes when working hard and getting qualifications doesn’t lead to being able to earn a decent living.

In the high-rise districts around Paris and other cities the figure for unemployed youth can be as high as 60 per cent, and it’s not just school-leavers with few or no qualifications who can’t land jobs. Moreover, many of the jobs that are available to young people, even highly skilled ones, tend to be short-term and poorly paid.

My family saw education as the path out of the ghetto. My father always said, “You are the needle and your brothers and sisters are the thread. If you succeed, your siblings will follow through, so get every qualification you can.”

My parents gave me the motivation and the discipline to work hard, and taught me to believe in the system. It was only when I graduated with three degrees in economics, and was turned down for every job I applied for, that I started having doubts. When I applied for graduate work, I was turned down. I was told that while I was well qualified for the course, I would never get a job afterwards as …..

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Here’s a video with our favorite aerial photographer giving a shout out to Google Earth. (He takes some funky farm animal photos too.)

Download it and you can view 500 photos from environmentalist and French photographer and Yann Arthus-Bertrand as a layer in Google Earth.

Video – The Earth from Above (Google Earth)

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A while back I got my mom a collection of oldie chansons, very famous French songs that many people recognize. Stuff from Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Brassens, Charles Aznavour, etc. She’d told me that she used to listen to them growing up as a little girl even though she doesn’t understand any French. My grand dad was a fan, apparently, and she became one too.

So, she was happy to receive my gift and she plays it often. When I’m at her place, I’ll hear her humming along happily with the songs. It’s very cute. I giggle, though, when the Brassens song, “Le Gorille” (the gorilla) comes on. I can’t bring myself to telling her what it actually means. If you don’t understand French, it’s such a happy SOUNDING song (merci, M. Brassens. listen to it here). Now, if you would listen to rapper, Joey Starr’s version of this song (listen to an excerpt), you might guess the song’s about something more serious.

If you do understand French and have heard Le Gorille, you’ll know that the song’s about a gorilla that escapes his cage and rapes a judge.

See?!

We finally got around to seeing Ratatouille, which I think was one of Pixar’s best works on a variety of levels. But all-in-all, it’s essentially a very cute, heart-warm-and-fuzzy story with amazing production value.Now I (sort of) realize why the popularity of pet rats has exploded in France. Elsewhere too, I imagine. Eiuw, though.

Anyway, since it’s gift giving time, here’s another suggestion for a nice alternative to getting the DVD of Ratatouille.

How about getting instead: The Art of Ratatouille for the Ratatouille fan who is more artistically inclined? Perfect for someone who wants to take a peek behind the scenes.

The Art of Ratatouille includes more than 200 storyboards, full-color pastels, digital and pencil sketches, character studies, maquettes, etc. Also, quotes from the director, artists, animators, and production team reveal the genius at work inside the studio.

Note: There’s also a Limited Edition of The Art of Ratatouille for collectors.

From ENN:

French farmer Jose Bove, who became a worldwide celebrity for his fight against junk food, said on Monday he would go on a hunger strike to win a one-year ban on genetically modified (GMO) crops.

Speaking at the Millau Court of Justice in southern France, where his four-month jail sentence for trashing a GMO field in 2004 was commuted to a fine, Bove said he would start his unlimited hunger strike on January 3, along with 10 to 15 other activists.

The walrus-mustachioed, pipe-smoking Bove, sometimes dubbed France’s Robin Hood, spent six weeks in jail in 2003 for smashing up a McDonald’s restaurant in protest at tariffs imposed by the United States in retaliation for a European Union ban on imports of North American hormone-treated beef.
While GMO crops are common in the United States, France — Europe’s biggest grain producer — along with other European nations remain highly suspicious of them.

Supporters say it could lead to hardy strains to help…

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From Signs of the Times (an excerpt):

“…M Sarkozy is a bully who has stated categorically that he does not have to listen to the will of the people. This is the way that Tony Blair treated the British and the way that George W. Bush treats the Americans.

Is that what you want for France?

It is painful for many of us who cheered wildly when the much disliked Jacques Chirac thumbed his nose at the Americans and said “Non!” to the illegal invasion of Iraq to see what is happening in France; it is in fact disturbing to realize that M Sarkozy receives any support at all. Surely it is obvious that the United States is collapsing, the world financial system is hovering on the brink of chaos and the neo-liberal economic model has been exposed as nothing more than a modern day version of the pillage and plunder of the unenlightened past. So has M. Sarkozy lost his mind? Or does he have an agenda to drag France down into the dog pit with the rest of the Disaster Capitalists?

Despite what M Sarkozy may declare, based on my interactions with French citizens, the people of France do not accept the warmongering global hegemony of the US and do not want the American Nightmare in France….”

Read the whole letter (in English)

Lettre ouverte au peuple de France (en français)

These unique walking tour books will make great holiday gifts for the people passionate about Paris, its architecture, and history and who are interested in exploring places where famous writers, painters, kings and queens hung out in the City of Light.

Walks Through Napoleon & Josephine’s Paris allows you to see the Paris of today and yesterday, simultaneously. Not only can you visit some of the same shops and restaurants that the Emperor and Empress used to frequent, but you will also find yourself being sidetracked (time and time again) by other historical sites and famous places of today that you will inevitably pass along the way.

Walks Through Marie Antoinette’s Paris has photos that you may not have seen anywhere else, the information about Marie Antoinette is a history enthusiast’s treat. The size of the book, which adds to it’s charm, is suitable to take with you as it guides you along in the footsteps of Marie Antoinette.

The Impressionists’ Paris: Walking Tours of the Artists’ Studios, Homes, and the Sites They Painted allows travelers to venture beyond the museum walls and trace the footsteps of these great artists, including Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Edouard Manet, just to name a few. Three city walking tours–surprisingly manageable considering the city’s size–cover not only the sites depicted in many of their paintings, but also the studios in which they worked, the buildings where they lived, and–this being Paris–the cafes in which they gathered.

The Historic Restaurants of Paris: A Guide to Century-Old Cafes, Bistros, and Gourmet Food Shops First sentence of the book: Marcel Proust, who was transported back to childhood with the taste of a tea cake known as a madeleine, was among the early regular customers at this chic salon de the that faces the Tuileries Gardens…

Walks In Hemingway’s Paris: A Guide To Paris For The Literary Traveler 7 walks take the reader to every Hemingway (and Fitzgerald) site in Paris. The walks include wonderful quotations from many of Hemingway’s novels, short stories, and his memoir of Paris.

Picasso’s Paris: Walking Tours of the Artist’s Life in the City Pablo Picasso’s presence still can be felt in Paris. Four walking tours follow the painter from the gaslit garrets of fin-de-siècle Montmartre to the Left Bank quarter where he sat out the Nazi Occupation. Both art book and travel guide, this pocketable volume identifies the sites where Picasso created some of his best-known masterpieces and describes his celebrated circle of friends, among them Gertrude Stein, Henri Matisse, Jean Cocteau, and Coco Chanel.

Literary Cafes of Paris Away from the tourist throngs, the reader can people watch and sip for literally hours reflecting upon Hemingway at the Brasserie Lipp, Picasso at the Cafe de Flore, Shirer at the Brasserie Balzar and so much more.

Walks Through Lost Paris: A Journey Into the Heart of Historic Paris chronicles Paris’s great periods of urban reconstruction through four walking tours. With a special focus on the work of Georges-Eugene Haussmann, this book provides a history of each site along with the motives behind the urban redesign and the reactions of Parisians who witnessed it. Detailed maps take you through a city whose changes were captured by photographers and artists in each stage. Hundreds of color photos, diagrams, and engravings splendidly survey the massive transformation that resulted in the Paris of today.

Quiet Corners of Paris 81 often overlooked, always beautiful, locales: hidden villas, winding lanes, little-known 19th-century passages, serene gardens, and cobblestone courtyards. Some of the places have breathtaking views, others are filled with historic and architectural details, from stone archways, garden follies, boxwood mazes, ornamental statuary, stained glass, and Renaissance fountains.