Cheap cheap fish! Here’s an ad (from one of the hypermarches in France) for the fish called Pangas (also known as Pangasius, Vietnamese River Cobbler, Basa Fish and White Catfish). I took it as a reminder to alert you to the dangers of this weird fish. I learned about Pangas not long ago. It’s online here: Documentary all about Pangas.(in French)

Poisson ou poison?

Pangas, which are industrially farmed in Vietnam along the Mekong River, has only been recently introduced to the French market, but in a very short time, it’s gotten very popular in France. The French are slurping up Pangas like it’s their last meal of ramen. It’s dirt cheap, is sold de-boned and it has a mild flavor and texture; people compare it to cod and sole. But as tasty as some may find it, there lurks something immensely unsavory about it. I’m not saying there aren’t problems with other food like pork and other meats, I’m just making a point about this particular fish and hope it will serve as very important information for you and your future choices.

Here’s why I think it should be avoided like the plague:

1. Pangas are infested with high levels of poisons and bacteria. (arsenic, industrial effluents and toxic and hazardous by-products of the growing industrial sector, metal contaminants, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), DDT and its metabolites (DDTs), chlordane-related compounds (CHLs), hexachlorocyclohexane isomers (HCHs), and hexachlorobenzene (HCB)). The Mekong River is one of the most polluted rivers on the planet and this is where pangas are farmed.A sidenote: our friend lab tests pangas and tells us to avoid eating them due to high amounts of contamination. They are still accepted by large markets and they still sell them to the general public knowing they are contaminated.

2. Pangas are packed frozen in contaminated river water. Ew.

3. Pangas are environmentally devastating, a most unsustainable food you could possibly eat - You know how you should “buy local” in order to create the least amount of environmental harm as possible? This is the very opposite end of that spectrum of sustainable consumerism. Pangas are raised in Vietnam. The food fed to Pangas comes from Peru (more on that below), their hormones (which are injected into the female Pangas) come from China. (More about that below) THEN, they are transported from Vietnam to France. That’s not just a giant carbon foot print, that’s a carbon continent of a foot print.

4. There’s nothing natural about Pangas - They’re fed dead fish remnants and bones, dried and ground into a flour, from South America, manioc (cassava) and residue from soy and grains. Obviously, this type of nourishment doesn’t even remotely resemble what they eat in a natural environment. But what it does resemble is the method of feeding mad cows (cows were fed cows, remember?) What they feed pangas is completely unregulated so there are most likely other harmful substances and hormones thrown into the mix. The pangas grow 4 times faster than in nature…so what is exactly in their food? You guess is as good as mine.

5. Pangas are Injected with PEE - Honestly, I don’t know how they figured this one out but they’ve discovered that if they inject female Pangas with hormones derived from the dehydrated urine of pregnant women, the female Pangas grow faster and produce their eggs faster (one Panga can lay approximately 500,000 eggs at one time). Essentially, they’re injecting fish with hormones (they come all of the way from a pharmaceutical company in China) to speed up the process of growth and reproduction. That just can’t be good. Ok, now some of you crazy ass people out there might not mind eating fish injected with dehydrated pee and if you don’t good for you, but just consider the rest of the reasons to NOT eat it.

6. You get what you pay for - and then some. Don’t be lured in by insanely cheap price of Pangas. Is it worth risking your health?

7. Buying Pangas supports unscrupulous, giant, greedy evil corporations that don’t care about the health and well-being of humans. They only are concerned about selling as many pangas as possible to unsuspecting consumers. These corporations only care about bottom line.

8. Pangas will make you sick - If (for reasons in #1 above) you don’t get immediately ill with vomiting, diarrhea and effects from severe food poisoning, congratulations, you have an iron stomach! But you’re still ingesting POISON not poisson.

Another note: due to the prodigious amount of availability of Pangas, be warned that it will surely end up in other foods: surimi (those pressed fish things), fish terrines, and probably in some pet foods. (Warn your dogs and cats!)

Watch this Report on Pangas

(Video excerpt from Capitale on M6, which aired about 3 months ago)

Links: Buying fish in France, Le Panga, nouvelle abération de la mondialisation ?, carnival of the green

Here’s the ad that’s gotten Sarkozy’s undies all tied up in knots. The bubble above Carla Bruni’s head says, “With Ryanair, my whole family can come to my wedding.” [Source: Daily Motion]

From Gadling:

“It’s the only airport where you can go straight from the plane to the ski slopes within, oh I don’t know, a few dozen yards. Known as the Courcheveler Altiport (yes, that’s right, they’re so hardcore they don’t call themselves an airport), the altiport is right in the middle, or shall we say the top, of the French Alps.

The entire runaway is a mere 1,700 feet and has a 18% steepness gradient. No surprise that it’s one of the must-land airports for any cocky pilot. And believe it or not, you can fly in from just about anywhere, including London (see this pilot’s recount of his journey).

The best part about flying here is not only do you get to experience the landing (video here) and takeoff, the skiing’s pretty good too, with some of the hardest black diamonds in the world.”

Watch the music video

From Fondation Cartier:
“The Fondation Cartier is hosting a major solo exhibition of the visual work of American artist and performer Patti Smith. Drawn from pieces created between 1967 and 2007, it strives to provide an insight into her lyrical, spiritual and poetic universe. Her expressive voice serves to magnify the installations created specifically for the exhibition: a synthesis of photographs, drawings and films.”

Land 250, named after Patti Smith’s Polaroid camera, will also showcase found objects (i.e., a stone taken from the river in which Virginia Woolf committed suicide), polaroids of items belonging to her former lover, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jimi Hendrix’s guitar and items owned by Arthur Rimbaud.

Smith has also produced a short film that explains her work in the gallery.

Lastly, she plans to perform at the museum, both alone and with guest artists, and she also will be giving informal poetry readings. She will be an active curator of the museum’s bookshop, which will be selling a newly published collector’s edition of her artwork.

Land 250, Patti Smith at the Fondation Cartier
261, Boulevard Raspail
75014 Paris, France
tel (+33) 1 42 18 56 50
March 28 to June 22, 2008
For more information visit the museum’s website: Fondation Cartier

Related: David Lynch’s work at Fondation Cartier,Ron Mueck in Paris

[via]

From B&B Toronto:

“Oh the treasures you will find at the fabulous Etsy site! Ndeur, a Parisian-born graphic artist based in Toronto offers you these wonderful painted shoes. The sneakers are so cute! I have some white vans that seriously need something with a bit more character and color and I think that something is chez Ndeur. The beauty of this is that all you need to do is look down at your shoes to see art; and traveling art at that!

You can choose from a myriad of designs so you’re bound to find something that suits your personality. His style seems inspired by street art and it’s mixed with fun and whimsy topped with a splash of modern art. It’s as though he was a street tagger that decided to channel his creative energy and work onto something smaller: shoes. That way, he doesn’t risk getting arrested by police whilst trying to escape their pursuit after getting caught tagging a train. You know. It’s safer but with less exercise and way less toxic fumes.

Back to his shoes. You can order the shoes and designs from Ndeur or you can send him your own shoes to have them painted. This is not only an ingenious business idea, but it’s just plain cool and fun.”

Ndeur Shoes (at Etsy)
Ndeur MySpace - you can see his other art here

Oftentimes people will refer to their region’s department by a number, which totally perplexes me since I just have no idea what they’re talking about. I just don’t know them. Also there are numbers on license plates that indicate where the driver is from, so if you know which number represents their corresponding department, you’ll know where they’re from, for what that’s worth. (For now, at least. I heard they will be getting rid of these numbers on plates, so you won’t know where that driver is from.) With all of France’s regions, departments, numbers, etc., and there are a LOT to know (for a relatively small country), it might or might not help you to learn some of them. So if you’d like to get to know France more intimately, play this game. Here, you’ll get quizzed on French prefectures, regions and departments (by name, by number), and rivers. It’s hard! But, it can be helpful when reading the news about France and when someone, say at a party, tells you about 21. You can happily respond, “You’re from Cote d’Or? LOVE that department.” Or something to that effect.

Play a game or two at Geographix

Collectors of vintage toys and toy cars will feel at home at the Galerie du Jouet Anciens in the heart of Saint Germain in Paris. Find the models missing from your collection or sell some of your own collection. Even if you don’t collect it’s a neat stop to make if you’re in the neighborhood. This shop displays at least 3,500 vintage toy cars. These are like little gems to the antique toy car enthusiast, and one in particular. We’d been told that a bank president of one of the largest banks in France has his chauffeur drop him by the store often to admire them. Then, he steals one each time! He’d done this many, many times and collected quite a few for his home collection, complètement gratuit.

Actually, a friend who knows the store owner told us this story.

Us: Which bank??? BNP? CIC?
Him: No! I can’t say.
Us: LCL? Caisse d’Epargne? Société Générale? Banque Populaire?? Crédit Agricole??
Him: I can’t tell you!!
Us: Well what happened??
Him: The store owner finally got fed up and asked him to bring back all the stolen cars. His chauffeur promptly took the bank president home where he collected all his booty. He finally returned them.
Us: Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Weird.

Galerie du Jouet Anciens
9 rue des grands Augustins 75006 Paris
M: Odeon
tél (33) 01 43 26 36 75
They sell: Dinky toys, CIJ, Norev-AR-JRD, SpotOn-MatchBox-Tekno, Mercury-Marklin, Cherryca Phenix, Model Pet-Micro Pet, Tootsie Toy, Tour de France

From UPI:

“PELLEVOISIN, France, Jan. 20 (UPI) — Residents of a French village may turn down a $2 million bequest because they find conditions attached to it are unreasonable.

Helene Louart, who many village residents did not even realize was wealthy, left the money to the 900-person village of Pellevoisin in her will, The Sunday Observer reported. But before the local government can get a single franc, it would have to rename the Avenue de la Republique after Louart, hang her favorite paintings in the mayor’s office and sell her house only to people from Paris.

Perhaps the most controversial requirement is that a chunk of the money be spent on a housing project for the poor — a prospect many residents say would change the character of the town.

The long list of conditions led one resident to say the gift is really a form of revenge on the village, but more sympathetic townspeople said they believe Louart really intended to help the poor.”

From ENN:

It’s widely known that lead poisoning poses a threat to public health. The metal’s negative effect on the nervous system as well as its propensity to cause renal and cardiovascular diseases has promoted the FDA to continually lower the legal limit of lead content in paint, children’s toys, and playground substrate since the late 70’s.

In October ‘07, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics released an alarming report, “A Poison Kiss,” on the lead content of lipstick. They found that more than half of the name brand lipsticks tested contained detectable levels of lead. France’s Largest Cosmetic company’s L’Oreal Colour Riche “True Red” topped the list at .65 ppm lead. Even Burt’s Bees Lip Shimmer Merlot contains lead (less than .1 ppm.) However, with a little bit of research and awareness, you can find safer (and environmentally friendly) lipsticks.

This southern version of the Arch of Triumph in Marseille is called Porte d’Aix. It was the way to connect Marseille to Aix-en-Provence (and Paris).

Inspired by the Arch of Titus in Rome and built by Architect Penchaud in 1823 and adorned by inscriptions and low-reliefs (David d’Angers and Jules Ramey), the Porte d’Aix commemorates the victories of the French Revolution, the glory of the Republic, the Consulate and the First Empire.

According to paris addict, the very first Apple Store will be opening in the gallery of the carousel of the Louvre! This location currently houses the Virgin Mega Store, but I guess they’re outta there soon. Yay! Now you can easily find that new MacBook Air Apple just released. The ultra-thin MacBook you can fit into a manila folder.

From Reuters:

“Americans may eat it if they want, but the agriculture minister of France said on Thursday that if offered a dish of cloned meat, he’d have to say “non.”

Asked if he would eat cloned foods, Michel Barnier told a radio interviewer: “No. You ask me a direct question, I reply no. There is no question of it for now.”

“I think there are ethical problems and problems of social acceptability and we are not going to start copying the American model,” he said in the interview with RMC radio.

The agriculture chief of Europe’s biggest agricultural foods producer, and arguably the world’s most food-conscious country, was speaking after Europe’s food safety agency and the main U.S. health agency declared cloned food products safe to eat.

Confirmation this week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that food from cloned animals and their offspring is as safe as other food means meat and milk from cloned offspring will enter the food supply before long.

Europe’s top food safety agency also declared this month that cloned food products are safe to eat but has yet to give the green light to marketing cloned food products to consumers.

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has opened a consultation process with member states and industry until February 25 before giving its final opinion in May.

Barnier said France would push for a reformed agricultural policy across the bloc which would favor traditional methods of farming and would reject cloning.“

From Reuters:

“French film maker Luc Besson is to make a full length movie inspired by French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s “Earth from the Air” images of the planet, French retailer PPR, the film’s sponsor, said on Monday.

The film, with the working title “Boomerang,” is intended to contribute to “raising awareness of the dire condition of our planet,” PPR said. It is due to be released on World Environment Day — June 5 — in 2009.

It follows in the wake of Al Gore’s Oscar winning “An Inconvenient Truth” and Leonardo DiCaprio’s “The 11th hour.”

Any profits from “Boomerang” will go to a foundation set up by Arthus-Bertrand to promote sustainable development, PPR said.”

You can never take in too many beautiful, moated castles in your life, I’ve always said - and I’m not talking about the fake versions at popular amusement parks. Have you ever heard someone visiting Europe say, “Wow. That castle looks just the one at Disneyland!”? I have. Needless to say, that bugs me. A lot.

“It’s a REAL one, though,” I usually say.

Newsflash: the castle at Disneyland is FAKE.

The Château de Sully is worth a detour if you’re anywhere near or between Beaune and Autun in Cote d’Or, Burgundy. Not only is it the largest Renaissance castle in southern Burgundy, it is still inhabited by royalty. Since the 18th century, the MacMahon family has called Château de Sully home, or, castle sweet castle.

The MacMahons were originally from Ireland but fled to France after the defeat of the catholic English king, James II during the 17 century.

And like most tales that take place in castles, this tale includes intrigue, treachery and complicated politics but also has a happy ending. So, to make a long, historical story short, The MacMahons, several generations later, still live in the Château de Sully. Yes, the Duchess of Magenta and her kids are current residents of the castle. Luckily, a visitor can take a peek into their home by touring a corner of the castle with a tour guide. (photos are not allowed inside). I thought it seemed strange to see a pool table underneath a 400 year old chandalier and plastic toys scattered about inside the castle but people do live there!

Our guide reminded me of Johnny Depp’s little brother, if Johnny Depp HAD a little brother. Anyway. He was more entertaining and funny than any guides I’ve seen and he could tell you the whole story of the MacMahons without you needing to yawn. That’s a pretty good tour guide!

After the guided tour, you’re free to roam the premises. There’s a huge lavoir (a public basic to wash clothes). The garden is very English in style so there’ll be a bit more symmetry and order, and the potager (vegetable garden) and flower gardens to the side of the castle are very wonderfully asymmetical.

The best time to visit is when they’re having special themed events, so you can tour the castle and later enjoy a horse and carriage ride, visit a special exhibition or conference, or participate in other special events. We were there on a day where they were showcasing old vintage collector cars. (The only other time I saw a Trabbi was at a U2 concert a long time ago.)
Château de Sully
71360 Sully (Burgundy)
France
Tél. 03 85 82 09 86
Hours: Open from April 7 - Nov 4 , 10am to 6pm
Entrance Fee: 6 Euros
Website: Chateau de Sully

Related: Labrador at Chateau de Sully

From Businessweek:

“During frenzied invitation-only clothing sales called ventes privées, chic Parisians strip down to their underwear to try on deeply-discounted designer clothes in bare rooms with cement floors and florescent lighting. After fighting over last season’s stilettos and then stuffing as many glamorous gowns as they can grab into extra-strength trash bags, they put back on their street clothes and haul their take to makeshift checkout counters.

Distasteful as such cut-rate shopping orgies might sound, top designers such as Givenchy—the fashion house that gained fame with clients like Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly, and is now owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH.PA)—find them a reliable and time-tested way to get rid of overstock.

But now luxury marques and even consumer products companies increasingly are turning to an online alternative that is shaking inventory-clearance to its foundations…”

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An insanely ginormous THANK YOU to Martin, who heroically saved this blog from hell (aka a wacky evil bug in WordPress). You are the best, Martin!!

Why Travel to France is having weird technical problems, which should be fixed shortly. Regular posting should resume in the near future. In the meantime, here are some recent news items from France:

Jose Bove - started a hunger strike yesterday against genetically modified foods in France. A decision regarding OGM (GMO) in France should be reached by the end of the month. (article in French)

Free Cars in Paris? - the Mayor of Paris is proposing the introduction of Voiturelib’–2,000 electric-powered vehicles that subscribers can drive off without booking at dozens of sites, 24 hours a day, and then leave anywhere in the city.

No Smoking - France finally banned smoking in restaurants, bars and cafes effective January 1, 2008, which is a breath of fresh air!

Remember the EU Constitution France Voted Against? It’s here to stay (without the votes of EU countries) in the form of the Lisbon Treaty

Feminists in France have petitioned the French government to remove the title Mademoiselle or Miss from official administrative documents

France bans the word “E-mail” in government documents

U.S. expats facing tax ’sticker shock’ - and Lousy Health Care to Boot

French Ministers get graded and evaluated, Sarkozy is exempt from being evaluated.

Calais Mayor Defies Sarkozy - A welcome center for asylum seekers heading to Britain from France was opened despite objections from the government.