Many of my experiences in France teeter on the insane if not singularly absurd, which is reason enough why I wouldn’t live anywhere else. I’m not sure if these events would happen in any other place than France – perhaps, but I like to imagine that it doesn’t.

The meeting I had last week was one of those strange but entertaining days where what would appear to be a boring hour or two, was instead, filled with some appeal. The actual content of the meeting was not interesting at all, but if not for the office’s medieval armor and weapon collection, which took up a good half of the office, I would’ve zoned out like I’d do in my high school history class. (Not history’s fault, the teacher’s!)

The medieval collection of armour, weapons and war paraphenalia was authentic, the real deal that a medieval soldier supposedly sported as he battled it out with medieval enemies. There’s a mace resting on the shelf of the radiator but I was hoping there’d be a different kind of mace; you know, the club with a spiked ball on a chain! (I know, I’m complaining!) In any case, the display was unexpected, weird and cool, just like my France.

From: newser:

Some 33 years after the last head rolled in France, the guillotine is back—as a cutting-edge display item in a Paris museum exhibit about crime and punishment. The former instrument of death was displayed at the request of Robert Badinter, the politician who ended the death penalty in France, who was thrilled to see his “old enemy” reduced to a museum object.

But with France currently facing overcrowded prisons and high rates of recidivism, not everyone shares Badinter’s view. “I think it’s a shame this stops at 1981,” one museum visitor told the Guardian. The 14-foot device had a long tradition in France, from the rolling heads of 18th-century revolutionaries to the final guillotine execution, in 1977, of convicted murderer-rapist Hamida Djandoubi in Marseille.

[via]

Musée d’Orsay
Exhibition: Crime & Punishment
16 March – 27 June 2010
Admission: € 8
Musée d’Orsay entrance:
1, rue de la Légion d’Honneur
75007 Paris France
Telephone: +33 (0)1 40 49 48 14

Please note that some of the pieces presented in the exhibition may be shocking to some visitors (particularly children).

From the telegraph:

^{Photo from AFP}

The 15th-century alabaster statues – considered treasures of medieval Europe – have never before left the city of Dijon, where they march perpetually around the base of the tomb of John the Fearless and his wife Margaret of Bavaria.

Now they can be seen walking two-by-two down a plain catwalk in the heart of the Met in the exhibition The Mourners: Medieval Tomb Sculptures from the Court of Burgundy.

Carved over a 25-year-period by Jean de la Huerta and Antoine le Moiturier, each statue represents a mourner – mostly ecclesiastical figures such as a bishop, a choirboy and rows of monks from the Carthusian order.

In their normal setting in Dijon they are only partially seen, as they are positioned between miniature Gothic arches lacing the base of the wealthy and powerful couple’s black marble tomb…

Read the full article

^{Photos of Cluny, France}

The medieval village of Cluny (in the Burgundy region of France) was declared a UNESCO Heritage Site in 1979 and remains a legendary and awe-inspiring point of interest for millions of visitors who come to France every year. Its focus is the Romanesque abbey, founded in 910 by William the Pious (the Duke of Aquitaine) when Cluny was the center of religious reform and efforts were made to restore monastic life. It was the largest church in the world until the construction of Saint Peter’s in Rome. During the French Revolution, the Wars of Religion and its aftermath, the abbey was sold, looted and operated as a quarry. Most of it was demolished and systematically dismantled until 1823. Despite this terrible turn of events, one transept of the church survived and remains standing, as well as 18th-century convent buildings and 15th-century abbots’ residences.

A recent installment has been placed near the transept. It’s a movable screen to create the illusion showcasing the rest of the church, sections that are actually no longer there but were re-created in 3D using augmented reality technology. It’s pretty cool. I took a short video of it (below):

Guided and non-guided tours also include a 10-minute, 3D film Maior Ecclesia, which inculcates a sense of the majesty and purpose of what was once the Christian world’s largest church.

More Visitor Information

Abbaye de Cluny
Palais Jean de Bourbon,
71250 Cluny France
Telephone Number: +33 (0)3 85 59 15 93
For more information:
Email: aymeric.pathier@monuments-nationaux.fr
Websites: National Monuments of France, Cluny Office of Tourism
General Admission Fee: 7 € / Free admission for children under 18 (except for groups)
Open: May 2 to August 31 from 9.30 am to 6.30 pm; September 1 to April 30 from 9.30 am to noon and from 1.30 pm to 5 pm.
Closed: January 1, May 1, November 1, November 11,
December 25

From wired:

“1693: Champagne is said to have been invented on this day by Dom Pierre Pérignon, a French monk. It almost certainly isn’t true.

Because Dom Pérignon lived at the Benedictine abbey in Hautvillers at the time of his “invention,” the village in France’s Champagne region, not far from Èpernay, is generally regarded as the birthplace of the bubbly.

But like many historical claims, the night they invented champagne appears more …”

Continue reading

Related: The Making of French Champagne, Radioactive French Champagne

Vote.

But don’t vote for the icky guy.

Thanks.

From iht:

“The French have always found American elections amusing, in a horror movie sort of way. They grumpily regard the American president as in some unfortunate sense also their own, but they see the campaign through their own cultural lens.

These two surprises, one after the other, have refreshed clichés retailed under President George W. Bush, confirming the deeply held belief of the French that the United States remains the frontier, led by impenetrably smug and incurious upstarts who have little history, experience or….” Read the rest

tags: france, french, view of america by the french

Previous dialogues: Sarkozy and Qaddafi, Laurent Voulzy and Alain Souchon, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy, Johnny Hallyday and Sylvie Vartan, Tom Hanks and Jean Reno, Daniel Balavoine and Francois Mitterrand, Florent Pagny, Zidane and Xavier Darcos

tags: france, michael phelps, olympics 2008, alain bernard, world record

From the iht:

“As a kid in Brooklyn Steven L. Kaplan ate pale sliced Wonder Bread like everyone else but had an epiphany in Paris as a Princeton student in 1962 when he happened on a small bakery on the Rue du Cherche-Midi called Poilâne and bought a bâtard which he filled with cheese and ate in the Luxembourg gardens. “I can still taste that first bite,” he says.

Kaplan went on to become a professor of history at Cornell University, always fascinated by bread as one of the principal actors in French life: it is bread, he says, that seals the social contract in France, the link between the government and the governed.

When in the United States Kaplan, from what he views as necessity, bakes his own bread. In France he is recognized as the bread authority, compared recently in Le Monde with Robert O. Paxton, the American historian who forced French eyes to open on the subject of Vichy. The occasion of the comparison was Kaplan’s new book, “Le Pain Maudit” (Cursed Bread), a study of an unsolved mystery dating back more than half a century but which lingers even in the memories of those not then born: the affair of the poisoned bread.

What became a national disaster began on Aug. 16, 1951, when the inhabitants of the small town of Pont-Saint-Esprit in the Gard region of southern France were suddenly stricken by frightful hallucinations of being consumed by fire or giant plants or horrid beasts.

A worker tried to drown himself because his belly was being eaten by snakes. A 60-year-old grandmother threw herself against the wall and broke three ribs. A man saw his heart escaping through his feet and beseeched a doctor to put it back in place. Many were taken to the local asylum in strait jackets. There was no treatment, no cure and only one possible explanation: something in the bread baked the night of Aug. 15-16 had caused the calamity….” Read the rest

tags: france Steven L. Kaplan Pont Saint Esprit Le Pain Maudit poisoned bread

tags: france travel happy bastille day 14 juillet

From iht:

France’s space agency, CNES put its entire UFO sightings archive on the web.

“The saucer-shaped object is said to have touched down in the south of France and then zoomed off. It left behind scorch marks and that haunting age-old question: Are we alone in this big universe of ours?

This is just one of the cases from France’s secret “X-Files” — some 100,000 documents on supposed UFOs and sightings of other unexplained phenomena that the French space agency is publishing on the Internet.

France is the first country to put its entire weird sightings archive online, said Jacques Patenet, who heads the space agency’s UFO cell — the Group for Study and Information on Nonidentified Aerospace Phenomena.

Their oldest recorded sighting dates from 1937, Patenet told The Associated Press in an interview Friday. The first batch of archives went up on the agency’s Web site this week, drawing a server-busting wave of traffic.

“The Web site exploded in two hours. We suspected that there was a certain amount of interest, but not to this extent,” Patenet said.

The archive includes police and expert reports, witness sketches (some are childlike doodlings), maps, photos and video and audio recordings. In all, the archive has some 1,650 cases on record and some 6,000 witness accounts.

The space agency, known by its French initials CNES, said it is making them public to draw the scientific community’s attention to unexplained cases and because their secrecy generated suspicions that officials were hiding something.

“There’s always this impression of plots, of secrets, of wanting to hide things,” Patenet said. “The great danger would be to…”leave the field open to sects and charlatans.”

He said many cases were unexplained lights in the sky. “Only 20 to 30″ could be classified as “Objet Volant Non Identifie” — UFOs that appeared to be physical objects, leaving “marks on the ground, radar images,” he said.

Even Gen. Charles de Gaulle, France’s wartime hero who became its president, got the UFO bug.

“In 1954, there was a wave of sightings of phenomena in France, and it went up to the highest levels of state. Gen. De Gaulle himself assigned … an aide and told him, ‘Look into this for me, study it to see if something needs to be done,’” Patenet said.

That year there were hundreds of sightings over several months, but generally there are 50 to 100 reported each year.

Only 9 percent of France’s strange phenomena have been fully explained, the agency said. Experts found likely reasons for another 33 percent, and 30 percent could not be identified for lack of information.

Other cases were impossible to crack. The most baffling were labeled “Class D aerospace phenomena” — which the agency defines as “inexplicable despite precise testimonies and the (good) quality of material information gathered.” Some 28 percent of sightings fall into this category.

Patenet singled out the January 1981 case of the saucer-shaped object that a witness said he saw land in Trans-en-Provence, a village inland from the French Riviera.

Some 2.5 meters (8 feet) across, the zinc-colored object made a whistling noise as it landed. The witness later drew a picture: It resembled a wok with a lid and legs.

“The machine stayed a few seconds on the ground and then left very quickly but it left marks that were analyzed and allowed us to determine that the ground had been heated up, that the object must have weighed several hundred kilos (pounds), and that surrounding plants underwent biological changes,” Patenet said.

“So something really happened. It really defies analysis.”

The agency said everything in the archive would be published, except for psychological reports about witnesses as well as their names.

Most of the time, Patenet said, witnesses were sincere about what they saw. “Very few look for publicity, because they fear most of all that they will not be taken seriously.”

Still, there were frauds.

In 1979, in Cergy-Pontoise outside Paris, a man showed up at a police station claiming that his friend had been abducted by a UFO — a bright light that appeared on the road and swallowed up his car. Several days later, the man purportedly reappeared in a field, emerging out of a sphere of light.

Investigators went so far as to test the man’s blood for signs that he had recently experienced weightlessness — and they found none. The agency labeled it a hoax.

Some cases took years to unravel. In 1985, two farmers near the Atlantic coastal city of Royan saw a burning object drop into a field nearby.

Experts initially concluded that it was part of the propulsion device of a recently launched satellite. Eventually, they realized it was a piece of leftover German World War II ordnance that spontaneously exploded four decades after the war.

Among the unexplained cases, one of the most perplexing concerned a 1994 Air France flight. While flying over the Paris region, the airplane’s crew noticed a large brown-red disk hovering in the horizon and constantly changing shape. The case “has never been explained to this day, and leaves the door open to all possible hypotheses,” the agency wrote.

So, do we have neighbors out there, after all?

“I don’t have an answer to that,” Patenet said. “Even if there is such a planet, given the size of the universe, what is the probability that two civilizations … will meet or come across each other? I really don’t know. It’s very complicated. It’s incalculable.”

CNES
___

Associated Press writer Angela Doland in Paris contributed to this report.

From the nyt:

“When Youssoupha, a black rapper here, was asked the other day what was on his mind, a grin spread across his face. “Barack Obama,” he said. “Obama tells us everything is possible.”

A new black consciousness is emerging in France, lately hastened by, of all things, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president of the United States. An article in Le Monde a few days ago described how Mr. Obama is “stirring up high hopes” among blacks here. Even seeing the word “noir” (“black”) in a French newspaper was an occasion for surprise until recently.

Meanwhile, this past weekend, 60 cars were burned and some 50 young people scuffled with police and firemen, injuring several of them, in a poor minority suburb of Vitry-le-François, in the Marne region of northeast France.

Americans, who have debated race relations since the dawn of the Republic, may find it hard to grasp the degree to which race, like religion, remains a taboo topic in France. While Mr. Obama talks about running a campaign transcending race, an increasing number of French blacks are pushing for, in effect, the reverse.

Having always thought it was more racially enlightened than strife-torn America, France finds itself facing the prospect that it has actually fallen behind on that score. Incidents like the ones over the weekend bring to mind the rioting that exploded across France three years ago. Since it abolished slavery 160 years ago, the country has officially declared itself to be colorblind — but seeing Mr. Obama, a new generation of French blacks is arguing that it’s high time here for precisely the sort of frank discussions that in America have preceded the nomination of a major black candidate.

This black consciousness is reflected not just in daily conversation, but also in a dawning culture of books and music by young French blacks like Youssoupha, a cheerful, toothy 28-year-old, who was sent here from Congo by his parents to get an education at 10, raised by an aunt who worked in a school cafeteria in a poor suburb, and told by guidance counselors that he shouldn’t be too ambitious. Instead, he earned a master’s degree from the Sorbonne.

tags: france obama hope

Then, like many well-educated blacks in this country, he hit a brick wall. “I found myself working in fast-food places with people who had the equivalent of a 15-year-old’s level of education,” he recalled.

So he turned to rap, out of frustration as much as anything, finding inspiration in “négritude,” an ideology of black pride conceived in Paris during the 1920s and 30s by Aimé Césaire, the French poet and politician from Martinique, and Léopold Sédar Senghor, the poet who became Senegal’s first president. Its philosophy, as Sartre once put it, was a kind of “antiracist racism,” a celebration of shared black heritage.

Négritude and Césaire are back. When Césaire died in April, at 94, his funeral in Fort-de-France, Martinique, was broadcast live on French television. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and his rival Ségolène Royal both attended. Just three years ago, Mr. Sarkozy, as head of a center-right party and not yet president, supported a law (repealed after much protest) that compelled French schools to teach the “positive” aspects of colonialism. The next year, Césaire refused to meet with him. Now here was Mr. Sarkozy flying to the former French colony (today one of the country’s overseas departments, meaning he could troll for votes) to pay tribute to the poet laureate of négritude.

That said, as a country France definitely sends out mixed messages. “Négritude is a concept they just don’t want to hear about,” Youssoupha raps in “Render Unto Césaire” on his latest album, “À Chaque Frère” (“To Each Brother”). A regular short feature on French public television, “Citoyens Visibles,” hosted by a young actress, Hafsia Herzi, celebrates French artists with foreign origins.

At the same time, it’s against the rules for the government to conduct official surveys according to race. Consequently, nobody even knows for certain how many black citizens there are. Estimates vary between 3 million and 5 million out of a population of more than 61 million.

“Can you imagine if French officials said, ‘Well, we’re not sure, the population of France may be 65 million, or maybe it’s 30 million’?” declared a somewhat exasperated Patrick Lozès, founder of Cran, a black organization devised not long ago partly to gather statistics the government won’t.

When he sat down to talk the other morning, the first two words out of his mouth were Barack Obama. “The idea behind not categorizing people by race is obviously good; we want to believe in the republican ideal,” he said. “But in reality we’re blind in France, not colorblind but information blind, and just saying people are equal doesn’t make them equal.”

He ticked off some obvious numbers: one black member representing continental France in the National Assembly among 555 members; no continental French senators out of some 300; only a handful of mayors out of some 36,000, and none from the poor Paris suburbs.

To this may be added Cran’s findings that the percentage of blacks in France who hold university degrees is 55, compared with 37 percent for the general population. But the number of blacks who get stuck in the working class is 45 percent, compared with 34 percent for the national average.

“There’s total hypocrisy here,” Léonora Miano said. She’s a black author, 37, originally from Cameroon, whose recent novel “Tels des Astres Éteints” (“Like Extinguished Stars”) is about race relations as seen through the eyes of three black immigrants.

“For me it was really strange when I arrived 17 years ago to find people here never used the word race,” Ms. Miano said over coffee one afternoon at Café Beaubourg. Outside, African immigrants hawked sunglasses to tourists. “French universalism, the whole French republican ideal, proposes that if you embrace French values, the French language, French culture, then race doesn’t exist and it won’t matter if you’re black. But of course it does. So we need to have a conversation, and slowly it is coming: not a conversation about guilt or history, but about now.”

“The Black Condition: An Essay on a French Minority” by Pap N’Diaye, a 42-year-old historian at the School for Advanced Study of the Social Sciences, is another much-talked-about new book here. “We are witnessing a renaissance of the négritude movement,” Mr. N’Diaye declared the other day.

The surge in popularity of Mr. Obama among French blacks partly stems from the hope that his rise “will highlight our lack of diversity and put pressure on French politicians who say they favor him to open politics up more to minorities,” Mr. N’Diaye said. “We in France are, in terms of race, where we were in terms of gender 40 years ago.”

He laid out some history: French decolonization during the 1960s pretty much pushed the original négritude movement to the back burner, at the same time that it inspired a wave of immigrants from the Caribbean to come here and fill low-ranking civil service jobs. From sub-Saharan Africa, another wave of laborers gravitated to private industry. The two populations didn’t communicate much.

But their children, raised here, have grown up together. “Mutually discovered discrimination,” as Mr. N’Diaye put it, has forged a bond out of which négritude is being revived.

The watershed event was the rioting in poor French suburbs three years ago. Among its cultural consequences: Aimé Césaire “started to be rediscovered by young people who found in his work things germane to the current situation,” Mr. N’Diaye said.

Youssoupha is one of those people. He was nursing a Coke recently at Top Kafé, a Lubavitch Tex-Mex restaurant in Créteil, just outside Paris, where he lives. Nearby, two waiters in yarmulkes sat watching Rafael Nadal play tennis on television beneath dusty framed pictures of Las Vegas and Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson. A clutch of Arab teenagers smoked outside. In modest neighborhoods like this, France can look remarkably harmonious.

“Césaire is in my lyrics, and I was upset when people misinterpreted what I wrote as anti-white because négritude is the affirmation of our common black roots,” Youssoupha said.

Ms. Miano, the novelist, made a similar point. “There is no such thing as a black ‘community’ in France — yet — partly because we have such different histories,” she said. “An immigrant woman from Mali and another from Cameroon view the world in completely different ways. You also shouldn’t think there isn’t racism among blacks in France, between West Indians and Africans. There is. But ultimately we’re all black in the face of discrimination.”

Then she smiled: “Too bad I forgot to wear my Obama T-shirt.””

[source]

The 14th century castle/fort, Fort La Latte sits majestically atop a 70 meters (230 ft) high cliff along the Cote d’Émeraude (Emerald Coast) in northern Brittany. It is one of the most spectacular sites in Bretagne.

Built from the ground up on a small spit of land on the Baye de la Fresnaye by one of the oldest Breton families, Goyon-Matignon, the castle (known at the time as “Roche Guyon”), was first besieged by Bertrand du Guesclin in 1379. After Brittany became part of France, in 1490 it was unsuccessfully besieged by the English. Later, when the castle was known as La Latte, the Holy League really did it in and dismantled, plundered, devastated and set on it fire.

Between 1690 and 1715, the architect, Sir Garangeau, under the reign of Louis XIV, turned La Latte into a fort. They added military structures to defend Saint-Malo against English and Dutch attacks.

The final attempt to attack the castle was in 1815 by a few men from Saint-Malo during the “Cent-Jours”. Like their predecessors the attack was unsuccessful. It fell into disrepair during the 19th century and sold by the family in 1892, and is currently privately owned. In 1925 it was declared a monument historique, a protected place of historic interest and was slowly restored.

The Fort La Latte is a “must visit” if you’re in Bretagne. If you’re not into medieval forts, drawbridges and war paraphernalia, the views from the castle are absolutely magnificent. The surrounding area is breathtaking, and is great for mountain biking, hiking and picnicking.

We visited just about an hour before closing hours, which seems like a perfect time to go because we were nearly alone, wandering around the premises. Heaven, especially if you’re not into crowds.

If it seems like you’re walking on a Hollywoodian movie set, you actually are. Well, the fort is the real deal, but it’s been used as a backdrop for many movies. Notably, The Vikings with Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis, Ridicule by Patrice Lecomte with Jean Rochefort; Le jeu du roi with Marc Evans, Pierre Dux and Francois Matouret; Lancelot du Lac (made for TV movie) with Gérard Falconetti, La Danse de mort with Michel Bouquet; Metzengerstein with Jane Fonda; Chouan with Sophie Marceau and Philippe Noiret.

Fort La Latte
Open every day April 1 to September 30; October to March open afternoons, weekends, national holidays and bank holidays.
Admission: 4 Euros
Telephone: +33) 02 96 41 40 31

tags: france travel fort la latte bretagne brittany castles

There’s an article in iht.com today that reveals the greatest mysteries of Stonehenge, namely, what the giant brooding stones represented. Apparently, the location was a a burial ground for several generations of a single, elite family.

This is interesting because a similar idea dominated our conversation when we were visiting the “French Stonehenge” in Carnac, in Brittany, France just about a week ago.

Carnac isn’t Stonehenge, clearly, but the place is 6000 years old (older than Stonehenge) and there is a dense collection of menhirs (standing stones, nicknamed the “Stone Army”) as far as the eye can see. Approximately 3000 of these standing stone relics are aligned in rows amidst the vast area of fields close to the Atlantic Ocean in Brittany. It is impressive too see them.

All sorts of theories and speculations popped up in our conversations about the stones’ origins: a challenging game, a landing field for UFO’s (hee), an endurance activity for physical stamina, to name a few – but what emerged as the most likely, was the cemetery theory. Not really far fetched since the dolmens and cairns in Brittany served funerary functions.

So many have ruled out the idea that the menhirs were part of a cemetery. We just have to respectfully disagree with that. Granted, there are no remnants of skeletons here, which is a reason researchers rule out a cemetery, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a cemetery! Our theory is that it WAS a cemetery, or perhaps, more accurately, a memorial for the thousands of Gaulois soldiers who left Carnac to fight against Romans their enemies at sea – and never came back. THAT is why there are no skeletal remains! Besides, doesn’t it look obviously like a veterans’ cemetery, Neolithic stye?

Later when researching this a little, I found some other theories. In the 50s and 60s, Breton children chanted the legend to tourists: All the stones were part of a Gaulois cemetery. The richer the dead person, the bigger then stone. Another theory tells the tale of Saint Cornelius. He was pursued by pagan soldiers all the way to the seashore, and with no boat to flee, his defense was to turned them into stone.

In any case, Carnac, is a well worth a visit but you will need a car to reach it. The largest city close by is Rennes, where we began and it took about one and half hours to reach Carnac from there. You can stroll among the menhir alignments freely from October to March, 9am to 5pm. During the busy season from April to the end of September, you are not allowed to pass the fenced and rock barriers – to protect the vegetation around the stones.

Links: Official Carnac website, DVD: Global Treasures: Carnac Stones Bretagne, France

When you see the famous prehistoric paintings at the Lascaux Cave in Dordogne, you must purchase your tickets in the village of Montignac. (Ticket purchase is not available on-site.) You won’t feel inconvenienced by this because Montignac is beautiful and worth a stop to explore its two different areas located on both sides of the Vézère River. On the right bank, there’s a feudal town with medieval narrow streets with architecture from the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. On the left bank, the suburb with a convent and priory is an indication that Montignac used to be a harbor town, a place of artisans, crafts, arts and other sell-able goods.

More information about Montignac is here (in French).

From iht:

“Nearly a year into his term, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has hardly mentioned the arts or culture. In late February, he said that French cuisine should be added to the Unesco World Heritage list.

Every French president since the Liberation has cooked up some such pharaonic new museum or opera house or library or initiated some legacy-minded cultural program, until now.

Sarkozy’s taste is said to be for…”

Full article

Tags: france, sarkozy, embarrassing, french+politics

On the way to the Olympic Ceremony, the torch will makes its way all over the world. For what it’s worth, it’ll be in Paris on April 7. Mark your calendars.

I don’t believe it’s going to be an eventless moment in history because 1) this is France; and 2) the most awesome Reporters sans frontières / Reporters without Borders will surely make an appearance. If you were able to see the initial ceremony in Greece a week or so ago, you’ll remember that some fearless reporters without borders crashed the party to demonstrate against China, which is the largest world prison for freedom of expression and human rights, among other things.

Stay tuned. And in the meantime, get a T-shirt to show your support of Reporters Without Borders – and please sign the petition.

Links: Torch Cities

From AP:

“SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — At first listen, the grainy high-pitched warble doesn’t sound like much, but scientists say the French recording from 1860 is the oldest known recorded human voice.
The 10-second clip of a woman singing “Au Clair de la Lune,” taken from a so-called phonautogram, was recently discovered by audio historian David Giovannoni. The recording predates Thomas Edison’s “Mary had a little lamb” — previously credited as the oldest recorded voice — by 17 years.

The tune was captured using a phonautograph, a device created by Parisian inventor Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville that created visual recordings of sound waves.

Using a needle that moved in response to sound, the phonautograph etched sound waves into paper coated with soot from an oil lamp.

Giovannoni and his research partner, Patrick Feaster, began looking for phonautograms last year and in December discovered two of Scott’s — from 1857 and 1859 — in France’s patent office. Using high-resolution optical scanning equipment, Giovannoni collected images of the phonautograms that he brought back to the United States.

“What Scott was trying to do in 1861 was establish that he was the first to arrive at this idea,” Giovannoni said. “He was depositing with the French Academy examples of his work.”

“We took those images back to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and found that (Scott’s) technique wasn’t very developed,” Giovannoni said. “There were squiggles on paper, but it was not recording sound.”

So Giovannoni, who collaborates with many other audio historians, including scientists at Berkeley, asked the French Academy of Sciences to send digital scans of more of Scott’s papers. Those scans arrived on March 1.

“When I opened up the file, I nearly fell off my chair,” Giovannoni said. “We had beautifully recorded and preserved phonautograms, many of which had dates on them.”

While Giovannoni was excited by the images, they still needed to be translated into sound.

Creating sound from lines scrawled on sooty paper was a job for Berkeley lab scientists Carl Haber and Earl Cornell. Haber and Cornell had previously created sound from phonautograms that Edison had created in 1878 of trains.

The scientists used optical imaging and a “virtual stylus” to read Scott’s sooty paper. They immediately got sound, but because phonautograph was hand-cranked its speed varied and that changed the recording’s pitch.

“If someone’s singing at middle C and the crank speeds up and slows down, the waves change shape and are shifting,” said Cornell. “We had a tuning fork side by side with the recording, so you can correct the sound and speed variations.”

On March 3, Haber and Cornell sent audio back to Giovannoni, and another engineer further fine-tuned the recording to bring the voice out more from the static.

“When I first heard the recording as you hear it … it was magical, so ethereal,” said Giovannoni. “The fact is it’s recorded in smoke. The voice is coming out from behind this screen of aural smoke.”

Scott never intended for anyone to listen to his phonautograms, but the result of this work will be played in public on Friday at the annual conference of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections at Stanford University.

Audio of the “Au Clair de la Lune” recording: http://www.firstsounds.org/sounds/

I grew up in the beach communities of L.A. so when strolling along the bike path or on the sand, it wasn’t often (or ever) that I’d come across anything like a 400 year old fort. It’s different if you’re on the beach in France, especially in the north.

That, to me, is the beauty of Europe. Practically everywhere, you’ll “run into” things with a long history: it makes you wonder what has happened during all of those hundreds of years inside this coastal fort. Sordid, treacherous plots? Perhaps bloody and violent wars? And thrown into the mix: love stories and happier endings? Probably not.

Stumbling upon Fort Mahon Plage while exploring the north of France in Ambleteuse, which sits at the estuary of the river, Slack (there’s even a town called Slack too!), was another reminder that Europe….is old. Really, really old. And cool to someone who has grown up in a relatively new country.

Henry VIII of England had two forts built here to uphold his powerful presence towards the French kings. Henry II of France eventually conquered the forts in 1556, after killing all the English prisoners.

It was Sébastien Vauban who constructed Fort Mahon at the end of the 17th century, and because of the preservation and renovation efforts by the “Association of the friends of Ambleteuse Fort,” Fort Mahon is the only coastal fort that’s left.

The fort isn’t open to visitors in February but you can visit it from Easter to Toussaint (April to November): 3pm – 7pm on Sundays. In July and August 3pm – 7pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Entrance fee: 3 euros / 1.50 euros (children). For more information telephone: 06 75 52 73 57

From reuters:

Italian scientists say they have proved Napoleon was not poisoned, scotching the legend the French emperor was murdered by his British jailors.

Napoleon’s post-mortem said he died of stomach cancer aged 51, but the theory he was assassinated to prevent any return to power has gained credence in recent decades as some studies indicated his body contained a high level of the poison arsenic.

“It was not arsenic poisoning that killed Napoleon at Saint Helena,” said researchers at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics and the University of Pavia who tested the theory the British killed him while he was in exile on the South Atlantic island in 1821.

The Italian research — which studied hair samples from various moments in his life which are kept in museums in Italy and France — showed Napoleon’s body did have a high level of arsenic, but that he was already heavily contaminated as a boy.

The scientists used a nuclear reactor to irradiate the hairs to get an accurate measure of the levels of arsenic.

Looking at hairs from several of Napoleon’s contemporaries, including his wife and son, they found…

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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.

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 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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From AFP:

An eye-popping array of rutting satyrs, tumescent aristocrats and lusty 18th-century shepherdesses went on display in Paris on Tuesday, as France’s National Library lifted the veil on its collection of long-censored erotica.For the first time since it was catalogued in the 1830s, the library’s special pornographic section — officially entitled ‘Enfer‘ (Hell) — has been revealed in all its priapic glory. Such is the graphic nature of the material that under-16 year-olds are barred.

Some 350 books, engravings, photographs and curiosities — the oldest a 14th-century manuscript illustration of a nun picking the fruit of a phallus-tree — bear witness to man’s insatiable instinct for the lurid intimacies of the flesh

Closed to the public before

Overall more than 2000 works — including books by the Marquis de Sade, Jean Genet and Guillaume Apollinaire — were marked with the library inscription ‘Enfer’ until the department’s closure at the end of the 1960s. It meant they were off-limits to the reading public.

“Today the ‘Enfer’ section is still the focus of all sorts of false rumours and fantasies, even though it no longer exists. This exhibition is to set the record straight,” said curator Raymond-Josue Seckel.

The first golden age of French erotica was the 17th century — when titanically-endowed figures from the Greek pantheon were shown doing things to each other that certainly did not figure in the conventional myths and legends.

A hundred years later the novel was born and a secret book called ‘Therese Philosophe’ (Therese the Philosopher) lay discreetly on many a nobleman’s bookshelf. Harbinger of the enduring ‘Confessions’ genre, it told of a girl’s sexual awakening through the perusal of pornography.

Cruelty, crime and obscene delights

Contemporary police documents show the troubles encountered by another novel, ‘The History of Dom Bugger’, whose publisher was sent to the Bastille. As indeed was the Marquis de Sade, whose ‘Justine’ published in 1791 brought sex into new contact with…

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Note: The exposition continues at the Bibliothèque nationale de France until March 2, 2008. Quai François-Mauriac 75706 Paris (13th), Tél : 33(0)1 53 79 59 59 – Under 16-year olds are not permitted; 7 euros entrance fee; Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10am to 7pm; Sundays 1pm- 7pm.

“For seventy years, a prayer book moldered in the closet of a family in France, passed down from one generation to the next. Its mildewed parchment pages were stiff and contorted, tarnished by burn marks and waxy smudges. Behind the text of the prayers, faint Greek letters marched in lines up the page, with an occasional diagram disappearing into the spine.

The owners wondered if the strange book might have some value, so they took it to Christie’s Auction House of London. And in 1998, Christie’s auctioned it off—for two million dollars.

For this was not just a prayer book. The faint Greek inscriptions and accompanying diagrams were, in fact, the only surviving copies of several works by the great Greek mathematician Archimedes…”

Read the full article

Having nothing to do with travel but everything to do with France (albeit a France from the 50s), I thought this merited at least one blog post.

While some would find it to be just trash, we thought this old newspaper was a little treasure from the past, a peek into French life 50 or so years ago – and well, who doesn’t think that some found objects rule? I absolutely adore finding old newspapers (unless there’s something vile on it like poo or vomit). It doesn’t have a date on it but I think it’s from the 50′s based on the content. I’ll be posting little bits and pieces of it in the next few days.

YAY! I was SO HAPPY that the comics page was intact (click on the photo to enlarge it). Here’s a comic strip that was actually adapted from a book by the short story writer, Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) called, Notre Coeur. I guess France back then (at least in the comic strip world) was pretty literary; I mean, there’s a lot of text and it’s hard to compare it to contemporary comic strips of today. I wonder if kids back then even liked this comic strip. It’s not as fun as Calvin and Hobbs, afterall. Anyway. The actual book, Notre Coeur was published in 1890 and was Maupassant’s last book published while he was still alive. It’s a love story. But of course!

To read the free ebook of Notre Coeur by Guy de Maupassant, download it here. (from La Bibliothèque électronique du Québec)

If you wanted to take a historically deeper look into the City of Light, here’s somewhat of an eco-tour of Roman Paris that might be of interest to you. “Eco” only in the sense that you take the visit from the comfort of your computer since it is an online tour. No driving, no flying anywhere = no carbon (dioxide) footprint traces, just you discovering life in Paris during Roman times. And no tired feet!

The site is filled with information on the history, architecture, antiquities and daily life of Lutetia (Roman Paris), traces of which are still visible.

Take the Tour of Paris, a Roman City

Tags: france, french, lutetia, paris, romans, paris+a+roman+city, online+tour

For what it’s worth, here’s a list of gift book ideas. I started this list way too late but it could be helpful to some of you who are very last minute shoppers in need of gifts for francophiles. (For last year’s lists of Gift Ideas for Francophiles click here: Part I, Part II & Part III)

Travel Guides
1. One Hundred & One Beautiful Small Towns in France by Simonetta Greggio
2. Lonely Planet France (2007) by Nicola Williams and Oliver Berry
3. France From the Air by Patrick Poivre d’Arvor, Catherine Guigon, and Yann Arthus-Bertrand
4. Provence Made Easy: The Best Sights and Walks of Provence and the French Riviera (Open Road Travel Guides) Paperback by Andy Herbach
5. Drive Around Dordogne and Western France: Your guide to great drives by Eric Bailey today

On Learning French
1. French: The Complete Language Course (Learn in Your Car) by Henry N. Raymond
2. French With Michel Thomas: The Fastest Way to Learn a Language (Deluxe Language Courses with Michel Thomas) by Michel Thomas
3. Rick Steves’ French Phrase Book and Dictionary by Rick Steves
4. Better Reading French : A Reader and Guide to Improving Your Understanding of Written French by Annie Heminway
5. 501 French Verbs: with CD-ROM (501 Verb Series) by Christopher Kendris and Theodore N. Kendris

On Paris
1. The Paris Cafe Cookbook : Rendezvous and Recipes by Daniel Young
2. The Historic Restaurants of Paris: A Guide to Century-Old Cafes, Bistros, and Gourmet Food Shops by Ellen Williams
3. Paris: An Architectural History by Anthony Sutcliffe
4. Antique and Flea Markets of London and Paris by Rupert Thomas and Egle Salvy
5. Alphonse Mucha: The Spirit of Art Nouveau by Victor Arwas

On French Things, History & People
1. Absinthe: History in a Bottle by Barnaby Conrad
2. The Cooking of Southwest France : Recipes from France’s Magnificent Rustic Cuisine by Paula Wolfert
3. JJacques-Louis David’s ‘Marat’ (Masterpieces of Western Painting) by Will Vaughn
4. Chanel: A Woman of her Own by Axel Madsen
5. The Wines of France: The Essential Guide for Savvy Shoppers by Jacqueline Friedrich
6. Culture Shock! France: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette by Sally Adamson Taylor
7. The Road from the Past: Traveling through History in France by Ina Caro
8. The Color of Liberty: Histories of Race in France (Paperback) by Sue Peabody
9. France and the French: A Modern History by Rod Kedward

I’ve been in the U.S. for a while now and yesterday I had dinner with my mum and a few of her neighbors. One of these neighbors is a 83 year-old woman. She liked sprinkling the conversation a lot with, “When I was a little girl…” I didn’t mind that at all because what she recounted seemed so wild, interesting and seriously 70-something years back in the day. My mum actually has heard all of these “When I was a little girl…” stories (several times) so she was trying not to appear as bored as she actually was.

Anyway, this little old lady neighbor of my mum had mentioned that when she was a little girl growing up in northern California, she and her family ate margarine but it was white and they had to add yellow coloring to it. The margarine came with a packet they simply mixed in with the white butter substitute to make it a butter color. Eiuw, I thought – it reminded me of the evil Tartrazine. It also reminded me of when we’d go to a midnight movie at a certain movie theater in Germany, they’d give away (for free) bread slices spread with a white substance (resembling Crisco but when I asked Germans what this “spread” was, they said it was lard. Eiuw worse!) – anyway, I digress.

So. Margarine is white. Does that mean all margarine has coloring? Yes.

Back to granny. She then asked, “Do they have margarine in France?”

“Yes,” I said, “in fact, I think it was invented in France.” (remembering something I’d read somewhere.)

“Really??!” She was shocked that something was invented in France.

Some tidbits about Margarine (from Wikipedia):

In 1869 Emperor Louis Napoleon III of France offered a prize to anyone who could make a satisfactory (cheaper) substitute for butter, suitable for use by the armed forces and the lower classes. French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriés invented a substance he called oleomargarine, the name of which became shortened to the trade name “Margarine”. Margarine now refers generically to any of a range of broadly similar edible oils. Some people have also shortened the name oleomargarine to oleo.

Manufacturers produced oleomargarine by taking clarified beef fat, extracting the liquid portion under pressure, and then allowing it to solidify. When combined with butyrin and water, it made a cheap and more-or-less palatable butter-substitute. Sold as Margarine or under any of a host of other trade names, butter-substitutes soon became a substantial market segment — but too late to help Mège-Mouriés: although he expanded his initial manufacturing operation from France to the United States in 1873, he had little commercial success. By the end of the decade both the old world and the new could buy artificial butters.

Some important health issues (from Wikipedia):

1. Harvard University researchers, in a 1994 study, reported that people who consumed hydrogenated oils, which are contained in many brands of margarine, had nearly twice the risk of heart attacks as those who consumed little or no hydrogenated oils. Several large studies, including the Nurses’ Health Study conducted by Harvard School of Public Health has indicated a strong link between earlier death and consumption of high amounts of trans-fat.

2. Many brands label their products legally now as “zero grams” trans-fat, which in fact means less than 500 mg trans-fat per serving.

3. Stick margarine contains the most trans fat; tub or liquid margarine has about two-thirds less.

4. Vegetable shortenings do not contain any cholesterol and have only 3g of saturated fat per tablespoon. However, they are high in transfatty acids.

[Source: Wikipedia]

Maybe I wasn’t paying attention in class the day they talked about this but the first time I’d ever heard about La grotte de Lascaux (The Lascaux Cave) and the prehistoric drawings there – was when we were visiting southwest France just about a month ago. At first, I wasn’t very excited about seeing them especially because the original cave is closed to the public and you can only visit a replica of it. I know: I was lame because I thought it would be so boring. I’m glad I we took the advice of the people around us and visited it afterall because it was surprisingly far from a snorer.
Christened “The Sistine Chapel of Prehistory,” these ancient frescoes are the most spectacular prehistoric cave paintings in the world. Dating back approximately 17,000 years ago, the original cave paintings at Lascaux, near the village of Montignac, are some of the earliest known art by man. Incidentally, Cro-Magnon man was the first to show signs of artistic ability according to scientists.

If it weren’t for two teenagers in 1940 who stumbled accidentally upon the cave whilst looking for their dog (that fell into a hole leading to the cave), we may never have known about Lascaux.

Sadly, they had to close Lascaux to the public in 1963 because the walls began developing a deteriorating fungus from all the visitors’ wows, oohs and ahhhs.

Soon thereafter, the French embarked on a huge project to build an exact, inch-by-inch replica of the Lascaux cave and the drawings. It took about 11 years.

The replica, called Lascaux 2, situated just 200 meters away from the original cave, opened to the public in 1983.

I first felt a bit resentful having to see a replica but it is nearly an identical copy of the first and it is truly amazing; the guided tour was excellent as well. You will be engaged by the bulls, elk and horses that seem to trot across a cave ceiling before your eyes. You’ll be tempted to decipher symbols and stories. Note: I don’t think this would be an interesting for claustrophobes, however.

The construction of the Lascaux II was a clear opportunity for scientists, to explore their hypotheses and knowledge about how the drawings and paintings were made.

They used the same kinds of materials they believed to have been used some 17,000+ years ago. Materials such as natural pigments like ochre, charcoal, and iron oxides. The images show animals, hunts, wars, symbols and other objects not easily decipherable.

If anything, the cave tour does inspire you to wonder about the lives of these ancient peoples. What they did; how they lived; what was their relationship to the animals around them. The scientist clearly say with certainty that animals were not domesticated until thousands of years later, but some of the images seem to point otherwise. How they can say that so confidently is beyond me because in the same breath, they will note that the Cro-Magnon man was only different to us in physical attributes (longer jaws that accommodated all their wisdom teeth! and also they were taller), and not in intelligence. In other words, Cro-Magnon man was as intelligent as man today. The 40-minute tour is very detailed and fascinating, and our tour guide was very pleased that the group was quite animated and many theories emerged into lively discussion.

Though there was a lot of debate about what could have been, clearly, these prehistoric murals and artwork, at minimum, testify to the existence of ancient and well-established civilization in the south of France, which is pretty neat.

Important Note: You cannot buy tickets onsite at Lascaux II; you must purchase them in the nearby town of Montignac, next to the Office de tourisme. Admission: 8.20 € (5.20 € for kids 6-12 years old); During the high season (May through August), reserve tickets one or two weeks in advance or arrive early. The office opens at 9am until they sell all of tickets for the day. Tours are available in French and English.

Books about Lascaux
The Cave Painter of Lascaux (a book for small kids),
Cave of Lascaux: The Cave of Prehistoric Wall Paintings (Famous Caves of the World),
The Cave of Lascaux,
Lascaux: Movement, Space and Time,
Prehistoric Art: The Symbolic Journey of Humankind

For more Information
Lascaux II: Semitour Périgord, 221 bis route d’Angouleme, BP 1024, 24001
Périgueux Cedex, Tel: +33-553-519503 or +33-553-056565
E-mail: contact@semitour.com
Website: Official Site for The Lascaux 2 Cave

Related: Where to stay in Dordogne: Rent a vacation house in Dordogne

^{[photos from the original Lascaux Cave courtesy of the Delluc and Laval Collections]}

Not to be confused with La Fête de Mai (Festival of May), A tradition from the Perigord, La Fête des Mais is a whole ‘nother thing altogether. After having seen many of these dead pine tree branches, with a French flag and a sign that said “honoring –someone–” throughout the Perigord, I had to ask what it was all about. Most of these signs said “Honoring the Owner” as in an owner of a business, but apparently, this tradition is basically applied to anyone, whether it is a person celebrating a birthday, an elected official, an owner of a new business or just about anyone else celebrating something important.

La Fête des Mai translates as the festival of the Mai trees, a tradition that goes way back when Mai trees were sacred and symbolized youth and fertility and was connected with the ancient goddess of nature, Maïa, from Greek and Roman mythology. Much later, other elements were added: a flag for victory and pride, and the sign specifying the honoree.

I happened to take a photo of one of the more quirky ones that had a strange picture of a claymation-like cowboy or something holding a gun and sporting a cowboy hat – next to a thought bubble with lots o’ dollar symbols. I guess the owner is a dollar-hungry, trigger-happy Texan…

There’s a French song by a guy named, Gérard Blanchard called, “Rocamadour,” which apparently was a huge hit in 1982. Now, if I’d listened to this song before going to Rocamadour, honestly, I might not ever had gone to Rocamadour. Sorry, Gerard. I’m kidding of course. For the bold and inquiring minds that wanna listen, click here for the song.

Warning: this is a song you shouldn’t listen to first thing in the morning especially if you’re not a morning person. The song starts, “aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Here are the lyrics (in French).

Lucky for me, I heard about the song yesterday after I visited Rocamadour (for a day trip a couple of days ago). Ok, I don’t hate the song; I’m just amazed it was a hit. It’s a love song, believe it or not, and little kids were crazy about it because it is SO GOOFY.

Back to Rocamadour. This tiny southwest town (Region: Midi-Pyrénées, Department: Lot) is rather, a vertical village magnificently built into a mountainside, three levels stacked one on top of another. Lazies can take the elevator for 2 euros from the bottom level to the top level where there’s a private chateau at the peak of the cliff. Others can take the winding stairway that goes from the bottom Cité Médiévale, through the middle Cité Religieuse, then all the way to the top.

The bottom tier of Rocamadour, the Cité Médiévale is the village of merchants and restaurants. You’ll find gobs of foie gras shops and other touristy places for souvenirs.

The Cité Religieuse, the middle level, has seven churches and chapels, which is a lot of worshipping for a town of about 650 inhabitants! Actually, it is said that some time in the 12th century, the perfectly preserved body of Saint Amadour was unearthed. He was reported to have actually been the biblical Zacchaeus, a tax man who turned his life around after having dined with Jesus.

Since then, there were numerous (alleged) miracles that ensued, turning Rocamadour into an important site for pilgrimages as well as an official “Ville Sanctuaire de France” (Sanctuary Or Shrine Town of France).

On this middle level is a terrace called the Plateau of St. Michel. Look up to where the rock meets the main church of Notre Dame. There, you’ll see an alleged fragment of the sword called, Durandal, which belonged to Roland. (I thought Roland was a fictional character…)

The chateau is privately owned, and therefore, is not accessible to the public.

Lastly, there’s a AOC labeled cheese called, Rocamadour, a goat milk cheese that was named by the village, but I couldn’t find any Rocamadour cheese in Rocamadour!

[Related: Rocamadour Cheese Festival]

Tourist Office of Rocamadour
Guided Tours are available
46500 Rocamadour (website)
Tel : (33) 5 65 33 22 00

Tags: travel, france, rocamadour, cite+religieuse, cite+medievale, durandal, roland, ville+sanctuaire, pilgrimages, st.+amadour

Overlooking the Rhône River, Avignon, with its 14th-century ramparts, enloses a labyrinth of town squares, winding, cobblestone alleys, and narrow streets, and sits upon the beautiful white, rocky outcrop, le Rocher des Doms.


^{Palais des papes, invaded in Avignon}

The golden Gothic palace, le Palais des papes (the Palace of Popes) in Avignon, was known as “the biggest and strongest house in the world” during its glory days some several hundred centuries ago. In fact, over 700 years ago, Clement V, the then homesick French Pontiff shifted the papacy to Avignon due to political dissent in Italy. Stunned Romans called the move the “Second Babylonian Captivity of the Church” and during this time, seven popes expanded Avignon’s palace to rival the magnitude of their previous home, making Avignon a “Rome away from Rome.”

In 1377 the papacy was returned to Rome but only for a very short period, then went right back to Avignon soon after. Avignon remained papal territory until the Revolution. Though the palace was looted during the Revolution, the interior is still remarkable and a worth a visit. Be sure to get the most incredible, detailed and comprehensive audio guide of the palace (available in 7 languages) included with the admission ticket. Admission is 7.50 euros (Nov 1 – March 14) and 9.50 euros (March 15 to Oct 31).

Palais des Papes

RMG – 6, rue Pente Rapide
Charles Ansidei
84000 AVIGNON – FRANCE
Tel : +33 (0)4 90 27 50 00
rmg@palais-des-papes.com
Website: Information for the Palais and Bridge

Le Pont St-Bénezet

Le Pont St-Bénezet, also known as The Pont d’Avignon (The Avignon Bridge), is a 12th century bridge with only 4 of the original 22 arches intact. The chapel Saint Nicolas (dedicated to the patron saint of mariners), is housed on the second arch. The bridge was immortalized in a famous French nursery rhyme called “Sur le pont d’Avignon” and all French children know the song and the bridge. [More on the History of the Pont St. Bénezet]

Related Events in Avignon: Festival d’Avignon
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Lulu Lundi* features Lulu, our Boston Terrier, somewhere in France every Monday.

One of my favorite libraries, located in my hometown of L.A. has an exhibit in their online virtual gallery called, “Far and Wide: The Golden Age of Travel Posters,” one worth taking a peek at.

The wonderful collection of vintage posters show vacation destinations of the 1920s and 1930s, and it beautifully captures the era of steam ship travel and the very beginning of air travel. There are surprisingly a lot of posters of France.

Far and Wide: The Golden Age of Travel Posters at the Los Angeles Public Library

Tags: travel, france, vacations, vintage, art, posters, 20s, 30s, holiday, destinations, illustration

Tags: france, french, bastille+day, vive+la+revolution, july+14, french+flag, boston+terriers, dogs, lulu, fetes

Yesterday’s excitement about Jerry Lewis’ merited (or not) French Legend of Honor made me wonder about who else has received this illustrious medal. I’ve actually heard or read people having said (including Elisabeth’s comment) that the medal is given to everyone. I wanted to know who “everyone” was. I took a quick look at the list of the notables that received the medal. Among the recipients I first found: David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, Jules Verne, Simon Wiesenthal, Norman Mailer, Satyajit Ray, Olivier Messiaen, Charles Lindbergh, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Alexander Graham Bell. I think a majority of people would agree that these awardees probably deserve the recognition. THEN! There are the others: Sharon Stone, Gérard Depardieu, Rainier III, Prince of Monaco and Jerry Lewis. Why and how were they selected? You’ll have to find out yourself. I think that info would be available at the the official Légion d’Honneur website (in French). You could also check out the museum in Paris (info below). I think some truly merit the award and receive it, but then there are times the selection is based on their connections. How branché are they? Jerry Lewis must be buds with Jacque Chirac or something. Or, simply chock it up to great public relations people on the part of the latter listed recipients — or a famous two second crotch shot in a 90′s movie… Palais de la Légion d’honneur (and Museum) 2, rue de la Légion d’honneur 75007 Paris France Open daily (except on Mondays) 2–5 pm RER: Musée d’Orsay (opposite the main entrance of the Musée d’Orsay) [Also see the List of Recipients and the History of the Legion of Honor at Wikipedia]

Tags: france, travel, french, legend+of+honor, Légion+d’Honneur, jerry+lewis, sharon+stone, paris+museums

click here to enlarge the above photo

when passing by this hilly area of burgundy, it was hard to miss the hill, le mont charlet hosting a rather unattractive monument. from afar, we actually thought that it was an antenna for mobile phone access, but as we approached, we realized that it was made out of cement, and of course finally noticed the cross at the top. it turns out that this “antenna” was a monument dedicated to “our lady of supreme forgiveness” aka the virgin mary. the monument was built between 1925 and 1930 by an architect named, “renaud” who was also responsible for launching the particular style of architecture utilizing fortified cement. (i, for one, am grateful that it did not catch on). every year on september 8, people make a pilgrimage to this monument in the village of chiddes to pay homage to the virgin mary and baby jesus.

with a population of nearly 400 inhabitants, the hilltop village of chiddes has more residents than most of the other nearby villages so they actually have their own bakery, post office (open 9am to noon monday through saturday), library, equestrian club, folkloric group and restaurant! yes, this is exciting! make fun of me all you like but so many of these beautiful, quaint villages in france are dying out slowly, which is clearly a shame and extremely disquieting to me. chiddes is definitely worth a visit if you’re ever in the southern morvan region. there are hiking trails for the more active adventurers and there are ancient ruins from the 11th century in chiddes as well, to explore. chiddes also turns out a big andouille festival every year during the first weekend of may. this festival began more than a hundred years ago. no matter how old and traditional this fête is, however, i will not be attending.

chiddes was an active area of warfare between the resistance and the german occupation beginning in the summer of 1944. the maquis louis fighting with the resistance was located very close to chiddes in the nearby forest, Fraichots. Around the forest you’ll inevitably run into memorials like this one with the resistance’s symbol, the croix de lorraine (the double cross) commemorating the capitaine louis and his resistance fighters. the resistance used and wore this symbol to be able to distinguish them from the french nazi collaborators (who wore the french flag plus the swastika). the maquis louis played a major role in liberating the territory. [more about chiddes at the chiddes' website (in french)] ———————— Lulu Lundi* – every lundi (monday) is dedicated to an adorable boston terrier, lulu – you’ll find photos of lulu in different places around france and travel information posted exclusively each week on www.whytraveltofrance.com

i wasn’t going to write about this until sunday, which is epiphany – but it’s hard to ignore all of the galettes du roi (king cakes) in the bakeries right now. though i’m not really into religious holidays, i do love to eat (so we got a little galette). the galette du roi is something the french can do really, really well.

epiphany, or the feast of the kings is celebrated in france on the first sunday (after the first saturday) in january. the typical galette du roi is made of buttery, flakey fine pastry layers filled with frangipane, an almond cream paste. this is the cake found in the upper half of the hexagon (aka france). in the south, you’ll also find one filled with a fruit paste and another that is closer to a large donut-shaped brioche crowned with fruited “jewels” (representing the jewels on a king’s crown). baked right inside the cake is a tiny ceramic figurine called a fève (literally meaning a bean, which is what they put in galettes long ago). the person who finds the fève is declared the king (le roi) or the queen (la reine) and gets to wear the paper crown that comes with the galette.

on a symbolic level, the cake can represent fertile ground, the fève is like a seed that grows and brings fruitful harvests for the year to come, overall, bringing good fortune for all, during the entire year. the religious representation is more dedicated to the birth and baptism of jesus, the visit of the wisemen to bethlehem and the introduction of god to mankind.

it’s interesting to note that the tradition of “king cakes” was brought to the united states by the french colonists, and even today, king cakes (with a trinket inside) are eaten to celebrate “twelfth night” or epiphany (all the way through mardi gras) in southwest louisiana, particularly in new orleans, but also in parts of alabama.

If you’re in nice, france, please get your galette du roi (frangipane version) from tabarini: 220, ave de la californie, 06200 nice france – tel: (0)4 93 83 80 58. they’re SOOOOO GOOOOOD there! my SO and i once ate a GIANT galette in one sitting; yes, they’re that good — but no human should ever consume that amount of buttery pastry. we’re pigs, what can i say?

i’ll try to post a photo of the king/or queen this sunday, epiphany and the fève. (if i remember!)

click here to enlarge the photo

no, that’s not a panther in mid pounce, it’s lulu. she’s running like a wild maniac on the beach in sangatte, france. located in the north of france, not far from calais, the beach at sangatte is one of the most beautiful beaches in the north of france that is spacious, giving you lots of leeway to move around without bumping shoulders with strangers, which is excellent because…lulu needs space!

sangatte’s historical claim to fame took place on july 25, 1909 and is related to a pilot named, louis blériot who built his own plane and flew it from sangatte, across the english channel and landed in dover, england. it was the first successful flight across the english channel. it took 37 minutes. only about 10 people were in dover to greet him thankfully, he was awarded 20,000 francs (about 3,000 euros or $3,500) by the london newspaper, “daily mail,” which allowed him to successfully relaunch his flailing business and build 500 planes that were sold world-wide.

in more recent history, sangatte gained notoriety because it was the location for an immense refugee camp, housing immigrants (mostly kurds, romanians and slovaks) attempting to cross the channel to england. then, the evil nicolas sarkozy put a stop to that and the camp was shut down in 2003. the refugees were ordered to leave the territory but having used most of their money to get to france, they had no means to return to their countries. today, many of them live in the streets of calais and the surrounding areas, receiving only little help from volunteer groups and handouts. [source: Blériot-plage]

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*Lulu Lundi – Monday is dedicated to Lulu, an adorable Boston Terrier travelng around France.

This also serves up a steaming bowl of weekend dog blogging (#12) graciously hosted by Sweetnicks

tags: france travel sangatte dog blogging bleriot beaches french refugee camps english channel sarkozy

“…the myth of color-blind France is complex and flawed.
Nonetheless, it has exercised a powerful attraction upon both
[B]lack Americans and the French themselves.” ~Tyler Stovall, Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light

“In Paris, I lived in all parts of the city–on the Right Bank and the Left, among the bourgeoisie and among les misérables, and knew all kinds of
people, from pimps and prostitutes in Pigalle to Egyptian bankers in Neuilly. This may sound extremely unprincipled or even obscurely immoral: I found it healthy. I love to talk to people, all kinds of people, and almost everyone, as I hope we still know, loves a man who loves to listen.” James Baldwin, Nobody Knows My Name

You could visit Paris hundreds of times and get a completely unique idea of it each time depending on your own curiosity and volition. mileage will vary. For example, someone might simply want to see the Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe and Amelie’s Montmartre, while others would be in search of something deeper and looking for more of a complex experience, an experience that is rooted in an entirely different aspect of Paris’ history – such as “Black Paris.”

Unknown to most of the millions of the tourists that visit the Cty of Light each year, there are tours and courses available particularly focusing on Paris’ history as it relates to the Africans, black North/South Americans, and black Europeans, who, for political and/or personal reasons made Paris their homes.

It’s an opportunity to find out about why so many blacks (Africans, African Americans and Europeans), many of them famous writers, artists and musicians, expatriated to such a complex and paradoxical space, Paris – and what it was like for them to be there.

There’s also a course being offered next summer that sounds like it’s going to be not only a fascinating learning opportunity but also a unique “lived experience.” During 4 weeks in paris, students from Indiana University, Bloomington will examine the politics of migration, the motives, implications and consequences of transnational life – all this though text, lectures, field trips, guest speakers, music and film. to be discussed: “Why Paris? is it a refuge from racism?”; “Who are the historical and contemporary black internationalists?”; “How does black Paris fit into the black experience in europe?” “What is the OTHER Paris?” “the Paris riots” and more. Black paris is a timely and significant topic in african american and african diaspora studies not to be ignored.

The Course: Black Paris: Migration and Cosmopolitanism in the City of Light
June 12 to July 7, 2006 – Paris, France

Tours: discover african-american history in paris, black paris tours, the insiders guide to black paris.
Other Sources: Cafe de la Soul

tags: france travel black paris tours sightseeing african americans african diaspora insiders paris
study

this week brings lulu to the city of calais, an important commercial french port town, in the north of france just along the strait of dover, the narrowest portion of the english channel. she decided to hang with “Les Bourgeois de Calais” (the burghers of calais), an impressive sculpture and one of the more famous works by french sculptor, auguste rodin (in the u.s. he’s probably better known for “the thinker” and “the kiss”). the sculpture represented a monumental historical event that occurred in 1347.

during the 100 years war, calais’ king philip vi abandoned the city, as it was taken under seige by english king, edward III. merci philip! the inhabitants were left to starve as edward III waited for the city to surrender. nearly a year later, with nooses around their necks and holding the keys to the city, six influential town citizens offered their own lives so that the king would consider letting the rest of the town live. luckily, none were killed with the help and urging of england’s queen phillipa (edward III’s consort), who was french and originally from the nearby northern french town of valenciennes. calais was returned to the french 200 years later.

rodin completed the burghers of calais in 1888, and there were several casts of it made after rodin’s death. while the original statue still stands in calais, other versions are scattered across the globe: Stanford University in California, in the sculpture garden of the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, the gardens of the Musée Rodin in Paris, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem and in Victoria Tower Gardens next to the Houses of Parliament in London.

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*Lulu Lundi – means Lulu Monday and is dedicated to posting photos of Lulu, a cute, traveling bostie in france – every Monday!

this is also serving up lulu’s heaping bowl of weekend dog blogging #10 chez sweetnicks!

tags: calais burghers of calais rodin travel france dogs dog blogging

talking about the waiter reminiscent of a pepe le pew gone bad at angelina the other day made me think about pepe le pew, the romantic-wannabe skunk character from the vintage cartoon library of warner brothers, and it made me wonder about how pepe le pew came about and what was the inspiration of his character, and how he was portrayed in france. (i mean, the very essence and soul of his character weighed heavily on his “frenchness.”) so i did a little digging.

pepe le pew was based on charles boyer‘s character, pepe le moko in the movie, algiers (1938) which was an american remake of the 1937 french movie, pepe le moko starring jean gabin, which, in turn, was an adaptation of the novel, pepe le moko by Henri La Barthe. whew!

where was i? actually, chuck jones, the creator of pepe le pew, based the character’s voice on monsieur boyer (some argue that it was maurice chevalier), his physical appearance is based on monsieur gabin and his personality is loosely based on the character in the movie, pepe le moko, as well as chuck jone’s colleague, ted pierce, a philandering hollywood writer.

for whatever reason, pepe le pew was born around 1945 premiering as an animated episode called, “Odor-able Kitty.” lots of other fun titles followed like, “Louvre come back to me,” “For Scent-imental Reasons,” (and many other punsterific titles that go over a kid’s head) – and cartoons with pepe were created all the way until 2003. what made pepe le pew a classic character was his singular personality, his amourous proclivities as a french skunk, and his excellent “frenchified” dialogue, “Do not come wiz me to ze Casbah – we shall make beautiful musicks togezzer right here!”

i’ve asked a few french people about pepe in france. ok, so they were no help since they grew up watching manga instead – but pepe le putois, as he was called in france, did SOUND familiar to them. apparently, pepe le putois was made to be ITALIAN, basically applying the same principles in the dialogue but with an italian twist: accent and some italian words sprinkled here and there. pepe le putois does have a bit of a following in france though much smaller than his anglophone counterpart.

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some semi-related trivia: in the movie, pirates of the carribean: the curse of the black pearl, johnny depp said he used the inspiration of keith richards and pepe le pew, to play his character, jack sparrow.

here’s a quote from johnny depp, “…I sort of thought that pirates would be the rock and roll stars of the 18th century, you know? Then, when you think of rock and roll stars, the greatest rock and roll star of all time, the coolest rock and roll star of all time, in my opinion, is Keith Richards. Hands down….What I loved about Pepe Le Pew was this guy who was absolutely convinced that he’s a great ladies man. And he’s a skunk. Watching those cartoons, this guy falls in love, deeply falling in love with this cat. The cat clearly despises him, but Pepe Le Pew takes it as sort of a, ‘She’s just playing hard to get. She’s shy. Poor thing.’ I always loved a character like that, just blinders no matter what the actual reality is happening around him. This guy sees only what he wants to see. Pepe Le Pew was the kind of character who always was able to run between the rain drops. He’d just always make it through.”

[via: Filmforce, wikipedia]

tags: pepe le pew cartoons france pepe le moko jean gabin algiers

a translation of mille feuilles in french is “thousand leaves.” it is made of 3 groups of rectangular layers of pastry puff and sandwiched with a cream filling and covered with a white icing and a tiny amount of chocolate sauce for decoration. just underneath the icing is a thin layer of raspberry jam. the one pictured was a bit haphazardly assembled but it tasted pretty goooOOOOOood.

the mille feuilles is believed to have been invented by Marie-Antoine Car�me (1784-1833), known as “the chef of kings and the king of chefs.” he started out as a pastry chef constructing impressive window displays of pyramids, temples and ancient ruins completely made from pastries and other edibles – then moved on to invent other things from innovative sauces and menus to kitchen tools. he is responsible for having invented the famous chef hat, the toque.

i personally think this is crazy but napoleon’s tooth will go up for auction on november 10. can’t wait to bid!!?? do they do a dna test on it? how can we believe that it is REALLY napoleon’s tooth??!

anyway, it’s expected to sell for up to 11,800 euros ($14,100). seriously. is it just me, or is this INSANE?

the whole thing is so suspect especially because last night i saw a documentary (on arte, which is like the equivalent of pbs or the beeb) about how scientists, archeologists, researchers, etc., have falsified their findings for money (of course) and to continue their grants.

all i gotta say is that if you spend 14 thousand bucks on a rotten tooth, you have some serious cash to burn.

[via sify]

(while we’re on the subject of napoleon, there’s some excellent info on napoleon and his empire)

getting all frustrated about missing halloween in france made me almost forget today’s holiday. it’s all saint’s day, celebrated in europe and deemed a national holiday. this year the french got lucky with “toussaint” falling on a tuesday – so monday was also a nonworking day i was told.

toussaint, also known as the day of the dead, is when many people go to cemeteries to offer flowers to dead relatives. (i now realize why my neighbor said he was going to the cemetery today.) in paris, the cemetery, pere lachaise, is known to have an extra load of traffic on toussaint. not just to see jim morrison but the thousands of other people buried there.

it’s funny because long ago, “the day of the dead” in europe was celebrated on october 31 (halloween!). the spirits of the dead were believed to be roaming freely. so, surviving relatives were to help these spirits complete their journey to the afterlife. people would dress up in frightening costumes and decorate gourds and other vegetables with scary faces to scare away the evil spirits, also known to be roaming around the earth. then…believing this practice to be evil pagan rituals, the catholic church promptly squashed it in the bud. they then declared a new religious festival and called it “toussaint,” a day to pay tribute to all the saints. party crashers.

a first glance at the village of la machine (burgundy) would leave you thinking that you have better places to be, but scratch a bit beneath the surface and oh, what you will find.

though largely an unremarkable place, la machine was quite a surprise when i found myself in the village’s primary attraction: the mine museum. no, i’m not at all interested in mines, coal, lime, nor their industry or process but what i found interesting there was its history. in 1916, the french government negotiated a labor deal with the chinese government to import low-wage chinese workers to france.

the first wave of chinese workers from shanghai arrived in marseille in 1917 and dispersed throughout france, mainly to the north to clean up the bloody battlefields (WWI), and to the suburbs of paris to work in the automobile industry factories (renault and citroen).

among the group of slaves immigrants, 372 chinese workers ended up in the mines at la machine being hired by the schneider company (the schneiders were sort of a dynasty for the then huge town of le creusot and owned mines throughout the region). though the original contract was to last for only 5 years, the group stayed from 1917 to 1935, 18 years! they were paid approximately 5 francs to work 10 hour days. i believe these were “ancient francs” in which case would amount to about 1 cent of a euro (less than 1 u.s. cent) a day. most of the workers sent money back to china but when the families received the letters, only a fraction of the original amount was included. information about the immigrants’ living conditions was clearly absent. additionally missing was the information about what the non-chinese mine workers were earning compared to their immigrant counterparts.

when the term finished, most of the chinese returned to china with the exception of about 20 people. some of the chinese moved to le creusot, 2 of them joined the resistance, some went to paris and a few remained in la machine. according to historians, there are no more chinese people left in la machine, as the last chinese immigrant died in 1981 at the age of 86 years old. however, a group of people that stayed for nearly 20 years had to have had an effect on the immediate population landscape, and i wish they’d continued their study past 1981. the face of chinese diaspora surely began to change in appearance in the la machine area but they aren’t considering the consequent chinese-french biracial generations. there have been some occasions, though rare, where i’ve seen people in this region that look like they might be of chinese origin (definitely of asian origin) and wonder if they had family members working in la machine.

the mine museum, 1, avenue de la Republique, 58260 la machine, france – tel: 03 86 50 91 08 (1 hour guided tours of one of the mines is available for 5 euros. claustrophobics need not apply.)

tags: france mines chinese diaspora

a law was passed in france to put a positive SPIN in textbooks related to its painful colonial past, making it mandatory to enshrine in textbooks the country’s “positive role” in its colonies.

do i hear revisionism? since when is colonialism POSITIVE?

[via France Orders Positive Spin on Colonialism]

reading on j-walkblog about the questionable (evil) reasons for the oil industry using fractions (specifically 9/10) for gasoline prices – made me wonder about why the u.s. gallon = 3.785 liters and the british gallon = 4.546 liters. i didn’t care for wikipedia’s explanation because there a section there that states that the gallon was “REDEFINED” during the reign of queen anne. i’d say there’s some MISSING DETAILS. we all know that the u.s. gallon’s measurement would be decided based on how “advantageous” it would be to many industries including the milk industry and later, the OIL INDUSTRY (aka EVIL EVIL EVIL), the bottled water companies as well as many, many other businesses. THAT’S how things get “redefined.”

Fréjus is a hidden gem undiscovered by many non-Europeans. Situated quite conveniently between Cannes and St. Tropez, it’s often overlooked because of the more glamourous cities along the Riviera. Though, by no means, is it uncrowded during vacation months.

If you’re the type of person who’s in search of a reprieve from the sweaty, suntanned multitudes squished side-by-side along the cramped beaches of the cote d’azur’s glitzy towns, a nice hike in the Fréjus area valley or mountains, or an exploration of the ancient roman ruins or a relaxing stroll through the old town, will be refreshing alternatives.

Fréjus was one of the largest ancient Roman towns in Provence with many remains scattered throughout the town and region. The Episcopal City is definitely worth seeing: cathedral, cloister, palace and the Merovingian Baptistery built in the 5th century. For only 4 euros, you can take a fascinating guided tour (in French) to see the baptistery, carved entrance and informative film about the ceiling motifs – only accessible if you take the tour. Note: dogs are allowed to take the tour for free. tho lulu did not care at all for the introductory film. everyone’s a critic…

CLOSED on Mondays *

Address: 58, Rue de Fleury
Phone: (33) (0)4.94.51.26.30
Directions: The cathedral in the old town.
Website: http://www.ville-frejus.fr

One of the several things France knows how to do the best, is perfumes. they’ve had quite a bit of practice at this industry too: 200 years.

Known as the perfume capital of the world, grasse is a short day trip from cannes (15 min drive) or nice (30 min drive).

When you vist the fragonard perfume factory & museum, housed in a 17th century villa you’ll get quite a noseful but the guided tour was informative, free and allowed dogs (which of course, is VERY important in these travel tips)…

Here’s a picture of “the nose,” taking a coffee break. they say, these mad olfactory scientists must train for 10 years to fully develop the abiility to mix, match and identify the correct essenses to create a great perfume.

At the end of the guided tour of fragonard, you’re strategically taken to the perfume store. if you don’t want to buy anything, that’s fine; you can, however, ask to smell samples of their perfumes and it’s fun. try to decifer each essence in one perfume.

The room is filled with a lot of extremely potent smells, so if you’re sensitive to that kind of thing, i wouldn’t recommend staying too long.

Address:
23 boulevard Fragonard, 06130 Grasse

Directions:
Musée Jean-Honoré Fragonard
Bvd Fragonard and, Route de Cannes, “les Quatre Chemins”

Phone:
(33) 493 36 44 65

Website:
Fragonard

OH! To capture an imaginary olfactory medievel grasse experience (and intrigue) without having to leave the comfort of your home, read Perfume : The Story of a Murderer (Vintage International) by patrick susskind.

Ahhh, Les Chtimi…No, I don’t have a cold and Yes, that IS French, believe it or not. The Chtimi (cutely pronounced shtee’mee) is a moniker for the northern French (the people in the very, very north of France surrounding the city of Lille) and they have a special patois that is so incredibly adorable and weird, oftentimes, I have to admit, that I have no idea what they’re saying. I’m writing this just after having returned from spending lunch with a neighbor and his visiting Chtimi inlaws.

I will have to do a little bit of linguistic and historical research about its origins (when i have some time) because it’s an interesting subject. I wonder if it has something to do with their proximity to the Belgian border, so some Flemish influence plays into this mix. Or perhaps it’s from the large communities of Polish and Italian immigrants who came to the north of France to work in the mines. (the mining industry lasted 270 years and finally ended by 1990 there.)

Back to the Chtimi language. There IS a lot of the SH sound, for example, if someone says, “ça” it sounds like “sha” or more strange is the adding of the sh sound to pere, which transforms into chpere (pronounced shpehr). Other examples would be the word “beau” which turns to “bieau” (bee-oh); An alambic = cafetiere, a cayelle = chaise, tchiot (pronounced CHO) = petit, bistouille = alcool avec le café, acater (akahtay) = acheter. It’s unusual.

There’s a saying in France about the northern French that I find very sweet and based on my own experiences, very true: Les gens du nord ont le soleil dans le coeur. (The people in the north have the sun in their hearts). That goes with the fact that it rains a lot in the north, nevertheless, are a very warm hearted people. There’s even a song about Les gens du Nord

The most famous Chtimi I could find doing an online search, is the entertainer, Dany Boon (pictured above). If anyone knows of more, please let me know.

Vichy’s natural spring water leaves a bad taste in the mouth, like its history

Vichy, brand for a wide range of world-renowned cosmetics, producer of my favorite mints and home to one of the most famous official spa curing towns (natural springs) in France, actually has quite a very heavy, sordid past – that bleeds into the present…

When you live in France, it’s impossible to bypass it’s rich background: how things came about, what happened where and who and what had an impact on its history. The factual backdrop of the town of Vichy is no exception, though can be considered an uncomfortable subject. I suppose Europeans all know about its past and there’s a vague cringe factor toward Vichy.

Vichy was the de facto French government during WWII’s Nazi occupation, and while Vichy (and the Vichy Regime) officially took a neutral stance on the war, it was, in fact, a Nazi puppet state and was known to collaborate and enforce Nazi racial policies. The Vichy government and a large number of its administration were responsible for the deportation of 70,000 Jews. In addition, individuals actively assisted the Vichy regime, and the Nazis as well, by seizing Jewish private property, annihilating synagogues and other Jewish monuments, and in transporting Jews to Nazi death camps. Examples being Eugene Schueller, (the founder of the biggest cosmetics company in the world, French company, L’Oreal) and his L’Oreal colleagues, Andre Bettencourt and Jacques Correze.

The Bettencourt family is a powerful contingent still today, owning 27.5% of L’Oreal. (26.4% owned by Nestle, 3.9% treasury share, and 42.2% publicly traded).

Before this gets any more creepy, let me just finish this post by saying that the brand, Vichy, is owned by L’Oreal. I gotta go wash my hands now.

If you think Fréjus’ moniker, “The Pompeii of Provence” sounds inauspicious, you could surmise over the fate of nearby Barrage (Dam) de Malpasset. In French, “Malpasset” means, “(something) bad happened.” Or (it) “didn’t go well.” The Dam measured 60 meters high and arched 400 meters across the valley (which is HUMUNGOUS). Sadly it succumbed and crumbled on an ill-fated night in December of 1959, ravaging everything in its path and killing nearly all of the inhabitants.

Remnants of the dam are scattered along the valley and you better see an eye doctor if you miss the massive blocks and solid chunks that stumbled down the valley from their original location.

Today, the devastation is merely a remembrance of things past that evolved into fascinating travel and adventure: a hiking expedition for the whole family including dogs! Yay for Lulu!

Final note: NEVER name a place, person or thing something bad. For example, if you name your new too cute and cuddly puppy something like, “cancer” or if you christen your new boat, “lady sink and die!” or if you call your new cafe, “poison beans” – you’re simply asking for trouble.

A quick 15 minute ferry ride from Cannes will take you to the Île St. Marguerite, one of the 2 Lerins Islands. (the other island is the Île St. Honorat) There, you’ll find yourself wandering around a beautiful island, and exploring the fort/prison whilst contemplating the identity of the Man in the Iron Mask (no, not Leo, the REAL Man in the Iron Mask) and his ill-fated incarceration.

Catch a ferry from the port of Cannes that will take you to Île St. Marguerite. (Follow the signs that say “Ferrage – Îles Lerins”). It’s 6 euros for a round trip and leaves every hour or so. (more frequently during vacation months) You can also hire a private boat for a more personal 15 minute ride to Île St. Marguerite. Dogs are allowed in the ferries for free.

Boat Operators include:
Estérel Chanteclair (tel:(04) 9339 1182)
Horizon 4 (tel:(04) 9298 7136)
Maritime Cannoise (tel:(04) 9338 6633)
Trans Côte D’Azur (tel:(04) 9298 7130)

The St. Marguerite Prison/Fort, is now more politely named Musée de la Mer (Museum of the Sea). It took the Man in the Iron Mask 11 years to leave but should only take you not more than an hour to explore. This museum also houses some archeological discoveries of shipwrecks off the coast of St. Marguerite, which is absolutely fascinating. Note: Photos are not allowed inside. Guided tours are available during the summers. 3 euros entrance. Dogs are allowed in for free but you have to carry them the whole time. So, if you have a large dog, start working out now.

Opening hours: Tues-Sun 10:30am-1:15pm and 2:15pm-4:15pm (Oct-Mar); Tues-Sun 10:30am-1:15pm and 2:15pm-5:45pm (Apr-Sep); Tues-Sun 10:30am-1:15pm and 2:15pm-6:30pm (Jul-Sep)

does anyone else find this OFFENSIVE? this old plaque is on the wall of one of the most famous cafes in paris called ‘le comptoir du relais’ in the…

st. germain des pres area (6th arrondissement at l’odean) you find stuff like this all over france and not just on walls. you’ll see cartoons of black people with bones through their noses on packaging like on…boxes of children’s cookies and candy. the sad thing is whenever i point this out to anyone, they just brush it off like it’s harmless, and I’M the offensive one. GEEZ.