From macworld: “Network operator Orange will rate the environmental impact of the fixed-line and mobile phones it sells, it said Friday. The company will publish eco-ratings for the first 30 products on its French Web-site in mid-October and will extend it to all the products it sells next year, it said. Orange is the brand used by France [...]

Our MOF Discovery partners in crime, Chloé and Jacques, told us about an MOF Chef named Serge Chenet who just opened a restaurant near their bed and breakfast in Saint Laurent des arbres. We all, of course, HAD to go check it out and have dinner there. On s’est régalé. Absolutely no complaints here. It [...]

From bbcnews: “…They are angry that the law does not allow them to use more modern hair-removal techniques on their clients. It follows a series of prosecutions for professional misconduct against beauticians for using laser and “intense pulsed light” treatments. Under a 1962 decree these more sophisticated methods are the preserve of qualified dermatologists. But France’s National Confederation of [...]

From seriouseats: “If you live Paris and want to get in on some Presidential election-inspired foods, head to the Hotel Concord La Fayette in Paris for Obama and McCain burgers. Chef Laurent Belijar modeled Obama’s “O-Burger” after Obama’s birth state of Hawaii by making a curried patty topped with pineapple carpaccio and a mix of coriander-flavored [...]

The dish, Moules Frites (mussels and fries), is practically an institution in France, which should be reason enough to sample some while you’re here, best eaten near the sea of course. These are from a brasserie called Le Belvedere in the southern seaside town, Saintes-Maries de la Mer, which is considered the capital of the [...]

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. They value sophistication above almost anything, and so they regard their own hyperactive president, Nicolas Sarkozy, [...]

We haven’t been too thrilled about the chilly weather that has descended upon us in Burgundy so we decided to head south to our favorite bed and breakfast home away from home in Provence, Apres la sieste in Saint Laurent des arbres, not far from Avignon. This is the fourth time this year we’ve been [...]

From gizmodo: “One of the croissant-snarfing editors at Gizmodo France passed along this article that alleges the Mac Pro gives off toxic vapors. Translating from the language of lose to the language of guns, soccer moms and hot dogs results in a bit of discombobulation, but the gist is that a CNRS lab researcher got a [...]

If you shop at Carrefour, you might have noticed a strange sign they’ve put up near the eggs that first says that eggs stay fresh 25 days after they’ve been packed, then says, “we remove eggs 7 days AFTER the expiration date.” This should be an indication that you should NOT buy eggs from them [...]

Part of yesterday’s lunch (stuffed tomato, rosemary sorbet and a spoon of cherry and broth gelée at Restaurant Les Ursulines. tags: france, french, food, Restaurant Les Ursulines, autun

We heart Apple season (well I guess we heart all seasons) where we live and this wheelbarrow is about the third one of apples we’ve harvested in the last month or so - from only one tree. By the way, if we didn’t live here in the countryside I probably wouldn’t even be [...]

My book arrived in the mail today! A French expressions dictionary is perfect for my lack of attention span these days. Just open up a random page and learn something quickly. And voilà, quoi. Some of the first items we fell upon were unknown to my sweetie, so there’s a good chance that many expressions in [...]

From Timesonline: “France may be home to some of the world’s finest wines but it could be about to join the tiny club of Muslim states that forbid their promotion on the internet. Winemakers and other players in the drinks industry are fighting to avert a ban on advertising, sales and even vineyard websites that has been [...]

it would look like Artus de Penguern! While feeding my chronic insomnia a couple of weeks ago, I was happy to find this late night French movie that actually was not like the variety of French movies where someone (or everyone) kills themselves at the end by jumping out a window. Instead, it was a very [...]

The PSAs in France rock, and I really like this one launched by l’Institut national du Cancer that began airing on September 14 (and runs through October 8 on TF1, France2, France 3, Canal+, M6, TMC, TV Breizh, RTL 9, Planète Thalassa, Arte, Vivolta, Paris Première, France 4, LCI, National Geographic, Voyage, and TF6). In just [...]

From AP: “After tainted baby milk, now toxic chairs from China. Customers in France who bought Chinese-made recliners are complaining of stinging allergic rashes and infections. One customer, Caroline Morin, said yesterday that she was stunned to learn the chair she bought last December appears to have caused the skin problems she says she suffered for months. “You sit [...]

The unsmelly version. tags: france, epoisses, chateau d’epoisses

I was recently at a dinner party and someone recommended that I get some DVDs of Raymond Devos, a famous stand-up comedian (as well as a humorist, clown and “fake” Belgian). She thought I’d really enjoy his humor. Immediately, another person in the group blurted, “She’s not going to understand that!” and continues, “there are [...]

Tired of the constant criticism aimed at the wines from the Languedoc-Roussillon region, specifically that the wines were “crap,” an independent vintner responded with a revolutionary and rebellious idea and created, “Le vin de merde” (Shit wine). The wine label will be hard to miss if you ever see it on a shelf because there’s [...]

Embracing the philosophy that the dangers and risks of cell phones are REAL, our very awesome grocery store, Morvan Bio, is adopting the same policies that healthcare facilities have put in force for years, that is, banning mobile phone use in their establishments. Hospitals in France (and even in the U.S. and elsewhere) do not [...]

From AP: “Plastic forks, disposable diapers, drafty houses _ if it hurts the environment, make it cost more. That’s the message France’s government wants to send with a raft of proposed new taxes. France’s ecology minister said Sunday the government is considering a “picnic tax” on disposable dishes to encourage people to use reusable plates and cups [...]

tags: france, pumpkins, squash

Tired of shlepping your guide books around Paris? If you have an iPhone, you might want look into Frommer’s Paris Guide, which fits nicely on your favorite mobile phone from Apple. This is basically the hard copy guide book, but in a digital and more convenient format. While we’re on the subject of i-things, Apple is [...]

Effective today, these new silver 5 euro coins will be in distribution all across Europe…as if we didn’t have enough coins! I wish they would get rid of the copper coins, especially the 1 cent ones that are roughly the same size as a grain of sand. tags: france, money, new euro coins, 5 euro coins, [...]

The Parti Socialist (PS) just wrapped up their L’université d’été, a summer camp-like convention for French politicians. This year it was in La Rochelle (I’m not sure if the venue changes yearly). Here’s the extremely long-winded Francois Hollande, the premier secrétaire of the socialist party with the mayor of La Rochelle, Maxime Bono, in the [...]

Have you changed your driving habits in France to be more environmentally friendly? Do you drive a hybrid or electric car, or have you given up your car permanently? Do you use biofuel? Did you join a carpool? Do you have any other tips related to reducing gasoline consumption? France 5 Television wants to have [...]

Here’s a new, ultra-handy, free dashboard widget for Mac users who speak and write French. It’s a French dictionary that is much easier to use than the tangible leaf through (with your actual hands!) version, as well as even an online dictionary. Install and off you go. Just hit F12 to access your dashboard and [...]

tags: france, notre dame d’amiens, cathedral, amiens

From the rawfeed: “France’s national train service (SNCF) is offering 1,000 USB TRAIN TICKETS in a trial. The tickets also contain a unique-ID RFID chip that provides wireless “easy pass” access to trains. By plugging the card into a PC USB port, the users’ computers are automatically connected to the SNCF web site, where they can [...]

From electronista: “French cellphone carrier Orange has admitted to imposing artificial limits on its 3G broadband network, reports say. The confession comes after complaints from a number of iPhone 3G owners, who in testing their download capacity discovered that they were limited to a maximum of 400Kbps, as compared to the 1.8Mbps possible on T-Mobile’s German [...]

Here’s some kooky celeb trivia in France from bittenandbound: “Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are eligible to receive $2592.81 in parenting subsidies [for 6 kids] each month as residents of France. The Jolie-Pitts moved their family into Chateau Miraval in the south of France just before the births of twins Knox and Vivienne. Pitt registered the family [...]

Previous dialogues: Michael Phelps and Alain Bernard, 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, dalai lama, carla bruni, sarkozy no show, china’s slave

From autobloggreen and ecolotrader: “We heard that MDI, the creators of the AirCar - excuse us, the “Compressed Air Vehicle” - broke off all commercial relations with Miguel Celades, who had been carrying its commercial operations for a while. We tried multiple times to contact Mr. Celades for further explanations, but couldn’t. So, we turned to [...]

This time the uranium leak is in Pierrelatte, which actually shares the same nuclear power facilities as Tricastin, where the last two leaks were found, but the media has been suspiciously removing “Tricastin” from this news and are making people think that Pierrelatte is not in the same place. Well, it IS in the same [...]

tags: france, travel, bretagne, cancale, brittany

Before the weather gets too chilly, I thought I’d mention the village of Cap d’Agde, where being butt naked is obligatory. If interested, you’ll still have time to enjoy the sun à poil (in your birthday suit). The village of Cap d’Agde, also called, “The Naked City,” is a seaside port and resort along the Mediterranean [...]

From AP: “France’s broadcast authority has banned French channels from marketing TV shows to children under 3 years old, to shield them from developmental risks it says television viewing poses at that age. The ruling also ordered warning messages for parents on foreign baby channels that are broadcast in France _ such as Baby TV, which is [...]

I wish they had these organic raw milk vending machines in my area, but these are in L’Arbresle situated in the Rhone region, not far from Lyon. The vending machines operate 24/7 and are found in 3 communities nearest a Champion supermarket. Bring your own container to be filled or use one that is available at [...]

From hotelchatter: “Picture this: A hotel guest, sleepless after a night spent at the posh Marriot Champs Elysees, asks the concierge for help getting an emergency passport. She is without hair product or makeup, sports a blotchy face swollen from tears, and is wearing the clothes she went out in last night. Long story short: her purse–ok, [...]

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

The life of animals according to man. Funny French vignettes here. (You don’t need to know how to speak French to understand these.) [via] tags: france, La vie des animaux selon les hommes, comedy, skits, french

While I’m doing my best to eliminate junk food from my diet, my sweetie, on the other hand, remains true to some “non-foods” that nobody should be consuming. He was eating this so-called ice cream sandwich thing at my parents-in-laws and we joked about the kooky name, “Nacho.” I dunno, but that alone would make [...]

Dinan, in Bretagne (Brittany) tags: france, dinan, bretagne, photos, brittany

Tucked away in Chennai, India (southeast coast of India in the northeast of Tamil Nadu), you’ll find an usual and unexpected establishment: a French baking school. The school was created by 25-year-old Alexis de Duclas, a graduate of Essec, one of France’s top business schools, and 24-year-old certified French baker, Antoine Soive, who had previously [...]

From the Boisset Family Estates press release: “…….”This year, Boisset Family Estates is the first winery ever to announce that all Beaujolais Nouveau wines imported to North America will be packaged exclusively in lightweight PET plastic bottles,” states Jean-Charles Boisset, President, Boisset Family Estates. “In addition, we will simultaneously debut Fog Mountain, featuring the first organically-farmed [...]

I haven’t given up on my attempts to support indie game and software developers, particularly those in France, so I’m featuring a small, time waster of the day called, “Hog Pop,” just released by Jean-Philippe Sarda, the same guy who brought you that fun yet infuriating Parallel Parking game. With Hog Pop, your mission is [...]

In our world that has unfortunately embraced the notion of “planned obsolescence,” when I encounter quality-made, let alone hand-made items, AND made in France, they stand out like stars amidst the dark universe. In a small village not too far from where we live, we walked by an unassuming, “blend-in-the-background” studio and I’m happy we actually [...]

From the nyt: “The National Front, the French anti-immigration party, is selling its historic headquarters to a Chinese university to raise cash, the party’s leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, left, was quoted on Monday as saying. Mr. Le Pen, whose slogan in several presidential campaigns was “Keep France for the French,” confounded predictions by reaching the runoff [...]

Previous Dialogues: 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, dalai lama, gaddafi, sarkozy snubs the dalai lama, china’s french poodle

A couple of days ago Apple yanked one of the listed iPhone apps from the iTunes store. The app with a $1000 price tag (actually $999.99), brilliant in my opinion and funny to boot, displays an image of a glowing red ruby that would always remind you (and others when you show it to them) [...]

“Paris Mushrooms, it’s when they’re in your mouth that they’re the happiest.” Aside from this ad promoting Champignons de Paris (button mushrooms) in France being very, very cute, I’m wondering why the mushroom industry (if there’s a mushroom industry) needs to advertise in the first place. Is there an overproduction of mushrooms? I rarely see ads [...]

From AFP: “The Dalai Lama kicks off Tuesday an 11-day visit to France that threatened to spark a crisis between Paris and Beijing, until President Nicolas Sarkozy quashed speculation he would meet the Tibetan spiritual leader. Planned more than two years ago, the Nobel peace laureate’s French visit turned suddenly political after a Chinese crackdown on unrest [...]

I’ve more than had enough of the clichéd sexist depiction of French maids, and the misuse of “ooh la la.” First, French maids don’t look like this. Ever. Secondly, if there were any French maids like this, which there aren’t, they would never say “ooh la la” in a light-hearted, provocative way, drinking wine and [...]

Two nights ago on the evening news Francoise Laborde lightly mentioned that there was yet ANOTHER uranium leak at the Tricastin nuclear power plant near Avignon. This makes a reported 3 radioactive leaks in the last couple of months, and 2 leaks at the same plant. Only partially paying attention, I wasn’t sure I heard [...]

From time: “Too much wine, it is known, can cause violent behavior. But few have gone as far as the grape growers of France’s Languedoc-Roussillon region, the world’s biggest wine-growing area by volume. Hurting from overproduction and cheap imports and punished lately by the rising cost of gas, a small group of local winegrowers has resorted [...]

Get ready to pay more for snacks, anything considered fattening and food and beverage items deemed generally unhealthful. The French government needs money! Forget about them caring about the health and well-being of the people, they’ve blatantly come out and stated they will tax these foods because it will be another tool to help the country’s [...]

From reuters: “A herpes virus is killing young oysters in France because they have spent too much energy developing their sexual organs rather than their natural defenses, an oyster crisis team has found. Scientists have spent weeks investigating a mysterious surge in mortality among the mollusks that the French love to devour with lemon and white wine. France’s [...]

This new music video by Laurent Voulzy has been playing way too much on TV lately… Previous Dialogues: 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 france, music, laurent voulzy, alain souchon, jellybean

Sage in my garden. france, sage, garden, herbs

There’s one region where you will never be disappointed by the street side-made crêpes: Bretagne. I don’t know how or why or what exactly is the reason for this. The butter? Perhaps crêpes are the regional specialty because they are so good here. No. They aren’t just good here; they’re the BEST. It doesn’t [...]

From the timesonline: “The world economic crisis has hit borrowers in the US, banks in Britain and homeowners in Spain. Now it has claimed perhaps its most startling victim to date: the Gallic gastronome. Lunches are being skipped, dinners shortened and apéritifs overlooked as the French cut back on their most cherished pleasure in an attempt to [...]

All kinds of fun events take place in France during August. Here’s a small selection: August 1 - 3 20è Festival International de la Marionnette / 20th Marionnette Festival - Mirepoix - Every year the lovely arcaded medieval village of Mirepoix becomes a stage for puppets and puppeteers! More info August 2 Fête du lac / Lake Festival - [...]

Excerpts from Motherjones: “….events this month show that life as a nuclear-powered nation is far from la vie en rose. In mid July, the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) announced a leak from a cracked pipe at a nuclear fuel plant in the southeastern Drôme region. It said the leak was small and had not contaminated [...]

Excerpt from the latimes: “…On the menu - There’s not a burger or Happy Meal in sight. Instead, rigatoni with boletus mushroom sauce, a fresh chèvre sandwich on sun-dried-tomato ciabatta with olive-tomato tapenade, and a nicely balanced strawberry tart. Other sandwich offerings, all about $6.75, included sweet and prosciutto-style cured ham on pain de campagne (country [...]

Last night’s untimely tempest left the garden marvelously wet and alive this morning so I stepped outside early to take photos before work. Just above my blueberries was this spider, which caught me by surprise and created a blood curdling scream (from me), the kind of scream that shatters anything shatterable. If anyone in the [...]

Previous Dialogues: Johnny Hallyday and Sylvie Vartan, Tom Hanks and Jean Reno, Daniel Balavoine and Francois Mitterrand, Florent Pagny, Zidane and Xavier Darcos tags: france, barack obama nicolas sarkozy

Visitors from other countries who’ve come to France know that it’s expensive here. But guess what? It’s expensive even for the people living in France! Prices have skyrocketed nonstop since 2002 and even the prices for the items that were usually very affordable, like vegetables, have increased exponentially. Over the last six years, it’s been [...]

By now, you’ve probably heard about a correlation between cell phone use and cancer. But geez, you can’t listen to those things because you absolutely love your cell phone. Who doesn’t? You were so freakin’ relieved to find out that those popcorn popping celphones were a hoax. Don’t lie. This love you have for your [...]

Photo taken in Autun, France. tags: france travel autun black cat friday ark