Blogeur (tm) .net / Paris, France

France confirms will hand back Egyptian murals

France will return five segments of an ancient Egyptian tomb mural held by the Louvre museum, committee, Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said Friday.

The provenance of the fragments, which Mitterrand said were acquired in good faith by the Louvre between 2000 and 2003, was called into doubt in 2008 after the discovery of the tomb from which they were believed to have been taken.

» Reuters [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Printemps-été 2010 Prêt-à-porter

» Le Figaro [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Paris scandalized as MCDONALD'S opens at the Louvre

Lovers of France's two great symbols of cultural exception – its haute cuisine and fine art – are aghast at plans to open a McDonald's restaurant and McCafé in the Louvre museum next month.

"This is the last straw," said one art historian working at the Louvre, who declined to be named. "This is the pinnacle of exhausting consumerism, deficient gastronomy and very unpleasant odours in the context of a museum," he told the Daily Telegraph.

» Telegraph [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

French drop Polanski release call

The French government has dropped its public support for Roman Polanski, saying the 76-year-old director "is neither above nor beneath the law".

The move follows a backlash against a campaign for Polanski's release, with several leading European politicians and cultural figures refusing to join. He is being held in Switzerland on a US arrest warrant over charges of unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.

» BBC [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Paris Fashion Week: Nina Ricci's Peter Copping has excellent timing with feminine styles

From the self-assuredness of his spring collection, you would never have known that Peter Copping has only been at the helm of Nina Ricci for a matter of months. Of course the designer -- who took over from Olivier Theyskens -- also has the advantage of timing. His first collection for a house known for its soft femininity comes exactly when fashion is swinging that way, with lace, tulle and lingerie-like details showing up on the runways everywhere.

» LA Times [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

London Seduces French Chefs, Who Laud Openness, Bemoan Rain

Charlie Chaplin, Ava Gardner and Robert Redford were among the guests when Le Gavroche opened in 1967, so rare was a gourmet French restaurant in London. These days, there are many, including establishments owned by Alain Ducasse and Joel Robuchon. Plenty of French chefs and restaurateurs now have made London their home.

Besides the relatively low tax rates, what is it that keeps them in the country? I asked five what brought them to Britain, how they find the London restaurant scene and what they like and dislike most about the U.K. and France.

» Bloomberg [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Google condamné à dévoiler l'identité d'une blogueuse

La décision que vient de rendre un tribunal de New-York n'a pas encore franchi l'Atlantique pour arriver dans la vieille Europe. Mais déjà, elle sonne comme un coup de tonnerre dans l'univers des blogueurs.

Le tribunal new-yorkais vient de donner raison à une mannequin canadienne qui réclamait de connaître l'identité d'une blogueuse, peu amène à son encontre, qui avait recours à la technologie développée par Google Blogger.

En fait la juge Joan Madden, magistrate la Cour Suprême de l'Etat de New-York, a contraint le géant de la toile à révéler des informations sur l'identité de la blogueuse qui profitait jusque-là de l'anonymat de la toile. Après la décision de justice, Google s'est plié et a livré le mail et l'adresse IP (NDLR: Internet Protocole, un numéro attribué à chaque abonné pour circuler sur le Web) de la blogueuse harcelleuse.
Il y a quelques semaines, l'avocat de la plaignante ne voyait pas d'autre issue à une décison en faveur de sa cliente. «Je ne peux envisager qu'une personne "poste" de tels commentaires et se cache ensuite derrière une adresse électronique. Nous finirons par la démasquer».

» LeParisien [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Tourists warned as Asian hornets terrorise French

Tourists are being warned to steer clear of Asian hornets that are colonising France, after swarms of the aggressive predators attacked seven people. Hundreds of the insects attacked a mother on a stroll with her five-month-old baby in the Lot-et-Garonne department, southwestern France, at the weekend before turning on a neighbour who ran over to help. The baby was unharmed.

» Telegraph [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

French Winemakers Sound Alarm Over Climate Change

“Changes in the climate are leaving our vineyards increasingly vulnerable. Summer heat waves, recent hail storms in the Bordeaux region, new diseases coming from the south — these disturbances will soon be much more serious,” the piece continued.

» NY Times [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

LeMonde
Le réchauffement climatique menace l'équilibre des terroirs et l'âme de nos vins.

Fleurons de notre patrimoine culturel commun, les vins français, élégants et raffinés, sont aujourd'hui en danger. Les changements climatiques rendent les vignes de plus en plus vulnérables. Canicules estivales, grêles récentes dans le Bordelais, nouvelles maladies provenant du Sud, ces dérèglements seront bientôt bien plus graves encore. Les experts du GIEC (Groupe intergouvernemental sur l'évolution du climat) sont formels : si nous ne parvenons pas à contenir le réchauffement en deçà de 2 °C, les conséquences sur nos écosystèmes seront incontrôlables.

Le vin révèle toute sa subtilité sur son terroir d'origine. En bouche, il nous conte l'alchimie de la rencontre d'une terre et de générations de viticulteurs qui y ont légué leur passion, leur travail et leur créativité. Aujourd'hui, cette alchimie est en péril. Signés par des teneurs en alcool plus marquées, des gammes aromatiques trop ensoleillées et des textures plus denses, nos vins pourraient perdre leur âme singulière... Si rien n'est fait pour réduire les émissions de gaz à effet de serre, les vignes se déplaceront de 1 000 km au-delà de leur limite traditionnelle d'ici à la fin du siècle : la viticulture sera confrontée à une remise en cause radicale. Les terroirs ne survivront pas.

French Strikes: Sarkozy Vs The Street

In the biggest demonstrations seen in France for more than a decade, hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets yesterday to protest against everything from the global economic crisis to President Nicolas Sarkozy's efforts to shrink the French state.

About 300,000 people - mostly representing the many tribes of a rejuvenated left-wing movement - marched raucously through the centre of Paris to demand higher wages, more job protection and greater government efforts to stop the country from tipping into a deep recession.

» The Independent / huffingtonpost.com [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

French pool bans 'burkini' swim

French officials have banned a Muslim woman from swimming in a public pool while wearing a swimsuit that covers her entire body. The woman had swum in July in the pool in Emerainville, east of Paris, in the "burkini" - a loose-fitting garment resembling a wetsuit with a hood.

» BBC [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Paris's Electric Car Sharing Plan

A plan to make 4,000 electric cars available for Parisians to pick up and drop off at rental stands still has some kinks to be worked out.

Could the City of Lights soon become the City of Electric Cars? Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, building on the success of the city's popular Vélib curbside bike rental scheme, is planning to deploy a fleet of 2,000 electric cars that customers can pick up and drop off at rental stands around the city. Another 2,000 vehicles will be offered in two dozen surrounding cities.

» spiegel.de [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Louvre Online to Open Database in English

The database, called Atlas, will provide information on 22,000 works of art from the Louvre, as well as high-resolution images and the locations of works and galleries within the museum. That represents about 80 percent of the works available on the French-language version of Atlas, which catalogs 26,000 of the 35,000 works on permanent display at the Louvre.

» Louvre [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

French Cabinet Moves Closer to Privatization of La Poste

The French cabinet took the first step toward a possible privatization of the country's postal service as it approved a bill that will turn La Poste into a joint-stock company on Jan. 1.

» Blogeur [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Tour de France: Alberto Contador wins; Lance Armstrong third

"Reaching Paris was as hard as I thought it would be. I'm exhausted but my team rode every day to support me. To win in such a divided team and under such circumstances was a remarkable achievement and speaks of an inner steel. Lance Armstrong conceded on Saturday night that he doubted whether he could have beaten Contador even when he was at his peak.

» independent.ie [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Nicolas Sarkozy a quitté le Val-de-Grâce

Le chef de l'Etat est sorti du Val-de-Grâce à Paris où il avait été hospitalisé dimanche après un malaise

Agé de 54 ans, Nicolas Sarkozy est resté sous surveillance cardiologique durant la nuit au Val-de-Grâce après un malaise dimanche pendant un jogging à proximité de la résidence de la Lanterne, à Versailles. Il a été placé sous surveillance cardiologique et a subi toute une série d'examens dont les résultats sont "normaux", a indiqué l'Elysée.

» France2 [ Contribute: submit link / submit article ]

Sarkozy takes French presidency

Conservative candidate Nicolas Sarkozy has won the hotly-contested French presidential election. The final count gave Mr Sarkozy 53.06%, compared with 46.94% for socialist Segolene Royal, with turnout at 85%. Mr Sarkozy, 52, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, takes over from the 74-year-old Jacques Chirac.

» bbc.co.uk

Defeated Socialists search for scapegoats

Let the finger-pointing begin. Ségolène Royal’s defeat on Sunday night left the French Socialist party in disarray and searching for someone to blame. There is hardly a shortage of scapegoats.

It is the party’s third consecutive presidential defeat. The Socialists now face the question of whether they can ever regain power without ditching their anti-capitalist rhetoric, as the mainstream left has done across almost all of Europe.

Ms Royal can argue that she did better than Lionel Jospin, who in 2002 led the Socialists to a humiliating third place behind Jacques Chirac and far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. But France’s main opposition party still faces a wrenching crisis.

» ft.com

Police battle anti-Sarkozy protesters

CLASHES between police and protestors have been reported in central Paris and the southeastern city of Lyon after conservative leader Nicolas Sarkozy was elected French President overnight.

In the Place de la Bastille in Paris riot police fired tear gas and at least one burst of water cannon after hundreds of rioters – some wearing masks – began throwing bottles, stones and other missiles.

Earlier, a small crowd brandishing black and red anarchist flags set fire to an effigy of Mr Sarkozy before tearing it limb from limb and then stamping on it. Demonstrators chanted "police everywhere, justice nowhere".

» news.com.au

French parties call voting machines a 'catastrophe'

The Socialists, the Communist Party and the Greens put on a rare show of unity to call the machines, used for around 1.5 million of France's 44.5 voters, a "catastrophe." It is the first time the machines have been used for a presidential election in France. Amid big queues in general to vote, people using the electronic machines were forced to wait up to two hours to cast ballots. The left wing parties complained following problems at Noisy-le-Sec, a suburb east of Paris.

"In line with our forecasts, the electronic vote has been a catastrophe," the parties said in a statement. They said that many voters had walked away in disgust because of the wait.

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MET Museum Podcast: An Americans in Paris, 1860–1900

The actor Charles Turner reads amusing descriptions of Parisian daily life by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859–1937), the first African American artist to achieve international acclaim.

[ mp3 ] listen or download

Jodie Foster, teenage chanteuse

Here's a 1977 video of a teenage Jodie Foster singing Je T'Attends Depuis La Nuit Des Temps. She recorded the song and several others for the film Moi, fleur bleue.

» youtube.com [ Contribute: submit link / submit article / submit company ]

New airline L'Avion offers Paris-NY with French frills

A new low-cost, high-frills French airline entered the cutthroat transatlantic market on Friday with an all-business class service aimed at cost-conscious "Paryorkers". The made-up catchword, derived from Paris and New York, is the slogan for a daily round-trip service between the two cities to be operated by start-up airline L'Avion from December 27. The airline began taking reservations on Friday and changed its brand name from Elysair after market research found, to the airline's surprise, that Americans as well as French people warmed to the simple French word for "aeroplane".

"We chose the name for its 'French touch'. We will have French cuisine and wine too," said former AOM-Air Liberte chief Marc Rochet, chief executive of L'Avion's operating company. For 1,600 euros ($2,118) roundtrip, travelers will be able to fly between Paris's second airport, Orly, and Newark, New Jersey, the second-largest intercontinental airport serving New York.

» Search Paris-Specific Tags: L’avion - French Airline - Paryorkers
» lavion.com

Book Review: The Story of French

The Story of French. By Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow. 483 pages. $25.95. St. Martin's Press.

The unique relationship between French speakers and their language is one of the grand themes in "The Story of French," a well-told, highly accessible history of the French language that leads to a spirited discussion of the prospects for French in an increasingly English-dominated world.

The authors, Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow, are bilingual Canadians with a sense of mission. They value French as a vehicle of expression uniting 175 million people scattered in a linguistic archipelago across several continents. They also see it as a counterweight to U.S. political and cultural power.

» Search Paris-Specific Tags: The Story of French - French Language - French Culture
» International Herald Tribune

Chirac's France 24 starts broadcasting tomorrow.

PARIS: France goes head-to-head with CNN and the BBC from Wednesday with the launch of its state-funded 24/7 news channel, part of President Jacques Chirac's efforts to make his country's voice heard.

France 24 will broadcast two channels, one in French and the other mostly in English.

"Our mission is to cover worldwide news with French eyes," CEO Alain de Pouzilhac told Associated Press Television News. He said the channel will emphasize in-depth reporting and debate, culture and "l'art de vivre" — the art of living.

The channel launches its trilingual Web site — with video on demand and content in French, English and Arabic — at a gala in Paris' Tuileries Garden on Wednesday evening. Chirac is to attend.

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» IHT

Terrorist organization opens 'new phase in struggle against French state

A new phase must be opened up in the struggle against the French State in order for it to take an interest in the (Basque) conflict and its solution." Reported by the Spanish Basque nationalist daily Gara on 4 November, this threat comes in number 111 of Zutabe (The Column), the clandestine internal bulletin of the terrorist organization, ETA. This publication is used mainly to convey instructions to ordinary members and to set out the organization's positions.

Finally, in July, the nationalist Batasuna party, viewed as ETA's legal wing, addressed a letter to President Jacques Chirac, in which it said that "the French State must act responsibly and stop analysing the Basque problem as an internal Spanish problem." Batasuna added that Paris must "reject repressive approaches and seek a political solution to the conflict".

» Search Paris-Specific Tags: Terrorist - Basque Country - Paris
» lefigaro.fr

Paris street to gallery, the pochoir artist arrives

PARIS: It was an unlikely juxtaposition: A green, graffitied face of the Mona Lisa staring out from the eminently respectable cover of a Sotheby's auction catalogue.

Yet even stranger were the auction results of the Contemporary Art sale at Sotheby's London Olympia last month. As stalwarts of the contemporary art's scene - Damien Hirst, the Chapman brothers, Cindy Sherman - nestled around their estimates, it was the works of "Banksy," a shadowy British graffiti artist, that set the sale alight. The artist's "Mona Lisa," spray-painted with stencil on canvas, set the auction's top sale at £57,600, or $109,600, closely followed by six Warholesque silkscreen prints of Kate Moss, which sold for more than five times their estimate. Banksy has "underlined his credentials as a heavyweight in the art world," wrote Matthew Beard in The Independent. Graffiti blogs agreed that Banksy had been given the "green light" by the art establishment.

» LaPanse.com / IHT

A survey of France: Sophie Pedder, Paris Bureau Chief of The Economist

"There is nothing inevitable about decline in France. There is a sense sometimes elsewhere that this is just the way the French are... that they are conservative and resistant to change. That is actually nonsense."

[mp3] Listen or Download / The Economist

On the Ile Saint Louis / Paris and Suburbs

Splendid reception apartment on the Ile Saint Louis, with exceptional views on the Seine river. Luxuriously renovated, this 330 m² apartment on the 3th floor of an elegant 18th century building offers spacious volumes. Versailles parquet. Closed garage in the courtyard.

» Marie-Hélène LUNDGREEN / Tel : 01.53.23.81.82
» mh-lundgreen@daniel-feau.com Ref Pericles : MHL639

» Search Paris-Specific Tags: Ile Saint Louis - Seine River - Paris Suburbs