Monthly Archives: September 2006

It’s not just retirees that move to France: Increasing numbers of Brits are choosing to commute to their jobs in the UK from their permanent homes abroad, extending the UK commuter belt beyond the British Isles and into Europe. The … Continue reading →

French singer/composer Emilie Simon wrote the original soundtrack for the French-language version of March of the Penguins (La Marche de l’empereur), for which she was nominated for Best Original Score in the 2006 César Awards, and won Best Original Soundtrack … Continue reading →

French car manufacturer Citroen is making furore across Europe with their TV ads for the C4 model. The idea isn’t new (Transformers were a craze in the eighties), but the execution is great. Here’s a parody that does the same … Continue reading →

People who have put their marks on history have now accepted to come out of their isolation, and agree to start a dialog with anybody who wants to write to them, “provided the questions are constructive and respectful“. The dialogs … Continue reading →

Unreleased, Rare & Essential from legendary actor and entertainer Yves Montand is a stunning compilation of difficult or impossible to find chansons for which Montand collectors might spend hours searching in bins of old vinyl. For example, originally issued on … Continue reading →

The microcar, a vehicle born out of need, was a child of its time and became the symbol of a people’s spirit. World War II came to an end in 1945 and Europe lay in ruins. A shell-shocked population came … Continue reading →

Prior to a debate about the privatization of the French national gas company Gaz de France, a minority of left-wing lawmakers have tried to block the bill by proposing nearly 140,000 amendments. Some 17,000 were thrown out immediately, but dealing … Continue reading →

[youtube]OGzvq0PKvGg[/youtube] Her name may sound Spanish, but singer Olivia Ruiz was born in the southern French town of Carcassonne. Official site | More video clips | More about Carcassonne

Starting in 2007, the “administration centrale française” (which represents all French ministerial services) will install the OpenOffice 2 suite on no less than 400,000 computers. According to LinuxFR, this is the world’s largest migration to OpenOffice and the OpenDocument format. … Continue reading →

A French dictionary’s definition of colonisation seeks to glorify the past and must be withdrawn, an anti-racism group said on Tuesday, amid a tense debate over France’s colonial legacy. “To colonise: colonising a country in order to enhance it, exploit … Continue reading →

The cliche of the poodle-carrying Parisienne is becoming a thing of the past as the French capital has lost nearly a quarter of its dog population in just four years, according to figures from city hall. Paris contained 190,000 canine … Continue reading →

Serge Girard, a long-distance runner from France, completed a 260-day Paris-to-Tokyo run, breaking the record for the longest journey without a full day of rest. The 52-year-old former insurance worker was greeted by a small crowd, including his three children, … Continue reading →

French weather site Meteo Consult has probably (and hopefully) a better knowledge of meteorology than of English. This message was displayed on my screen this morning, which looks very much like a machine translation of an original French text. If … Continue reading →

Wineis is the only manufacturer of artificial corks in France. They’re a small company, but no less ambitious. They claim to produce the world’s first taste-keeping cork: “Three years of research and development in collaboration with the greatest laboratories specialized … Continue reading →

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