Frogsmoke

According to the BBC, Halloween is dying in France after a short-lived bonanza. The French shun the festival, because it is perceived as "too American". Supermarkets have lost interest in the festival this year. Benoit Pousset, head of costume company Cesar, attributed the festival's demise to "a cultural reaction linked to the rise of anti-Americanism". [...]

Olivier Gregoire could become one of France's most prominent product designers. At the age of just 26 he has already established international fame with his furniture, lighting, tableware, fashion items and architecture. Shown above is his toaster inspired by the creased metal sculpture created by Frank Gehry. Here are some more creations: Tapisofa. Furniture for [...]

The BBC paints a dire picture of law enforcement in France's tense immigrant-majority housing estates. Policemen liken their job to a military mission. Operations are planned by senior commanders, with underlings making emergency calls and the foot soldiers carrying out the assaults. "What we have is urban warfare", says one of them. And it's highly [...]

An estimated 40,000 French university students, the great majority of them female, have turned to prostitution to help defray the costs of their education, the daily Le Figaro reported on Monday. Citing numbers provided by the SUD-Etudiant student union, the daily said that this represented about one of every 57 students, and that they used [...]

Even the French are embarrassed: there's no violet garlic left Unlikely and utterly preposterous: the French have run out of violet garlic. Grown only in one small part of France, violet garlic has a more delicate flavour and odour than white garlic and can be eaten alone. The Brits are feeling the culinary pain. The [...]

This sounds too good to be true: Whole village for sale – just 233,200 € From the agency's blurb: This small Provencal village was built on the ruins of a Roman settlement. There are 5 buildings in total, each one having its own pet name – "La Cantinette", Le Pavillon "Nid d'Amour", "Le Rocher", "La [...]

Q: What would you do if your father is a worldfamous French politician, but you want to avoid accusations of using his name to boost your career as a top fashion model? A: You live under an uncommon pseudonym like Marie Steiss in a far-away city like New York. Q: And what do you do [...]

The French are finally beating the Americans: Russia and France overtake US as top arms sellers The USA has lost its role as the world's top arms supplier. Last year, US arms deals fell from 9.4 billion dollars to about 6.2 billion. Russia made seven billion dollars selling weaponry, an increase from 5.4 billion the [...]

Navel-staring in Kiev: Miss Ukraine misses out, Miss France takes the 100,000 euro prize home Things are going well on the French beauty front: Miss France wins Miss Europe Contest In case you didn't know (or didn't care to remember): last December's Miss France elections made the headlines for their most daring innovation ever: for [...]

Last year's winner, the Moovie, by André Costa, 23 years, from Portugal Each year, French car maker Peugeot invites designers to create a car that matches certain criteria. The winner will see his or her creation built as a life-size version at next year's Frankfurt Motor Show. This year's theme is based on the (somewhat [...]

It's official: visiting Paris can be hazardous to your mental health Paris syndrome hits Japanese Japanese tourists feel so let down by Paris shop assistants that they need treatment for a type of depression known as "Paris Syndrome". "There are around 20 cases a year of the syndrome and it has been happening for several [...]

Sierra Delta, the Concorde at Le Bourget museum in Paris, set a record in 1995 for the fastest flight around the world by a civilian aircraft: 31hrs, 27min, 49sec, including six refuelling stops. When British Airways decommissioned their seven Concordes they made sure the planes would never fly again. The French didn't committ such an [...]

It's not always easy to understand French food. American blogger J-Walk is confused: This is in French, so I'm not sure what it is: Croque-madame aux oeufs de caille. Un oeuf par bouchée, vous imaginez ça ?. The Babel Fish Translation didn't help: Do Crunch-Madam with ruail eggs an egg by mouthful, you imagine that? [...]

My Burger is the French website for lovers of "malbouffe". The site is managed by six guys in their twenties, who share their craving for junkfood. Their ambition is to give a complete overview of all burgers, pizzas and associated junk available in France, both from the big chains and independent eateries. Each burger gets [...]

American blogger JMorrison calls himself a nonist, and his site illustrates what nonism is all about. Here's an example: Red-Hot and Filthy Library Smut "Yesterday I came across a truly gorgeous book of photographs by Candida Höfer titled, Libraries, a title which pretty much says it all, because that is just exactly what it is, [...]