The French Journal

NYT: Mayors, Bruni, Marienbad, & Afaria

France was all over the NY Times yesterday, and here's the line-up:

• French political double-dipping. A news piece examines the latest scheme by the Sakozy government, in which many of his ministers are running as mayoral candidates in various locales, including some arrondissements of Paris. They will serve in both offices, which is legal. The "theory" is that the elections will give the officials a closer tie to "the people," and election results will serve as a referendum of sorts. The "practice" will probably be something less than that.
• A portrait of Bruni. The NYT Style section provides a laundry list of reasons to hate Carla Bruni: she's rich, beautiful, intelligent, successful in careers as supermodel and chanteuse, and about to land a position as France's first lady. She's also apparently a nice person, if occasionally a home-wrecker. (I guess this means my chances of becoming Evita are rapidly decreasing.)
• This year at Marienbad.  A revival of Alain Resnais's 1962 intellectual puzzler, Last Year at Marienbad/L'Année dernière à Marienbad, leads Mark Harris to examine the movie and the controversy it caused, and to remember a time when there were tiny theaters that played foreign films for months. Mostly I remember Pauline Kael's review of the film (she hated, hated, hated it), which had lines like: "About the only question I came out asking was 'how many changes of costume did the girl actually have?'"
• Afaria way from the usual spots. We all want to know about the Paris restaurants where "the locals" go, and then we find out that locals usually like places in neighborhoods that require a bit of a trek to get to. For those who don't mind taking the Metro to the far-off 15th arrondissement, the NYT suggests Afaria: Basque-ish, unpretentious decor, cheap, and delicious.

A visit to Bofinger

As a Sunday truc, enjoy a visit to one of the oldest eateries in Paris. Bofinger, near the Bastille, is a place that I've heard of but never seen or visited; the city's oldest brasserie, it serves up Alsatian cuisine like choucroute and fruits des mer, those towers of shellfish packed in ice. The restaurant's reputation suffered awhile back when it was taken over by the FLO group, a corporation, but a visitor from NPR found there "a grand French dining experience in a Belle Epoque setting." I especially liked this tip about reservations:

"When I called recently to make a reservation, I was told the restaurant was booked for the next three weeks. One way to get around this is to dine at the ungodly early hour of 7 p.m. When I proposed this, they told me to come right along. The bonus was that we were able to sit there for the next three hours enjoying the scene and our meal."