The French Journal

The story of French fries

Mon ami Alain at French Virtual Cafe takes his time in posting entries, but when he chooses a subject, he covers it with a thoroughness that has the texture of a good magazine article. His latest discourse is on pommes frites (a.k.a. French fries), and it contains just about everything you'd want to know about them. There are marvelous stories about being in France and devouring samples from street vendors; notes about the origins of the dish, and France's arguments with Belgium about bragging rights; definitions; best cooking methods (and what potatoes to use); how they arrived on U.S. shores (maybe Thomas Jefferson will get credit), and variations on the frites. Plus, if you're in the Chicago area, you'll get recommendations for the best fries in town. Good piece of knowledge: "frites à volonté’’ = "All the fries you can eat." Merci, Alain!

TFJ Round-up: Forbidden video, Messiaen, and angst

Odds, ends:

• The video I can't show you. The attempt at a provocative header is extremely misleading on my part. The material isn't lascivious; I can't show it because there's no embedding info. From The Times (London), it's called "Secret Champagne," and it tours the region while explaining, more or less, that you're better off drinking the stuff in France than in the U.K. The deadpan narrator amuses me.
• A year of Messiaen around. The 100th anniversary of French composer Olivier Messiaen's birth will be celebrated this year, and the NY Times has appreciation. Le mari likes him; me, the philistine, am less enamored. Too much cacophony. Here's a short profile:

• Blogger angst. Not French, but lately I've been looking into an abyss, partly because of an article in yesterday's NYT about the hazards of blogging: long hours, low pay, and unhealthy results (particularly for writers of a certain age). More on my spiritual crisis coming up someday.

Commenters! Merci!

It's evident that travel -- and the work that accumulated at home while I traveled -- has kept me from regularity (ahem!) during the past week or so. The worst is over. I'd like to thank the visitors who commented over that time. A few notes:

• Mimi:  If you make great macarons, you are my new best friend forever.
• Too Many Frogs, etc.: Good luck with Mamam! Take her for a run!
• France Tales: Thanks for the Carcassone info. I hope I can take your recommendations some day.
• La Belette: We were had! But thanks for stopping by.
• Towards Paris: Great to meet you! As reported, however, the Tower is safe.
• Learn French with the Bible: Hope you saw my hat-tip yesterday.
• Anne Marie: Elaine S. has her uses!
• Polly: Glad that it evoked good feelings for you. Moms are important.
• Blue: I had fun (About this time of year, New Englanders forget what warm weather is. The trip was a pleasant reminder.)
• Bob, Bob, Bob: Thanks for you loyalty! I'm glad the site is remembering you (but don't get too comfortable).

Everyone else! Thanks for coming by! And there's lots of good reading in the embedded links above.

Jim Becker's "Super French Web Sites"

Haven't gone meta for awhile, so lassies and laddies, lemme introduce you to Super French Web Sites, the produce of Jim Becker, "professor emeritus" of the University of Northern Iowa. Here's a page of links -- hundreds of 'em -- about France. Language mavens will be particularly gratified: there are links about grammar, links to quizzes, links to dictionaries, exercises for children, etc. There are links leading to search engines, Paris sites, Pen Pals, Food. There are even several links to pages that will lead you to several links. A weather site. Featured sites. A link to an updating list of the most popular websites in France.

Graphically, it's a gaudy place, but if you're having a slow day at the office, and you're a Francophile, I've just given you enough to keep you busy for several hours.

Petite Anglaise x 5

One of the most successful of ex-pat bloggers is Catherine Sanderson, a.k.a. Petite Anglaise -- "success" in this case being defined as over 2-million hits and a book contract. British and in her thirties, Sanderson fell for Paris after her first visit, and moved there about a decade ago. She loved, lost, and loved again (with someone who commented on an entry); she also had a child and launched a successful lawsuit against an employer who fired her after finding out about her second career as a blogger. With the publication of her book, entitled -- logically -- Petite Anglaise, Sanderson gets the star treatment from The Guardian (U.K.):

• Rory McLean reviews the book, calling it "light, frank and tremendous fun."
• There's a slideshow narrated by Sanderson as she tours her adopted Belleville neighborhood. (I sighed, remembering my own climb up to the Parc de Belleville.)
• An accompanying article by Sanderson tells of her history and of her joy in Belleville.
• Her book is available for pre-order from Amazon, publication date in June in the US.
• Lastly, of course, there's the blog, which is a little heavy on information about publicity tours for the book these days. (I'd do the same thing.) In the meantime, it's fun to poke around in the archives.

Blog life: Links, items of interest

Goings-on in the French blogosphere:

• Craig McGinty of This French Life has discovered Imagiers, a YouTube page with dozens of little videos to help you learn the language.
• Charles Bremner of The Times (London), one of the best of us, has a list of what France is talking about this month. Topics include high prices, Sarko swearing a farm show, mayoral elections, Ingrid Bettancourt, and Marion Cotillard. Charles got his info from Paris-Match, which got it from IFOP. Let's see how many degrees of separation we can manage.
• Looking for a gay bar in Paris? Hidden Zipper goes to Raidd. Intense eye candy. HT Marjorie @ My Inner French Girl.
• Added some new links to my sidebar, including Walt's Another American in France, which aligns nicely with Living the Life in Saint-Aignan.
• Thanks to the redesigned SuperFrenchie for adding me to his blog roll.

Frogsmoke and Seurat

One thing I didn't do in New York is see the revival of Stephen Sondheim's Sunday in the Park with George, a musical about the creation of Georges Pierre Seurat's painting, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Timing was off.

As now happens with great works of art, Seurat's image has entered the mainstream; it's cribbed, manipulated, played with, reproduced, and re-imagined. Romke Soldaat of Frogsmoke has collected several of these derivations on a page that's lots of fun. You'll see the painting as a Playboy cover, built with Legos, recreated with the Simpsons, dinosaurs, and Bugs Bunny, and much more. Check it out.

Here's a sample: statues which mimic the painting, placed on the banks of the Mississippi near Iowa and Illinois's Quad Cities, and another recreation for a blues festival poster.

A tag, a moment of Zen, and a request for a volunteers

I've been tagged by mon amie Blue Vicar for the following blog game: Pick up a book on the top of your book stack, turn to page 123, read the first five sentences, then post the next three sentences. (Tagging is a thing bloggers do for fun and traffic.)

So, being a good sport, here's my contribution, in French, of course, from Le Resquilleur du Louvre/The Squatter in the Louvre, one of the books from Linguality. (I believe the narrator is looking at a shop window.)

"Ce torse imposant, à coup sûr. Mais ces longues jambes de femme semblaient n'avoir aucune chance de remplir un pantalon kaki à larges poches latérales. Quant à cet angelot, il devrait attendre Pâques ou la Mi-carême pour connaître la gloire d'une vitrine."

Rough translation:

"An imposing torso, for sure. But these long, female legs seem unlikely to fill out khaki pants with large side pockets. As for the little angel, he ought to wait for Easter or mid-Lent to experience the glory of being in a window display."

Contemplate that, why doncha?

By the rules of the process, I should "tag" someone else (or even a few people) to continue. Since I'm shy, let me know if you have a blog and want to play along. I'll tag the first three who respond.

Trucs, Part I: Politics, food, culture, web stuff

Francophilia galore:

• Politique reborn. Boz, the blogger whose site Politique closed down earlier this year, is back with Sarkozy the American, a similar mix of observations on the French political scene. A welcome return!
• Meringues, as a matter of style. A writer from The New York Times remembers fondly a French friend who could throw together a dinner party menu in about six seconds. One secret: a dessert made with meringues. Here's the formula.
• Just when you thought the "Death of French Culture" was dead. The Cultural Services of the French Embassy has made available "A Letter to Our American Friends," a translation of the "official" French response to the much-discussed Time magazine article.
• Do you iGoogle? If so, Samantha of The French Corner has put together a theme/wallpaper that might add a little French flair to your homepage.
• Gay, Ex-pat, living in Toulouse, Part II: I erred last week in suggesting that CyberFrance: Lost in France had this territory all to himself. Here's another: France Tales, a melange of photos, videos, and observations. There may be more...
• What's new for the French traveler? The Independent (U.K.) offers a list of some of this year's new options for exploration: The Wellington Quarries in Arras, Lourdes's 150th, the Toulouse version of Vélib’, tours for the family, etc.

I know I'm forgetting something. Will add as the day passes.

Everything old is new again: Arc de Triomphe, Lourdes, Paris in a rear view mirror

Improvisations on a theme of looking anew at familiar spaces:

• The museum at the Arc de Triomphe has been upgraded (USA Today). The dowdy exhibits, which had been unchanged since the 30's, are now interactive, with displays devoted to "arches of the world" and the Arc's history, and special telescopes through which you can view the Paris skyline.
• Lourdes celebrates an anniversary (AFP). The 150th, to be exact, of Mary's first appearance on February 11 to Bernadette Soubirous in a grotto. Throughout the year, there will be other recognitions of the date; the pope will make a visit, and special indulgences will be granted to visitors.
• Ma chère amie Polly-Vous Francais has led me to a site, Paris-Avant, which documents the changes in the city by contrasting old photos with new. The text is in French, but the navigation is simple. If you can read the language, however, there's great amount of history to be found. Following are some shots of the Rue Jacob, which I hope the site's owner will forgive me for publishing. (My intentions are honorable: go to the site!)