This fascinating and dynamic bar chart by John Burn-Murdoch of the Financial Times (via Jane Friedman's website) shows the relative populations of the world's 10 largest cities from 1500 to 2018. Follow Paris! It only dropped off in many of our lifetimes!...
Blog
Lost in Frenchlation April Events!
Lost in Frenchlation has several more events this month and they have kindly offered **two free tickets to the first of Paris Weekender's readers to email me at parisweekender@gmail.com** and request them. Please note which of the shows below you'd like to attend. ***...
Bonne Année !
The French take their "Happy New Year!" (or "Happy year!" as they say) very seriously. While you can get away with a simple bonne année, most French go one step--or two or three or four--beyond. It's quite common to accompany the greeting ("je te souhaite") with lots...
Love in Translation
Thanks this week to my friend Linda for sharing with me this New Yorker article that I would like to now share with you. Sunrise this morning in Plougrescant, Côtes d'Armor, Brittany The author, Lauren Collins, offers some great insights into the relationship between...
Book Review: The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner
I just finished reading Eric Weiner's The Geography of Bliss, or technically the author, Eric Weiner himself, read the book to me. I'm back into audiobooks now. I first became enamored with them a few years back when I commuted 45 minutes by foot to work. Before you...
Keeping up with France from the U.S.
If you're living in the U.S. or just back for an extended visit and you don't want to lose track of your French side, be sure to sign up for e-mail announcements from the French consulate (or Embassy, if you're in the D.C. area). Sacré Coeur, painted with the...
Fraternité, Solidarité and the Legacy of Charlie Hebdo
The atrocities of the past week have unleashed a number of questions about the future of freedom of speech, religious sensitivity and tolerance, extremism, national security, racism, diplomacy and national unity. These are all questions that need to be addressed, not...
Fest Noz in Malestroit
A Fest Noz, or night festival, is a traditional festival in Brittany, centered around dancing and music. Just about every very town in Brittany holds its own festival, so especially if you're visiting the region in the summer, it's hard to find a single evening when...
Nautical Jousting
One thing I've learned in France, I will always be perplexed by local festivals. This Sunday, friends and I were strolling into Auray, in Brittany's Morbihan department, and encountered a huge crowd of people hovering at the edge of the river. A DJ added to the...
My New Pet Peeve
My least favorite word in the French language was and may still be the word normalement. Normalement basically means "if all goes according to plan". When you add normalement to a response, it means the thing should happen. For example: Question: « Le magasin est...