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French History – Flights of Fancy Posted by Tim Hildreth on Dec 1, 2020
Current travel restrictions have kept me grounded, but I have to say, I love to fly. And while the U.S. and the Wright Brothers claim “first in flight”, France has its share of honors to celebrate in aviation. Un avion sur les toits In doing some follow up research to last week’s post, I learned…
French Culture – Decorating Posted by Tim Hildreth on Nov 24, 2020
For many, the Thanksgiving holiday here in the US marks the official start of the holiday season. France doesn’t officially have Thanksgiving, and so souvent le temps des fêtes commence (the holiday period begins often) right after la Toussaint. Noël aux Grands Magasins One of the first signs of Christmas’s impending arrival, in Paris at least, can…
French Culture – I’m hungry … and I’m in a hurry! Posted by Tim Hildreth on Nov 17, 2020
A friend of mine was recently asking me about fast food in France. France – one of the world’s undeniable gastronomic powerhouses – has a complicated and conflicted history with la restauration rapide. La malbouffe France is, after all, the country that coined the term bad eating and where, in 1999, the future candidat à…
French Commerce – Glow in the dark Posted by Tim Hildreth on Nov 10, 2020
Well here we are, almost at the mi-novembre (mid-November). In France, tout comme aux États-Unis (just like in the United States), we’ve changed the clocks and it gets dark earlier. Growing up in the northeastern United States, I’m used to early evenings. But when I went to France for the first time, I was hardly…
France – Looking Forward Posted by Tim Hildreth on Nov 3, 2020
Last week I promised a change of pace, so while the world continues to grapple with Covid, this week I’ll keep the coverage to a minimum. Someday this global pandémie (pandemic) will be over and we’ll be ready to get back to life. What next? No one quite knows when this will all end, but…
French Culture – Curfew Part 2 Posted by Tim Hildreth on Oct 27, 2020
If you’re like me, you probably have at least a little Covid fatigue. I was hoping to move on this week and turn back to non-Covid issues, but as France continues to deal with the pandemic, it felt import to spend one more week on the latest updates. La semaine prochaine I promise something else!…
French Culture – Curfew Posted by Tim Hildreth on Oct 20, 2020
France, like many parts of the world, is seeing a resurgence of cases of Covid-19 as the cooler weather of l’automne (autumn) settles in. In an attempt to get things back under control and to avoid another confinement, the French government has instituted un couvre-feu in many cities around the country. Couvre-feu Le couvre-feu (lit…