Author: THE HOBBLEDEHOY

Michael Stevenson, aka Dai Bando, Johnny Foreigner, Monsieur Pas De Merde, is a blogger of French and British culture. His blogs "Pas De Merde" and "The Hobbledehoy" have been called "marvelous" by some, and "meh" by others.

Review: Two Animated Orphans Make Their Way to Paris in ‘Leap!’

Nit-picking will get you nowhere with the target audience of “Leap!,” an animated movie for tweens — they’re unlikely to care about critical quibbles. As for the adults who’ll get dragged to the theater: You’ve seen it all before, though it’s pleasant enough to watch again.Beginning at a French orphanage sometime around the 1880s, this good-natured tale finds 11-year-old Félicie (voiced by Elle Fanning) and her friend Victor (Nat Wolff) ready to run away to Paris, where she hopes to become a ballerina and he an inventor. After this generic pair is chased by the orphanage overseer (Mel Brooks, criminally underused) they arrive in the big city [ . . . ] Read Complete NYTimes Review

Summer in the city, when the city is Paris – The Washington Post

In August, the capital slows way down as Parisians claim their right to a long vacation.

August here is a phenomenon as French as they come. Employees in France are entitled to five weeks of paid vacation every year, more than in other European nations. Sometimes the French get even longer if they opt to work more than the standard 35 hours a week. This is why — and how — certain French restaurants, shops and small businesses can close for essentially one month of the fiscal year, a reality that never fails to mystify Americans.

But France is not the United States, and here, vacation is not a privilege. It is a right [ . . . ]

Read Full Story: Summer in the city, when the city is Paris – The Washington Post