Category: Culture

Why Nice is Europe’s greatest city in winter

Anthony Peregrine, our Nice expert, offers a guide to the best things to see and do in the city this winter

Warmth, limpid light, wine, sparkling sea… Nice is wonderful in winter, as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been discovering. The couple embarked on a romantic New Year getaway to the French city – with reports suggesting they flew out on a BA flight on Sunday (and even opted for economy class).

To visit Nice in winter is to honour the traditions of rich and noble Britons. Our aristocratic forebears frequented the place through to April, and reinstating the practice seems entirely sensible. Here’s the Med without the summer squeeze, if a little nippy at the edges. One may eat outside at lunch, but it will probably be woollies by nightfall. No matter. France’s fifth city, throbbing with museums and galleries, also has the restaurants, bars and clubs to see you through cool nights [ . . . ]

More at source: Why Nice is Europe’s greatest city in winter

Chanson Du Jour: The Tuileries

Camélia Jordana & Bertrand Belin – The Tuileries

Poem by Victor Hugo set to music by Colette Magny.
December 8, 2013 at the 50th anniversary of France-Inter.

We are two funny
To the broad shoulders,
Merry bandits,
Knowing to laugh and beat,
Eating like four,
Drinking like ten.

When, emptying the liters,
We bump to the windows of
the estaminet,
The bourgeois deforms
Tremble in uniform
Under his big bonnet.

We live. In short,
We are an honest man,
We are not a spy.
We go on Sunday,
with Lise or Blanche,
Dinner with Richard.

We live without shelter,
greedily and quickly,
Like the sparrow, Raising
our whims
Until the singers
From Bobino.

Life is diverse,
We brave the shower
That wets our skins;
Still in ribotes
Having few boots
And no hats.

We have drunkenness,
Love, youth, Lightning
in our eyes,
Frightful fists;
We are devils,
We are gods!

Our two seigniaries
Go to the Tuileries To
stroll willingly,
And to say things
To the pink maids
Under the chestnut trees.

Beneath the green shadows Desert
ramps
We wander in the evening,
Water is leaking, the roofs smoke,
The chandeliers light up,
In the black castle.

Our soul collects
What the sheet says
At the end of the day,
The air that a gnome sings.
And, Place Vendome,
The sound of the drum.

The white statues
Pretty little clothed,
Discover their breast,
And make us signs
Whose swans dream
On the great basin.

O Rome! O City!
Annibal, quiet,
About us , schoolboys,
Fixing his vague eyes,
Shows us the rings
Of his knights.

The terrace is brown.
As the moon
fills it with clarity, with
shadows and lies

UniFrance presents a French Cinema Award to Juliette Binoche

On January 19, during the official opening of the 20th Rendez-Vous with French Cinema event in Paris, UniFrance presented a French Cinema Award to Juliette Binoche at the French Ministry of Culture. The award was handed to the actress by French Culture Minister Françoise Nyssen in the presence of a large number of movie industry professionals [ . . . ]

More at source: UniFrance presents a French Cinema Award to Juliette Binoche – uniFrance Films

A Cheap Person’s Guide to Fancy French Wine 

We asked four Master Somms from around the country to name some of the best wine steals in the seven most prestigious wine regions of France.

We all want to drink like we’ve got Zuckerberg money. But the truth is, expensive wine doesn’t even taste as good as we think it does. According to science, we should be paying less attention to the price of each bottle, and more attention to what’s on the label.

Fortunately, your friendly neighborhood Master Sommelier not only knows how to read a wine label—he or she can tell the difference between good stuff and total plonk. And as the guy or gal buying wine for your favorite restaurant or retail store, an M.S. also knows a thing or two about value. So I’ve asked four well-respected Master Somms from around the country to target some of the best wine steals in the seven most prestigious wine regions of France.

As it turns out, the most value can be found in lesser-known appellations close to those famous for high price tags. Master Sommelier Josh Nadel—founder of Gothic Wine and Beverage Director of New York’s NoHo Hospitality—uses the Rhône valley as an example: whereas Châteauneuf-du-Pape gets all the glory, land is more affordable in nearby Luberon, allowing for higher yield and economy of scale.

“Luberon isn’t as good as Châteauneuf-du-Pape, but the tangible profile of its wines—dark, sun-ripened fruit, full-bodied, moderate-to-plus-high alcohol, decent acidity—is roughly 80 percent the same,” Nadel explains. “Maybe the vineyards aren’t as old, the terroir is slightly different, the farmers aren’t making the wine the same ways—so you lose your last 10 to 20 percent of complexity, and the ability to age it for as long.”This trade-off can be applied to most wine regions in France. Drink your wine within a few years of purchasing it, and you’ll be able to save lots of moola on juice from the appellations recommended below [ . . . ]

More at: A Cheap Person’s Guide to Fancy French Wine | Food & Wine

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‘A hatred of men and sexuality’: 100 French women led by actress Deneuve slam post-Weinstein witch-hunt  

A collective of 100 prominent French women including famed actress Catherine Deneuve have denounced the puritanism that followed in the wake of allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, declaring that men should be free to hit on women [ . . . ]

Source: ‘A hatred of men and sexuality’: 100 French women led by actress Deneuve slam post-Weinstein witch-hunt – The Local