Category: Culture

France Offers Chinese Primer in Mastering Wine Industry

By 2020, experts believe China will be the world’s second biggest wine market — getting there means mastering the trade

DIJON, FRANCE — 

Yixuan Hao swirls the sparkling red in her glass and dips nearer to sniff. Throughout this frigid afternoon, she has been smelling and tasting wines from sunnier climates: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, California. Perhaps soon, sooner than many people think, students like herself learning the wine trade here in Burgundy, will be sipping vintages from another New World upstart: China. [ . . . ] More: France Offers Chinese Primer in Mastering Wine Industry

France May Run Out of Foie Gras Before Christmas

The French—already faced with a butter shortage and awful wine harvest—now must go without fatty duck liver this Christmas.

The last few months have been rough for the French. Supermarket shelves across the country that should be stocked with their beloved butter sit fallow, as a massive shortage puts a crimp in their croissants. Cold weather caused 2017 to be the worst wine harvest since World War II. And now insult, meet injury. The country is running out of foie gras at the worst moment.

At Christmastime across France many people participate in Le Réveillon, a Christmas Eve celebration where people come home from Midnight Mass to indulge in a decadent meal of oysters, escargot, roasted fowl, lobster and foie gras. And in case you haven’t noticed, the French take their food traditions pretty seriously. After all, the French government once threw a worldwide dinner party celebrating its food because it felt the country’s culinary reputation had taken a hit. So the lack of foie gras.

Source: France May Run Out of Foie Gras Before Christmas

Johnny Hallyday, We Hardly Knew You!

 

The “French Elvis” loved the U.S., and lived there on and off for years. But the only country that every truly loved his music was France. His death marks the end of an era.

PARIS—“Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you—gently, with love, and hand your life back to you,” a woman’s voice intones at the beginning of the song that many in France consider the very best in the very long repertoire of Johnny Hallyday.

And if you listen to it, and especially if you watch the 1985 video, as the singer rides the rails and hitchhikes through rural America, you might think “Quelque chose de Tennessee” (“Something of Tennessee”) is about a state where Nashville’s the capital. But, no. The song’s not a tribute to country, but to literature. The lines at the beginning are from the play “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” and the title refers to the author, Tennessee Williams.[ . . . ] More at: Johnny Hallyday, We Hardly Knew You!