Category: Culture

Jane Birkin: ‘Serge Gainsbourg was never a boring genius’ 

Jane Birkin.
 

Jane Birkin began keeping a diary aged 11, with the entries addressed to her beloved stuffed toy Munkey. She was born in London; her mother was an actor and her father a spy during the second world war. Birkin’s concerns, initially, were typically teenage – boarding school, boys – but quickly become more juicy: aged 18, she married the James Bond composer John Barry; a year later, she appeared in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blowup. In her 20s, she became involved (creatively and romantically) with the French musician Serge Gainsbourg and set out on a lifelong path of singing, acting, writing and being one of the most renowned muses of the 20th century and beyond. Now 73, she lives in Paris with her bulldog – regularly seeing her daughters Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon, who are both actors and musicians; her oldest daughter Kate Barry, a photographer, died in 2013. Munkey Diaries: 1957-1982 is published this month.

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Chanson du Jour: “I Love Paris”

Cole Porter lyrics & music

Every time I look down on this timeless town

Whether blue or gray be her skies

Whether loud be her cheers, or whether soft be her tears

More and more do I realize that…

I love Paris in the spring time

I love Paris in the fall

I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles

I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles

I love Paris every moment

Every moment of the year

I love Paris, why oh why do I love Paris

Because my love is here

Coronavirus: partial activity maintained until December in the tourism sector

“Professionals need long-term support,” said the Secretary of State for Tourism, announcing that recourse to partial unemployment, scheduled until September, would be extended.

In France, the epidemic Covid-19 has already killed 19,708 people in French hospitals, according to data provided by Public Health France. To which must be added the 10,515 deaths recorded in nursing homes and other medico-social centers, the data of which have been gradually raised since the beginning of April. The number of home deaths linked to this epidemic is difficult to calculate and is not yet known. But Olivier Véran, the Minister of Health, declared that this figure would be the subject of first estimates “in June” .

The number of recoveries displayed here corresponds to the returns home of people hospitalized for Covid-19. It does not include people who have been infected and who are cured at home, which is difficult to quantify.

The partial activity mechanism set up for the tourism sector will be extended until the end of 2020, announced Wednesday, July 29, Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne. Invited on France Info, the Secretary of State for Tourism indicated that the exact modalities of this four-month extension remained to be defined.

Introduced during confinement, this recourse to partial unemployment – both terms are used, but the partial activity does not imply registration with Pôle Emploi and is therefore not considered to be unemployment – had been put in place to help certain sectors to cope with the stoppage or decline in their activity [ . . . ]

Continue at Le MONDE: Coronavirus: partial activity maintained until December in the tourism sector

Makeshift patios take over Paris streets in virus summer

Paris (AFP) – At his cafe under the shadow of the Paris district of Montmartre, Guillaume Dubois shows off the brightly painted wooden pallets enclosing a quickly built patio that he says has transformed business in the summer of the coronavirus.

Following a loosening of regulations by city hall, customers at the Sunset cafe are now spread out on tables and chairs across three parallel parking spaces, in a scene repeated throughout Paris.

“It completely changes the face of Paris,” said Dubois, adding that it helped propel a surge in sales last month, when the city’s bar and restaurants were allowed to reopen after 92 days of COVID-19 lockdown.

With the general scientific consensus that it is much harder to catch the virus outdoors than inside, cafe-goers are more at ease on the street in the summer sunshine.

Mayor Anne Hidalgo eased outdoor seating limits so owners could lure virus-wary clients, and commandeered hundreds of parking spots for additional seating.

Hammers soon rang across the city as plywood platforms were cobbled together over uneven roads, with delivery pallets serving as “walls” to offer a sense of security from drivers who are often just an arms’ length away.

“It’s a little ragtag, but it reminds me of the beach and paddle boats — you feel as if the entire city is on vacation,” said Roxane, 50, enjoying her coffee at the Sunset.

While some owners stick with the rough look of raw wood, many others have added splashes of colour and installed plants or small trees and other decorations.

As a result, pallets that usually languish behind stores or warehouses are being put to new use — some restaurants have even reported having their newly installed structures stolen.

“Everyone is scrambling to get hold of them,” said Momo, whose Taverne 28 is a few streets away from the Sunset in the 18th Arrondissement.

He said he enlisted a friend in the construction business to get the 10 pallets he covered the French national colours of red, white and blue. Continue reading “Makeshift patios take over Paris streets in virus summer” →