Category: Culture

Site helps owners plan dog-friendly trips in France

As French residents are encouraged to take holidays in France this summer post-Covid-19, a website is helping dog-owners plan holidays with their pets, sharing dog-friendly listings around the country.

Emmène ton chien (Bring Your Dog), launched by Sophie Morche, has around 100,000 monthly visitors – known as “Wouafers” – who search the site find to dog-friendly places to visit in France, as approved by other members.

Ms Morche says visitors can share places that have made their dogs “really welcome” in France. Dog-friendly establishments are then given a rating from 1-4 on the website’s “Qualidog” scale, depending on how positive users’ experiences have been.

Information provided on the site includes how many dogs can be allowed into a dog-friendly establishment at once, what size dogs are welcome, and whether services – such as bowls and dog pads – are provided. It also answers questions such as which campsites allow dogs in onsite restaurants, and which holiday cottages have dog-gardens. 

Five years ago, Ms Morche adopted her own dog and quickly found: “Finding dog-friendly places wasn’t simple. Often you don’t know what the welcome will be like when you go somewhere. My dog is a member, and a full part, of my family. There are about 18 million people in the same situation [in France], and we shouldn’t apologise for wanting to go on holiday with the whole family!”

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InspiDog du jour : et si le roadtrip en 🚐van aménagé ou 🚍camping-car était le secret pour s’évader quelques jours avec son chien?! C’est ce qu’a choisi @tornade_bleue ⛱🏝 et apparemment c’était Wouafement Bien !! Ça donne envie! ⁣Vous avez déjà testé? ⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ 👩🏻‍💼: utilisez le #emmenetonchien pour partager vos photos et toutes vos activités avec votre chien ⁣⁣⁣!! ⁣⁣⁣ 🐶 : Découvrez tous les bons plans des Wouafer’s en suivant le compte 👍⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣⁣ 🕶 Question à @wikicampers ou @yescapa : des locations dogfriendly pour les Wouafer’s ? 🐶⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ #⁣#emmenetonchien #vanlife #chienstagram #happydog #deconfinement #chien #plage #weekend #vanlifewithdogs #dogonthebeach #swimdog #doglovers #doglife #campingcariste #campingcar #campingcarlife #doglovers #roadtrip #dogadventures #dogtravel #dogtricks #dogtrip

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As well as accommodation and restaurants, emmenetonchien.com includes popular destinations in France, such as tourist sites and physical activity centres. It also has listings for activities specifically for dogs, such as agility courses and even dog massages. 

For places that want to improve their “Qualidog” rating, the site also offers advice on how to better welcome dog owners. 

Source: Site helps owners plan dog-friendly trips in France

VIDEO. They move apartments by bicycle: “Cheaper, simple and eco-friendly”

 

Moving a two-room apartment in Paris by bike is possible. This is what the association Carton Plein does by employing people to reinsert

By Claire Duhamel, Nathalie Olivier

Three trailers, three bikes, two round trips. Nothing more is needed to move Nicolas’ apartment from the 11th to the 20th arrondissement of Paris. Patiently, Florin and Tony, helped by a third colleague, load into the trailers, a bed, a sofa, a washing machine and more than thirty boxes. Then they wander around the city, making their way on the cycle paths.

Tony is Nigerian, in France since 2013, he has refugee status. Florin comes from Romania, he arrived in France six years ago and multiplied odd jobs before becoming a mover. Both are employed by Carton Plein , a professional integration association specializing in urban bicycle logistics.

“It’s like a Tetris”

For Florin, moving furniture on a bicycle is a bit like “a game of Tetris”. You have to be methodical, find a place for each box, protect them, then transport a boat that can reach 300 kg. To make it a little easier, the movers are equipped with electric bikes.

In all, this day of moving by bike cost Nicolas € 600. A price roughly identical to that of a conventional move in a truck, but without carbon emissions.

A concept born in Montreal

The concept of moving by bicycle, born in Montreal in 2007, has spread in France. As in Rennes where the solidarity cooperative Tout En Vélo has offered equivalent services since 2011. Lille and Grenoble are also among the pioneer cities. In Paris, Carton Plein launched this service in 2015 and remains for the moment the only structure to offer it in the capital.

Moving without carbon emissions

Cargo bikes and trailer bikes, very common in Holland and Denmark, are gradually making their way into the cities of France. More and more deliveries are made with these non-polluting travel objects and craftsmen have abandoned their van for their benefit.

The association Les boxes à vélo , to which Carton Plein adheres, lists all the professionals in the sector with an online map to find the professional closest to your home. It’s up to you if you want to reduce your carbon footprint.

Source: Le Parisien VIDEO. They move apartments by bicycle: “Cheaper, simple and eco-friendly” – Le Parisien

How the Coronavirus Spread QAnon

Right-wing conspiracies and the pandemic created a petri dish for the child-trafficking hoax.

For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones’ newsletters.

Curious, Simon dug deeper. In Schroeder’s Instagram Highlights, which are Instagram stories selected by posters to stay up longer than the normal 24 hours, Simon found a set of messages titled “Theory.

Jaylnn Schroeder, an Instagram influencer with 50,000 subscribers, seems like any one of the thousands of people who have grown an audience on the platform by presenting a curated glimpse of their life. With a bio of “Sharing my Passions + Purpose” that notes “I believe in love + light + 🍟,” she mostly posts photos of family, friends, and outfits.

Continue reading “How the Coronavirus Spread QAnon” →

9 Classic Dishes from Provence to Try this Summer – Frenchly

From St. Tropez to Marseille, these are the dishes that will definitely make your Instagram followers jealous.

1. Ratatouille

No, it’s not just a cute animated childrens movie about — of all things — a rat who likes to cook. It’s actually a vegetable stew originally made by peasants in the South of France (particularly in Nice) when they didn’t want to waste a bunch of random ingredients. Ratatouille is tomato based, with zucchini, eggplant, onions, and a variety of spices, and it is slow cooked until the vegetables gain a smooth, creamy texture.

2. Socca

Like many of these dishes, socca is an example of Provence’s Mediterranean influences, both Italian and North African. Socca is a thin, unleavened pancake made from chickpea flour typically baked in a tinned copper plate as a street food in Marseille or Nice.

3. Soupe au Pistou

This vegetable and bean soup is similar to the Italian minestrone, but a bit tapered down, designed to highlight the vegetables of the season. White beans, tomatoes, onions, green beans, squash, and pasta are common ingredients. And the coup de grâce is the spoonful of pistou, pesto made without pine nuts, plopped right on top for you to stir in. Continue reading “9 Classic Dishes from Provence to Try this Summer – Frenchly” →

Black Visions of France: the Other Expat Writers You Should be Reading – Frenchly

From James Baldwin to Jake Lamar, there are so many incredible black writers who have made Paris their home.

Langston Hughes

Every white writer who’s been to France has an essay, a memoir, a novel, or a poetry collection about the country. It’s practically a rite of passage. But Paris didn’t cease to exist once Hemingway was done with it. There are countless black writers who expatriated to France and wrote about the country with just as much insight and skill. So if you want to understand or live the expat experience, it’s time you start reading about the other side of it. (Consider also purchasing from a local black-owned bookstore, like Sisters Uptown Bookstore in NYC, Mahogany Books in Washington D.C., or Black Pearl Books in Austin.)

James Baldwin

Where to start, but with James Baldwin? The Harlem-born writer moved to Paris in the middle of the twentieth century, at the age of 24, to escape the racism and prejudice he faced in America. In addition to works like Go Tell It On The Mountain and Notes on a Native Son, one of Baldwin’s must-reads is Giovanni’s Room, a quasi-autobiographical novel about a young black man who takes up with a handsome Italian in Paris, and one of the seminal works of black queer fiction.

Continue reading “Black Visions of France: the Other Expat Writers You Should be Reading – Frenchly” →