Ash Wednesday

“All are from dust, and to dust all return”
– Ecclesiastes 3:20
“We are stardust, we are golden”
– Saint Joni
“Now don’t hang on, nothing last forever but the earth and sky”
– Rev. Kansas
“That was long ago, and now my inspiration is in the stardust of a song”
– Archbishop Carmichael
“SAD”
– The Devil

Chanson Du Jour: Ima

I am listening to a lot of Yael Naim of late, and I was excited to find this video of Yael performing with New Orleans-based cellist (playing the banjo here)  Leyla McCalla, formerly of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. I love this tune – the only song on Naim’s album “Older” where she sings in Hebrew. Naim was born in Paris in 1978. When she was 4, her family immigrated to Israel and settled in Ramat Hasharon. In May 2004, she decided to settle permanently in Paris.

Chanson Du Jour: Yael Naim with Leyla McCalla – “Ima” 

How to do Montmartre in 24 hours

A day in Montmartre will probably kick off at Abbesses metro station (line 12). At 36m below ground, this hillside tube stop is in fact the deepest station in Paris, so we won’t judge if you take the lift up to street level.Emerging from your mole-like underground state into the humming centre of Montmartre will most likely be a rude awakening. Visiting school groups thronging the streets, buskers churning out Parisian ‘classics’, street vendors thrusting plastic Eiffel Towers in your face: it’s hardly the most relaxing scene. But today you’ll move away from the crowds and explore the lesser known side of the quaint northern neighbourhood
[ . . . ]

Read Full Story: How to do Montmartre in 24 hours | 24 hour guides | Time Out Paris

Chanson Du Jour: Little Darlin

Chanson Du Jour: Benjamin Biolay “Little Darlin”

Beneath Benjamin Biolay’s Gainsbourg-inspired whisper, the artist samples from The Carter Family’s “Little Darlin, Pal of Mine.” The Carter Family were the very first vocal group to become country music stars in America – so how cool is this? Très!

I really like Biolay. And he’s the only guy in the world who had an affair with Carla Bruni, but maybe wished he had the affair with his ex- Mother-in-Law (Catherine Deneuve.) Of course, none of this is my affair!

Tit-for-tat escalates as President Hollande hits back at Trump’s anti-France remarks

French President François Hollande hit back at Donald Trump with a dig about gun control Saturday, a day after the new US president attacked France’s immigration policies and Paris.”I don’t want to make a comparison, but there are no weapons circulating here, there are no people who take weapons to shoot into a crowd,” the Socialist president said, in a reference to the tighter gun control measures in France than in the US.”It is never good to show the slightest mistrust towards a friendly country. That is not what you do towards an ally and I ask the American president not to do that to France,” Hollande said at the opening of the high-profile annual agricultural fair in Paris [ . . . ]

Read Full Story: Tit-for-tat escalates as President Hollande hits back at Trump’s anti-France remarks – France 24