In case you’re feeling homesick, there are two summer blues festivals coming up in France! (OK, there’s also rockabilly and country and more…).
If you decide to go, let me know. These are definitely road trip material!
I can just imagine how tickled I would have been at 13 or 14, in full francophile and feminine bloom, to have received a series of biographies of great women in French — and in graphic novel format.
Naïve is a small independent French publisher of books and music, and they’ve come out with this series called “Grands Destins de Femmes.” Subjects include Angela Davis, Dian Fossey, Frida Kahlo, Agatha Christie, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Aung San Suu Kyi and Virginia Woolf.
Take a peek inside the Coco Chanel bio by Bernard Ciccolini and Pascale Frey.
You can get them at Amazon.fr and FNAC.
Mike Rosenthal (@vectorbelly) has created Twitter: The Comic, a Tumblr blog of comics made from tweets, some his own, some by others.
There’s some random, twisted stuff on Twitter, as you may have noticed. But it makes for some interesting art.
This one, of course, is our favorite.
Based on this tweet by @DankHerbMullet.
Now I know what I’ll be doing for the rest of my life… As soon as I get an iPad, that is. Which may now be sooner than I had thought because the Bibliothèque nationale de France has just released Gallica for iPad. And it’s free. The app contains 240,000 books, 880,000 magazines and 470,000 images. Also original musical scores, manuscripts and other goodies. Watch the video, and download the app (French store link).
No iPad? Enjoy the riches on the web.
Alert, cultural stereotypes ahead! France as seen by Americans, Germans, José Bové, and more. Author(s) unknown. See the rest at: Cartes de France, vues par ….
“C’est beau d’être agriculteur” was the slogan for the 2012 Calendrier des jeunes agriculteurs, created by the French agricultural union “Jeunes Agriculteurs” to promote the métier of farming. We tipped you off to the young farmers’ calendar back in 2009, but didn’t have a picture. Looks like the 2012 version is sold out, but you can still make yourself a note to get one next year, and you can see more pics from the Calendrier Jeunes Agriculteurs 2012 here, though the slideshow doesn’t include all months.
Other calendars we’ve brought you in the past: The From’Girls, promoting French cheese with sexy pinups, the Aubade calendar, featuring those lingerie ads you see in the bus stops in Paris, and the Stade Paris rugby team beefcake calendar. You can get the current versions of them all at these links!
If you’ve never heard of Charles Jouffre, it’s probably because you’re not a movie star or a head of state. Ateliers Charles Jouffre, based in Lyon, creates the luscious interiors of iconic establishments such as the Crillon hotel in Paris and the Four Seasons in NY. Plus a few French government buildings, like the Palais de l’Élysée… More photos at Maison.com.
If you live in NY, Ateliers Charles Jouffre is participating in this year’s Kips Bay Decorator Show House fundraising event for the Boys and Girls Clubs. Charles Jouffre is represented in the room called the “Sensual Playground” (above photo by Marco Ricca). Ateliers Charles Jouffre contributed the upholstered walls and fabric wrapped moldings to this room designed by Shawn Henderson. Don’t miss a chance to see real luxury up close and personal!
In a city with a worldwide association to cinema, the Champs-Élysées Film Festival will be an annual celebration of film. Open to every kind of cinematic format, the Champs-Elysées Film Festival will allow French audiences to become acquainted with the best in American cinema from the newest trends to the latest film phenomena while showcasing films by both internationally renowned filmmakers as well as industry newcomers.
Open to the public! Festival Pass only 35€ ! Luscious Lambert Wilson is the Président d’honneur, and there’ll be a Donald Sutherland retrospective, plus he’ll be teaching a master class.
Image from the movie Luv, an official selection.
France’s far-right Front National FN is planning to sue Madonna over a video that shows party leader and former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen with a swastika on her forehead.
The extreme right have no problem with free speech when they want to spout hate, now do they? Good job, Madonna.
Read the rest at RFI.
It’s your lucky day, America! California has imported a French chocolatier who used to be high on the food chain (so to speak) at Lenôtre. Now he’s launched Nuubia Chocolat, his own line of gourmet French-style chocolates in the Bay Area. Nuubia Chocolat was voted one of the Top Ten Chocolatiers in North America, and named Chocolatier of the Year in 2011.
That’s all fine and dandy, but what really works for me is the eco aspect. The company uses NO palm oil or palm oil derivatives. (In case you didn’t know, palm oil is in about 50% of the packaged products we use, and it’s driving the orangutan to extinction.)
Nuubia Chocolat’s mission is to “produce exquisite chocolates and protect the planet”:
Because of our connection to the Earth, Nuubia Chocolat’s underlying mission is dedicated to help protect life on this planet and wildlife sanctuaries around the globe. Our Company is driven by “B” Corporation principles, using only GMO-free ingredients, FSC certified papers and packaging, and subscribing to standards that incorporate ethics and transparency into our daily business practices.
If you live in the area, you can visit their store in Pleasanton, where they even offer classes! If not, you can order online. Bon appétit !
The new socialist president of France and his prime minister create a lefty government with plenty of estrogen and a dash of crunchy granola. Yes! See the full-size infographic.
via @pascalcardonna
In two volumes, now available through the BNF site: The Notebooks of Edgar Degas : a catalogue of the thirty-eight notebooks in the Bibliothèque nationale and other collections
Article about the notebooks (in French): Les carnets de Degas, pour entrer dans les arcanes de sa création artistique | Gallica.