Mme. Renaud spent not years but decades writing to the mothers, wives, and sweethearts of our fallen soldiers, the ones who lie in honored graves in France. She dedicated her life to honoring them.
Visit the beautiful interactive site of the Mother of Normandy documentary (still in production) to see the trailer and more.
via American Thinker
We love Vincent Cassel. See him playing Jacques Mesrine, a true 20th-century French people’s hero, in L’Instinct de mort and L’Ennemi public n°1. Buy them both at the Francophilia Amazon Store.
via StarTribune.com
With the exception of Rosa Bonheur (French, 1822-1899), Fleury was perhaps the most successful female exhibitor in the history of the Paris Salon.
via Bearded Roman
“I am not okay with a film about me when I have not been told about it and when I have not given my agreement to the person playing my role,” Bardot said.
via CBC News
Google boss Eric Schmidt met President Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss the plans that include “the opening of a new engineering centre in Paris and the creation of a European institute for culture.”
via AFP, image: Google Bastille Day doodle 2007
There is one in virtually every sports bar in the South of France: a beautiful bare-bottomed Fanny. Sometimes she is decorously hidden behind a curtain.
Learn what Fanny is doing in the south of France and see a gallery of “Fannies” at Marseille-Provence.
More specifically pétanque, a particularly un-athletic form of bowling usually associated with pastis-sozzled, flat-capped old men of Provence, is now the height of hipster fashion.
Buy a pétanque set at the Francophilia Amazon Store.
A Muslim stonemason who spent nearly four decades helping to restore a Roman Catholic cathedral in France has been immortalized as a winged gargoyle peering out from its facade — with the inscription “God is great” written in French and Arabic.
(Why we love France.)
via The Canadian Press, image msnbc.msn.com
Makers of French Gruyère and Swiss Gruyère, which have a different taste and appearance, had both claimed the prestigious mark of quality the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) in their respective countries.
via The Guardian
Learn the history of the Cimetière des chiens at Purr-n-Fur UK
The fascinating story of Otis W. Leader, the Native American from Oklahoma who was “chosen by a French artist to personify the ‘ideal American soldier’ in World War I for the people of France.” We can’t find the painting. Anyone?
via NewsOK.com
Singer Rihanna is annoyed that people are saying there’s a grammatical error in her French tattoo. What do you say?
via The Sun
There was a striking abundance of smiles at the famed Château de Versailles for the opening of a show that detractors have denounced as speculative neo-vandalism, pornographic provocation, and a blight on France’s prized heritage.
via ARTINFO.com
Addendum: “Prince Sixte-Henri de Bourbon-Parme” the “rightful heir” the nonexistant French throne, is trying to get a court order to remove the exhibit because it dishonors his ancestors…. via BBC
One woman’s attempt to win a trip to Paris as she blogs about films, museums, hotels, restaurants, etc. related to France. A relevant contest link accompanies every post. Winning Paris… and Everything Else.
