Graham Robb wrote a superb book about France two years ago, The Discovery of France, and now follows it up with an ingenious study of Paris since 1750. Perhaps surprisingly, Paris turns out to be the more tumultuous and unbounded subject.
Read the rest of the review at the Telegraph. Buy Parisians at the Francophilia Amazon store!
Gabrielle Rothschild is a 14-year-old francophile fashion designer in California. J’adore this dress! Here’s what she says about her inspirations:
The inspiration for my clothing line mostly comes from places in France, such as the Arc de Triomphe, Monet’s garden, 31 Rue Cambon, and especially la Tour Eiffel (the Eiffel Tower)! I also love art, so Van Gogh, Monet, Da Vinci, and Degas frequently inspire me.
A high spot in the world of Swiss chocolate is the annual awards ceremony for the next generation of chocolatiers-confisseurs in canton Vaud, designed to promote the three-year apprenticeship programme. [...] The theme of this year’s contest was haute couture, and part of the ceremony was a fashion show with four dresses made from chocolate, including one worn by Miss Suisse Romande, who wore white chocolate.
Read the rest at GenevaLunch. See all the student creations on the official site of the Société Vaudoise et Romande des Patrons Pâtissiers-Confiseurs, Chocolatiers, Glaciers (click Images).
Les Aventures de Tintin, by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) coming to theaters in December! Here’s the official Tintin site. Get your Tintin books in the Francophilia Amazon store!
Every day for a year, from September 21, 2009 through September 20, 2010, Guillaume Bardet made a drawing of an object. He is continuing this “artistic performance” by having his drawings brought to life by a dozen ceramicists from the Dieulefit area, where he has lived since he left behind the bustle of Paris two years ago. 365 pieces are being made, and they will be the subject of an exhibit at the Musée de Sèvres in Paris in the first quarter of 2012, and in the Drôme region that summer.
The pieces above are by Clémence Fouilhé, who will be among the artisans d’art showing and selling her wares at Potterware 2011.
Visit the Usage des jours website to see all of the drawings and ceramic pieces.
John Coulthart at feuilleton turned me on to the late 60s–early 70s French magazine Plexus, a sexy offshoot of Planète. [...] It’s an intriguing mix of surreal-fantastic-psychedelic art, interviews with writers (Jacques Sternberg was the literary editor), Playboy-style comics and the occasional Popeye comic, science fiction stories, Gilles de Rais profiles, philosophy, and—though there are few traditional photo spreads—lots and lots of boobs. Each early issue features a full-color “pin up”: an erotic work by an artist like Leonor Fini.
Read the rest at 50 Watts.
Son of Jacques Higelin, an icon of French variété, Arthur H is one of our absolute favorite French singers. This is a fan video mashup using Chanson de Satie, which Arthur H recorded with Feist.
You can get some of his albums, including our favorite, adieu tristesse, on which the song in the video appears, at the Francophilia Amazon store.
Mesh gloves, a rosary, a pencil-holder made from shells of German guns—these are some of the real-life objects that inspired this World War I-era novel, with photos of the objects scattered through the pages. [Author Elena Mauli] Shapiro inherited the cache of treasures that belonged to a scarcely known neighbor; all she really knew was the woman’s Paris address and name, Louise Brunet. The novel constructs a frame in which an American academic imagines Louise’s story through her possessions: the fiancé killed in the war, her bourgeois marriage, her sexual fantasies. Source: thedailybeast.
Visit the 13, rue Thérèse interactive website and buy the book at the Francophilia Amazon Store.
…[T]he epic mess of Piaf’s love life, as well as the scale of her talent, make this story something special, while her brutal Dickensian childhood virtually ensured that she would spend her adult life in a doomed quest for perfect love and security.
Complete review at The Barnes & Noble Review. Buy the book at the Francophilia Amazon store.
