Every year French lingerie company Aubade puts out a sexy calendar using some of the year’s ads. And you can download the calendar from the Aubade site! On this page, under Téléchargements, click Calendrier (couverture + les 12 mois).
Get an Hermès bracelet – for free!
On the Hermès site right now, you can download PDF patterns for six versions of the dog collar bracelet to print and make yourself. Just go to the Hermès site, click Travel the world of Hermès, and choose Surprises from the menu (vertical orange bar, top left). Note that different country sites might have different versions!!
If you don’t find them, or if they take them down (they don’t stay up there forever, ladies!), you can get them here.
Get an Hermès clutch – for free!
On the Hermès site right now, you can download PDF patterns for six versions of the Jigé clasp clutch to print and make yourself. Just go to the Hermès site, click Travel the world of Hermès, and choose Surprises from the menu (vertical orange bar, top left). Note that different country sites might have different versions!!
As with the other Hermès goodies we’ve posted, if you don’t find them, or if they take them down, you can get them here.
CD compilation of music from Nouvelle Vague films
If your Valentine happens to be both a Francophile and a cineaste, I think s/he might be quite pleased with Universal-France’s three-disc compilation, Nouvelle Vague: Chansons et Musiques de Films. The set includes selections from soundtracks composed by Michel Legrand, Georges Delerue, Miles Davis, Maurice Jarre, Serge Gainsbourg, Bernard Herrmann, and on and on, for films by such directors as François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle, Claude Chabrol, Phillippe De Broca, Jacques Demy, and on and on.
Read more at Cinespect and buy Nouvelle Vague: Chansons et Musiques de Films at the Francophilia Amazon Store!
Gallica, France’s digital library
We could wander these virtual stacks for days! So far, the Bibliothèque nationale de France has digitized more than one million works, including books, maps, manuscripts, images, periodicals, scores and sound recordings, and made them available for free to the public at the Gallica digital library. This is France’s answer to Google Books, and the result of the big fight from a couple of years ago.
Air France’s and other airlines’ gorgeous uniforms
Air France flight attendants wear Christian Lacroix. See other great uniforms from around the world at L’Internaute Voyager.
Paris to cut amount of advertising on streets by 30% | World news | The Guardian
Paris authorities are to cut the amount of advertising on city streets by 30% and ban all adverts within 50m of school gates.
Read the rest at The Guardian. Image, Simon Daval.
Gainsbourg’s songs selling Guerlain, Dior perfumes…
The work of Serge Gainsbourg, the large-nosed, Gitanes-smoking French icon whose jazzy, bohemian songs exemplified a sexually liberated France of the 1960s and 1970s, is enjoying a resurgence in the most unlikely of places — perfume ads.
Read the rest at Reuters.
Quiz: Are You a Francophile?
Take this quiz to discover just how deeply you love the country and its people.
You wear:
a. an “I love Paris” T-shirt
b. a sweater tied around your neck
c. a permanent scowl
Take the quiz at The Paris Blog. Image via Polyvore. Check out the rest of her funky fashion combos!
Gabrielle R. Fashion Designer (at 14)
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.
Princes and villains
In 2009, the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) had an exhibit on the history of French games called Jeux de princes, jeux de vilains. Fortunately, the site is still up, offering great images, games (ludothèque), teaching aids (action pédagogique) and lots more.
Game buff? Also see Five Centuries of Board Games at BibliOdyssey.
[...] 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 [...]
RSS feed for comments on this post. / TrackBack URI