Apple plans second store in Paris

Mes amis, Paris is known for a lot of things. It’s the City of Lights. It’s the City of Love. Alas, it’s still a major European city sans an Apple Store. Heck, Geneva got an Apple Store before Paris. I mean, as much as I love the Swiss, the Canton de Genève doesn’t really hold a candle to the Île-de-France.

Last we heard, construction was underway for a store at the Carrousel du Louvre. But its opening date has been about as elusive as a Budweiser in a Parisian cafe.

Read more about the secon apple store at macworld

apartments blog

Gerard Depardieu caresses his Christmas turkey

French actor GERARD DEPARDIEU ensures his holiday turkey is delicious by caressing and talking to the bird before cooking it.
The Cyrano De Bergerac star – who happens to own La Fontaine Gaillon restaurant in Paris, France – is adamant the key to preparing the perfect fowl is to relax the creature.
He told Decanter magazine, “Before killing something, I always talk to it. An animal that’s been caressed before it’s killed dies peacefully, and its muscles do not contract with adrenalin.
“If an animal is slaughtered in a stress-free way, it tastes better.”

Apartments in Paris

Parisians head to UK in search of a bargain as the pound plunges

Anne Ladonne, a Parisian mother of three, stared out of the Eurostar window at the Kent countryside, planning her London shopping list. “White sliced bread from Marks and Spencers – our equivalent, pain de mie, is not as soft. Crackers for cheese for Christmas, all-butter shortbread, and jars of Marks and Spencer’s pasta sauce.”

Ladonne, a media communications director, once saw London shopping as a chance to get “exotic” items she couldn’t find in Paris. But the pound plummeting against the euro has brought a new bargain potential, helped by Britain’s craze for discounting. “Primark pyjamas,” she mused excitedly.

Could London, once maligned for its inhumanly high prices, be undergoing an image change as a cheap shopping destination? Yesterday the pound fell to €1.12, compared with €1.50 in January 2007. British expats paid in pounds who once lived a charmed, cheaper life in France are squeezed and depressed, whereas canny French shoppers able to afford a London trip are sizing up the benefits. On Kensington High Street, the shopping haunt of many wealthy French expats, Jean-Luc Vuhal, a restaurant manager, pondered his plight.

Read the rest here: The Guardian

Ugly Americans in Paris?

Last week, the cast and crew of ABC’s show “What Would You Do?” set up hidden cameras around several Parisian cafés and sent in two actors posing as Texans visiting town on their honeymoon. They snapped their fingers and called the waiter “Garçon!”, sent back their steak tartare to be cooked, asked for Freedom Fries, tasted the wine at neighboring tables (and spit it out), wore Crocs and “Paris Texas” T-shirts that said “Bush 08″ on the back, and generally made spectacles of themselves in an effort to get a rise out of the other diners and unsuspecting waiters.

I was asked to participate as a local “expert” to comment on what visitors should and shouldn’t do in Parisian cafés if they want to feel welcome. In my interview with the show’s host, “Primetime” co-anchor John Quinones, I explain that being loud isn’t polite in France, and that calling a waiter “Garçon” is insulting. Amazingly, it was harder to ruffle French feathers than we all suspected.

Source: The ParisBlog.Com

Apartments in Paris

If you decide to pay for a hotel room, that is usually what you get – just a room! Ok, it’s usually a nice room with a nice bathroom etc. On the other hand renting an apartment can be quite a step up depending on the type of apartment you are renting. For example, you will usually have one or two bedrooms or in some cases three, you’ll also have a fully equipped kitchen with all mod cons and a living room with TV etc.

Best of all you’ll have space. Lot’s of space can be priceless especially if you’ve got children. Think about the weather for example – renting an apartment in Paris gives you the chance to take it easy on rainy days. Just think about it – you’ll have room to move and breathe and nobody is treading on each others’ toes, something that’s quite impossible in a hotel room I’m sure you’ll agree.

Have you ever ended up staying in your hotel room because the weather has been too awful to venture outside? If you answered ‘yes’ then I’m quite sure an apartment would have been more comfortable, wouldn’t it?

Renting an apartment in Paris can be very cost effective especially if you are in a small to medium sized group. Whereas you usually pay per night in a hotel an apartment offers just one rate based on days, weeks or months. So you see apartment renting can prove more cost effective than a hotel room.