More than any other, the 8th arrondissement is home to a never-ending succession of flash-in-the-pan fashion tables where the decor and crowd count for more than the cuisine.
“My garden is always en mouvement,” says Odile Masquelier of the magnificent rose garden at La Bonne Maison, her home on a hill overlooking Lyon and the Saône River. It takes only a first glance at her magical landscape to see what she means.
Europe is next in Nicolas Sarkozy’s arena of ambitions—not like Napoleon, with whom he is often compared, but in the noble concept of the European Union. Beginning in July France will take its six-month turn filling the presidency of the 27-member Union, which is not really about being president but simply first among equals.
French landscape designer Louis Benech’s enthusiasm for gardens, for making them and talking about them, is boundless. Example: this horticultural magician, in demand all over the world, whiled away a recent Parisian afternoon lecturing to a small group of dedicated garden buffs from an association called Vivaces & Cie—Hardy Perennials & Co.
“Comme c’est bizarre,” says Colombine, “every year for la fête des mères (Mother’s Day; in France it’s the last Sunday in May) mabelle-mère (my mother-in law) gives me a cactus!”
We’ll always have Paris—or at least the cuddly stuffed Eiffel Tower and the tacky T-shirt! If you’re looking for the perfect gift or souvenir, forget the kitsch and start your quest in the upper echelons of style.
A little more than a quarter of a century after the launch of France’s first TGV high speed train in 1981, the engineering conglomerate Alstom has unveiled a prototype of the next generation of top-speed train, to be called the AGV—for Automotrice à Grande Vitesse...
Contemporary Architecture: The Good, the Bad and the Really Monstrous
When it comes to contemporary architecture, is Paris doomed? After all, this is the city that erected the Tour Montparnasse, one of Europe's most monstrous structures, and the Opéra Bastille, a beached whale of a building so badly constructed that it required a hairnet to prevent pieces of the facade from falling onto passersby.
Much of what is known about life in France during the 19th century was passed down by the era's celebrated writers: Balzac, Zola, Maupassant and others.
