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 Edith PIAF ~ "The Little
Sparrow" by Lady_Mystique
She was born in Paris, France; her mother worked as a cafe singer and her father was a travelling acrobat. Abandoned by her mother, she was raised by her paternal grandmother, who ran a brothel in Normandy.
From age 3 to 7, she was blind. And, as part of Piaf's legend, she allegedly recovered her sight after her grandmother's prostitutes went on a pilgrimage.
Later she lived for a while with her alcoholic father, whom she left at age 15 to become a street singer in Paris.
In 1935, Édith was discovered by the nightclub owner Louis Leplée.
She wrote her signature song, 'La Vie en Rose', in the middle of the German occupation in World War II.
Singing for high-ranking Germans at the "One Two Two Club" earned Piaf the right to pose for photos with French prisoners of war. Once in possession of their celebrity photos, prisoners were able to cut out their own images and use them in forged papers as part of escape plans. Today, Piaf's association with the French Resistance is well known and many owe their lives to her.
After the war, Piaf toured Europe, the U.S.A, and S. America, becoming an international star.
Piaf died of cancer in Cannes on October 11, 1963, the same day as her friend Jean Cocteau.
She was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.
Although forbidden a Mass by the Roman Catholic archbishop of Paris (because of her lifestyle), her funeral procession drew hundreds of thousands of mourners onto the streets of Paris and the cemetery was jammed with more than forty thousand fans.
Piaf's funeral procession was the only time, since the end of World War II, that Parisian traffic came to a complete stop. Leave a Comment
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 Chartres Cathedral by Goner
This magnificent medieval Gothic cathedral is located in the town of Chartres southwest of Paris. I'ts built of limestone and stands some 112 feet (34 metres) high and is 427 feet (130 metres) long. It ranked as one of the three chief examples of French architecture (along with Amiens Cathedral and Reims Cathedral), it is noted not only for its architectural innovations but also for its numerous sculptures and its much-celebrated stained glass. Leave a Comment
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 Juliette and Johnny by Lady_Mystique
As the North Wind blows through a seemingly tranquil town, it carries with it a traveler also, Vianne Rocher (Juliette Binoche) and her daughter Anouk (Victoire Thivisol), who open up a 'Chocolaterie' filled with irresistable confections that awakens the townspeople's hidden "appetites".
What is magical is Vianne's ability to perceive the villager's private desires, and satisfy them with just the right confection.
Vianne consequently develops a reputation...and an enemy, the righteous nobleman Comte de Reynaud (Alfred Molina), who is convinced these chocolate temptations will wreak havoc and undermine the town's strict code of morality.
A confrontation soon develops between the two opposing characters.
Along the way, Vianne meets a collection of various townspeople with their own set of problems, but the most interesting, outside of the character that Judi Dench plays is the riverboat traveler Roux (Johhny Depp) who awakens Vianne's own secret desire:
to truly belong. Leave a Comment
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 French Post Office ~
Bureau de Poste by Lady_Mystique
Post offices can be found by following sings marked "Bureau de Poste".
Most post offices are open from 8 am to 5 pm; in smaller towns and villages some might be closed for lunch - 12 pm to 2 pm.
One nice thing about post offices in France is that most have automated stamp machines marked 'Affranchissment' that allow you to buy your postage without having to stand in line or mumble through in French - these machines let you choose your language, weigh your letter or package, and then prints out a stamp - but they only accept coins.
Most post offices will also have signs in the entranceway that tell you when their busiest time is.
The web site for the French postal system is http://www.laposte.fr, parts of the site are in English.
Also helpful is a French-English postal dictionary. Leave a Comment
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 Manet's "Naughty Lunch"
painting by Lady_Mystique
Impressionism found its beginnings in the mid-19th century with Rousseau (1812-1867) and Millet (1814-1875) who were leaders of the 'Ecole de Barbizon', a group of artists who painted nature for its own sake.
Landscape painting capturing a "slice of life" paved the way for Realism.
The Realists were led by Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) who focused on everyday subjects but portrayed them larger-than-life on tremendous canvases.
Edouard Manet (1832-1883) facilitated the transition from the Realism of Courbet to what we now consider Impressionism; when in the 1860s, he began to shift the focus of his work to color and texture.
Manet's 'Déjeuner sur l'Herbe' was refused by the Salon of 1863 due to its naughty Naked Lunch theme (two suited men and a naked woman are shown picnicking in the forest) and its revolutionary technique.
It was later shown proudly at the 'Salon des Refusés', along with 7000 other rejected salon works.
By the late 1860s Manet's new aesthetic had set the stage for Claude Monet (1840-1926), Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), and Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), who began to further explore Impressionist techniques. They strove to attain a sense of immediacy; colors were used to capture visual impressions as they appeared to the eye, and light became the subject matter.
In 1874, these revolutionary artists had their first group exhibition, and a critic snidely labeled the group "Impressionists".
The artists themselves found the label accurate, and their Impressionists' Show became an annual event for the next seven years.
In the late 1880s, the members of the group inspired Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1894), Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), Henri Fantin-Latour (1836-1904), and 'Water Lilies' by Monet in the early 1900s. Leave a Comment
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 by Arial_27
In France however, the pharmacies are very small and there isn't a lot of stock available for you to just choose on your own. You have to go up the counter and tell the people what you're looking for. They have everything stocked behind the counter! So my suggestion: any embarassing hygenial products you may have - bring them with you in your cosmetic bag! Leave a Comment
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 Plane trees in the Luxembourg
Gardens, Paris by Lady_Mystique
~ About 200 years ago, Napoleon started a project to plant trees along both sides of some of the major roads through France. His idea was that the trees would eventually provide shade for his army troops as they marched through the countryside on their various endeavors.
Many of those trees, now magnificent and huge, still line the roads of France today.
~ Unfortunately due to disease, expansion, and the tree cover being so dense in some places that people kept crashing into each other in the midday dark, some have been cut down.
I do so hope that too many of these monumental beauties aren't lost to the woodcutter's saw.
This would be such a shame and a tragedy !!!
.....and would really take away a special kind of uniqueness and natural beauty that makes France France. Leave a Comment
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 Eze Alleyway by GonerLeave a Comment
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 Now on DVD by Lady_Mystique
COLETTE is one of my favourite French women writers.
She was friends with many artists (Dufy, Cocteau, Picasso), writers and theatre people that were part of the Paris scene in the first half of the 20th century.
She wrote her first 'Claudine' books in 1900 under a pseudonym. They became very popular.
Then in 1907 she writes as Colette Willy, leaves her unfaithful husband, becomes a Music Hall performer, shows one breast occasionally on stage, and is notoriously known evermore, simply as 'Colette', a proud statement of her fierce independent spirit.
Strongly autobiographical, her books reflect her exclusive feminine sexuality, decadence, and classic 'femme fatales' obduracy -- a bit of a b.i.t.c.h by all accounts -- probably nurtured during her lesbian years. Or at least, this is what I have read about her.
Not having met her personally, I wouldn't make such a strong statement because I know how too quickly that label is attached to any woman who lives her life by her own rules and not those "man"made!
She is known primarily because she is the author of GIGI, which had to be parts of her, and which established the blockbuster genre of Hollywood musicals. But I think GIGI is about ready for a re-make, something raunchier, and more in character with its gloriously colorful creator!! Leave a Comment
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 Riviera from the Plane by Goner
We spent most of our time driving along and stopping at the different beaches along the Mediterranian. We found a beach in a town called La Boca. This was a non-touristy beach, just the locals I think. It was a topless beach, as most are along the Riviera. Since we DIDN'T take our tops off the men kept staring at us. Rather unnerving, the must have known we were tourists, all pasty and white and covered up. LOL.
Not everyone was topless though, I guess we just looked different. Leave a Comment
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