Archive for June, 2010
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
Can you believe this inflation in Paris: postage, gas, electricity
Wow! This is like post-war inflation, just when the European economy can least afford it. When I see 10-!%% increases in gas and electric, i wonder how this will get passed on to the consumer. Already, these charges looked more like the utilities bill of a 6000 square foot house in the United States.
Pre-buying stamps in Europe is always a good investment.
POSTAGE
Buy your stamps today at a bargain — the ones with no monetary amount printed on them, because tomorrow, the postal rates go up (information thanks to Eric Tolbert):
Letters within France increase from 56 centimes to 58.
Letters/postcards to US increase from 85 centimes to 87.
No Comments » - Posted in Economy and Exchange rates,Understand France and the French by Paul
Friday, June 25th, 2010
Climbing wall on Seine? Really in Paris? (VIDEO)
Wall and rock climbing in Paris, along the banks of the Seine? Is this just at Paris Plage or hidden somewhere year around? I think this video I found (on a link farm site) was from 2006, but looks pretty cool. We’ll be in Paris in August, so we will look for it if it’s still there. Paris is always an adventure. (VIDEO)
No Comments » - Posted in Travel with Kids,Un peu différent by Paul
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
French football hits rock bottom
France soccer is more soap opera than great ball these days.
I’ll be up early tomorrow and keeping fingers crossed for a US v. Algeria miracle.
No Comments » - Posted in In the News by Paul
Monday, June 21st, 2010
Paris treasure hunt 2010 – July 3!
We’ll miss it again this year, but sounds like great fun!
Come and hunt Paris treasures. The treasure hunt is free and open to all. You can enrol here or in front of the town hall of the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 11th, 12th, 13th, 18th, 19th and 20thdistricts and Saint ouen on July 3rd. The surreal adventure organized by Paris City Hall will be a unique way to discover the city, its secrets and its inhabitants.
[From Les Trésors de Paris 2010 - In search of the eternal roses - Rules of Paris treasure hunt]
No Comments » - Posted in Travel with Kids,Un peu différent by Paul
Friday, June 18th, 2010
Monkey on menus in France
PARIS: The traders sell an array of bush meat: monkey carcasses, smoked anteater, even preserved porcupine.
But it isn’t a jungle market in Africa – it’s the heart of Paris, where a new study has found more than five tonnes of bush meat slips through the city’s main airport each week.
Researchers suspect similar amounts are arriving in other European cities in an illegal trade raising concerns about diseases ranging from monkeypox to Ebola, and is another twist in the struggle to integrate a growing African immigrant population.
[From Monkey on menus in France]
No Comments » - Posted in Food,In the News by Paul
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
French air enthusiasts hope to restart Concorde engines
Though I know post 9/11 and a cratering air travel market didn’t help, the Concorde flew without incident for 30 years before tarmac debris brought the first one down. … I hope that despite the claim that they only want to see the Concorde roll on it’s own power on the Le Bourget tarmac, that someone has a plan to get the bird back in the air. It’s nice to think that technological marvels of the space age could still come back, and in finding the past, we could sew the seeds to a more hopeful future. LE BOURGET, France — A French aeronautics association Saturday examined the engines of a Concorde passenger jet at an air museum outside Paris to determine if they could be used again. “The objective is not to get it (Concorde) to fly again but to get the engines working again, hoping one day to see it taxi on the tarmac for the pleasure of visitors to the museum,” said Frederic Pinlet, head of Olympus 593, named after the Rolls Royce/Snecma engines used on the aircraft.
