BonjourParis

What will probably destroy America is not misguided foreign policy, crushing debt or our insistence on building bombers rather than schools --- it's fat. Go to any mall and you'll see what I mean: people wandering about who look like escapees from WALL-E. You'll see whole armies of plus-sizes --- and if they don't have diabetes now, they're well on the way. Sadly, there's little evidence the victims are doing much to turn their condition around. Michael Pollan's grim assessment: A third of our citizens is likely to develop type 2 diabetes before 2050. Last Updated ( Sunday, 17 August 2008 )

She's got a cashmere voice and a killer body. Plays decent guitar and writes her own lyrics. Can hold her own with queens and statesmen. She. Must. Be. Stopped. Last Updated ( Sunday, 17 August 2008 )

The 2008 Tour de France lasted twenty-one days; the bikers rode cumulatively for eighty-seven hours, fifty two minutes and fifty two seconds (at least that was the winning time of Carlos Sastre as he crossed the line on the Champs Elysée on July 27th). Other less fortunate riders like Wim Vansevenat, the lanterne rouge, completed the Tour four hours behind the leader. Last Updated ( Sunday, 17 August 2008 )

Did you know that the most popular dish in France today is couscous? That France is the second greatest consumer of pizza in the world (10 kilos per person per year, just behind the U.S. at 10.4 kilos)? Quelle horreur for the few, the proud, the French epicureans! Last Updated ( Sunday, 17 August 2008 )

He introduces himself. He works in the French Embassy in Washington. We talk about this and that, not interesting. Maybe the classic dumb question will put an end to a conversation that neither of us seems to be much interested in. Here goes. “What do you like most about America?” He brightens up. “I love being a consumer in America,” he tells me. “The people in the stores, they are so nice and helpful, everything is possible for them, you know? They do everything to please you. In France, it’s not the same.” My mind begins to wander. Last Updated ( Monday, 18 August 2008 )

It could be the gravel. It can’t be the map. A map of Paris in color shows green everywhere, big splashes and little clots. The Jardin du Luxembourg is such a big green that it engulfs a third of the Sixth Arrondissement, and the First is practically not there if you subtract the Tuileries and the Jardin du Carrousel to the west of the Louvre. Little points of green—like the Square de Montholon, the Jardin Blanc, the Place des États Unis, the Parc Ste-Périne, and dozens more just as unfamiliar and obscure except to the neighbors—sprout in every quartier like weeds finding a foothold in the cracks of the pavement, except they are so nicely groomed and spaced. Add in the tiny parks, the ones so small the map-makers have no room to print their names, and you would think that Paris must be the greenest city on earth. Last Updated ( Sunday, 17 August 2008 )

So you think the American presidential election campaign is overheated and too subject to partisan political manoeuvres and denigrating rhetoric against political opponents. Well, it has nothing these days on France’s post-presidential election atmosphere. Last Updated ( Sunday, 03 August 2008 )

Jean-Marie had emailed Mme. G to find out if her box with her Chapeaux had arrived safely in San Francisco from Paris. Jerome had mailed them with in a week of her letting him know they had been left in the apartment in Paris. Mme. responded that they had not yet arrived but she was not overly concerned… yet. Her chapeaux knew who had created most of them, and who wore them with joy. They knew who their maman would miss them if they stayed away for too long, but they were on an adventure! This adventure had started when Mme. G, rushed to get out to the airport van taking her back to CHG airport in Paris. She realized that she had left the bag with her Chapeaux, before she even got outside. You see, the van had come early and instead of taking a last walk around, Mme. had rushed out, locking the door with the chapeaux left inside! Last Updated ( Sunday, 03 August 2008 )

Questions I ask myself:
Q: Have you ever counted how many meals you've eaten in the line of duty?
A: 17.966 give or take a few thousand. Happily my brain tends to obliterate memories of the worst. I wake up every morning full of hope that this will be the day I discover a talented new chef or at the very least, taste something astonishingly delicious. Last Updated ( Saturday, 19 July 2008 )