Ten days after the U.S. elections and one week before Thanksgiving, it’s time to celebrate a French holiday for a change: the arrival of the first wine of the season, le Beaujolais Nouveau. As always, it happens on the third Thursday of November, so unless you were up until 2 a.m. celebrating at Bistrot du Coin today’s […] ...
French Culture
Drink all the French Bubbles at DC’s First Champagne Week
If you missed Champagne Day on October 21, don't worry! Champagne shouldn't be celebrated in a day anyway, it clearly deserves its own week! At least that's what my friends Jess and Alison thought. These two wine pros are throwing DC's first ever Champagne Week, from Sunday November 6 to Thursday November 12. The idea for DC Champagne Week started off small. Jess runs Young Winos of DC, a group that connects people in the District with wine tastings and events. She reached out to Alison, who runs her own wine consulting business Bon Vivant DC, to partner up on a champagne focused event. Jess jokes that Alison took a small idea and blew it up, but Alison retorts that Jess never would've ...
Yes way {Languedoc} Rosé
It's *finally* rosé weather in Washington, DC this week and I'm excited to start digging into the stack of pink bottles I've accumulated while we experienced a record number of rainy days. I'm extremely biased towards French wines in general, but especially when it comes to rosés, and I always gravitate towards Provençal rosés. Occasionally, I'll venture outside of Provence and pick up a bottle of new world rosé (I'm a big fan of Early Mountain's rosé right now.) But most of the time, venturing out means looking a little South West along the Mediterranée to the Languedoc-Roussillon. Sandwiched between Provence and Spain, the Languedoc is actually France’s biggest wine region, with a bit over ...
Catch These French Films at Filmfest DC
In the winter months, I try to cram in as many oscar-nominated films as I can before the awards are given out. After that movie-binge, I typically take a needed break from the cinemas. Until April and Filmfest DC! Filmfest is the District’s first, largest and only international film festival. Between April 14 and 24, 2016 Filmfest DC will celebrate 30 years of delighting Washington cinephiles with a really impressive line-up of 75 movies from 45 different countries. As always, that includes a number of films from France and Belgium. Here are some of the French(-ish) or French-language films you can look forward to this year. THE BRAND NEW TESTAMENT The poster claims that "G-d exist... and ...
I’m in a Marseille State of Mind
I've had Marseille on my mind lately. Part of it has been following along my friend Tammy's adventures in house swapping and remote working from Marseille (you can read all about it on her blog Florida Girl in DC.) It's definitely made me look at my mom's hometown completely differently! And the other part, of course, is that Marseille seems to be everywhere lately. First, there was the recent release of the movie Marseille in France. And now, there's the countdown to the much anticipated (at least by me) release of Netflix's first French-language original series Marseille. The trailer looks SO GOOD!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WvqgV7-kSc The show's 8 episodes (52 minutes each) will ...
April’s Fool: A fishy Fête in France…
The origins of April Fools are widely debated but the most commonly accepted explanation credits France for starting the holiday. That's right. It all always come back to the French somehow ;-) According to this theory, April's Fool goes back to 1564 when King Charles XIV changed the calendar around, moving the start of the year from late March to early January. Not everyone was quick to catch onto the change and some people kept celebrating New Year during the week that fell between March 25th and April 1st. And these people had jokes played on them. Pranksters would surreptitiously stick paper fish to their backs and so victims of the pranks were called Poisson d’Avril, or April ...
Watch La Famille Belier at l’Alliance Francaise
Grab some tissues and head to l'Alliance Francaise on April 1 to catch a screening of La Famille Belier. The feel good film was quite a hit in France in 2014, but it didn't really come out in the United States :( I got to watch during my Air France flight back to Washington, DC last August and while the film is technically a comedy I found myself practically bawling in my crammed middle seat during the final scenes. Here's the trailer with English subtitles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzWvI8BkrJo La Famille Belier is a coming of age tale about Paula, a musically gifted teenager who has to come to terms with allowing her voice to be heard. The reason it's so difficult for her is that ...
Christine and the Queens at the 9:30 Club
Have you heard of Christine and the Queens? Yes!? Then you know how awesome she is! You can skip the rest of this post and just click on this link to buy tickets to see her perform at the 9:30 Club on May 31. French musicians don't grace US stages very often, and when they do, we - Frenchies and francophiles - have a responsibility to go cheer them on. Otherwise, they won't come see us anymore ;-) If you have no idea who Christine and the Queens is then let me introduce you to the best French band you're not listening to right now. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs40yxHjTxQ Christine and the Queens is the androgynous alter ego of Héloïse Letissier, a stylish 27-year-old Parisienne who ...
Life Goes On~Celebrating Beaujolais Nouveau in Washington, DC
I'm not exactly in a celebratory mood these days, but life goes on. Paris is about life, about being at a terrasse right now etc. Life has to go on and this week life includes the release of the Beaujolais Nouveau, which always takes place on the third Thursday of November (or midnight that Wednesday!) Here are a few, selected spots where you can partake in some Gamay-drinking in Washington, D.C. BITRO DU COIN Still THE place to be at midnight when Beaujolais Nouveau is released. It's probably too late to get reservations for dinner, but show up around 10PM when they start clearing out the tables. The Beaujolais typically starts pouring 11PM, which technically is well past midnight in ...
Gad Elmaleh in DC – Part Trois, Now All In English
Le revoici, le revoilà! Gad Elmaleh repasse au Birchmere, avec un petit changement qui n'est pas négligeable: le comedien fait son show en Anglais!! It's hard enough being funny in your native language, let alone in a foreign one. Seinfeld, for example, was notoriously bad when dubbed in French, and the humour didn't quite translate. And yet, that’s exactly the personal challenge that French funnyman (and Seinfeld BFF) Gad Elmaleh has set for himself. After performing sold-out shows in Washington, DC twice in 2013 (in April and September - you can read my recap from the September show right here), the comedien is back for a third time. This fall, he’ll try to branch out of the ...
