From a baguette relay race at Paul to diner at Bistrot du Coin or a fancy patio fête at the Sofitel Hotel, there are plenty of options to celebrate France's national holiday, le Quatorze Juillet, in Washington, DC. If you're more of a homebody, why not stay at home and watch a great French film while sipping a good bottle of French wine! For the films, I've narrowed down 20 of the best French films available on Netflix right here. And to help you find the perfect bottle of wine to go along whichever flick you pick, I turned to Michelle Lim Warner and Michael Warner, co-owners of DCanter, for some suggestions. One of the things I love about the Capitol Hill wine boutique (other than the ...
France
Hermione & the Spirit of Lafayette Back in the US
Nope, I'm not talking about a Hermione Granger, the Harry Potter character, but Hermione, the Frigate of Freedom, a ship. The replica of the ship that brought the Marquis de Lafayette to the United State some 235 years ago to carry the message from King Louis XVI that France was going to aid the colonies. In 1997, a group of people came up with the idea of reconstructing the frigate using the same building methods applied in the original. Some 17 years later, on April 18, 2015, she left Rochefort in France to set sail for Virginia and retrace a journey through American history. For the past month, L'Hermione plied across the Atlantic, retracing Lafayette's journey. She's set to arrive in ...
Discover the Wines of the Languedoc Region
Is it August yet? I'll be traveling to Montpellier, Bezier and Carcassonne in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in a few weeks and I can't wait!! The Languedoc isn't as famous when it comes to wine as say Burgundy or Champagne, but the Southwestern French region is one of the largest and oldest wine-producing area in France. Two wines that I personally love from the Languedoc are Corbière reds and rosés. The Languedoc, which spans the Mediterranean coastline from Provence to the France’s border with Spain, enjoys a warm and sunny weather, with 320 days of sunshine a year, and produces some wonderful rosés. Since today is #LanguedocDay, an occasion for wine lovers around the world ...
A Taste of Burgundy: Jambon à la Chablisienne
Making Jambon à la Chablisienne is very simple and allows you to bring together two ingredients that are abundant in Burgundy: wine and ham. In this case, the wine in question is Chablis, one of the better chardonnays produced in the region. The original dish as it was created in the first half of the 20th century called for a whole ham cooked on the boned in Chablis with added flavouring and served over spinach or fresh noodles . Today, the recipe has been simplified: thick slices of ham are baked with a sauce made of tomatoes, wine and shallots and served over rice. Here's how to make it at home... INGREDIENTS PREPARATION Start by heating up the oven to 400° and preparing your ...
Postcard from France: Marseille
Last Christmas, my uncle invited us to spend the holidays at his house in Goult, a lovely village in the Luberon, located halfway between Aix-en-Provence and Avignon. My uncle is my mother's brother and they both grew up in Marseille, France's second largest city. Rather than take the train to Avignon and get picked up by my uncle there, we decided to spend a day and a half in Marseille and rent a car to drive to Goult. I have very little childhood memories of Marseille, and my husband had never been so I was excited to discover the city, especially with my favourite Marseillaise - my mom - as our guide! FIRST THINGS FIRST: LUNCH AT CHEZ ETIENNE The trip from Paris Gare-de-Lyon ...
Ici Urban Bistro Joins Thousands of Restaurants Across the World to Celebrate Goût de France
This Thursday, March 19, some 1,300 chefs will cook up special dinners at restaurants and embassies in 150 countries across all five continents for a worldwide celebration of French cuisine and gastronomy. Under the patronage of France’s foreign minister Laurent Fabius and famed Michelin-starred chef Alain Ducasse, "Goût de France / Good France" was inspired by Auguste Escoffier’s Dîners d’Épicure (Epicurean Diners), in which one menu was served to as many guests as possible worldwide in one day. This time, however, the chefs have some creative freedom to come up with their own menus, though they must adhere to a strict traditional degustation format and serve, in this order, a French ...
Francophonie Festival, 2015 Edition
The largest celebration of French culture and language in the world—the Francophonie Cultural Festival—is returning to the US capital March 5 to April 1, 2015. Organized by the D.C. Francophonie Committee in association with l'Alliance Française and Smithsonian Associates, the festival engages over 40 embassies for a month of cultural events ranging from lectures to concerts and movie screenings, culminating as usual with la Grande Fête de la Francophonie, a huge foodie bash at la Maison Française at the French Embassy. What I've loved about the partnership with Smithsonian Associates this year is how active Smithsonian at 8 (the 21+ after-hours event planning art of the Smithsonian) has ...
Postcard from France: Cour Bérard in Paris
Cour Bérard is a small street in the 4eme arrondissement in Paris. It's the home of the Moretti & Moretti, an art galerie which focuses on street art, digital art and installations. I headed to the galerie to check out its Konny Stedin exhibit. If you've been to Paris recently, I'm sure you spotted some of the German street artist's work. Her signature black and white portraits, with the red paint tears, can be seen throughout Paris, like this one below which I snapped a few years ago outside of Beaubourg But the best street art wasn't inside the gallery. It was actually outside, in the street, which was lined with graffiti black cats. Cour Bérard is a small street, but it's ...
Travel Highlights from 2014
2014 was a great year for me travel-wise. I made it home to France not once, but twice. I made the most out of a few work trips in New York, Chicago, Raleigh, Boca Raton and Austin, Texas. I even tested out Icelandair's "the best part of a trip to Paris is Iceland" advertisement by doing a stop-over in Reyjkavik on my way back from Paris. The highlight of last year, though, was traveling to Brazil to cheer on my beloved Bleus during the World Cup, a trip I had been planning for and looking forward to for the past 3 years. MAKING THE MOST OUT OF WORK TRIPS Chicago (and New York before that) happened in the dead of winter. For Chicago, I think I got to go because none of my colleagues were ...
Postcard from Paris: a Paws Café at Café des Chats
Paws Café... Pause café... get it? OK, that was a bad pun, but I couldn't help it. Just like I couldn't help visiting both of Paris' cat cafés during my last stay in the city. In my defense, one of them is just a few blocks away from my parents' apartment. When did rue Sedaine become so hip? The original Café des Chats, located in the haut Marais close to Beaubourg, opened back in the fall of 2013 and turned out to be so popular that a second location near Bastille was added. Margaux Gandelon, the young entrepreneuse who launched the "café chat" concept in Paris after a successful crowd-funding campaign, was directly inspired by the "neko" cafés in Japan. She describes her project as ...