A Last Minute Holiday Shopping Trip to Paris | Wandermelon: The ultimate travel companion featuring news you can use by professional travel writers. Francophile Jennifer Evans Gardner hits the City of Lights for a festive gift-buying spree. It’s that time of year again. The malls are packed with shoppers converging upon the usual suspects like The Pottery Barn, Banana Republic, and Victoria’s Secret in search of holiday gifts. The thing is, I’ve never been a mall girl, preferring to do my gift buying in charming sidewalk boutiques. Imagine the thrill I got last week when I got a call from a close girlfriend, inviting me on a last minute holiday shopping trip to Paris: 5 days, 4 nights – all expenses paid. With work deadlines, high school applications to fill out, carpool duties and other assorted motherly responsibilities at hand, I did the only sensible thing. The great thing about traveling before the holiday rush is that you have a good chance of getting upgraded on your flight. For those not on a budget the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome is a splendid place to stay with its chic lobby and Degas-inspired sculpture doorknobs.
Learning French online (Free online French courses) RAS LA TOQUE DU VIN EN CANETTE ! | Les Délices de Vanessa Faudra-t-il bientôt ranger les tire-bouchons au placard ? Voilà que le vin en canette fait une nouvelle offensive en France, après quelques tentatives passées. La société Winestar, une start-up montée avec le concours d’investisseurs (dont on ne dit pas s’ils ont de la bouteille), fait le pari d’imposer son vin en boîte, au milieu des rayons de canettes de bière et autres boissons énergisantes. Une idée venue tout droit du Japon, où le vin australien en boîte métal fait un tabac. Public visé : les jeunes, habitués dès leur plus jeune âge à suçoter l’aluminium des canettes de soda. Une seule appellation Corbières est pour l’instant proposée en trois variantes : un blanc, un rouge et un rosé. L’argument de vente est le côté pratique du contenant qui a donc la… primeur (c’est le cas de le dire), sur le contenu. Pauvre Bacchus : il risque de tomber de son tonneau, en découvrant la « mise en boîte » de son breuvage préféré. Petitgrognon Like this: J'aime chargement…
Doctors, Medicine, Hospitals and Pharmacies in France By Camille Chevalier-Karfis It is never fun to become ill during a vacation, but it can become a real problem when you are abroad and don't speak the language fluently. Should you become sick in France, here are a couple of useful things to know... ■ Pharmacists are highly trained medical specialists who are entitled to give medical advise. Do not hesitate to ask them for their help before you go see a doctor. ■ You can see any general doctor for a cost of about 22 Euros. ■ Most French doctors will offer extended hours, and will make house calls for an extra fee. Pharmacies in France Drugs are not sold in supermarkets but in a totally separate shop called “une pharmacie." Pharmacies are typically open from 9:30 AM to 7:00 PM, Monday to Saturday, and close during lunch time (12PM-2PM) and on Sunday. There is usually a beeper by the side of the pharmacy, call, and the pharmacist will come down. Here is a site (in French) with the list of off-hours pharmacies in the Paris regions.
Accord Languagues not drinking poison in paris À Septembre Berthillon! Where to eat ice cream now. By Jessie Kanelos As Paris begins to clear out for the summer, the City of Light transforms into a metropolitan ghost town until September. Even the beloved brains behind Berthillon are closing their doors for the summer. Since 1954, the celebrated ice cream has turned l'Île Saint-Louis into an ice cream destination for locals and tourists alike, all in search of their intensely-flavored classic flavors like deep, dark chocolate, agenaise (prunes) and praliné aux pignons (candied pine nuts). Although die-hard fans can stock up on Berthillon’s frozen confections by the ½ and ¾ liter at a handful of chocolate shops about town, frozen treats are not just limited to the l'Île Saint-Louis. Just across the river from Berthillon, between Metro Saint Paul and Hotel de Ville in the heart of the Marais, lies the answer not only to an exceptional cup of coffee, but also extraordinary artisanal Italian gelato at Pozetto (39 Rue du Roi de Sicile 75004 Paris). Subscribe for FREE weekly newsletters.
First Day of Studying French – Gathering Our Tools – Duolinguist These are the essential tools and files you need to collect before you start learning French on your own, in my opinion. You may be learning the language using Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, Babbel, RocketLanguage, Fluenz, and others, but these are the free tools available to you on the Internet, that I have found especially useful: I would like you to consider at the very minimum augmenting your study with Duolingo. I also want you to go to Linqvist and register for the site while it is still in Beta and free. Whenever you see a concept that you do not understand, please visit the University of Texas at Austin’s French website. This is the index page, and it’s just that easy to find the issue, click to the lesson page, read the content, and then take a quick test to see if you understood what you have read. Also bookmark these sites for use. What is Anki?