Parkour Flipbook - Parkour video

I came across this cool animation of parkour using flip book style.This isn’t the first time I have heard about parkour, I first heard about it in a episode of The Office, and even on Facebook. It seemed to me that this word and the underlying concept it refered to were rather familiar to me.

What is parkour? Definition of parkour :

parkour n. [pärkur']

“sport or athletic activity in which the participant seeks to move quickly and fluidly through an area, often an urban locale, by surmounting obstacles such as walls and railings and leaping across open spaces, as in a stairwell or between buildings.” [The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition]

French words in English

The English word parkour is actually a phonetic and graphical adaptation of the French word parcours.

parcours n.m. [paRku:R]

“Déplacement déterminé accompli ou à accomplir d’un point à un autre; espace correspondant, chemin, distance parcourue” [TLFi]

So with no further ado, the parkour video I promised :

Bonne Année & Happy New Year to all.

Best wishes to everyone & an excellent 2010 - Tous nos meilleurs voeux pour 2010

So aside from providing you with a French / English Translation for Season’s Greetings, there are a few other cool things I’d like to share about New Year’s in Paris …

La bonne humeur de Bonne Année

Today was one of the most interesting days of the year in Paris. The first day back to work after the New Year’s break. (This year was a little cooler than mosts being that New Year’s Day - a fairy day* (jour férié) - was on a Friday, hence the whole of Paris had a 3 day weekend, if not longer.

* fairy day n.m

federal holiday which could be secular, religious, international etc. (often a non working paid day). (Michèlisme & fun Frenglish word)

jour férié n.m

“jour de fête civile, réligieux, ou commémorant un événement” (souvent dit un jour chomé)

So everyone in Paris was slowly (more or less) getting back to their routine, but before doing so, they wished everyone they knew a Bonne Année.

La bise de Bonne Année

One the most unexpected and fantastical greetings was the bonne année from my boss. Out of nowhere this moring he stands up and approaches me, normally he just looks up and says, “Bonjour Michèle”. What was going on, the distance was shrinking, then all of a sudden … the bise. Oh, I thought the bise de bonne année - since this was evidentally an exceptional occasion, (as I don’t bise my boss [usually]).

I was the only one who received exceptional bises. One of my collegues also had a warmer than usual greetings as well - the bise de bonne année.

bise de bonne année n.f

bise exceptionnel que l’on ne reçoit pas habituellement, et qui a lieu le premier fois que les deux personnes engagés se voient après le nouvel an. (Michèlisme & néologisme)

Et chaque fois, les feuilles mortes ♪ ♬ ♩

A photo that I took the other day with my iPhone of some fallen leaves on a fall day in Paris

Une photo que j’ai prise l’autre jour avec mon iPhone d’une feuille par terre dans une rue de Paris.

Paris - where chewed gum is used on the sidewalks to absorb shocks

Am I the only one that notices that all of the sidewalks in Paris are covered in ABC gum (”Already Been Chewed”)? My theory is that the chewing gum surface provides a sort of cushion layer to the pavement, which in great quantiy will reduce the hardness and absorb some of the shocks incurred by pedestrians. Parisians must just spit their gum out on the streets to keep their knees from giving out from all of that walking they do.

What’s your theory on this chewed up spit out gum that lines the streets of Paris?

Tartare - one of the best French cheeses

Certain French people may find it blasphamous that I would dare try to consider Tartare as the best French cheese; after all it comes in a plastic tub. I and one of my great friends have a different opinion. Tartare is awesome!

So with no further ado - I present to you one of the best tasting French cheeses ever - Tartare.

Tartare - naturally good and with no preservatifs*

*Anglophones : be careful with this faux ami - Trust me, when you tell someone there are no condoms* (conservateurs) in your jelly, you’ll understand what I mean.

Tartare - what to eat with it

As some of you may know in typical French culture, meals often can include a cheese course. During this cheese course (which comes after the main dish and before dessert) different types of French cheeses are served with baguette “French bread” . It would therefore be safe to say that the marjority of French people eating Tartare, are probably spreading it on a bit of baguette. I have tried it this way and must admit that Tartare on a baguette is one of the best Tartare recipes that exists…

The ultimate Tartare recepie

“Chips et tartare”

Tartare with potato chips is delicious. You must try it if you have the chance. You simply take your potato chip (crisp in British English) and scrape it across the top of your Tartare. The consistency of Tartare is rather thick with the consistancy of cold cream cheese and therefore I suggest using ridged potato chips which tend to be more sturdy.

Avis sur Tartare - opinons about Tartare

This herb spread is the best, none of similar cheese spreads like Boursin or generic come close to the distinct and refreshing flavor of the Orignal Tartare.

Comme toujours, letting everyone know, that I have no affiliation whatsoever with the producers of Tartare L’Original. Just testing out some French cheese and sharing my thoughts.

Frü Cheesecake à la Myrtille Sauvage -
Frü Wild Blueberry Cheesecake

Some of you may remember my article about Gü Brownies or maybe my other article about Frü carrot cakes. Now I’ve tested their blueberry cheesecake. Yet another great example of the awesomeness of cream cheese - cheesecake!

Cheesecake with Wild Blueberries by Frü

Frü Cheesecake à la myrtille sauvage - Blueberry Cheesecake by Frü

Fruits et fun - Fun and fruit

Fru cheesecake - délices aux fruits

A message from Frü on the back of the box

Frü - Pour les fous de fruits, avec une bonne dose de fun.

Vous avez envie de ponctuer votre journée par une note douce et sucrée?

Sortez une petite cuillère et laissez-vous porter par le cheesecake à la myrtille sauvage.

Our French to English translation

Frü - For fruit lovers, with a good dose of fun.

Do you want to mark your day with a soft and sweet note?

Get out a little spoon and let yourself be swept away by wild blueberry cheesecake.

Nutritional information for Fru Cheesecake - what’s in it?

Ingredients and calories in Fru Cheesecake

Frü - Smart packaging as always

Calories per 100g serving = one Frü cheesecake (which is 100g)

More often than not, I find that in France the calories are given for 100g servings. However, one rarely is given a serving of exactly 100g of whatever it may be we that we purchase at the grocery store (l’épicerie ou supermarché). With these blueberry cheesecakes - Fru smartly gives us a 100g so we know exactly how many calories are in the serving without having to resort to math to try to figure it out. So 1 individually wrapped Frü Cheesecake is 286 calories. No calculation required.Thanks Frü - that was nice of ü.

Easy to open lid that smiles at you

Smiling desserts - Cheesecake in a glass pot

Servi dans un ramequin en verre
- served in a glass ramequin

A closeup of Fru cheesecake

Avis sur Frü : Smiling tréma desserts - Cheesecake that makes you smile

Definately worth a try.These little cheesecakes were great. I don’t know where they get their cream cheese in France, but they put it to good use. It is almost as good as their carrot cake .

As always, I’d like to let everyone know, that I have no affiliation whatsoever with the producers of Fü Cheesecake. Just testing out another take on American food in Paris .

Awesome purse hanger or purse hanging accessory

I recently came across the coolest thing for purses or bags ever these awesome purse hanger things. When I first saw these neat accessories, I thought there were compacts or mirrors. Well I was happy to find out, some do have mirrors! Their purpose, however, is to keep your purse up off the floor when you go out to eat or anywhere.

Some different styles of purse hanger accessories

Close up of the winding purse hanger

Bag hanger and its velvet carrying case

Purse hanger unwound

The purse hanger in action - the dangling purse

side view of the purse hanger

Purse hanging neatly up off of the floor

how the purse hanger works

I was totally excited to have found this and I hadn’t even intended upon shopping that day. (I actually bought mine at a kiosk set up temporarily in the Metro station next to my work - another example that shows how you never know what you’ll see in the Parisian metro.)

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Ferrari Speeding through Paris

My uncle sent me this short film and it had me sitting on the edge of my seat. The film itself has no special effects and there appears to be doubt as to the real model of the car. Was it a Ferrari or was it a Mercedes? Certain sources claim that the vehicle driven may have been a Mercedes , but the soundtrack was dubbed with Ferrari engine sounds.

Claude Lelouch… histoire louche?

Apparently, there are several different urban legends that have sprung up around this film, other than the type of car driven. Was Lelouche arrested for filming this? (He didn’t have a permit). Was the actual driver a Formula 1 driver?

Regarless of the underground nature of the film or the debate surrounding the circumstances of its creation, if you know the streets of Paris, you should check out this clip.

C’était un rendez-vous

Great example of cinéma vérité

This court-métrage from 1976 was fimed using a camera mounted to a car (more than likely a Mercedes) and shot in one take. Whether the engine sounds were enhanced later or not, the soundtrack is so powerful that at moments, you feel as though the car and a dog on the sidewalk are growling at each other.

The natural lighting provided by those old yellow/orange headlights they used to have in France, makes it seem at moments as if the pigeons were on fire as they flew out of the way of this speeding car. Very vintage and nostalgic Parisian.

The streets of Paris

On your marks, get set, go!

And watch out for the pedestrians, street cleaners, other cars and the roundabouts!

(Click on the rectangular button to go full screen)

The Metro’s dirty dirty secrets

Les sales secrets du métro parisien

Other than some of the obvious gross and dirty things one finds in the Parisian metro, I was suprised to learn that some Parisians were totally unaware of one of dirtiest secrets of the Parisian metro. I’m talking about the dirty spots.

dirty spot n. (m.)¹ ['dɜrtispɒt]

area along the Parisian metro’s platform [usual painted white] which has become discolored as a result of passengers getting off and on at this location.

¹ if used as an anglicism in French, (or michèlisme) I am assigning it the ‘genre masculin’. [almost 90% of French nouns borrowed from English (aka anglicisms) are considered masculin]

Line up correctly au quai, OK

Nowadays on a few lines of the metro, the spots where the doors will open along the platform have been painted with indications so people know where to line up. Even though a lot of passengers still just try to get right in without letting people off first, these new painted lines will show you were to line up. If you are on a line that doesn’t have the painted indications, look for the dirty spots! They may be difficult to notice when you are right on top of one (as the entire things looks pretty dirty in general), but look down the quai “platform”, and you should be able to see them. I took a picture to help you out:

publicité non sollicitée

So, one of annoying things about living in an appartment in a city, is that you may receive junk advertisements in your mailbox. I came home tonight to find the entire wall of mailboxes jammed full of papers that had been haphazardly shoved partially in the slots. Obviously these companies didn’t pay postage to mail me this document, and they didn’t even address it to me. So I have come up with a plan to stop the absurd waste of paper of unsolicited advertisements. The installation of a stragetically placed sign reading: “Pas de publicité! Vous êtes filmé(e).©” If that doesn’t scare off these flyer-flingers, the next step would be to add another line of text to the sign claiming that violators will be found using their finger prints and tracked down…