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 :

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)

Just for fun, since we love art - here is a shot out to painters.

Awesome music by Hot Chip.

Timelapse Painting Two from Pat Perry on Vimeo.

If you enjoyed that clip, you may also enjoy our post with another cool animation of a drawing in Illustrator.

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?

Avec 4 960 000 “résultats” pour la requête fcpi scellier, on peut imaginer qu’il serait facile de trouver sa définition précise. Malheureusement ce n’est pas le cas.

FCPI Scellier n.m.

Le terme FCPI Scellier n’est sans doute rien de plus qu’une création “par erreur” de la part de Google ™ pour le vrai terme scpi scellier. Après avoir effectué des recherches poussées il nous semble que le moteur de recherche Google ™ “confonde” parfois les termes SCPI et FCPI pour la requête fcpi scellier.

Pourquoi faire une requête pour le terme fcpi sceiller?

Parce que Google ™ me suggère ce terme avec son outil Google ™ Suggest.

Différence entre un FCPI et une SCPI

FCPI n.m.

“fonds communs de placement dans l’innovation” (FCPI).

SCPI n.f.

“société civile de placement immobilier” (SCPI).

FCPI et SCPI deux acronymes bien distinct.

acronyme n.m.

“groupe d’initiales abréviatives plus ou moins lexicalisé. On les prononce comme s’il s’agissait d’un nouveau mot, «prononciation intégrée» (l’/Urs/) ou en considérant chaque lettre séparément, «prononciation disjointe»”. [TLFi]

Donc bien que les termes FCPI et SCPI n’ont qu’une lettre de différent, ces termes renvoient bien à deux référents distinctes et très différents l’un de l’autre. Le terme FCPI fait référence à un fonds dont le capital est investi dans les sociétés innovantes; tandis que le terme SCPI renvoie à un placement immobilier.

En confondant ces 2 termes Google ™ affiche des résultats et publicités pour un référent qui n’existe pas ou qui est autre que ce que l’on cherchait. Pour illustrer nos propos, voici un exemple : on peut dire que fcpi scellier = nom + adj. En faisant une substitution : comme substantif on choisit le terme chaussures pour remplacer le terme SCPI, et en adj. à talons haut à la place de scellier. Si on remplaçait également le terme FCPI par chemise , le résultat pour cette requête serait = chemise à talons haut. Absurde et donc comparable à la suggestion d’un FCPI Scellier.

Un deuxième exemple de Google Suggest - le résultat fcpi scellier bnp, qui en fait concerne la SCPI Scellier BNP Paris : Pierre Avenir

Donc pour ceux d’entre vous qui sont intéressés par une réduction d’impôt grâce à la loi Scellier ou l’investissement dans un FCPI, il faut choisir l’un ou l’autre même si Google ™ dira peut-être le contraire. En espérant que Google ™ réagisse pour régler cette confusion.

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.

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 .

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.)

Some of you may remember my article about Fru carrot cakes. Well since writing that article, I was never able to find them again. I tried at least 20 different Monoprix’s in all different arrondissements of Paris. It is really quite sad, so Frü or Gü, if you have any carrot cake in Paris, please let me know the address.

Not sure of what else to do, and bumming out since I didn’t have my Frü carrot cakes, I tried another one of their products - Gü Brownies.

Chocolate brownies by Gü

Gü brownies

I am not quite sure the translation is exact here…

Essayez-moi Chaud! Warm me up Baby!

I probably would have put “try me hot” in English or “chauffez-moi” in French, but we could start bordering on the vulgar if we aren’t already.

Essayez-moi Chaud! Warm me up Baby!

Smiling umlaut desserts - great logo and great packaging

Individually wrapped gü browni

Overall the brownies were good. A bit too rich for my tastes. (I prefer their carrot cake). But it was worth the try, and for those of you that love chocolate, you will love Gü brownies.

Again, I want to point out, that I have no affiliation whatsoever with the producers of Gü Brownies. Just testing out American food in Paris .