Tag Archives: Bread is Pain

French Tours: Beware Madame la Guillotine – It Pays to be a Friend – The Old Woman without a Clue

October 17, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp 1 Comment

While I was on holiday in Australia, I didn’t have time to read my favourite blogs so I have a lot of catching up to do! This Wednesday, Abby Gorden from Paris Weekender, posting on My French Life, reviews a wonderful iPhone app on the French revolution which begins at my very doorstep, Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris explains the advantages of being a “friend” of Parisian museums and Bread is Pain laments about her inability to assimilate all those French verbs while her knowledge of France increases in leaps and bounds.

French Tours: Beware Madame la Guillotine

by Abby Gorden from Paris Weekender, posting on MyFrenchLife, a global community of French and francophiles connecting like-minded people in English & French

When My French Life™ asked me to review Time Traveler Tours new ‘Beware Madame la Guillotine’ iPhone app, I eagerly agreed. I was not going to pass up a chance to learn some history while having fun, outdoors, on the go.

The app is not quite a self-guided walking tour and not quite a book on tape. It’s something in between and at the same time something more. It’s jam-packed with history and interesting tidbits. It’s interactive. It’s easy to use. I had never owned an iPhone until about 15 hours before I embarked on the app-guided tour, but I still found it easy to navigate. Read more

It Pays to be a Friend

by Mary Kay from Out and About in Paris, an American by birth, Swiss by marriage, resident of Paris with a Navigo Pass for the metro that she feels compelled to use

(Friday afternoon)

It’s less than an hour until my father-in-law’s train pulls into Gare de Lyon and I’m in a panic. It’s not that the apartment is a mess or that we don’t have any food, it’s that the elevator is broken.

The good news is that we could bypass the long lines of people huddling under their umbrellas in front of the Musée d’Orsay on Saturday afternoon because I’m a friend, “une amie”, of the museum. Read more

The Old Woman without a Clue

by Bread is Pain, a 30-something American living in the Rhone-Alps, and slowly eating and drinking herself through the country

I’ve been taking yet another French Intensif Course, this time at the University, and until today it has been an exercise in humiliation. Everyone in the class is about 12 years old 20 years old and have been studying French for anywhere from 2 to 8 semesters. They can reel off subjunctives and infinitives like it’s nothing. When we had a session in which we described Fairy Tales, they were flawlessly reciting the plots to the Lion King*, Cinderella, and Pinnochio…and then there was me, the old lady without a clue (har har). I could get the words out but not the correct grammar. Read more

French customs, Loire Valley, Paris, Restaurants, Sightseeing

Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire’s International Garden Festival – Paris Day Two. Chantilly – The Audacity of Age

July 3, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp 4 Comments

For this Wednesday’s bloggers’ round-up, I’ve chosen Kathy Stanford‘s description of the highly original international garden festival at the château of Chaumont-sur-Loire, Denise from Bolton‘s visit to the Chantilly race course, which definitely seems a worthwhile excursion and Bread is Pain‘s very amusing story of an elderly woman jumping the queue at the Orsay Museum.

Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire’s International Garden Festival

by Kathy Stanford from Femmes Franchophiles, who has an ongoing passion for France and the French language

The Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire covers an area of approximately 32 hectares and is located between Blois and Tours in the Loire Valley.

The Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire is the foremost Centre for Art and Nature entirely devoted to the relationship between nature and culture, artistic creation and the impact of landscape, our heritage and contemporary art.

The Domaine not only includes the Château de Chaumont-sur-Loire (15th to 19th century), its gardens and parks, but also from April to the end of October, the stunning International Garden Festival. In addition, there are many exhibits and installations by contemporary artists. Read more

PARIS DAY TWO – CHANTILLY

by Denise from Bolton, another francophile from the town of Bolton in the UK who spends as much time in the City of Light as she can

Chantilly racecourse is in a lovely setting, with the châteaux on one side, the forest in the distance. Even if you are not into racing it is a pleasant place to have a picnic, and the chateaux is worth a visit too.

20minutes on the train from Gare du Nord, it makes a nice day out. On a previous trip I watched an interesting dressage show in the famous Grades Ecuries, which legend has it, was commisioned to be built like a palaceby Henry, Duc de Bourbon, Prince of Conde, because he thought he would be reincarnated horse.

My husband had “bribed” me to accompany him, with a reservation at the stunning Panoramic restaurant overlooking the course. The set “outsiders” menu was pricey at 42 euro each, but was very good and the entrance fee to the racecourse was only 2 euro,( as opposed to a lot more for British racecourses) so we were not complaining. Read more

The Audacity of Age

by Bread is Pain, a 30-something American living in the Rhone-Alps, and slowly eating and drinking herself through the country.

Standing in line at the Musée D’Orsay with my Mother who is visiting. We are about thirty minutes back from the front of the queue. An old lady has recently shoved past us in line and we are watching in disbelief as she speedily makes her way through the five or six rows of people in front of us.

Mom: This is too good to be true!

Me: No way she is going to pull this off.

Mom: I think she is. Look at her go!

Dieting, Food, France, French customs, Paris, Sightseeing, Wine

Can Bacon be a Vegetable? – Free Walking Tours given by Parisian Volunteers – Sipping on Saturday

May 22, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp 2 Comments

Welcome to Wednesday’s other blogs! This week, Bread is Pain talks about the problems of weight gain and loss when living in France, while Kathy Stanford from Femmes Francophiles describes a novel way of getting to know Paris. Gwen Evans, guest posting on Like a Home in Paris, which features vacation apartment rentals in Paris, describes a wine tasting session in the capital. Thank you to my fellow bloggers!

Can Bacon be a Vegetable?

by Bread is Pain

“Mwah! Look at me, I am a big sausage!” I am walking through the room dramatically, landing hard on each of my feet. “Watch out, my fat sausage tread might bring the house down!”

“Quoi?” MB is amused but not sure why.

“What do you mean “quoi”,” I ask. “I’m a sausage person…obviously.”

“I don’t know what this is, a “sausage person”.” Read more

Free Walking Tours given by Parisian Volunteers

by Kathy Stanford at Femmes Francophiles

Always looking for an opportunity to combine practising French and to visit parts of Paris that I have not previously seen in detail I decided to do a walking tour of Paris with ‘Parisien d’un jour – Paris Greeter‘.

Contact is made through their website specifying what language you want to do the tour in, availability and interests. The walks are provided free of charge by volunteers who are all Parisians passionate about their city. You can however make a donation to the association if you wish. Offers for various tours of 2 of 3 hours based on your interests are emailed to you and you choose which one you want. The group is limited to 6 people. Read more.

Sipping on Saturday: French Wine Tasting class with Preston Mohr

by Gwen Evans guest posting on Like Home in Paris

If you are like most American visitors to Paris, one of the big pluses is being able to sample wonderful French wines at very reasonable prices. The downside of that is that it can quite confusing and intimidating when faced with so many choices — many of which are unfamiliar to us from the States. Add to that the fact that a lot of the wine labels have very little if any helpful information, and it’s a bit of a gamble when you are at the store. In my 20 plus trips to Paris I have tried (mostly at random) lots and lots of different wines, both red and white, and have never really had a bad bottle; for between 4 and 10 euros you can get some amazingly good wine. Even the equivalent of “2 buck chuck” here is a whole lot better than the stuff back home. Read more.

France, French customs, Paris

The Romance of a Sale – Zen Things in Paris – Laines Locales Wool Festival at Prébenoît

April 17, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp 4 Comments

I’m afraid I was so busy last week setting up house in Blois that I didn’t bring you my usual Wednesday’s other blogs post. But I’m back in Paris and my computer is up and working again. Thank you to the authors of this week’s posts: Petite Paris, an Australian-based independent bed & breakfast booking agent for anyone planning to travel to the romance capital of the world, on Zen things to do in Paris; Llamalady, an Irish llama and alpaca breeder living in the centre of France, who also runs a carp fishery and a holiday gite, reporting on a local wool festival; and Bread is Pain, an American living in the Rhone-Alps “slowly eating and drinking myself through the country”, talking about her love of sales.

Zen Things in Paris

from Petite Paris

When it comes to Paris, we already know the usual recommendations. We know the rule is Laduree for tea. Pierre Herme for Macaroons. Coffee at Cafe de Flore. Or at Lipp Or at Deux Magots. We know that a visit to the Louvre is a must see. Eiffel. Piere Lachaise. And we know all about the Batobus river boat tours. The Moulin Rouge. and the Opera. And these are all great, bien sûr… Read more.

Laines Locales Wool Festival at Prébenoît

by LLamalady from Blog in France

We are just back from a chilly and breezy but interesting morning at a wool festival. It was organised by Laines Locales of Limousin and was held at nearby Prébenoit Abbey. Had the weather been better we would have cycled there – it’s about 10 km away – but we’d have been blown backwards! Read more.

The Romance of a Sale

from Bread is Pain

I love sales. Love them. I will buy things that I don’t really find attractive or things that I absolutely do not need based solely on the fact that they are on sale. As a dear friend of mine puts it “really, by not buying it you are losing money because it is such a good deal!” (RIGHT?!) This statement pretty much sums up my feelings when I see something marked down. “Why look! It’s a goose leash! We don’t have a goose, I know, but one day we might and come on, honey, it’s 70% off!” Read more.

Aussie in France