The Ghost of Rue Jacob

I should have posted this item for Halloween but regrettably I didn't listen to it until this week. At any rate, it's a ghost story set in Paris and told by former French Vogue editor Joan Juliet Buck for the storytelling program, The Moth. It may have you thinking twice about whether you really want that too-die-for 17th century apartment on the Left Bank.




And can someone please tell me why Americans who spend too much time in Europe start to sound vaguely British?

Chateau de Monte-Cristo

It's not really a chateau, it's not even really French either, and for that matter, there is no Monte Cristo in France (just a volcanic island off the coast of Italy) and no count either. But who cares? Alexandre Dumas, the author of The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, and dozens of other over-the-top novels and plays, pulled himself up by his bootstraps and built a place to call his own. He borrowed details from the Renaissance, the Gothic, the Moorish, and half a dozen other styles in a great mess of house where he could entertain. He did his writing in a separate building perched atop a hill facing the main house, nicknaming it the Chateau d'If, after the prison in the harbor in Marseille where his count was unjustly imprisoned for so many years. Dumas lived large, producing an incredible body of work, and enjoying a reputation as a gourmand, a generous friend, and completely inept when it came to money. He lost the house just two and half years after he built it.



While this was once in the countryside, just two steps from the Seine, today suburbia has encroached upon Le Port Marly and two busy highways and a train track separate the house from the river. Happily, it's only a half hour's drive west from Paris and definitely worth the trip, that is if you have wheels or someone else to drive you. (I can't imagine there's any easy way to get there via public transportation.) Call ahead though because it's only open at odd hours in the winter months.

Chateau de Monte-Cristo

Here's the Skinny

After all the hype, it seems that French women really do get fat after all. Almost one third (32 percent) of French adults are now overweight and 14.5 percent are considered obese, an astonishing jump from just 8.5 percent in 1997. Every age category is affected, women more than men, and the poor more than the rich. The press on the latest report from ObEpi, which conducted the national survey, had little to say about the causes, only noting that social marketing campaigns are not enough to change the trend. The good news: France is still well behind the U.S. where adult obesity rates now stand at a whopping 34 percent.

Carte du Vin

The juice box packaging on this serving of cabernet cracks me up. When I saw it in the corner market, I just couldn't resist putting it in my caddie. Plus it was only 1.20 euros, about the same price as the cheapest bottles which are the lunchtime choice of painters, plasterers, plumbers, and other workers in the neighborhood. Not sure I'm brave enough to drink it though. Of course, I could say the same for that box of fruit juice on the left.

Grey Skies Are (Not) Going to Clear Up

Two o'clock in the afternoon on a November day. The sun is there, but just. No sign of rain although the air is damp and chill. I admit that it's pretty in its way but winter in Paris can still get me down.

Watch Your Step

In the continuing battle against the, shall we say, "presents" our canine friends leave on the sidewalk, I came across this sign over the weekend on a little side street near the Courcelles métro stop. It was posted on a metal pole stuck into a concrete base, kind of like the signs you might see when there's road work underway. Someone's clearly had it up to here in this corner of the 17th arrondissement; the sign points out that everyone must pick up after their dogs, even if the little fellows are doing it in the gutter. Still haven't seen anyone writing tickets for those in violation of the law, though.

On Point

Last year my French teacher gave us a little exercise: write about something in Paris that you have found particularly striking. One of my classmates, a Ukrainian gal, wrote that she had never lived anywhere where the men are better dressed and coiffed than the women. And while French women are certainly no slouches, it's true that there's a certain type of Parisian dude who pays very careful attention to his appearance.

In addition to the hair gel and cool eyeglasses, one of the trends for men at the moment is super pointy shoes, the kind that extend well beyond the end of your foot. These aren't the pointiest I've seen, simply the best I could do with my point and shoot camera. I'm sure they come in handy for killing bugs in corners. I can't imagine though that they're too comfortable. But then why should only women be slaves to fashion?