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Mar 13, 2024 | 
france-amerique.com | Anthony Bulger
“Restaurant servers in two different countries chased me down the street last month,” confided a friend just back from a round-the-world trip. “In Kyoto, it was to give me back the cash I’d left on the table for a tip; in Chicago, it was because I hadn’t tipped enough!” In the first case, she said, the server was embarrassed; in the second, furious. As most well-traveled readers will know, one of the hardest things to master is when and whether to tip and, if so, how much to give.
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Feb 14, 2024 | 
france-amerique.com | Anthony Bulger
“Good news, folks,” smirked a U.S. television host. “You can at last find decent pastry in Paris.” It’s not only American tourists who might be thrilled: In December, at least five hundred sweet-toothed Parisians stood patiently in line – another American habit – to await the grand opening of the first-ever authentic U.S.-style donut store in France. Yes, mesdames et messieurs, Krispy Kreme has established a bridgehead in the land of croissants and pains au chocolat.
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Feb 7, 2024 | 
france-amerique.com | Anthony Bulger
After weeks of heated and often fractious debate, the French parliament has adopted a controversial bill that toughens the country’s immigration laws.1 However, the political wrangling that preceded the vote and the shockwave that followed it have dealt a body blow to President Emmanuel Macron and his minority government.
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Jan 31, 2024 | 
france-amerique.com | Jean-Gabriel Fredet |Diane de Vignemont |Jonas Cuénin |Anthony Bulger
Every month in France-Amérique,discover the best of French and Francophone culture in the United States and Canada.
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Jan 3, 2024 | 
france-amerique.com | Anthony Bulger
Last year’s cultural highlights in France ran the gamut from a blockbuster Picasso exhibition to a musical about Al Capone. But the most popular event was surely the publication of yet another installment in the adventures of Asterix, the comic-book character who has become a global phenomenon.
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Dec 12, 2023 | 
france-amerique.com | Anthony Bulger
Catching up with the news after a month abroad, I was struck by a headline announcing that Americans are leaving the U.S. in droves to live abroad. And many of them, apparently, are headed to France. Ah, la belle France, you’re an ad-man’s dream: glorious architecture, gorgeous scenery, world-class culture, the smell of fresh-baked croissants, markets brimming with the freshest food, rolling fields ablaze with lavender, etcetera, etcetera. And, of course, romance on the heady, scented air.
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Dec 4, 2023 | 
france-amerique.com | Anthony Bulger
Based in an imposing former royal château, the Cité Internationale de la Langue Française (CILF) allows visitors to discover how French was born and developed, then spread globally and evolved through contact with other languages. Permanent exhibits examine its links with the political fabric of France, its relationship with regional languages, and its constant reinvention in French-speaking countries. Other highlights include temporary exhibitions, shows, concerts, debates, and workshops.
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Nov 30, 2023 | 
france-amerique.com | Anthony Bulger |Benoit Georges |Roland Flamini |Diane de Vignemont
Every month in France-Amérique,discover the best of French and Francophone culture in the United States and Canada.
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Oct 18, 2023 | 
france-amerique.com | Anthony Bulger
It’s an understatement to say that wine is deeply ingrained in French culture. For centuries, its virtues have been lauded by everyone from kings and politicians to writers and humorists. Even the great medical pioneer Louis Pasteur decreed that a meal without wine was like a day without sunshine, a maxim joyfully displayed in bars and restaurants across the land. As one observant humorist remarked, this country is so proud of its great vintages that it even names towns and villages after them.
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Oct 3, 2023 | 
france-amerique.com | Anthony Bulger
A debate on prohibiting the abaya, as well as the male equivalent, the qamis, in public schools has rumbled on for months since neither garment is considered specifically religious. Schoolgirls have long been banned from wearing the Muslim headscarf (le voile) on the grounds that it infringes the principle of secularism, which is fundamental to the French education system.
