Located at the heart of France’s hexagonal territory, Auvergne is a sparsely populated land of volcanic plateaus and large valleys. Unlike the Alps to the east or the Pyrénées to the southwest, its highest peaks reach only 6,000 feet above sea level and are free of snow in summer. The local authorities? efforts to safeguard the environment have made Auvergne one of the last protected zones in Europe.
Before going to Auvergne, familiarize yourself with its history and its gastronomy.
hey me and my m8 r goin 2 paris 2mora 4 4 days+we’re jus wonderin if ne1s from there who wants 2 chat do any of you have msn messenger. if you do add me or email me wotzitgottadowifuanyway@hotmail.com
0 Read MoreWith France on the verge of passing a law that would prevent Muslim girls from wearing their head scarves in class, Americans are asking why the French are so attached to secularism.
I always want to respond to this question by asking another, a version of one asked by Montesquieu nearly three centuries ago: How can one be French?
Our uneasiness about head scarves and other religious symbols in schools is a result of our long, often painful history. If we bow to demands to allow the practice of religion in state institutions, we will put France’s identity in peril.
0 Read MorePresident Jacques Chirac was fighting last night to regain control of a fast unravelling scandal encircling his political power base.
M Chirac seized charge of an inquiry into alleged telephone taps, break-ins and violent threats against judges investigating Alain Juppé, the former prime minister and his heir apparent, convicted on Friday of organising illegal party funding.
The extraordinary intervention came the day after the justice ministry announced it would investigate the allegations.
His gazumping of his own ministry indicates the seriousness with which he is taking the insinuation that he or his allies tried to pressure the judges in the Juppé case.
0 Read MoreFollowing Friday’s guilty verdict against former French Prime Minister Alain Juppe, France’s Le Monde has no doubt about the ruling’s wider political implications.
The paper concedes that Juppe was sentenced for his own role in the illegal funding of the RPR party in the 1980s and 1990s.
“But beyond the man,” it says, “it is a system that was condemned. A system from which Jacques Chirac – then RPR president and mayor of Paris – benefited.”
0 Read MoreThe new edition in Lille follows the launch two weeks ago of the 30th edition of Metro in the French city of Toulouse and further consolidates Metro’s position as the second largest national newspaper in France. 500,000 copies of Metro are now distributed each morning in France’s 5 largest cities – Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse and Lille, which have a combined population of 14 million. The French advertising market is the third largest in Europe and is estimated to have generated net newspaper advertising spend of US$ 1.4 billion in 2003. Metro France will now attract over 1.6 million daily readers.
0 Read MoreMy name is Erin. I am 18 years old, and I live in Michigan in the United States. I love to chat with anyone about anything. I love France, and I plan to become a French teacher when I am through with college. If you are interested please write me and tell me about yourself….Mine….Brevoort77@yahoo.com
I’ll tell you more about myself when you tell me more about yourself
I lived in Strasbourg about 4 years ago and had the privilege of drinking Schutzenberger beer (www.schutzenberger.net) for some time. I live in California and have looked everywhere for this stuff mais je n’arrive pas a le trouver. Does anyone know where I might find some of this here in the States?
Merci bien!
-Steve
France’s Alain Juppe, a man who would be president, finds out in court today whether he can stay in politics at all, let alone dream of one day taking over as head of state from Jacques Chirac.
A judge delivers his verdict in a trial where prosecutors sought an eight-year suspended prison term for the Chirac protege who they say illegally used Paris municipal funds to pay political allies.
The 58-year-old has been steadily clawing his way back to the top since his demise as one of the nation’s most unloved prime ministers in 1997, but a conviction would automatically make him ineligible for public office.
“I’d quit politics,” Juppe said when asked this month what he would do if things went against him. Commentators took that as a sign that he would not even appeal if convicted.
0 Read MoreFrench winemakers, shunned by some Americans last year over France’s opposition to the Iraq war, face a new problem in 2004: the rise in the euro.
Industry leaders said on Thursday the currency’s surge to new highs against the dollar could make French wine seem too expensive to U.S. consumers also being offered keenly priced New World rivals from Australia and elsewhere.
“Buyers of fine wines are not overly sensitive to price variations,” Michel Pons, head of promotion at the national Onivins agency, said of the euro’s 40 percent gain since 2002 to a record $1.29 earlier this month. It is now around $1.25.
“But the impact is greater among the less prestigious wines selling for around $10 a bottle — and it is there that the competition is the hottest,” he told Reuters.
0 Read MoreOn the July day American troops killed Saddam Hussein’s sons Qusai and Odai in the northern Iraqi city in Mosul, a senior NBC News producer called his usual intelligence and military sources trying to learn more about the raid.
As his best CIA source gushed about the American victory, the producer says he noticed a news bulletin on the television behind him: the Eiffel Tower, that great symbol of French grandeur and artistic prowess, had caught fire.
So I asked him, ‘Hey, do you guys know the Eiffel Tower’s on fire’? the producer said.
He was silent for a moment, then he said: Could this day get any better?
A joke, or not?
0 Read More