Sunday, January 25, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Cheese Scandal, E-Babe and Free Museums
I'm sure you've all heard the big news this week but just in case you missed it, a scandal of seismic proportions is brewing ... French government and food industry officials on Thursday denounced a US decision to triple import duties on Roquefort cheese, warning that it could spell the end of Roquefort exports to the US market.
"Incomprehensible and inadmissible" fumed Anne-Marie Idrac, secretary of state for state for foreign trade. "I am very shocked that one of the last moves by the outgoing Bush administration is this increase in customs duties." Roquefort cheese was among a number of European Union products to be hit with new US tariffs in retaliation for an EU ban on US hormone-treated beef.
Speaking of scandals, a student who is auctioning her virginity to pay for a masters degree in Family and Marriage therapy has seen bidding hit $3.7 million. Natalie Dylan, 22, is auctioning off her virginity to fund her master's degree and claims her offer of a one-night stand has persuaded 10,000 men to bid for sex with her. Last September, when her auction came to light, she had received bids up to $243,000 but since then interest in her has rocketed.
The student who has a degree in Women's Studies insisted she was not demeaning herself and was persuaded to offer herself to the highest bidder after her sister Avia, 23, paid for her own degree after working as a prostitute for three weeks.
And if that wasn't enough good news for this week, in a New Year's address to the arts world, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said under-25s and school teachers would be allowed in to all museums free of charge from April 4, in addition to under-18s who already enjoy free tickets. As part of a raft of announcements aimed at promoting French culture and the arts, Sarkozy said he planned to create a new national history museum, in a "symbolic" site, in a bid to reinforce France's identity.
France's annual national heritage budget will be boosted by 100 million euros, with priority given to preserving "emblematic great monuments, cathedrals, abbeys and small town monuments," he said.
I love the French reaction to a global financial meltdown!!
Some photos of the week:
Real Food at Cafe Lea
Light From My Neighbors Window
Credit Card Image I Submitted to Capital One (It Was Rejected)
Obama Carved in Elevator in Montmartre
Making Baguettes
"Incomprehensible and inadmissible" fumed Anne-Marie Idrac, secretary of state for state for foreign trade. "I am very shocked that one of the last moves by the outgoing Bush administration is this increase in customs duties." Roquefort cheese was among a number of European Union products to be hit with new US tariffs in retaliation for an EU ban on US hormone-treated beef.
Speaking of scandals, a student who is auctioning her virginity to pay for a masters degree in Family and Marriage therapy has seen bidding hit $3.7 million. Natalie Dylan, 22, is auctioning off her virginity to fund her master's degree and claims her offer of a one-night stand has persuaded 10,000 men to bid for sex with her. Last September, when her auction came to light, she had received bids up to $243,000 but since then interest in her has rocketed.
The student who has a degree in Women's Studies insisted she was not demeaning herself and was persuaded to offer herself to the highest bidder after her sister Avia, 23, paid for her own degree after working as a prostitute for three weeks.
And if that wasn't enough good news for this week, in a New Year's address to the arts world, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said under-25s and school teachers would be allowed in to all museums free of charge from April 4, in addition to under-18s who already enjoy free tickets. As part of a raft of announcements aimed at promoting French culture and the arts, Sarkozy said he planned to create a new national history museum, in a "symbolic" site, in a bid to reinforce France's identity.
France's annual national heritage budget will be boosted by 100 million euros, with priority given to preserving "emblematic great monuments, cathedrals, abbeys and small town monuments," he said.
I love the French reaction to a global financial meltdown!!
Some photos of the week:
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Snow, Snow and Daniel Craig ...
Snow was the talk of the town this week. It wasn't like Paris got hit by some huge snow storm (which unbelievably happened in Marseille along the Mediterranean coast this week) but for the first time in a long time, the snow fell and stayed ... and stayed ... and stayed.
It's very rare to see Paris covered in white and as you can imagine, it's very beautiful. I went up to Montmartre and photographed some almost dream-like images of Sacre Coeur.
It was pretty odd seeing Place du Tertre (the square in the center of Montmartre where all the artists paint each day) almost completely empty and covered in white (see image below). It looks like things are finally thawing out but along with the oppressively cold temperatures, it's been a memorable week.
Photographed actor Daniel Craig for the French premiere of his new film "Defiance". He seems like a nice enough man but he looks like he really could kill you at any moment if you do something wrong.
There were a couple of news stories this week that I found culturally interesting - one in England and the other in France. I think both articles highlight general differences in the mentality of Europeans and Americans. Have a read ...
CLICK HERE for the first article.
CLICK HERE for the second article.
(SNOW!) Photos of the week:
Notre Dame in Snow
Might be better to eat indoors
Street in Montmartre
View from Montmartre
Leaves in Snow
It's very rare to see Paris covered in white and as you can imagine, it's very beautiful. I went up to Montmartre and photographed some almost dream-like images of Sacre Coeur.
It was pretty odd seeing Place du Tertre (the square in the center of Montmartre where all the artists paint each day) almost completely empty and covered in white (see image below). It looks like things are finally thawing out but along with the oppressively cold temperatures, it's been a memorable week.
Photographed actor Daniel Craig for the French premiere of his new film "Defiance". He seems like a nice enough man but he looks like he really could kill you at any moment if you do something wrong.
There were a couple of news stories this week that I found culturally interesting - one in England and the other in France. I think both articles highlight general differences in the mentality of Europeans and Americans. Have a read ...
CLICK HERE for the first article.
CLICK HERE for the second article.
(SNOW!) Photos of the week:
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
2009, Parties, Car Burning and Snow ...
Since this is my first blog posting of 2009, let me first send out my best wishes to everyone for 2009. My visitors and I did a bit of partying starting on New Year's Eve and continuing for the next couple of days.
The New Year's Eve party that we went to had so much food left over that it forced a secondary party just to finish off the food. There were many noteworthy scenes that I witnessed, like this photo below.
But each of us has our own way of celebrating the new year. Each new year in France, one of my favorite January 1 rituals is to check how many cars were burnt the preceding night. According to figures from the French Interior Ministry, 1,147 cars went up in smoke on New Year's Eve — a 30% rise on the 879 autos torched the same night in 2007. I'm always stunned by the figure. I've tried to research why this happens and there are all sorts of theories but I don't find any of them completely satisfying. If you want to read more about this annual "event", click HERE to read a Time Magazine article about it.
This week also brought a pretty rare event to Paris ... snow that actually stayed on the ground for a while. I didn't get to shoot much that day but I expect to have some serious snow photos next week.
Some photos of the week:
Paris Street Gang
Parisian Partygoer
Muscle Car On My Street
Frozen Fountain with Rainbow - Palais Royal
One Chief
The New Year's Eve party that we went to had so much food left over that it forced a secondary party just to finish off the food. There were many noteworthy scenes that I witnessed, like this photo below.
But each of us has our own way of celebrating the new year. Each new year in France, one of my favorite January 1 rituals is to check how many cars were burnt the preceding night. According to figures from the French Interior Ministry, 1,147 cars went up in smoke on New Year's Eve — a 30% rise on the 879 autos torched the same night in 2007. I'm always stunned by the figure. I've tried to research why this happens and there are all sorts of theories but I don't find any of them completely satisfying. If you want to read more about this annual "event", click HERE to read a Time Magazine article about it.
This week also brought a pretty rare event to Paris ... snow that actually stayed on the ground for a while. I didn't get to shoot much that day but I expect to have some serious snow photos next week.
Some photos of the week:
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