Things FUSAC likes

How do you know you’re Becoming French?! 20 more ways

How do you know you're Becoming French?! 20 more ways

When you...

have an Opinel or three know that seeing and hearing a rumbling mass of military planes and helicopters in the Paris sky around July 11 is not an invasion but a rehearsal for the Bastille Day parade... that Bastille Day not only is not the name of the holiday in France but are words that mean absolutely nothing to a French personfind creative, inspiring solutions to any problem…but only at the last minuteknow what Système D is (and what the D stands for!)have at least two pairs of espadrilles in your closetknow what PSG stands for, the full name of the SG in question, what OM has to do with PSG, and what OM stands foriron your plain white t-shirts and jeans-then wear them with outrageously expensive perfumemake the last item on your grocery list a gigantic bouquet of flowershave underwear items that match not only each other but also what you’re sporting on top of themdrink your morning c…

International Bookstores in Paris

The most recently opened of the bookstores in Paris is our own Bill & Rosa's Book Room is composed mainly of used English books (about 2500). We also have a certain number of French language books (about 500). And when we also received books in other languages Norweigian (30), Spanish, Portuguese and Polish we were reminded as to what a cosmopolitan city Paris is. In fact we read recently on the city of Paris' website in carefully inclusive French that the population of the city is composed of 22% Paris-born, someplace else we saw 26% foreign-born and the rest of Parisians are non Parisian French. The international community stems from 176 nationalities. And 3/4 of Parisians think the ideal city is multicultural. This got us to thinking that there must be bookshops that deal in other languages beyond English and French so we set out to see what we could find and composed this list. After the foreign language shops there's a list of English bookstores in Paris and a few…

The quintessential Paris museum: Musée Jacquemart André

Where in Paris can you take in some Dutch masters including Rembrandt, ceilings by Tiepolo, medieval Venitian and Florentine works (Uccello, Botticelli), a Vigié-Lebrun portrait and watercolors and oils by JMW Turner ? The Louvre of course, but there's a better place. More intimate, less crowded, very personal and just the right size for a couple hours visit without wearing you out is the Musée Jacquemart André. This museum is an art history text book in one concise and pleasant space. Swoon.

Musée Jacquemart André © Culturespaces - S. Lloyd

Nélie Jacquemart and Edouard André were Parisian art collectors in the mid-19th century. The heir of a protestant banking family, Edouard André devoted his fortune to buying works of art to exhibit in his new mansion on the Boulevard Haussmann, which was completed in 1875. In 1881, he married a well-known artist, Nélie Jacquemart, who had painted his portrait in 1872. This marriage would be central to the creation of t…

14th of July in Paris: La Marseillaise and where to watch the fireworks

Did you know the French call their national holiday, the 14th of July, NOT Bastille Day?

La Cérémonie

The year's ceremony that will take place at Concorde in lieu of the Military Parade will NOT be open to the public. It will certainly be televised and that is in any case the best way to watch it. There will be hommage to the healthcare workers. The air parade of planes and helicopters seems to be on the schedule also.

La Marseillaise

The French national anthem sung on the 14th of July and many other occasions is La Marseillaise. Following France’s declaration of war on Austria and Prussia, the mayor of Strasbourg, Baron de Dietrich, asked army engineer Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle to write a marching song. On the night of April 25th 1792, Rouget de Lisle penned the Chant de guerre pour l’armée du Rhin - War song for the Rhine Army, named in honour of the garrison to which he belonged. The song was meant to inspire t…

The Power of a Postcard – make an impact

I've received postcards from my parents when they travel for many years. I've kept nearly all of them in a file and some day when they can no longer travel it will become a set of reminiscences to look at with them. The power of a postcard picture and small bits of information on the weather or activities will bring their trips back to life and lead us on to various and sundry conversations. I also have a collection of my-grandmother-in-law's postcards which she sent in the 1940s and 50s when traveling in the United States. Some were picked up along the way at the Howard Johnson's Motor Inn or others in National Parks.

I know from being both the sender and receiver of postcards how the power of a postcard is to bring joy. That's why when we created Bill & Rosa's Book Room we put in a POP desk dedicated to what we call the Power of a Postcard. Time and time again we have found that taking a few minutes to hand write a postcard to someone makes a huge impact. Wh…

Recipe for Confinement Loaf

Serves 2. Active time: 10 min. Cooking time: 55 days

Ingredients for Confinement Loaf

100 crumpled attestations

100 crumbs of the pages of the book you read too many times

2 squares of minced TP because that's all you have

10 used paper masks, thinly sliced

2 pairs of worn out rubber gloves, naturally shredded

a pinch of the hair you cut yourself

1 empty gel bottle, finely chopped

Mix all ingredients thoroughly in a large bowl. Form into a loaf with sore-from-clapping-chapped hands. Garnish with a cloth mask that needs disinfecting (since one of the suggested germ-killing options is putting them in the oven!).

Put the loaf in the oven at 60° C – the ideal temp for that mask. Let cook for 55 days, then on May 11, sprinkle on as many hashtags as you can find, take a photo and post on Instagram before gleefully dumping this unpalatable loaf in the trash!

PS: Can also be made …

An homage to healthcare professionals “You’re the top!”

FUSAC would like to offer this Cole Porter song from 1934 called "You're the Top" as an homage to healthcare professionals the world over who working so hard under adverse conditions that they truly are the top of our mountains of humanity. This song is a list of all that was the very best in 1934. Of course Cole Porter was thinking of his sweetheart, but here we are 86 years later and I think we can say right now that healthcare professionals are indeed the very best, the top. We can also add all the others who are continuing to work with the public day after day during this crisis. Let's sing, give homage and enjoy a moment of levity with Cole Porter. This original recording is hard to understand so the lyrics are below. Don't miss the wonderful references to France: the "Louver Museum", the smile on the Mona Lisa and even "You're camembert".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6oGytt0Hiw

At words poetic, I'm so pathetic

That I always have found it bes…

A Quatre-quarts is a Pound cake

The French use the word "cake" or quatre-quarts (four quarters) or sometimes even fondant for what English speakers call a pound cake. It can be either savory or sweet. The sweet version is in fact four ingredients (eggs, flour, butter and sugar) in equal quantities measured by weight (the French cook using weight not volume), so each is a quarter of the total, hence the name quatre-quarts. It is best to start with the eggs because you can't use just part of an egg! So whisk and weigh your eggs (4 - there's that number again - will make an average loaf) then weigh out the same amount of each of the other ingredients as you have eggs. Whisk the sugar into the eggs for 4 (!) minutes, then gently mix in the flour and lastly the melted but cooled butter. Some people like to add a sachet of levure chimique as well for a fluffier loaf. Add a bit of vanilla, rum, lemon peel, orange flower water to the batter... for extra style! Put in a loaf pan and the oven at 180° C for about …

Strawberry Shortcake, a classic

The first strawberry shortcake recipe appeared in an English cookbook as early as 1588, according to Driscoll's berry growers (Did you know the original Mr Driscoll was a butcher from Alsace who emigrated to California?). By 1850, strawberry shortcake was a well-known biscuit and fruit dessert served hot with butter and sweetened cream. In the United States, strawberry shortcake parties were celebrations of the summer fruit harvest. This tradition continues in some parts of the United States on June 14, which is Strawberry Shortcake Day. It wasn't until 1910 that French pastry chefs changed the topping to heavy whipped cream. Many commercial strawberry shortcakes in the US today are made with a sponge cake base. The recipe, which is very easy, below uses the more traditional American shortcake recipe (similar to a scone) and yogurt, because I like to eat it for breakfast! It is also delicious with blueberries or sliced peaches and once I even added oats and nuts to the batt…

LOOFE 2020 is out! It’s free, fun and interesting

LOOFE is an annual magazine about life in France. Inside you’ll find short articles about different facettes of France and French society. You’ll find history, books, culture, people, language, photographs and nature explained helpfully with a touch of humor.Think of it as a manual for life in L’Hexagone! (L’Hexagone, incidentally, is one of France’s nicknames due to the nearly hexagonal shape of metropolitan France)

The third edition, which is out for 2020, contains articles called

Small is Good: Les Petits Plaisirs [of France],Laughter in FranceRosa Bonheur, Broad with a BrushPhoto essay Paris is not the Eiffel TowerFood Focus on Pâté en croûteSee Paris and DieThe Senateand of course there is a Culture Quiz, a Speak Easy Puzzle and "In Every French Household"Plus classified ads and advertising of places you should know in Paris

Loofe also introduces the new Bill & Rosa's Book Room at FUSAC. The book Room is a place to Read, wRite and Rel…