Made in France

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…

ICS Paris is a unique international school in Paris

Formerly known as EIB – The Victor Hugo School, ICS Paris is an international school in Paris hosting students from Nursery to Grade 12 in the heart of the 15th district. A member of ICS, Leading International Baccalaureat (IB) School Group in Europe, ICS Paris fosters all the values at the heart of an IB education from Primary to High School leading our students towards the IB Diploma.

With a small-class policy, ICS Paris welcomes over 600 students from 70 different nationalities and educational backgrounds. With more than 30 years of experience in education, ICS Paris is a well-known international institution in Paris, unique because of its tailored English-speaking curriculum, enhanced by compulsory French lessons from the age of three. Our international and rich curriculum follows the IB Diploma for our High School, IGCSE for the Middle School (currently also MYP candidate) and Cambridge and IPC for our Primary School.

Students at ICS Paris…

Win a set of bed linen from La Chambre Paris – Giveaway!

Ian and his wife Alison launched La Chambre Paris in September 2019. They found buying high quality bed linen in France expensive (brands can be sold for up to 10x cost). They were also frustrated by the traditional model of buying in a big store plus returns only being available if it is in the original packaging was not consumer friendly. They firmly believe that brands should stand behind the quality of their products and offer people the chance to really test and try the bedding which is why you have 90 days to sleep, wash and fall in love with their bedding!

So they decided to create La Chambre Paris and found a factory that shared their values of exceptional quality, eco-responsibility and transparency. They developed a curated range of French washed linen, sateen and percale and brought in little details such as duvet ties and by cutting out all the middlemen they can sell to you at an affordable price.

Now is the perfect time to refresh your b…

Planète Gascogne by Perry Taylor

If you are headed to south west France for your summer vacation or if you've already been smitten by the area or if you appreciate rural France you'll get a kick out of the drawings by Perry Taylor - as he interprets life in Gascony through a whimsical British lens.

Perry Taylor was born in Oxford, England. He was a graphic designer and art director at design studios and advertising agencies in London and Amsterdam for 25 years. He now lives with his wife and chickens in the Hautes-Pyrénées, at the edge of the Gers. The tender and amusing observations of this renowned ‘Anglo-Gascon’ artist, capture the spirit of South West France in his warm and witty drawings, that always contain mischievous details of the locals, their lifestyle, culture, heritage and sports. Drawn in Indian ink and watercolor, his pen strokes provoke smiles from the French, who recognize themselves, as well as the international visitors who have discovered this special part of France.

…

Having a baby in France (part 1)

Following our previous article about being pregnant in France, here are two more articles with some great books, applications and products that could be useful for you after having a baby in France!

This first part is about products. All the products mentioned here are made in France. (For more Made in France companies not related to babies we also have a series of articles on FUSAC : https://www.fusac.fr/category/made-in-france/ )

Diapers – What's more essential than diapers? It comes right after milk! Finding the right diapers can be quite difficult especially as we know so much about the toxicity of some of them and it is extremely worrying. Luckily, some great brands now make safe and non-toxic diapers. They all offer a subscription system so you can get the diapers delivered to your door! Here is a selection :

Voir Plus about Having a baby in France (part 1)

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…

We Met in Paris, Grace Frick and Margueritte Yourcenar

They met in Paris, here's how you can meet your âme-soeur or just good friends in Paris https://www.fusac.fr/how-to-meet-people-in-paris/

We Met in Paris is the double biography of Grace Frick, the companion who created the world in which one of the best French authors could write, and of Marguerite Yourcenar the author of The Abyss and Memoirs of Hadrian (Selected as one of the "15 books to better help you understand the Hexagon" in our 2018 LOOFE https://www.fusac.fr/guide/LOOFE-1stEdition.pdf). Yourcenar was also the very first woman inducted into the Academie Française in 1981. Joan E. Howard, the biographer, had the luck to not only meet Marguerite Yourcenar in the early 1980s but to become a friend and spend several summers with “Madame” before she died. In 2000, Howard, given her personal contact with Yourcenar, became the director of Petite Plaisance, Margueritte Yourcenar's home on Mount Desert Island on the coast of Maine. The home was labelled a …

Hints and Tips for Running and Biking in Paris

Hints and Tips for Running and Biking in Paris (and an impassioned plea at the end)

It’s no coincidence that “endorphin,” the chemical produced by the brain during intensive, repetitive exercise like running, biking, rowing and swimming, seems to rhyme with “morphine” (an opiate pain reliever). It is morphine, its name being a contraction of “endogenous” (i.e., manufactured “within,” or by, the body [en = “in” in French, for example]) and “morphine”--or other “-ine” drugs, such as codeine, etc. Endorphins are natural pain relivers, which is why we get a “runner’s or biker’s high.” This would be the case even if we were pounding the pavement or pushing the pedals in Lost Springs, Wyoming (as of the 2010 census, population: 4). Or Charleroi, Belgium (according to the BBC, the ugliest city in the world).

BUT WE ARE RUNNING AND BIKING IN PARIS! Need we say more?

Yes, we need. In order to keep safe and happy while all that home-grown dope…

The Sky’s the limit (Plus haut que le ciel)

The Eiffel Tower's story in a play! Photo: (c) Bernard Richebé

Paris, 1884. Gustave Eiffel is bored. He may be one of the greatest engineers of his time, but his creative impulses are running out of steam. The up and coming and brilliant Adolphe Salles joins the company. Mr. Salles has a simple plan for the Eiffel company: less risk-taking and more profitability. He therefore refuses the delusional and costly project brought to him by Nouguier and Koechlin, two passionate engineers who want to build the tallest monument in the world. But Claire Eiffel, one of Eiffel's five children, dreams of seeing her father take on new great architectural adventures. She believes this strange looking tower, this so-called “idea of the century”, is precisely the opportunity to re-prove his skills and in the process get out of a planned marriage to Salles. But this extraordinary tower has its own will! The site quickly becomes an uncontrollable whirlwind of confrontations, p…

The Ile de France, elegant ocean liner

The exhibition “L’Art déco, un art de vivre à la Française : the ocean liner Ile de France” looks back on the story of this elegant ship, born during the Roaring Twenties which was a Franco-American link making the crossing from Le Havre to New York. The ship was the symbol of an unrivaled French art de vivre, the epitome of French elegance and the exhibition shows us the history of a society and of the art of travel. Models, photos, paintings, advertising posters, Ruhlmann armchairs, Christofle silverware, Haviland porcelain, vintage menus (including the children's and dog's menus that will make you smile), matches and ashtrays and a vintage publicity film are all presented. A fascinating view of a world of luxury. This was not the biggest or the fastest ship, but it had the longest life of all ships in the French fleet (1927-1961) and exuded the French Touch as seen on the brochure from 1949.

"What is the French Touch? Is it the breakfast you have serv…