News

• Jamie McCourt to Become Ambassador in Paris

  La Maison Blanche a annoncé mercredi soir la nomination de la femme d’affaires Jamie McCourt au poste d’ambassadrice des États-Unis en France et à Monaco. Initialement pressentie pour un poste à Bruxelles, la candidate choisie par Donald Trump prendra ses fonctions à Paris aussitôt sa nomination approuvée par le Sénat. Entrepreneur californienne, investisseur et développeur de projets immobiliers, Jamie McCourt cumule...

• Where to Eat French During NYC Restaurant Week?

  Twice a year, some of New York’s finest restaurants open their doors to eager residents, curious cross-borough travellers and determined tourists during NYC Restaurant Week. Only during this mouthwatering 4-week period, from July 24 to August 18, will diners be able to sample all five boroughs’ culinary institutions with prix-fixe menus of $29 for lunch and $42 for dinner. This...

• What do Americans Know About Bastille Day?

  Inspired by President Trump’s visit to Paris, Fox News went to the Jersey Shore and asked beach-goers questions about Bastille Day and French culture. The answers are, hum, interesting. Watch the video below to hear the answer to questions like "Who was Napoleon?", "What is your favorite French food?", and "Trump is in France commemorating the 100th anniversary of which war?"...

• Paris Rematch for Donald Trump

  L’avion présidentiel Air Force One s’est posé à l’aéroport d’Orly, au sud de Paris, ce jeudi matin (heure locale). Donald Trump entend profiter de ce second voyage européen pour faire diversion de la polémique russe et laver l’affront de la « poignée de main ». Aussitôt à Paris, Donald Trump s’est rendu à l’ambassade américaine où il a salué « les liens entre nos deux pays »,...

Opinion

• The Ultra-White President Trump

  Many celebrated the election of Donald Trump last November as the “revenge of the white man.” This vengeful sentiment continues today, and is more toxic than ever. A certain category of Americans never truly accepted Barack Obama’s presidential victory, nor the current changes that have been shaping U.S. society since the 1960s. Feminism, ethnic diversity, priority for minorities in universities...

• Deserving Tourists

  Terrorist attacks have not damaged France’s appeal for travelers, and the country remains the world’s leading tourist destination. The current obstacles are above all the fault of the French government. Despite the recent terrorist attacks (and lunatics wandering around the foot of the Eiffel Tower holding knives) France’s appeal has not suffered any long-term damage. The country is still the...

• Who Actually Wants the Olympic Games?

  It’s decided: Paris will host the 2024 Olympic Games. But this adventure is borne more by politics than sport, and we could be forgiven for asking if it is really necessary. And just how much will this mass entertainment cost the taxpayer? Paris has beaten Los Angeles in the race to host the 2024 Olympic Games. But where are the...

• France, the New World Leader (in Soft Power)

  A symbolic rankings table published by a British public relations firm has revealed that France has supposedly become the world’s leading “soft power,” overtaking the United States. But what does it mean? “Soft power” is a recent term popularized in the 1990s by U.S. academic Joseph Nye. His theory opposed American military inventions and overly offensive positions by promoting the...

Culture

• The New Generation of French Theater Comes to Princeton

  The French theater festival at Princeton University, Seuls en Scène, brings celebrated French performers and actors in the making to the New Jersey campus. Started by a French theater professor as a way of engaging his students, the festival has expanded to become a showcase of contemporary French theater in the United States. Florent Masse was directing plays in France...

• Capturing Environmental Changes from New York to Perpignan

  New York photographer Steve Giovinco is renowned for his dusky landscapes, and has received funding from the French Ministry of Culture to document the consequences of global warming in the south of France. With his camera hung around his neck, Steve Giovinco is hot on the trail of environmental changes. The New York photographer has captured the destruction caused by...

• From the French Countryside to the Texas Table

  Hedda Gioia Dowd roams the French countryside looking for antiques with a story to decorate her Texas restaurants. From silver cutlery to antique linens to old kitchen utensils, she has made a business of upcycling French history. Dowd is more than a mere Francophile. Her annual trips to France are more than just vacations. Every fall, she rents an old...

• Hookups and French Geography

  In his first feature-length film, "4 Days in France," French director Jérôme Reybaud takes the audience on a special tour de France in which two lovers travel the countryside using Grindr, a gay dating app. After his partner left with no explanation, Paul decides to go looking for him using the geo-tracker feature on Grindr that shows profiles of nearby...

Business

• A Wedding Dress Made in France

  Fashion designer Margaux Tardits creates bold, glamorous wedding dresses sold in New York, and which will soon be available in California. The hang of the dresses is inspired by the Dior pieces designed by Maria Grazia Chiuri and the structured style of Cristóbal Balenciaga. Needless to say, Margaux Tardits’ motto is “get married in style.” American brides tend to prefer...

• A Wedding at the Height of Chic!

  Assetou Gaudissard is a Parisian wedding and event planner living in New York. She currently heads up New York Paris Connection, an agency founded in 2011 specialized in French-style weddings in the United States. Her role implies managing all formalities for the festivities, including finding a space for the reception, hiring a caterer, an organizer and a florist, printing the...

• Americans Say “I Do” to French-Style Weddings

  The love of French chic has helped drive the growth of the wedding industry in the United States. Forget the stereotypical images of American-style weddings with their white satin dresses, cupcakes, ribbon-bound bouquets, blow-up balloons and associated, over-the-top frills. Today’s trend for understated elegance has been picked up by the French professionals in the wedding trade, and florists, planners, caterers,...

• The Rise of French Whisky in the U.S.

  Once a market dominated by North America, Scotland and Ireland, the whisky industry in the U.S. is expanding to recognize the quality of spirits made in other countries such as Japan, India and notably, France. Based on the quintessentially French concept of "terroir," French whiskies made with local ingredients are slowly gaining ground in the U.S. market. The French drink more...

Education

• The Lycée International de Houston Starts its First Semester

  The school will be opening its doors for the first time on August 21, offering an additional option for the increasing number of Francophone families in Houston. The corridors are freshly painted, the floor has been laid, and the furniture is all in place in the classrooms. The Lycée International de Houston was inaugurated on July 14, 2017, and is...

• The Alliance of French and American Universities

  The Alliance Program, a partnership between Columbia University in New York and three French institutions — Ecole Polytechnique, Sciences Po and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University — has awarded 700 dual-degrees in the past ten years. Each one of these graduates spent half of their schooling in Paris and the other half in New York, making their education an equal product of...

• A Public Immersion Program for Pasadena

  Two French-English bilingual classes will open next August at the Pasadena, California, school district. In a state where public schools are rare, this free program is quick to seduce parents. Gary Prézeau is from Sherbrooke in the Quebec province. His wife, Kerry, is Australian. Based in Pasadena, California, since 2001, the couple endeavor to raise their son “in a bilingual environment.” Their five-year-...

• Bilingualism Becomes a Government Affair in Salt Lake City

  Public schools in Utah are focusing on dual language immersion to create a generation of cosmopolitan citizens and attract international investors. With a total of 3,900 children involved in the Francophone part of the program, Utah is the second American state — just behind Louisiana — with the highest number of pupils learning French. Room 216 is an ordinary classroom, with a whiteboard, 30...

Gastronomy

• French Soufflés Are Rising in Texas!

  The rise and fall of this uncommon, classically French spectacle made out of something as simple as an egg is the specialty of the Rise restaurants in Dallas and Houston. The latter, which makes some 300 soufflés a night, will be participating in Houston Restaurant Week through September 4. Often described as “magic,” soufflés come out of the oven airy...

• A Touch of France in a Chicago Mexican Kitchen

  Years after his humble beginning in the United States, Mexican chef Carlos Gaytan still calls on his classical French training to help him reimagine Mexican gastronomy. His restaurant will be participating in Chicago’s French Restaurant Week through July 23. From a dishwasher to the first Mexican chef to be awarded a Michelin star, Carlos Gaytan’s journey to success does not mean...

• La Ripaille Keeps the French Bistro Alive in New York

  While its candlelit tables and jazzy French music may seem similar to the many other French bistros in New York, La Ripaille is unique in its longstanding history of 37 years. The interior, largely unaltered since its opening in 1980, stands proudly as a grandfather example for the many new French bistros that have opened recently during the re-emergence of...

• Bringing Couscous from Algeria to Brooklyn via Paris

  When studying journalism at Columbia University, Aaron Lee never imagined he would become, in his wife’s words, “a Southwest Georgia boy who’s now the king of couscous in New York.” However, just a few years later, he owns and operates Bar Omar in Williamsburg, a dimly-lit restaurant in Brooklyn with a menu famous for its French-Algerian couscous and tagines. The...