News

• Foie Gras Ban to be in Reinstated in California

  Nouveau rebondissement dans la guerre qui oppose producteurs, restaurateurs et défenseurs des droits des animaux sur la Côte Ouest. Un panel de juge a obtenu le rétablissement de la loi, suspendue en 2015, qui interdit le gavage des oies. Le 29 septembre 2004, le Sénat californien approuvait la proposition de loi S.B. 1520 rendant illégal "le gavage d’un oiseau dans...

• Macron, the “Anti-Trump” at the U.N. General Assembly

  Striking differences between French President Emmanuel Macron and U.S. President Donald Trump were evident once again during the pair’s individual addresses to the 72nd United Nations General Assembly that convened this week. Many American media outlets compared the speeches point-by-point to highlight the two leaders' contrasting ideologies. "France’s president urged world leaders to work together, while America’s emphasized nations’ own...

• A French-Language World Tour with TV5 Monde

  Les 21 et 22 septembre, la chaîne francophone TV5 Monde embarquera pour un "tour du monde audiovisuel" sur le thème de la langue française telle qu’elle est parlée à Paris, à Montréal, à Vancouver ou à La Nouvelle-Orléans. Le Tour du Monde de la Francophonie commencera le jeudi 21 septembre à Paris à 13h (heure locale), se poursuivra au fil...

• 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...

Opinion

• The Macron-Trump Presidential Clash

  The presidents of France and America stood before the United Nations General Assembly for the very first time, outlining opposing positions on every detail. While Trump promised the total annihilation of Iran, North Korea, and even Venezuela, Macron presented as a standard-bearer for democracy. The POTUS extolled the virtues of strength and nationalism, whereas the French president sang the praises...

• Lessons from Noah’s Ark

  Who or what is responsible for the hurricanes Harvey and Irma that recently devastated the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Global warming? Urbanization? Or perhaps Nature itself? Natural disasters were equated to some divine punishment until the 18th century — a theory that dates back to the Flood. After destroying land and sea, God personally promised Noah to never...

• Who Actually Wants the Olympics?

  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...

• A Lesson From iPhones

  Of their trip to Paris, most people choose to remember a croissant that they ate at a café, the view from the top floor of the Eiffel Tower or Mona Lisa's smile at the Louvre. Our columnist Adam Gopnik prefered to remember the day he lost his phone! Not long ago I got to spend a couple of days in...

Culture

• Philippe Labro, the Tireless “Americanologist”

  Through diverse chapters of U.S. history such as the conservative South of the 1950s, the election of Barack Obama, the 1960s, and the assassination of JFK, French journalist and writer Philippe Labro has observed, recorded, analyzed, and tried to understand America. The president of the United States was assassinated on November 22, 1963, and Philippe Labro was sent to Dallas...

• “Loving Vincent”, a Masterpiece!

  For the first time in cinematic history, a movie has been created exclusively using handmade paintings. The duo behind the film drew their inspiration from more than 120 works by Vincent van Gogh to retrace the incredible and misunderstood artist’s extraordinary life. The film will be out in New York on September 22, in Los Angeles on September 29, and...

• A French Couple in Wyoming’s Cowboy Country

  Two French people living in Wyoming share a passion for photography and horseback riding, and document the daily lives of cowboys in the American West. Eager to present their work to the world, the couple recently opened a gallery in the small town of Cody. Guillaume Beau de Loménie is the son of a banker, who grew up in Madagascar,...

• French Fashion v. American Fashion

  There are countless generalizations about the contrasting approaches that French and American women take toward fashion — French women pick quality over quantity; Americans are more casual — but most are products of our fantasies. To get closer to reality, we spoke to two women in the fashion industry: American fashion expert Valerie Steele and French fashion designer Anne Fontaine....

Business

• A Most Prestigious Menu

  A chilled corn velouté, foie gras millefeuille, and spring pea. From the wine to the dessert, the French chef Daniel Boulud’s catering company, Feast & Fêtes, pulls out all the stops to satisfy an American clientele with a taste for excellent service. “This is where it all began,” says Jean-Christophe Le Picart, sat at the Café Boulud between Central Park...

• A Bouquet of True French Elegance

  The floral creations by Agnès de Villarson help decorate the most fashionable weddings in Manhattan and the surrounding areas. After working as a math teacher at the Lycée Français de New York, she was trained in floral design at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, and has now been providing her loyal and demanding American clients with flowers...

• Style Right Down to the Smallest Details

  Maison Guillemette has been adorning brides’ hair with tulle headwear, pearl combs, crowns of dried flowers, diamante brooches and headbands since it was founded in 2014. The French brand recently established itself in the United States, and is winning over clients with artisanal, French-made products, reasonable prices, and a boho-chic creative world. Pauline Bignan is head of Maison Guillemette in...

• 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...

Education

• “Parents Are Driving Bilingualism in the United States”

  Fabrice Jaumont has a vision. By the year 2050, the Education Attaché at the French Embassy in New York hopes to have introduced a dual-language program into every school in America. Utah already has one in five schools organized in this way, and French is one of the languages of choice. In fact, with more than 160 bilingual options in...

• 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-...

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...