francofiled

It was a pleasant Friday evening at the start of a long weekend as we set off to Castlemarket Street in Dublin to dine at La Maison . Knowing that we appreciated French food and wine some friends had recommended the place to us and had talked expansively about their own choices. So with table easily booked online and with some advance checking of the menus we were full of expectation. The street was packed with scores of people - after-office party goers; young; young-at-heart and visitors like ourselves. We moved through a covered terrace and were shown to a ground floor table near the door. Our warm welcome was soon supplemented by a tray of breads and a pâté of pureed gherkins, onions and shallots - délicieux ! To get further into the mood we settled back with a pastis and took in the surroundings: the most obvious thing about the décor was the crispness of it all - sparkling glassware, white paint and linen, posters and black and white photographs. Friendly and professio...

The PARISIANER picture, as explained in a previous post , arrived as promised and was soon off to be framed. Here it is in its new home and a lovely talking point it is too. Nice to have been associated with this project. Do check out the previous links for more information.   Posted with Blogsy

The beautiful Alpine town of Annecy, near the border of France and Switzerland has been in the news recently as a result of poor air quality. Apparently the cold air from the mountains keeps pollutants closer to ground level and causes a build-up of nasty micro-particles.  This is paradoxical in a way because the famous lake at Annecy is one of the cleanest in the world. Low-cost flights to Geneva make it easy to get to Annecy and that's what we did a few year's ago. We're thinking of going back because it was one of the most relaxing (and we think healthiest) holidays we ever had. Here is how Le Dauphine newspaper treated the story . It uses the term coup de grisou which admittedly I had to look up. It means "firedamp", a miner's name for a methane explosion that occurs when the gas comes into contact with air.  Sounds about right. That got me to thinking though ... what's being done about it? The town is certainly taking it seriously and ac...

Having heard about the lovelocks appearing on the Lagan footbridge I took a stroll to see for myself. There may not be as many as on the bridges of Paris where several years worth have been fastened to the metal grilles and the key thrown into the Seine but there are certainly enough to show that the trend has taken hold. Will they be allowed to stay ? Campaigners in Paris have been urging city officials to remove them arguing that they spoil the view of some of the most beautiful parts of the city. So far, as reported earlier on this blog , no action has been taken. Just last week however a section of railing fell off raising further concerns about the safety of the bridges. Check out this piece on BBC for more on that and a hyperlink to a comment piece on whether locks on bridges are romantic or a menace. Will they be allowed to remain in Belfast? Should they be allowed? Is there a middle way? An alternative?   Posted with Blogsy

A friend's post on social media directed me to this article   focussing on cork growers and why cork has such a positive effect on the environment.  The challenge is that recycling of cork is a work in progress and much more needs to be done to avoid it ending up in landfill sites. So from now on I'm saving wine corks like this one from a recently enjoyed Moulin A Vent -  after all what goes around comes around.

When workmen were seen taking away a padlock festooned section of balustrade on the Pont des Arts in Paris last week it sparked off some concerns that the "love locks" - cadenas - would be removed from other bridges too. The Libération newspaper reports here that there are no plans to do this however it also pointed out that not everyone is in favour of them and would like them removed. A no love locks campaign has been set up and has organised a petition. Check it out here . Since they first appeared about 6 years ago the locks have multiplied to approximately 700,000 and on the Pont des Arts alone are estimated to weigh about 40 tonnes. The locks on the much smaller Passerelle Léopold-Sédar-Senghor, formerly known as Passerelle Solférino and don't look as if they would cause too much trouble. But how to remove them should that be necessary? By replacing the balustrade. There are no keys as having locked their love couples throw them into the Seine. The locks are...

The origins of this talk by Hélène GUILLET and Philip McGRORY date back to an idea of then French President, Nicolas Sarkozy to mark Ireland's chairmanship of the European Union. He had the idea of an exhibition charting connections between the two countries. The exhibition was set out in a series of panels with commentaries in English, French and Irish. We were therefore honoured that the person tasked with providing the French translation was none other than our speaker, Hélène. Our speakers explained the origins of the Collège des Irlandais in Paris on the rue des Irlandais near the Sorbonne. Hélène showed us a picture of a wedding ceremony being performed in the famous cultural centre. It was her wedding from two and a half years ago in which she married Cairan who also worked on the President's commemorative project mentioned above. Next, Philip brought us closer to home and into Lisburn. He shared a little known fact that Lisburn was the only town in Ulst...