Paris Cookbook Festival 2010

date : 12-15 février 2010.

adresse : CENTQUATRE,
104 rue d'Aubervilliers
5 rue Curial 75019
Paris FRANCE
Tél. + 33 (0)1 53 35 50 00

les horaires d'ouverture :
jeudi 12, samedi 13, dimanche 14: de 9h30 à 18h30
lundi 15: de 9h30 à 17h

tarif d'entrée : De €8...

Ça a l'air amusant!

...Paris will become world´s cook and winebook capital from 12-15 February 2010: In the artist and event center “Le 104” Gourmand will launch the first Paris Cookbook Fair which will be almost more than just a fair for books. It will turn out to be perhaps the most amazing meeting of food and wine professionals (authors, chefs, photographers, publishers, producers) from all around the world.

• It will be an international bookfair with participants from more than 100 countries. Approximately 40% from France and 60% from foreign countries.

• Gourmand shows its huge library with more than 4,000 books.

• There will be 2 show kitchens with 62 chefs demonstrations.

en savoir plus
blog

Image crée par Druxache

Photo par Tibor Bárány

Lunch in Paris - Elizabeth Bard

As if you didn't know by now, I'm obsessed with books. And not just any books but auto-biographical books written by women in their 20s and 30s who moved to France and found love... (ahhh... queue the sappy music...)

Actually the 'found love' part is optional but I really do like reading auto-biographical/memoir books about young (single) women who moved to France.

The latest of these is Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes by Elizabeth Bard. I read about it on someone's blog or some website somewhere (I think?) and then I accidently came across it again on Amazon, and then I checked it out at my bookstore. I had a quick read of it and was pretty much hooked! The idea of having recipes throughout is a bit weird for me but I'm sure they'd come in handy for some... I guess it's a bit like getting 2 for 1. A story and a cook book in one!

Since I haven't actually read it yet (apart from the first few pages which I skim read) I can't really review it or comment on it yet but if you liked Sarah Turnbull's 'Almost French' I'm sure you'll love this one too. :) Once I buy it I'll try to put up a review of it.

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14 Feb My review here.

Combien de bises?

Combien de bises
Times Online: French unsure when to turn the other cheek

Ce site web Strange maps ecrit de la mystère de combien de bises devez-vous faire? Oui, c'est une énigme!


Maintenant, quand je vois mes amis français je fais toujours les bises avec eux (pour devenir plus français, bien sûr! :P ) Mais, je n'utilise pas mes lèvres, je touche juste les joues.


La différence entre ces mots n'est pas clair.

(faire) une bise - the cheek kiss thing used as a greeting
un bisou, un baiser to kiss lips to lips, or to hug
baiser (v) - to fuck, to have sex (vulgar slang)
embrasser (v) - to kiss, embrace OR to hug
serrer dans ses bras / (faire) un câlin - to hug
(faire) un câlin - to make love (informal slang between couples)

En savoir plus: Word Reference 1 | 2

Quelle confusion!

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Edited to add :


(10 May 2010): It seems like a lot of people are coming to this page from Google because they want to know the difference between a bise and a bisou. Well, I'm no expert. I've received emails from French friends signed with both 'bise(s)' and 'bisou' so I'm just as confused.. You could see this link for more information. :)


(1 July 2010): A video I found on the topic (all in French though)

Google's new translator phone

Times Online UK: Google translator phone

“Everyone has a different voice, accent and pitch,” said Och. “But recognition should be effective with mobile phones because by nature they are personal to you. The phone should get a feel for your voice from past voice search queries, for example.”

The translation software is likely to become more accurate the more it is used. And while some translation systems use crude rules based on the grammar of languages, Google is exploiting its vast database of websites and translated documents to improve the accuracy of its system.

Looks very promising but I wonder how good is it really?

I know that Babelfish has improved since Yahoo bought it from Altavista (and I have been using Babelfish ever since it existed in the 90s so I can see the difference!) but it's still makes a lot of mistakes for eg: the j' stays as j' and does not get translated into I.

(image) (not of actual phone)

Travel and Study Grants to go and study in France

I accidently stumbled upon this part of the huge website Campus France. You can search for grants that help pay you to go and study in France. How great is that?!

You can sort the list by all sorts of criteria:

• Type of grant (study, research, internship or travel)
• Level (Bachelor (Licence), Master, PhD (Doctorat) or Postdoctoral)
• Subject Area
• Country (ie your country of origin)

Take a peek if you're interested!