It was my refuge when Paris knew some terrible days at the beginning of this year. The Wilson Opera is a little three-stars hotel, so discreet that we could keep the address secret. Its name could make you think that it is located on the Grands Boulevards, but you’ll find it in the little Stockholm street instead, at a stone’s…
Tag: lifestyle @en
The Apfelstrudel, a traditional Austrian pastry
From Austria to the United States, through Israel or Argentina, its reputation is worldwide. The Apfelstrudel is emblematic of Central European cuisine and has traveled along historic migrations, specifically of Jewish Ashkenazi communities. Austria, Germany, Switzerland, North-Eastern Italy, Hungary, Alsace, Slovakia, Czech Republic, even the Balkans, every country has its recipe and keeps it as a memory of the Habsburg…
Impressions: Viennese cafés
On November 10th, 2011 the UNESCO classified Viennese cafés as masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. These Wiener Kaffeehäuser, the true temple of delightfully outdated lifestyle, have been described as places “where time and space are consumed, but where the only item on the check is the coffee”. A spacio-temporal rift there lets us contemplate the ordinary and…
Eurotrip in Central Europe, day 1 : the Viennese summer
My last post presented to you the program of my little trip in Central Europe, between four cities of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire: Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Prague. The idea is to tell you about this trip day by day, focusing on places, moments, delicacies, attractions, etc. Don’t hesitate to share your observations or your favorite places with me! Let’s…
10 things that may surprise a traveler in Dublin
« (…), travel is in my opinion a very profitable exercise; the soul is there continually employed in observing new and unknown things, and I do not know, as I have often said, a better school wherein to model life than by incessantly exposing to it the diversity of so many other lives, fancies, and usances… ». These are Montaigne’s words in…
Why are French people always on strike?
A mystery for Americans foreigners watching us, a blessing for newspapers and an endless supply of topics for social scientists. On April 16th, 2009, the prestigious Time magazine asked again: why do French people like going on strike so much? After a more than two-week long strike at the SNCF, during the “baccalauréat” period and at the peak of the…
June 13th, 2014: I saw the Rolling Stones at the Stade de France
It’s hard to imagine that this could be the Rolling Stones’ last concert, at least in this configuration, when it feels like just another reunion between old pals. Still, 75 000 people, the population of an average-sized French town, and tickets sold in less than an hour on March 28th, 2014. Almost three months later, fans are there and the…
Review: « Le Stube », a German in Paris
« Ein Ort wo man ist und isst. » « A place where one is and eats. » Suddenly craving for sauerkraut (« choucroute ») in July? Or in need of a comforting goulash after a rough meeting or of a piroshki* session with friends? Not a problem. Sure, you can find everything in Paris, but until now, certain Danubian needs could be hard…
A Turinese delicacy : the bicerìn
« Amongst the good things I experienced in Turin, I will never forget the bicerin, an excellent drink made with coffee, milk and chocolate, which is served in all cafes. » It’s the tasting memories that the famous French writer Alexandre Dumas kept after his Turinese stay in August 1852… Memories of the bicerìn, a small, hot beverage, very fashionable in the nineteenth century…
