Monthly Archives: June 2019

Paris Set to Celebrate LGBT Pride This Weekend

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Paris street's full for first Gay Pride since legalisation of gay marriage - video

The city of Paris will celebrate Gay Pride month with a massive parade on Saturday that will wind its way for two hours from the Left Bank to the Place de la Republique, and will culminate with a massive free concert that will be broadcast live on Radio Nova. Paris Pride is like no other LGBT gathering in Europe, drawing hundreds of thousands of people (estimates of the annual crowd range from 600,000 to 1 million) for a weekend of nonstop, raucous celebrating with their peers, friends, families and allies. Continue Reading →

Don’t Miss Christian Constant’s Chocolate Delights

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Christian Constant 2

Paris is the heart of France’s chocolate industry—and sheer heaven for chocolate lovers. There are many boutiques run by world-class chocolatiers throughout the City of Light that should not be missed by sweets connoisseurs. One of my favorites is the Left Bank shop run by master chocolatier Christian Constant. Constant’s signature chocolate products are those that blend unusual flavors with dark, milk and white chocolate, including such essences as orange blossom, jasmine, cardamom, ylang-ylang blossoms, rose-scented geranium and verbena flowers. And both locals and visitors alike rave over Constant’s chocolate and banana tart (called the Sonia Rykiel) and his the dark-chocolate ganache tarte. Délicieux! Continue Reading →

Rue Cler: A Perfect Parisian Shopping Street

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Rue Cler 12

Americans love one-stop shopping—a large grocery emporium where one can stock up on all of the foodstuffs needed for several days. And while supermarkets are becoming more popular in Paris, the City of Light’s residents tend to prefer “one-street shopping”—essentially visiting a street or small section of their neighborhood where they can find a variety of different food shops, including boulangerie for bread, a patisserie for desserts, a fromagerie for eggs and cheese, a boucherie for meat and so on. One of the best is Rue Cler in the 7th Arrondissement. Continue Reading →

Paris’s Unique Street Signs

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An unusual thing that I love about Paris is its iconic green, blue and white street signs. At the top of each is the district (called Arrondissement, and there are 20 of them in Paris) in which the street is located. Then comes the street name. And for my favorite part, the bottom of the sign contains information about the person for whom the street is named, if applicable. You get a mini-history lesson on most street corners! Continue Reading →