Around Paris

• Metro station Concorde: learn more about the mysterious tiled letters, what text they come from, and the history of this station's appearance.
  
• Forum des Images: If there's one thing Paris does well, it's movie theaters.  This recently renewed and redesigned theater is at the heart of Les Halles, and screens old and unusual films, often revolving around a theme.  It's sort of like an exhibition gallery of movies.  Current theme: New York.
  
• More on flea markets in and around the city.
  
• Taxi services and reservation numbers.
  

• "In the lap of luxury, Paris squirms": how the economic crisis affects haute couture.
  
• Beginning April 1, 2009, all museums in Paris are free for those under 25.  Can't express how awesome this is, or how nice it would have been last semester.
  
• A view of Obama from France.
  
• "The wrong sort of silence": One blogger discusses the social challenges that come with bisous and the formality of French language.
  

• Open-air markets, their days, and their locations, organized by arrondissement.
  
• "No Reservations": private gourmet dinners hosted at one man's home in Paris, a story on NPR.
• Aux Chiens Lunatiques: "An occasional supper club in a 17th century apartment in the Latin Quarter"--more private gourmet dinners hosted by incredible chefs.
  
• Hidden Kitchen: Yet another private dinner spot.  "Our cuisine is best described as refined new American. We create original dishes that utilize French techniques while incorporating aspects of Americana and ingredients not typically found on tasting menus in France."
• Restaurant recommendations in Paris by David Lebovitz.
  

The past week or so has been a whirlwind of exams, goodbyes, au revoir dinners, studying, and generally trying to see as much of the city before I leave for a month.  Today I finished my last exam, and began cleaning the apartment and assessing what needs to be packed and what can stay here.  I fly back to the States this weekend for the holidays and won't return to Paris until mid-January.  I can already anticipate how much I will miss it.

I've been collecting links for a little while now, some on Paris and some on language in general.  Enjoy these while I get around to writing something more substantial.

• Insiders' guide to Bohemian Paris: Lots of good suggestions in here from locals, all pretty local off-the-beaten-track places.  Hope to report more on some of them, myself.
• Chocolate lover's guide to Paris: I will probably be doing this with my mom in January.
• How Germans really see English ad slogans: It's been popular in recent years to advertise in Germany using English slogans.  Turns out people only vaguely know what they mean, despite English words entering the German vernacular.
• On dubbing "The Wire" into German: Covers many of the difficulties in translating films and television shows, which often use slang and other words that aren't easily translatable.
• Uptake anxiety: I've always been annoyed?  By those people who seem to end everything with a question mark?  Turns out there's a name for it?  And more than just teenage girls are guilty?
• Cool places Americans can't visit: One day, Cuba, I will come for you.
• Ooh la langue:  A blog post on learning French, losing English, and all the little things in between.  100% true.  "There is no French equivalent that I know of for the phrase I know, right? And this saddens me. But maybe it's just because they don't know how good it could be. To just break out of their formality and say Je sais, vrai?!"

I've had a few Paris-centric tabs cluttering my browser for a while, so I figured I'd share.

• Forvo is a site that collects sound bytes of countless languages, some of which I didn't know existed.  As a native-speaker of your own language, you can record various words and phrases to add to the site's incredible library.  Though I'd encourage you to poke around and listen to some Gaelic or Icelandic, or even some Esparanto, Forvo also has a large French library if you need to brush up.  In the right panel of each page you can click tags to browse words by category.  French, for example, has a "vins" category where you can learn how to pronounce all those fancy French wines.
• Need a more structured way to learn French online?  Check out Coffee Break French, a free podcast that covers the basics.
• A list of twelve Parisian tea rooms.  More on tea shops here.
  
• Lots of lists, photos, and ideas for things to do in Paris here.
• More English language bookstores to visit in the city, if you've already seen Shakespeare & Co. and the Abbey Bookshop.