French Art

How do the French create the elusive and alluring sanctuaries they call home? This question long intrigued Danielle Postel-Vinay. Thanks to a chance encounter with a French expat in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and years of immersive research, she embarked on a quest to discover the secrets of the French home aesthetic. Experiencing first-hand la belle vie - the beautiful life - Postel-Vinay now shows everyone how to create their own French sanctuary, a home sweet maison, no matter where they live.

What is joie de vivre, and why is it a fundamentally French concept? In search of those ineffable qualities that make up the joy of living, this lively book takes listeners on a voyage to France through forays into literature, history, and culture. How does art contribute to daily life? Why is cuisine such a central part of French existence? Peppered with anecdotes and humor, this book uncovers some of the secrets of the celebrated French art of living well.

As Paris rediscovers its joie de vivre, Tabitha Knight, recently arrived from Detroit for an extended stay with her French grandfather, is on her own journey of discovery. Thanks to her neighbor and friend Julia Child, another ex-pat who's fallen head over heels for Paris, Tabitha is learning how to cook for her Grandpere and Oncle Rafe and Tabitha's sojourn is proving thoroughly delightful. That is, until the cold December day they return to Julia's building and learn that a body has been found in the cellar.

When journalist Ann Mah's diplomat husband is given a three-year assignment in Paris, Ann is overjoyed. A lifelong foodie and Francophile, she immediately begins plotting gastronomic adventures à deux. Then her husband is called away to Iraq on a year-long post - alone. Suddenly, Ann's vision of a romantic sojourn in the City of Light is turned upside down.

So, not unlike another diplomatic wife, Julia Child, Ann must find a life for herself in a new city.

Whether it's the Protestant work ethic or the capitalist need for productivity, most of us in the English-speaking world believe that in order to achieve anything worthwhile, we must first expend huge amounts of effort and energy. In fact, just the opposite is true, as French philosopher Ollivier Pourriol shows in The French Art of Not Trying Too Hard.

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders return to the studio for another series of their award-winning show, Titting About. As ever, the comedy icons gather together six weighty subjects… and then tit about with them. From adopting chickens to time travel, these two titans of comedy will stop at nothing to educate, inform, and eat the excellent array of snacks available in the studio. Expect revealing personal stories, showbiz gossip, a good deal of unsubstantiated opinion, and multiple accounts of thoroughly embarrassing themselves.

In this fascinating tour of a celebrated city during one of its most trying, significant, and ultimately triumphant eras, Agnes Poirier unspools the stories of the poets, writers, painters, and philosophers whose lives collided to extraordinary effect between 1940 and 1950. She gives us the human drama behind some of the most celebrated works of the 20th century, along with the origin stories of now legendary movements, from Existentialism to the Theatre of the Absurd, New Journalism, bebop, and French feminism.

Be calm...stop stressing...embrace the universe...try yoga...be fulfilled...and that's an order! We're overwhelmed with these sorts of commands, and we often torture ourselves to "try harder," yet somehow we never feel we've done quite enough. It's about time we stop pushing ourselves to do what we think we're supposed to do, and instead simply allow ourselves to be angry, be tired, be silly, be passionate - to stop giving a shit, and just be.

Every year upon arriving in Plobien, the small Breton town where he spends his summers, American writer Mark Greenside picks back up where he left off with his faux-pas-filled Francophile life. Mellowed and humbled, but not daunted (OK, slightly daunted), he faces imminent concerns: What does he cook for a French person? Who has the right-of-way when entering or exiting a roundabout? Where does he pay for a parking ticket? And most dauntingly of all, when can he touch the tomatoes?

The legends of comedy are back – this time with an even bigger range of in-studio snacks. Dawn and Jennifer once more settle in behind the mic to bring you the fourth series of their smash hit podcast Titting About, armed with a fresh stack of shiny new topics to tit about about. From ghost hunting to grooming rituals, from unwatchable box sets to unlistenable bird noise, from franglais to faff; Dawn and Jennifer once again leave no stone unturned, and no corner of their lives un-poked, in their quest to ensure they are comprehensively titting about for your listening pleasure.

In 1937, as the Nazis gained control and anti-Semitism spread in the Free City of Danzig, a majority German city on the Baltic Sea, 16-year-old Justus Rosenberg was sent to Paris to finish his education in safety. Three years later, France fell to the Germans. Alone and in danger, penniless and cut off from contact with his family in Poland, Justus fled south.

The fascinating and little-known story of the Louvre, from its inception as a humble fortress to its transformation into the palatial residence of the kings of France and then into the world's greatest art museum.

Once again, the legendary comedy duo unearth six vitally important subjects... and then tit about about them. From surviving on a desert island to being eaten by a cardboard crocodile, Dawn and Jennifer will entertain, inform and thoroughly tit about for your pleasure. (Batteries not included.)

This memoir is laced with wonderful stories about the French character, particularly in the world of food, and the way of life that Julia Child embraced so wholeheartedly. Above all, she reveals the kind of spirit and determination, the sheer love of cooking, and the drive to share that with her fellow Americans that made her the extraordinary success she became.

From the summer of 1870 to the spring of 1871, famously dubbed the "Terrible Year" by Victor Hugo, Paris and its people were besieged, starved, and forced into surrender by Germans-then imperiled again as radical republicans established a breakaway Commune, ultimately crushed by the French Army after bloody street battles and the burning of central Paris.

Le regard frais sur le bonheur ! Le best-seller hors de commun avec plus de 2 millions d'exemplaires vendus. Dans ce guide d'auto-assistance définissant notre génération, un blogueur superstar, Mark Manson nous explique comment cesser d'essayer d'être "positif" pour atteindre le vrai bonheur. Pendant de nombreuses années, on nous a dit que la pensée positive était la clé d'une vie heureuse et riche. Mais... "Soyons honnêtes, la merde arrive dans la vie de chacun et il faut vivre avec" dit Mark Mason.

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was an 18th-century French inventor, famed playwright, and upstart near-aristocrat in the court of King Louis XVI. In 1776, he conceived an audacious plan to send aid to the American rebels. What's more, he convinced the king to bankroll the project, and singlehandedly carried it out. By war's end, he had supplied Washington's army with most of its weapons and powder, though he was never paid or acknowledged by the United States. To some, he was a dashing hero - a towering intellect who saved the American Revolution. To others, he was pure rogue.

Soline Roussel is well schooled in the business of happy endings. For generations her family has kept an exclusive bridal salon in Paris, where magic is worked with needle and thread. It’s said that the bride who wears a Roussel gown is guaranteed a lifetime of joy. But devastating losses during World War II leave Soline’s world and heart in ruins and her faith in love shaken. She boxes up her memories, stowing them away, along with her broken dreams, determined to forget.

« Je veux être ce qu'il va arriver. » - Coco Chanel Ces quatre syllabes évoquent immédiatement la mode, la femme et Paris ! Gabrielle Chasnel, dite « Coco » est au-delà d'une créatrice de mode géniale qui a révolutionné le vêtement féminin, sans aucun doute la première influenceuse de l'histoire. Cinquante ans après sa disparition dans sa suite de l'Hôtel Ritz, Coco Chanel reste une personnalité inspirante aux quatre coins du monde. Elle n'a pas fait que modifier le regard porté sur le corps féminin.

Obtenez ce que vous voulez en manipulant le talon d'Achille de chacun : l'insatiable besoin de plaisir. La séduction est la forme la plus aboutie mais aussi la plus subtile, la plus intelligente du pouvoir. En amour ou en politique, ceux qui réussissent connaissent les rouages de la séduction un art, en somme, universel, inébranlable. De Freud à Kierkegaard ou d'Ovide à Casanova, Robert Greene tire de la littérature la quintessence de "l'Art de la Séduction", en s'appuyant sur les vies fascinantes des grands personnages de l'histoire du monde.