Latest news with #Parisiennes
The Independent
04-05-2025
- The Independent
Paris cafes have been caught cheating tourists with cheap wine – here's how to avoid it happening to you
Picture the scene: you're on holiday, revelling in the joy of escaping (most of) the mundane elements of your life. Sitting in the bar of your hotel, you decide to splash out and order a glass of champagne – a real treat. The flute arrives, you take a sip, and something just isn't right... there's a niggling voice telling you it's not champagne. What do you do? Well, if you're me (because, well, this did happen to me), you feel a bit flustered at the thought of having to say something. You doubt yourself, question every aspect of your own tasting ability despite the fact you've been blind-tasting for years, and then finally say something – apologising as you do so. People-pleaser? Moi? Thankfully, the wine in question wasn't champagne (I mean, I knew it all along), and what arrived to replace it – without question, I hasten to add – most definitely was the real deal. But this isn't an easy situation for most people. Despite the rising rouge in my cheeks in the hotel bar that evening, I do have the confidence to know if the wine I'm being served is the wine I've ordered. Most people don't. And this is just one of the reasons why I've been fuming all week at the news that some bars in Paris have been found to be doing the dodgy – pouring a cheaper wine when a more expensive one's been ordered. An undercover investigation published by Le Parisien found that a number of venues across the capital were guilty of wine fraud, with examples such as a chablis (a premium, expensive white wine from Burgundy), sold for €9 (£7.70), being replaced with a more generic and cheaper sauvignon blanc being sold for €5 (£4.25) – whilst the customer was charged the higher amount. Marina Giuberti, one of the undercover sommeliers involved in the investigation, said: 'It's a pity for the customer and for the image of the wine appellation, for the winemaker, and for the restaurant owners who do a good job.' I think I might have been a bit more emphatic in my choice of words than Giuberti, but she's absolutely right – this does a total disservice to every link in the chain of wine production, not to mention giving a boost to the stereotypes about how tourists are treated in Paris, and the disdain the Parisiennes feel towards them. Come on, Paris! I know you're better than this. As a customer, it's always worth remembering that you have some inalienable rights when it comes to ordering and drinking wine. The waiter or sommelier might be positioned as the all-knowing seer, but the reality is that isn't the case; they're not demigods. I urge you to trust yourself. You might not have drunk as much wine as them, but who cares? There's a strong likelihood that you have a good idea of what you do and don't like the taste of. Did you know that you can always ask to see the wine being poured in front of you? It's actually the law in France, and no one has ever questioned me when I've asked for it to happen in the UK, either. Of course, there's nothing that's going to help you if they're 're-potting' the wine (this means pouring a cheaper wine into a more expensive bottle), but even in that situation, you can say, 'I'm sorry, this doesn't taste right to me – do you mind opening another bottle?' And then there's the joy of trying before you buy. Surely this is the great perk of ordering wines by the glass instead of going in head-first with a whole bottle? Any half-decent establishment will be happy to do this. When I owned a wine bar in another lifetime, we served a bar full of wines by the glass, and honestly, I was delighted when people wanted to taste them. It gave me a beautiful opportunity to talk about the wines and find out what styles they enjoyed, and nothing gave me greater pleasure than finding a customer's perfect pour. Good bars and restaurants will be pleased to give you a taster, and if not? Grab your coat and head somewhere that is. I hope that it doesn't taint your love for Paris. It didn't for me. Nowhere in the world does the 'bar a vin' better. For every dodgy place, there's a multitude of outstanding wine bars and bistros run by incredibly passionate, brilliant and kind staff who want to give drinkers and diners the best possible experience. Just let me know if you'd like me to share my little black book on the City of Light (and her great bars) with you one day...
Daily Mail
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The chic wardrobe staple all French women will be wearing with jeans this summer - and where to buy on the high street from £25.99
There's no wardrobe staple more effortlessly cool than the white button-down. Tucked into straight jeans with a pair of ballet pumps à la Parisiennes; untucked over barrel jeans and with a chunky knit slung casually over your shoulders for coffee runs on the weekend; or smartly tucked into tailored trousers for an office-approved fit. With some clever styling, a white shirt can be one of the hardest working pieces in your wardrobe. That said, a classic white button-down can sometimes be a little uninspiring, especially on days you're looking for something a bit more fun. That's where the white embroidered blouse comes in. Another French-girl summer staple, it's typically made from breathable cotton and features delicate floral designs and openwork detailing, offering a breezier alternative to a poplin shirt for the warm-weather season ahead. When it comes to wearing a white embroidered blouse, our advice would be to not overthink it: simply tuck it into your favourite pair of straight jeans (we've found the best pair on the high street and they're only £28), slip on some strappy sandals (perhaps these Parfois lookalikes) and grab your woven leather tote (this one from Anthropologie is about to the the It bag of the summer). If you're looking to lean into the boho vibe, style it with some 70s denim (we've got our eye on these flared jeans from John Lewis) and espadrilles (check out this pair from Penelope Chilvers); or go down the western route and opt for barrel jeans (this new style from M&S is bound to sell out) and cowboy mules (we've bookmarked this pair from Mint Velvet). Plenty of outfit inspiration to see you through the warmer months. So, scroll down for our edit of the best white white embroidered blouses to buy on the high street right now. Boden £90 Shop & Other Stories £77 Shop New Look £25.99 Shop Sézane £105 Shop Zara £45.99 Shop Nobody's Child £69 Shop Marks & Spencer £55 Shop To get more of what you love from your favourite Sunday supplement, follow us on Instagram (@youmagazine), TikTok (@you_magazine) and X (@YOUMagSocial).
Local France
25-02-2025
- Local France
The French cities cracking down on Airbnb with key box bans
The picturesque and popular southern French city of Avignon became the latest to officially ban key boxes from the streets, in an attempt to clamp down on short term property rentals. 'The Wild West of Airbnb is over!' declared the city's deputy mayor for urban development, Paul-Roger Gontard, at the launch of a campaign to remove boxes that have been placed on public property earlier this month. The policy employed by Avignon is far from unique. It's a variation on a theme repeated numerous times in a number of other French cities, including Paris, Lille, Annecy, Saint-Malo, Biarritz, Marseille, Besançon, Nice, and Wimereux, Pas-de-Calais. All of them insist that their firm stance will make it harder for rogue short-term property rentals. Key boxes, according to the website of the Mairie de Paris, 'are used in particular in the context of renting furnished tourist apartments, a phenomenon that has grown disproportionately in recent years', before posting pictures of one of their agents using a cordless angle grinder to cut off illegal key boxes. Pour permettre à tous les Parisiens et toutes les Parisiennes, d'accéder à un logement au prix abordable, la Ville de Paris lutte contre les abus de la location de meublés touristiques et propose une série de mesures concrètes, dont la destruction de boîtes à clés dans l'espace public. — Ville de Paris (@ February 18, 2025 at 3:54 PM But the laws themselves, despite the hyperbole of those behind them at each and every campaign launch, are actually pretty limited. What is a key box? A key box is – as the name suggests – a secure, sealed cabinet designed to hold one or more keys that can be fixed to an interior or exterior wall, and some can be installed on a gate or fence. It is, to all intents and purposes, a small combination safe - most of them have a four-digit code to access, and the usual practice is for the landlord to message the tenant a few hours in advance with the code, allowing them to open the box and then let themselves in to the property. More modern ones still may be secured, activated or deactivated by smartphone. But cities are banning key boxes. Why tell us about them? Because the bans are quite limited in their scope. You have every right to install a key box on property that you own outright. Next to the back door of your house? No problem. At the side of a garage on your land? That's fine. In a public place, or in a shared area of a copropriété (such as an apartment building) however, things start to get complicated. Legally, copropriétés are divided into common and private areas. Common areas include entrance hall, doorways, exterior walls – and you cannot, without the express permission of the building management, install a key box in a common area … even if the co-ownership regulations allow for tourist rentals. But you could put one inside your apartment in a copropriété, if you want. Okay, what about in a public place? Street furniture is managed by a public authority for the benefit of the inhabitants of a territory, municipality or department. As these are public facilities, attaching any kind of device to them – such as a key box – is strictly forbidden. Additionally – and this is where the city bans kick in – some municipalities have issued decrees formally banning key boxes in the street, a public space, on street furniture such as lampposts, bike racks, electricity cabinets, poles and lamp posts. Key boxes attached to the outside of a building are a dead giveaway that the place is being rented out on a platform such as Airbnb. It's perfectly legal to do this, provided you declare your earnings to the French taxman and apply by any local bylaws on tourist rentals. People who, for whatever reason, don't want to advertise that they are renting out their property often attach key boxes to a nearby piece of street furniture such as a bike rack or railing - and this is why city authorities say that this will help with illegal rentals. One more thing . . . Insurance. Your insurer may take a dim view of key boxes for home security reasons. In the event of a burglary committed after thieves have got hold of your house keys by breaking into a key box, insurers may invoke a warranty exclusion clause (article L113-1 of the Insurance Code) to refuse to pay out on claims.
Yahoo
13-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
1985 Chevrolet Caprice Classic Sedan Makes You Feel Good Inside
General Motors did a magnificent job of squeezing every last dollar out of its rear-wheel-drive B Platform from the 1959 through 1996 model years, particularly the 1977-1990 version that underpinned millions of Parisiennes, Eighty-Eights, LeSabres and, most of all, Chevy Impalas and Caprices. Here's a magazine advertisement for the 1985 Caprice Classic (all Caprices were Classics by that point), targeting middle-aged buyers who weren't having that newfangled front-wheel-drive nonsense, thank you very much.
