Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

The true cost of top French prepas : higher education in France

American universities cost an arm and a leg. French prepas are free. So it's a no brainer, isn't it?

Not according to Le Monde. 

France's newspaper of record for teachers, the most conservative of all French publications when it comes to changing education, has gone public with a shocking article on how elite prepas treat top French students.

In "Prépas, Excellence au Prix Fort"  Marie Desplechin, winner of the prestigious Prix Médicis for La Vie Sauve, denounces the brutal experience inflicted upon France's best and brightest. The true cost to our students of the elite French prépas is high, suggests the article, too high perhaps?

Sixty hours weeks, including 35 hours in the classroom, astonishingly bad grades, forced to abandon music, sport and other non-essential activities in order to survive the brutal selection process imposed by the concours, students--hard working, brilliant students--pay the price of their ambitions.

To readers of Peter Gumbel's On Achève Bien Les Ecoliers (whom Desplechin cites) or my own Sorbonne Confidential none of this will come as that much of a surprise. But for many French parents who still put their faith in the ideals of the meritocracy, the shock is great.

Over 4000 likes on Facebook already. 

In a year that saw the Arab Spring, can change come to France's Education Nationale?

See also: interviews with prépa professors, also in Le Monde, "Nous sommes des bourreaux bienveillants"   as well as Peter Gumbel's excellent On Achève Bien Les Ecoliers. 

For reactions AGAINST Desplechin's article see: Eduspros.fr et universitaires blogspot, 

Paris Literary Events February 2012 : books, readings, workshops, submissions

This month, news from the Geneva Writers Conference, Upstairs at Duroc, The Young Authors Fiction Festival, Fred Leebron, Cynthia Haven, Tracie Morris, Judy Pou, Lance Tait, Fernanda Eberstadt, Monique Wells, Donald Morrison, Robert Camuto, Noella Marcellino, Denyse Beaulieu, Philip Caputo, Pamela Druckerman, John Morris, Fred Weissler, Elyse Michaels-Berger, Sallie Chaballier, JANE COPE, KIT FRYATT, PANSY MAURER-ALVAREZ, JOE ROSS, John Baxter  and more...

 

 

SELECTED LITERARY EVENTS 

Wed 01 February 2012 19h30  Fernanda Eberstadt presents her latest novel Rat, which touches on children parenting parents, modern terror, and the ragtag legacy of the 60’s. AT The American Library in Paris 

 

 

 

 

 Saturday, February 4th 2012 at 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Cost: 45€. The Iliad and The Odyssey.  For more info: http://www.litsalon.co.uk/events/the-iliad-paris-salon-intensive-february-4-2012/

 Feb.4 2012: A three hour intensive study of two great short stories: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Runaway by Alice Munro. Salon cost 30 euros (includes critical materials); potluck brunch break. For more details, http://www.litsalon.co.uk/events/the-yellow-wallpaper-munros-runaway-short-salon-intensive-brunch-paris-feb-4-2012/

February 3-5 The Geneva Writers Conference with Patricia Duncker, Sheila Kohler, Bret Lott, Nick Barlay, Dinty W. Moore, Susan Tiberghien, Rob Drummer, Naomi Shihab Nye, Wallis Wilde-Menozzi’, Hannah Westland, Miriam Goderich, David Applefield, Colin Harrison  Catherine Nelson-Pollard, John Zimmer, Dinah Lee Küng. This outstanding event, held every two years, has become a magnet for up-and-coming Paris writers. 

 

Sunday, 5th February 2012 at 7.30 pm MOVING PARTS presents a reading of a play by Lance  Tait "Gambling Fever" AT Carr's Pub & Restaurant, 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris Metro : Tuileries

 

 MONDAY 6TH FEBRUARY 7:00PM John Baxter will read from The Most Beautiful Walk in The World AT Shakespeare & Co

 

6 February 20h SPOKEN WORD Paris (check site for details): Come read YOUR work in ENGLISH, FRENCH, ITALIAN or any other language; play a short musical piece or read a poem by an author you admire...  20h sign up/hang out 20h30 first round starts 15 min break 21h45 second round starts 15 min break 23h00 third round starts stop at midnight-- bar stays open till after one). AT: the basement of Le Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 Métro Parmentier/Couronnes/Oberkampf

 

Lundi 6 Février Lecture with the author, Loïc Wacquant, professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and researcher at the Centre Européen de Sociologie et de Science Politique in Paris. His works on urban marginality, ethno-racial domination, the criminal State, the policy of reason and sociological theory have been translated into more than twenty languages. AT NYU in France 56 rue de Passy  Paris, 75016 Entrée libre, dans la limite des places disponibles

 

Tue 07 February 2012 19h30  Following the Flavors of the African Diaspora with Monique Wells AT The American Library in Paris 

 

 

Tuesday, 7 February 2012 18h30 Cynthia Haven will speak about her experiences in print and online media, and on making the transition from being a "critic/reviewer" to actually creating books that foster international culture.   AT The American University of Paris, Room 29 in the Grenelle Building.147, rue de Grenelle 75007 Paris For more info see website

 

Wed 08 February 2012 19h30  Donald Morrison, author of Comment Obama a perdu l’Amérique, assesses Barack Obama’s presidency and the stakes in the 2012 U.S. presidential election. AT The American Library in Paris 

 

February 8, 3:15 p.m. Fred Leebron Open Creative Writing Class Event.   Creative writing discussion with novelist Fred Leebron.    American University of Paris, 6, rue du Colonel Combes, Room C-34.

(see more under workshops)

 WEDNESDAY 8TH FEBRUARY 5:00PM WORKSHOP: Fred Leebron will give an interactive workshop on 'Embracing the Difficult: Writing Beyond What's Comfortable', for fiction writers, poets, and nonfiction writers.   AT Shakespeare & Co (see more under workshops)

 

Thursday February 9, 2012, 7 PM UPSTAIRS AT DUROC the Paris literary journal invites you to a LAUNCH READING for its ISSUE # 13. Come pick up your copy and listen to new work by JANE COPE, KIT FRYATT, PANSY MAURER-ALVAREZ, JOE ROSS AT  Berkeley Books of Paris, 8 rue Casimir Delavigne, 75006 Paris, Métro Odéon

Thu 09 February 2012 19h30 AAWE @ The Library: Understanding French Higher Education with the AAWE authors of  Beyond the Bac – Higher Education in France and Abroad. Speakers : Fred Weissler, professor of mathematics at Université Paris 13; Elyse Michaels- Berger, former Academic Director of the HEC MBA Program; and Sallie Chaballier, co-chair of the FAWCO education task force and AAWE coordinator of Paris College Day. AT The American Library in Paris 

 

 

11 February 10-16h30 Ireland and Cultural Memory: Dr Oona Frawley (School of English, National University of Ireland Maynooth) will discuss 20th century literature and nostalgia. AT: Centre Culturel Irlandais, 5 rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris. RER: Luxembourg

 

12^th February  at 7.30 pm MOVING PARTS presents a reading of a play by   John Binkley "A Modern Fairy Tale"   AT Carr's Pub & Restaurant, 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris Metro : Tuileries 

12 February 19h30 Double Change vous invite à une lecture bilingue de Tracie Morris et Jody Pou. AT: la galerie éof 15, rue Saint-Fiacre, 75002 M° Grands Boulevards ou Bonne Nouvelle

13 February 20h onwards SPOKEN WORD Paris  AT: the basement of Le Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 Métro Parmentier/Couronnes/Oberkampf

Wed 15 February 2012 19h30  Passion Panel about Wine, Cheese, and Perfume with Robert Camuto, author of Corkscrewed and Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey, Noella Marcellino, Benedictine nun,a Fulbright Scholar and  the subject of a PBS documentary called The Cheese Nun. and  Denyse Beaulieu, editor for Citizen K and author of The Perfume Lover to be released in March. AT The American Library in Paris 

 

 

Thu 16 February 2012 19h30 Philip Caputo will present Crossers, a blistering new novel about the brutality and beauty of life on the Arizona-Mexico border and about the unyielding power of the past to shape our lives. AT The American Library in Paris 

 

 

19^th February at 7.30 pm MOVING PARTS presents a reading of a play by Roderick Ford  "The Numberless House AT Carr's Pub & Restaurant, 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris Metro : Tuileries

 

 

20 February 20h onwards SPOKEN WORD Paris ( AT: the basement of Le Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 Métro Parmentier/Couronnes/Oberkampf

Wed 22 February 2012 19h30 Journalist Pamela Druckerman explores the secret behind France's astonishingly well-behaved children in Bringing Up Bébé. RESCHEDULED CHECK WITH LIBRARY TO CONFIRM TIMES AT The American Library in Paris 

 

 

 

23 February 19h00 Old Library Visit: admission free, reservation recommended. The Old Library of the Irish College is one of the few surviving libraries of the many colleges, convents and monasteries which were situated in the Montagne-Sainte-Geneviève area of Paris until the end of the 18th century. This visit provides a further opportunity to see the treasures of the Old Library - its three illuminated manuscripts dating from c.1500. AT: Centre Culturel Irlandais, 5 rue des Irlandais, 75005 Paris. RER: Luxembourg

 

27 February 20h onwards SPOKEN WORD Paris  AT: the basement of Le Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 Métro Parmentier/Couronnes/Oberkampf

Wed 29 February 2012 19h30  John Morris, who has been called "the world's most influential photography editor," will talk about his legendary career. AT The American Library in Paris 

 

 SUBMISSIONS  -- attention parents!!

2012 Young Authors Fiction Festival - The Fiction Festival is open to all students ages 5 to 18 in the greater Paris area who write in English. It offers a wonderful opportunity for educators to encourage creative writing among their students. Deadline for submissions is midnight 1 April 2012. For more information see site.

 WORKSHOPS

February 3-5 The Geneva Writers Conference with Patricia Duncker, Sheila Kohler, Bret Lott, Nick Barlay, Dinty W. Moore, Susan Tiberghien, Rob Drummer, Naomi Shihab Nye, Wallis Wilde-Menozzi’, Hannah Westland, Miriam Goderich, David Applefield, Colin Harrison  Catherine Nelson-Pollard, John Zimmer, Dinah Lee Küng. This outstanding event, held every two years, has become a magnet for up-and-coming Paris writers. 

 

SALON: Saturday, February 4th 2012 at 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Cost: 45€. The Iliad and The Odyssey.  For more info: http://www.litsalon.co.uk/events/the-iliad-paris-salon-intensive-february-4-2012/

 

SALON: The Yellow Wallpaper & Munro’s ‘Runaway: Short Salon Intensive brunch Paris Feb.4 2012:  30 euros (includes critical materials);  potluck brunch break. See http://www.litsalon.co.uk/events/the-yellow-wallpaper-munros-runaway-short-salon-intensive-brunch-paris-feb-4-2012/

 

SALON: Jane Eyre/Wide Sargasso Sea Salon Intensive Paris: Sunday, February 5th 2012 at 3:00 -8:00 PM. Cost: 45€  These two works, taken together in this Salon intensive, will offer interesting commentaries on the positioning of the female as a space for madness and rebellion. http://www.litsalon.co.uk/events/jane-eyrewide-sargasso-sea-salon-intensive-paris-feb-5-2012/

 

February 8, 3:30 p.m. Open Creative Writing Class Event: Creative writing discussion with novelist Fred Leebron. Fred Leebron directs the MFA in Creative Writing program at Queens. He also is a professor of English at Gettysburg College, and a former director of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. His novels include "Six Figures," "In the Middle of All This" and "Out West." He has received a Pushcart Prize, a Michener Award, a Stegner Fellowship, and an O. Henry Award. He is co-editor of "Postmodern American Fiction: A Norton Anthology" and co-author of "Creating Fiction: A Writer’s Companion." AT: American University of Paris, 6, rue du Colonel Combes, Room C-34.

 

WORKSHOP 8 February 5:00pm: Fred Leebron will give an interactive workshop on 'Embracing the Difficult: Writing Beyond What's Comfortable', to help take your writing to the next level, for fiction writers, poets, and nonfiction writers. This workshop will help you transcend your writing voice and establish new territories in your creative process. Fred Leebron, director of the Queens University MFA Program in Creative Writing, is working on an initiative to launch a European MFA Program beginning June 2012, and featuring Jayne Anne Phillips, Dinaw Mengestu, Aleksandar Hemon, Jeffrey Greene, Gwyneth Lewis, David St. John, Robert Antoni, and David Bezmozgis on its faculty. Free and open to all but limited space. Please email Fred directly for further details at fleebron@gettysburg.edu. AT: Shakespeare & Co., 37rue de la Bûcherie, Paris 5ème. M° St Michel

 

Simply Sound : A series of theatre workshops for individuals with an intermediate level of English. This workshop is specifically geared to improve pronunciation and syntax. The workshop will incorporate acting techniques, exercises, games, short texts, and improvisation. Une serie des ateliers ouvert aux personnes ayant un niveau intermédiaire d'anglais. L'atelier propose des exercices d'acteur, jeux, court textes et improvisation comme moyens d'apprivoiser la prononciation, sons et le syntaxe. Pre-registration is required. Please call   01 77 15 71 90  /   06 37 66 27 98  or writewordsaliveo@gmail.com Dates: 28th January, 4th February, 31st March. Time: Saturdays 17h-19h. Venue: 35, rue St. Roch 75001 Paris. M° Pyramides, Tuileries, Opera. Fee for one session 18€ Students 15€ For students already enrolled in other classes, sessions are 11€

 

Theatre Workshops for English Teachers. A Cycle of Four Sessions.These workshops are specifically geared for English Teachers who wish to acquire theatre techniques as pedagogical tools. The workshop will cover acting techniques, exercises, voice and movement. The workshops can be attended separately but it is recommended to attend the entire cycle as there will be a progression leading to more individual work. Pre-registration is required. Please call             01 77 15 71 90       /             06 37 66 27 98       or writewordsaliveo@gmail.com Time Saturdays 16h-19h. Dates: Saturdays, 21st January, 11th February, 10th March, 24th March Venue: 35, rue St. Roch 75001 Paris. Metro Pyramides, Tuileries, Opera. Fee: Individual session 60€. Cycle of four sessions 180€ For participants in other classes: one session is 45€. Cycle of four sessions 145€

 

High Concept Ambitions: Master Class with agent Mary Kole.Saturday, March 10 from 10:00-1:00pm in Paris. Cost: 70 Euros Register: Please contact ARA Dana Carey at dcarey_ap@yahoo.fr:

 

WRITING WORKSHOPS: Sat March 24 (2pm – 5pm) & Sun March 25 (11am – 5pm) Writer Lisa Pasold offers DON’T JUST SIT THERE: a literary workshop on finding and unleashing your creative inspiration.  Fee: 80 euros for weekend (limited space--last year's workshop sold out, so pre-registration essential) For a full outline of the workshop & to register, visit lisapasold.com

 

Paris Writers News February 2012 : spotlight on the American Library in Paris

This month, we begin with literary events at the American Library of Paris which is featuring authors Fernanda Eberstadt, Monique Wells, Donald Morrison, Robert Camuto, Noella Marcellino, Denyse Beaulieu, Philip Caputo, Pamela Druckerman, John Morris, Fred Weissler, Elyse Michaels-Berger, Sallie Chaballier and the 2012 Young Authors Fiction Festival (deadline for submission April 1) . New books and events at other venues will be added throughout the month....The fabulous Geneva Writers' Conference takes place this weekend with, as usual, a strong Paris contingent. More about this later...

 

February Focus on The American Library in Paris 

Wed 01 February 2012 19h30  Fernanda Eberstadt presents her latest novel Rat, which touches on children parenting parents, modern terror, and the ragtag legacy of the 60’s.

 

 

 

 

Tue 07 February 2012 19h30  Following the Flavors of the African Diaspora with Monique Wells

 

 

 

 

Wed 08 February 2012 19h30  Donald Morrison, author of Comment Obama a perdu l’Amérique, assesses Barack Obama’s presidency and the stakes in the 2012 U.S. presidential election.

 

 

 

Thu 09 February 2012 19h30 AAWE @ The Library: Understanding French Higher Education with the AAWE authors of  Beyond the Bac – Higher Education in France and Abroad. Speakers : Fred Weissler, professor of mathematics at Université Paris 13; Elyse Michaels- Berger, former Academic Director of the HEC MBA Program; and Sallie Chaballier, co-chair of the FAWCO education task force and AAWE coordinator of Paris College Day.

 

 

 

Wed 15 February 2012 19h30  Passion Panel about Wine, Cheese, and Perfume with Robert Camuto, author of Corkscrewed and Palmento: A Sicilian Wine Odyssey, Noella Marcellino, Benedictine nun,a Fulbright Scholar and  the subject of a PBS documentary called The Cheese Nun. and  Denyse Beaulieu, editor for Citizen K and author of The Perfume Lover to be released in March.

 

 

Thu 16 February 2012 19h30 Philip Caputo will present Crossers, a blistering new novel about the brutality and beauty of life on the Arizona-Mexico border and about the unyielding power of the past to shape our lives.

 

 

 

 

Wed 22 February 2012 19h30 Journalist Pamela Druckerman explores the secret behind France's astonishingly well-behaved children in Bringing Up Bébé. RESCHEDULED CHECK WITH LIBRARY TO CONFIRM TIMES

 

 

 

 

Wed 29 February 2012 19h30  John Morris, who has been called "the world's most influential photography editor," will talk about his legendary career.

 

 SUBMISSIONS  -- attention parents!!

2012 Young Authors Fiction Festival - The Fiction Festival is open to all students ages 5 to 18 in the greater Paris area who write in English. It offers a wonderful opportunity for educators to encourage creative writing among their students. Deadline for submissions is midnight 1 April 2012. For more information see site.

 

Paris Writers News: literary events, readings, workshops in January 2012

Paris Writers News is back online in 2012 and eager to report new publications and events in the English-language writing community in Paris! This month, news from the Geneva Writers Conference, Kartik Singh, Florence Valero, Kristin Espinasse, Samantha Dunn, Jennifer L. Scott, Vahram Muratyam, Charles Wood, Thomas Huber, Jean Claude Gautrand, John Baxter, Sarah Meade, Jeffrey Greene, Barry Kirwan, Sheila Kohler, Best Paris Stories, Charles Glass, Margo Berdeshevsky,  Jim Bitterman, Jean Lesieur, the American Library in Paris, Shakespeare and Co, Village Voice, WH Smith, NYU Paris, WICE, Lionel Shriver, Eugève Nicole, The American Club, Beth Epstein, Cherie Burns, Dimitri Bechacq and more,

If you have a new book or event in Paris you'd like to announce, let me know. 

NEWS:

George Whitman of Shakespeare and Company, photo Simon Nofolk

Tributes poured in from all over the world for George Whitman, founder of the iconic Paris bookshop Shakespeare and Company and extraordinary contributor to literary life far beyond the Left Bank. Sor an idea of the man and his world see articles in The Economist, NYT, Guardian, Le Figaro, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent and many, many more.

All of us in Paris are very fortunate that George's remarkable daughter Sylvia continues Shakespeare and Company's outstanding tradition of dynamic and generous contribution to the literary arts.

***

Geneva Writers Conference February 3-5, 2012 Program now posted with registration form

***

BEST PARIS STORIES to celebrate the launch of the anthology May 29, 2012 at The American Library in Paris

EVENTS

Thu 5 January : Charles Glass will speak about his book Americans in Paris: Life and Death Under the Nazi Occupation 1940-1944 at American Club of Paris (entry fee : 50 euros for non-members)  read Paris Writers News interview

January 7-8 USED BOOK SALE at the American Library in Paris. See their site for how to contribute and/or make purchases. (By the way, if anyone has a car, I have a lot of books I’d like to donate…)

Sunday, January 8th, play reading VISITES by Florence Valero (in French) at Carr's Restaurant and Pub with Moving Parts, 7:30 pm 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris

January 10  Jim Bitterman and Jean Lesieur on the impact of the upcoming elections in France and the USA at the American Library in Paris

January 10 : LIONEL SHRIVER, SO MUCH FOR THAT SHAKESPEARE And Company  6 pm  Orange Prize–winner We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Post-Birthday World, A Perfectly Good Family, Game Control, Double Fault, The Female of the Species, Checker and the Derailleurs, and Ordinary Decent Criminals

Wed 11 January, 2012 – PARIS - NYU Paris - « They write in english, they write in french. They write from the borders » Lecture with the author, Eugène Nicole  at Bibliothèque François Mitterand 6:30 pm 

Wed 11 January, 2012 Lionel Shriver best known for her novel, We Need to Talk about Kevin,   at the American Library of Paris 7:30 pm  

Thursday, January 12th at 7pm Village Voice Alba Arikha discusses Major/Minor A Memoir

Wed 18 January, 2012 – Beth Epstein presents her book Collective Terms: Race, Culture, and Community in a State-Planned City in France. at The American Library in Paris: 7:30 pm

January 19 Cherie Burns on her book Searching for Beauty--The Life of Millicent Rogers, the first comprehensive biography of the Standard Oil heiress and fashion icon. at the American Library Iin Paris 7:30 pm

January 22, Play reading of "Public School" by Kartik Singh at Carr's Restaurant and Pub with Moving Parts, 7:30 pm 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris

January 24 Arthur Phillips presents The Tragedy of Arthur. At the American Library of Paris 7:30 pm

January 25 Sophie Hardach presents her debut novel The Registrar’s Manual for Detecting Forced Marriages, a novel about identity, immigration, love and marriage.  At the American Library of Paris 7:30 pm

January 26, 7-8 pm WH Smith, Sheila Kohler presents and signs Becoming Jane Eyre  interview 

Thu 26 January, 2012 – PARIS - NYU Paris - «The Francophone Americas: Perspectives on Haiti» Lecture on Voodoo with Dimitri Bechacq   7:00 pm, New York University in Paris 7.30 pm 

Friday, 27 January 5:30 - 6:30 pm David Lodge will sign his new book A Man of Parts, followed by reading and Q&A 7-8 pm AT WH SMith Paris

 Tue 31 January, 2012 – WICE @ The Library - Writers on Writing with Jeffrey Greene  7:30 pm, American Library in Paris

NEW BOOKS -- 

Blossoming in Provence by Kristin Espinasse, author of the delightful French Word a Day blog

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Failing Paris by Samantha Dunn, a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Fiction Award

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lessons for Madame Chic: the Top 20 Things I learned While Living in Paris by Jennifer L. Scott

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Between Soul & Stone by Margo Berdeshevsky

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paris : Portrait of a City by Jean-Claude Gautrand 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Paris Versus New York: a Tally of Two Cities by Vahram Muratyam

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Chronicles of Old Paris: Exploring the Historic City of Light by John Baxter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A Chateau in Provence by Charles Wood

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   An American Provence by Thomas P. Huber

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gourmet Paris on a Shoestring by Kristin Dorman, Nina Louchard

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waking up in France by Sarah Meade

 

 

Obama taps young French talent to compose official 2012 campaign song What's More

Who's got talent? French guys!!

According to Le Figaro, United States President Barak Obama has chosen two French composers from Bordeaux (yes, France!) to write his campaign theme song. The ditty, entitled What's More, was written by Tony Jazz and Mathieu Billon, who, in addition to being young, very young, are immensely talented and energetic.

Raised in the infamous 9-3, Jazz at 26 had already racked up credits at Universal and Sony and founded his own communications company specializing in musical design. Billon, also ridiculously young, is a case study in finding one's talents. After a DUT he entered a work-study (alternance) program at INSEEC Bordeaux with the hope of founding a restaurant. An internship in marketing at Kaizen Marketing Group opened up a whole new world for him, an "American vision of entrepreneurship" with bosses barely older than himself.

One thing led to another and the two young French entrepreneurs met. In January last year Jazz and Billon created "On Air Agency". 

How did these two Frenchmen with no connections seduce the president of the United States?

"Talent," says le Figaro, "Simplement du talent".

A clip (see above) that Jazz made in honor of Obama's 2008 election caught the eye of Obama's campaign, which led to a meeting with Charles Rifkin, the US ambassador to France. 

And the rest was history.

A stunning acknowledgement of young French talent!  

 

Former head of scandal-ridden French drug agency named to top Education post

The French drug agency (Afssaps) failed to protect women from Mediator and defective PIP breast implants. But no one is responsible...

In the French meritocracy, competence is supposed to be rewarded.  

So when the Mediator scandal broke last year (500 deaths estimated, years of warnings ignored, whistle-blowers hounded, massive cover up...) it was not surprising that the Afssaps, the astonishingly ineffective French version of the FDA*, decided to change Directors.

Less obvious is how they went about it.

The General Director, Jean Marimbert, who had run the agency since 2004, was not arrested, put in jail, questioned or even reprimanded, even though it was on his watch that a French company, Servier, had managed to peddle Mediator, a dangerous and potentially lethal drug originally meant for diabetics, to women whose only crime was to want to lose a little weight.  And on his watch (and despite warnings) that the French company PIP managed to inundate the world market* with cheap French silicon implants.

No, no hint of disciplinary action.

Monsieur Marimbert (HEC, Sciences Po, ENA) was simply placed in a new position: Secrétaire général de l'Education Nationale.  

So what? you might say. After all, no one leaving Afssaps had trouble finding work.

Well, I've been following French Education for several years now, and have always hoped that reform was possible. (I couldn't have written Sorbonne Confidential if I hadn't believed in the possibility of change.) But this is just too much.

France's Education Nationale needs the best, most committed and competent people. 

And here our Mammouth is being used--abused--as a refuge not just for failed administrators, but ones whose professional disasters have led to entirely avoidable deaths by innocents.

It is too much.

Messieurs Xavier Betrand, Luc Chatel, Nicola Sarkozy: why did you do this?

(And teachers, don't you care that your leaders use France's proud education bureaucracy as a dumping grounds for failed functionaries?)

American readers might remember "Brownie", the joker President Bush appointed to run FEMA before Katrina, and whose incompetence left the disaster agency entirely unprepared to do its job when the crisis hit. It was a telling moment. The American president cared so little about the people he served that he named incompetents to key positions.

I had hoped France was better than that.

But, according to Le Point, it's not.  

This week's Le Point features excerpts from a new book entitled "L'Oligarchie des Incapables" by Sophie Coignard and Roman Guber. The article "Les Secrets Inavouables de la Caste" may be the single most depressing item about France that I have ever read. 

Many of us love and appreciate France in all its glorious contradictions. But the rot is deep. Much deeper, unfortunately, than many of us can imagine. All who serve France are not corrupt, of course. But the system is clearly in need of profound, far-reaching reform. For it is not just corrupt but corrupting.

Elections approach. 

As good a time as any to start.

 

 

 

*The FDA outlawed both Mediator and PIP type silicon implants years ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/12/health/scandal-widens-over-french-weight-loss-drug-mediator.html?pagewanted=all

http://sante.lefigaro.fr/actualite/2011/09/21/16060-mediator-ex-cadres-lafssaps-rebondissent

 http://www.afssaps.fr/var/afssaps_site/storage/original/application/378999314804f90c94f51787bf91ad9b.pdf

 http://sante.lefigaro.fr/actualite/2012/01/05/16754-dangerosite-protheses-pip-lafssaps-alertee-2008

http://www.actu-environnement.com/ae/news/defaillance-systeme-vigilance-11767.php4

http://www.lepoint.fr/economie/les-secrets-inavouables-de-la-caste-06-01-2012-1415989_28.php

 

Best books I read in 2011, a personal selection

Taste in books is highly personal. Having acknowledged this I hope that you might find pleasure in these wonderful works. I certainly did. 

Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis (Deftly written, insightful, hilarious and brilliant memoir about life inside Salomon Brothers as a hotshot bond trader during Wall Street's most insane years of excess. )

Out of Egypt by André Aciman (Beautiful, evocative, witty memoir about a Jewish family struggling to survive in Nasser's Egypt.)

Independence Day by Richard Ford (Ok, I'm cheating here. I've read this novel three times. But now, fully immersed in the autumn of my own Existence Period, I feel the full weight of Ford's precisely articulated truths.)

Nomad: From Islam to America a Personal Journey Through the Clash of Civilizations by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (Combative, defiant, independent, Ali tells it like she sees it at the risk of her life. What more can you ask of an author?)

How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain de Botton (Perfectly written, charming, instructive: in short, a delight.)

Provenance: How a Con Man and Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Lani Salisbry, Ali Sujo (Fast paced, gripping, and absolutely true story of an art forging duo who understood that the key to successful fraud was in changing the sources...)

Marchards d'art by Daniel Wildenstein (Fabulously wealthy art dealer, crook, renowned expert and incorrigable old liar, Wildenstein tells his improbable (and mostly true) stories with the rambunctious f-you wit of your favorite crazy old uncle who got loose. )

The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein (Everyone's read this before, including me, but her priceless anecdotes about amazing people make this book the perfect companion to Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris and the Stein exhibition at the Grand Palais. God, I wish I had known her!)

Closing of the American Mind by Alain Bloom (OK, I'm late. Everyone else read this book when it first came out two decades ago. Why then does it seem so relevant to me now? Because education everywhere is in trouble, in the USA as in France, for reasons that transcend borders...)

 So many excellent books to read! These are just a few.

Just for fun, I'll mention the worst books too: Stephen Hessel's hateful and intellectually dishonest populist rant Indignez-Vous and François-Marie Banier's (of L'Oréal fame) perfectly awful and disgusting novel Le Passé Composé. 

 

 

Call for submissions for Upstairs at Duroc deadline January 31 2012 poems, flash fiction, up to 2000 words

UPSTAIRS AT DUROC, the literary journal published in Paris, seeks submissions for its Issue # 14.

We publish English language poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and translations. We welcome innovative forms, cross-genre work, prose poems and flash fiction. Standalone excerpts from longer works will also be considered. Please submit only previously unpublished material! / Submit no more than 5 poems, or 5 flash fiction pieces, or two longer prose pieces not exceeding 2000 words each. Attach poems as a single Word file, one poem per page. Include cover sheet with name, address, phone number, email address, word count for prose, and a short Bio. / We also seek visual art pieces: etchings, drawings, black and white photographs with good contrast. Also a few color pieces for the front and back covers. Please send in jpeg format. / Send submissions to upstairsatduroc@wice-paris.org with “Upstairs at Duroc Submission” in the subject line. / For complete guidelines and examples of published work, see our Website at upstairsatduroc.org Deadline: January 31, 2012.

Interview with Elizabeth Bard, author of Lunch in Paris: a Love Story with Recipes

Authors interview Authors:

 
Reprint of our interview with Elizabeth Bard, the author of NYT's bestseller Lunch in Paris: a Love Story with Recipes. Elizabeth had recently moved from Paris to Provence where she was juggling work on a second book with the delights of young motherhood.   

 

LZ: Does love really smell like bacon? 

EB: It does to me! The first dinner my French husband made for me was an impromptu pasta with veggies and lardons. What better way to start a relationship?

LZ: Before you wrote Lunch in Paris, did you think of yourself as a guru of food and love? What's that like?

EB: Wow, guru – big word. I hope Lunch in Paris captures something real about what it means to build a life in another culture. I don’t think I’m so much a leader as a very respectful follower. As an American, I follow generations of women who all came from somewhere else. They learned to cook with new ingredients, speak a new language, navigate a new culture. My Jewish grandmother learned to make spaghetti sauce full of pork ribs from the Italian ladies she met on line at the butcher shop during WWII. I’m pleased to add my story to theirs.

LZ: Your first book was a NYT bestseller. Does this make the second book harder to write?

EB: I'm a recovering control freak, so that it makes it hard to take my hands off the first book and start living, cooking and writing the second one. Our recent move to Provence has given me a whole new world to explore – suddenly I’m this city girl hanging her laundry in the sunshine!  I travelled a great deal last year; I think chronic jetlag is my body's way of telling me I need to stay put for a while, enjoy our new life. Hike up a mountain.  Make sure my peas and tomatoes are planted right side up!

LZ: How does being a young mother affect your work? (Does THAT make it harder to write?)

EB: Our son, Augustin, was 3 weeks old when I received the galleys for Lunch in Paris – I edited the manuscript with him asleep in my arms. Being a mother sets up a whole new dynamic within family relationships – not always easy – I know I’ll end up writing about that at some point. I tend to procrastinate less, because I have fewer hours and more to do. Even though my current work is so intertwined with my family life - our intercultural and culinary experiences  - my writing is a space that’s all my own,  and I’ve always needed that.

I’m really looking forward to Augustin being my little sous-chef in the kitchen. Licking spoons, making a mess!

LZ: Where are you from originally? Was it always your dream to live in France and write, or was that something that just happened?

EB: I grew up with my mother in Northern New Jersey and spent weekends with my dad in New York City. I spent my childhood in museums – I’m kind of an old soul – I always felt good in old places.  I was meant to do my Junior Year Abroad in France, but as an English Lit major, I took a detour to Scotland instead. I ran back to Europe as soon as possible after graduation – lived in London on and off for 5 years. I was instantly seduced by Paris, and as the first line of the book attests, by my French husband! The combination of beauty, history and joie de vivre was irresistible.

LZ: Do you think that we can dream our own fates, bring something into being by imagining it?

EB: People who know me will tell you I almost never let reality get in the way of a good story. For most of my life that’s made me a dreamer, a dilettante, even - in my own head - a failure. But every once and a while we catch up to our dreams and make them real.  I feel that way about Lunch in Paris. I don’t regret a single turn or leap I’ve taken – though I often made myself crazy with worry along the way. I think most of us wish we had more appetite for risk, not less.

After nearly a decade in France, I’m very much aware that the way we dream is cultural, as well as personal.  It’s possible that I will live in France for the rest of my life, but I’ll always cherish the unique American “Just-Do-It” optimism that says that our dreams are possible, valuable.

LZ: Your Lunch in Paris blog contains all kinds of wonderful recipes, among other things. What's your favorite? Something that impoverished writers can make in their tiny Paris kitchens?

EB: I sound like a broken record, but it comes back to bacon! My favorite solo supper is sautéed haricots verts with lardons and a roasted sweet potato topped with plain yogurt.  When fig season comes around I often make myself a salade chevre chaude – Bibb lettuce topped with goat cheese toasts, fresh figs and walnuts.

LZ: What are you working on now? Can you tell us about it?

EB: Baby, book and the move to Provence made 2010 a pinch-myself-everyday wonderful, drop-dead-busy year. I’m hoping to spend more time at home in 2011. I adore keeping the blog and Facebook page. My dirty little secret as a writer is that I’m a terrible journal keeper, so I know these online diaries will serve as a valuable aide memoire for the next book. This spring I’ll be getting down to the serious business of Provencal cuisine. I’m surrounded by wonderful cooks and gardeners – and I’ve got everything to learn!

LZ: Could you recommend a terrific place to eat/drink/work or just hang out for writers in Paris?

EB: I'm a cafe hopper myself. I wrote most of Lunch in Paris sitting in Kabyle cafes on the rue Faubourg de Temple. As long as the café crème was hot, I had an extra flaky croissant from Les Delices du Parmentier (right outside the Goncourt Metro), and I couldn’t understand a word that's being said around me, I could concentrate beautifully.  When I needed a treat I would head to La Bague de Kenza, on the rue St Maur, the best North African bakery in Paris. The pastries are gorgeous, and there’s a tearoom as well. It’s a few doors down from La Cisternino, a terrific Italian co-op – great products (and prices!), so I’d often pick up some prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella on my way home.

***

For more with Elizabeth, see our conversation about the best and the worst of Paris !

Elizabeth Bard is an American journalist and author based in France. Her first book, Lunch in Paris: A Love Story with Recipes has been a New York Times and international bestseller, a Barnes & Noble "Discover Great New Writers" selection, and the recipient of the 2010 Gourmand World Cookbook Award for Best First Cookbook (USA). You can follow Elizabeth’s continuing culinary adventures on: 

www.elizabethbard.com ; www.facebook.com/LunchinParis   www.twitter.com/ElizabethBard

 

 

Laurel Zuckerman is the Editor of Paris Writers News and the Director of the Paris Short Story Contest. Her publications include Sorbonne Confidential and Les Rêves Barbares du Professeur Collie.

For more Paris Writers News interviews, see http://www.laurelzuckerman.com/paris-writers-news-interviews-.html.

Follow us on Facebook at : http://www.facebook.com/ParisWritersNews

and on Twitter at: @pariswriters

 

 

 

 

 

Is French culture really dying? A talk with Don Morrison

Authors interview authors

(reprints from the PWN series)

Within days of Time magazine's publication of Don Morrison's article on the decline of France as an international cultural power, French media "lit up like the Eiffel Tower in full sparkle". Major French figures like Didier Jacob, Maurice Druon, Teresa Cremisi, Olivier Poivre d'Arvor, and François Busnel, weighed in. The blogosphere went wild. Even foreigners got involved. US Ambassador Craig Stapleton wrote a letter--defending France. Feeling that 3000 words were insufficient to explore such a complex subject, Morrison has now written an expanded book: The Death of French Culture, with a response by Antoine Compagnon, Professor of Literature at the Collège de France. Questions by Laurel Zuckerman, of Paris Writers News.

 

LZ: Why do you think your original article caused such a strong reaction in France?

 

DM : More than almost any other country,France takes culture seriously. For centuries, it has been an element of French diplomacy, national identity and the "gloire" that setsFrance apart from lesser nations. OnlyFrance proclaimed a "civilizing mission" to imbue colonial subjects with, among other gifts, France's cultural heritage. Even today culture remains one of France's unique selling propositions. As, a French diplomat once proclaimed, "Germany may have Siemens, but we have Voltaire." So anyone who makes critical remarks about French culture, no matter how accurate or well-meaning, should be prepared for a strong reaction. 

 

LZ:  How did you get interested in the question of French culture? 

DM :I went to a small high school in a small mid-American town, where a small but very tough nun pounded a few words of French into my skull -- along with a lifelong fascination with the culture and history of this seemingly exotic country. I  thought I'd never visit the place. But when I did, many years later, I was astonished to find that people pretty much understood the strange sounds I was able to summon from the mists of memory. One thing led to another, and I'm still here, still fascinated.

 

LZ:  You point out how language, education, cultural bureaucracy contribute to the death of French culture. Let’s talk about language first.

Use of French is declining very quickly. Only 33 high Chinese high schools out of 15,000 offer French classes. In England French is no longer required and major US universities are dropping their French departments. Is this inevitable? What is to be done? 

DM :This trend troubles me greatly, considering how hard I've tried -- and largely failed -- to master French. I used to applaud France's strenuous efforts to promote French as an international language, but I'm beginning to think it's not worth the trouble. A French president walking out of an international forum because one of his countrymen addresses the audience in English? French diplomats slowing down the work of multilateral organizations with demands that French be an official language? Quotas limiting other languages heard on French radio and TV? Millions of euros a year spent on La Francophonie and similar extension efforts? I wonder if those resources could be put to better use. They aren't going to halt the rise of English. That's a fact of globalization. It affects German, Italian, Gujarati and Cantonese just as it does French, but for some reason other countries don't twist themselves into pretzels trying to resist it. I wonder ifFrance's resources would be better spent ensuring that its culture is more robust and exportable, rather than produced in French.

 

LZ:  Should the French communicate in English in order to be heard? What options do they have? 

DM : For good or ill, English is increasingly the language that other countries use to speak to each other. They still retain their national languages, as France surely will. Actually, despite its protestations,France is dealing with that reality fairly well. English is widely taught in schools from an early age. Many French multinational companies use English as a working language. French rock and pop musicians perform in English. French is never going to disappear. But even if it is less widely spoken than it was a decade or two ago, France is no less prosperous or secure as a result. On the contrary. 

 

LZ:  French education policies have devastated the study of French literature in France : destruction of the L bac option, ruin of literature and social sciences in French universities (“Three times more space for a Bresse chicken than a French university student.”) Why this neglect? Will the 5 billion euro "Plan Campus" improve things? Autonomy? 

DM : The sad state of French universities has been a topic of national debate for years, and I'm pleased that the problem is being addressed. It's obvious that a country's future is linked to the quality of its education, and universities have long been a weak link in the French system. In particular, France could improve the vigor of its culture by turning its universities into centers of cultural excellence -- where literature and the arts are not just studied intensively as academic subjects but also as performing professions, with appropriate performing facilities. That would help develop not only the next generation of writers and artists, but also the next generation of cultural audiences. Other countries do this. France can too.

 

LZ:  “Excessive cultural subsidies suffocate creativity” how?  Who decides which artists get support in France? 

DM : On a per-capita basis, France subsidizes culture more heavily than just about any other country. It's a well-meaning attempt, but it has the perverse effect of promoting safe, predictable works by cultural producers seeking subsidies. It doesn't help that the subsidies are doled out by cultural bureaucrats. True, they tend to be functionaries of impeccable taste and exacting standards, but they are bureaucrats nonetheless -- not audiences. This intensive subsidization also encourages the production of culture that appeals to a national audience, as distinct from an international one. Thus, French culture has a tendency to become "franco-francais" rather than internationally appealing. French artists and writers are encouraged to address a French audience, and not to produce works that succeed outsideFrance. Similarly, subsidies and other protectionist measures tend to insulate France from foreign cultural influences, to the detriment of its culture. History has shown that exposure to and competition with foreign influences keeps a nation's culture vital. Of course, everything I've just said is a generality. In practice, French culture is alive and well, and some of it exports well. But that's despite subsidies, not thanks to them. 

 

LZ:  What is the role of favoritism and incompetence in the failure of official French cultural organizations to spread French culture? 

DM :These practices are surprisingly rare among French cultural officials, who in my experience are mostly fair and scrupulous in their duties. But the bureaucratic structure in which they operate -- the system that gives them vast power over who gets rewarded, hired, promoted and subsidized -- is inherently open to abuse. It's an accident waiting to happen. 

 

LZ:  Is a Ministry of Culture harmful? Or is it the quality recent ministers (Jacques (‘loi’) Toubon, Chrisine Albanel (who so infuriated the brilliant Bartabas that he wrecked her office); Frédéric Mitterand (currently in hiding)? Could a great Culture Minister turn things around? How? 

DM : Nearly every country has a culture ministry, but few have one as big and powerful as France's -- one that sucks all the air out of the cultural space in France, that makes all the big decisions about culture. The effect is that the French tend to view culture as a public utility, one they have no control over and feel little responsibility for. Actually, I thinkFrance has had some effective and truly visionary culture ministers, from Andre Malraux right down to Frederic Mitterrand -- who, by the way, is not in hiding. He's in the papers nearly every day, and I'm going to see him at a conference in a few weeks. But does any country need an all-powerful minister to determine the course of the nation's culture? Or would culture be better served by making its beneficiaries, i.e. you and me, more responsible for its progress, and more empowered to help decide its future? 

 

 

LZ:  Why do French writers make such a small splash outside France? Is this really a quality problem or one of industrial organization? 

DM : You could argue that it's a quality problem, that French writers since the dawn of the nouveau roman have favored spare, elegant, bloodless fiction beloved of critics but shunned by readers, especially those abroad. But it's also a problem of competition: too many writers in other countries produce novels bursting with plot, character and color, which do indeed travel well. I'm not talking just about commercial novels, but also "literary" fiction. You see these writers, mostly foreigners, all over the best-seller lists, even in France. There's also a problem of publishing economics. Translations cost money, and foreign publishers are facing hard times in many countries. It's easier for them to feast on the abundance of local writers. But mostly I think it's the fact that too many French novelists are not focusing on the real state of contemporary France, its fascinating national debates and its very serious problems. In my admittedly biased view, contemporary French fiction can be thoughtful, introspective and formally inventive -- but not especially connected to contemporary France. 

 

LZ:  You've said that French writers tend not to engage with current events. What is the role of taboos in stifling French writers? (A few years ago, telling the truth about Algeria was still a punishable offense; French students study the Vietnam War more than the colonial war in French Indochina; and the American slave trade more the history of slavery in French colonies).

 DM : I'm not sure taboo is the right word. It's more a matter of timing and priorities. It took American novelists two decades to address the Vietnam war in a serious and concerted way. Somehow, the subject was considered too sensitive, too unresolved or otherwise not ripe enough for thoughtful engagement. France's behavior during World War II is finally getting its due, and I'm sure other sensitive historical subjects will follow. We are, for instance, beginning to see some good writing about the immigrant experience in France. As the country's dispossessed minorities find their voice, we'll see more good, topical fiction. 

 

LZ:  How to write the Great French Novel ? Should an outsider write it? An expat, for example?

 DM : I don't think you'd have to be an outsider to capture the essence of France, Frenchness and all the other things that might constitute a great national novel. After all, being a writer means being able, or at least willing, to look at the world through different eyes, to apply imagination to reality. That said, it's interesting that so much great American and British fiction has come from first- and second-generation immigrants, including the great postwar Jewish-American writers, and the impressive younger writers with roots in Britain's former colonies. I expect to see a similar wave of excellence coming from the margins of French society. 

 

LZ:  Many of the great internationally known icons of French culture were (or are) Jewish. (Proust, Perec, Marcel Marceau, Goscinny, Levy Strauss, Derrida, Aron, Bergson, Durkheim, Cyrulnik, Gainsbourg, Barbara, JJGoldman, Berger, Truffaut, Simone Signoret, Reza, Finklekraut, Glucksman, BHL)   Has French culture been permanently impoverished by its treatment of Jews in WWII?

 

DM : The entire world has been impoverished by the Jewish tragedy of World War II. France is not alone. And coming to terms with the war is a task for France, not for me. But I do live in France at a time when, for rather shabby political reasons, other French minorities are being marginalized, told what not to wear and where not to live and, in one shocking case, singled out for deportation. I wonder if, someday soon, we might start asking ourselves how many potential French cultural geniuses were lost or thwarted by such policies. 

 

LZ: Let’s talk money. For a foreigner the treatment of billionaire François Pinault, who wanted to turn Ile Séguin into a great art museum but got so frustrated by French politicians and bureaucrats that he moved the project to Italy, is absolutely inexplicable. What happened here? Is this why French billionaires give so little to culture? 

DM : You'd have to ask M. Pinault what went wrong, but I suspect he grew tired of dealing with a glacial bureaucracy. He is not alone. You'll recall that Helmut Newton decided not to give his photographic collection to France after a similar experience. The overweening power of France's cultural mandarins may have something to do with this. In addition, France is still in the process of developing a habit of cultural philanthropy. Recent tax reforms should help encourage donations. But the mere existence of a giant bureaucracy subsidizing and controlling French culture tends to make the French feel that supporting culture is not their individual responsibility.

 

LZ: What is culture? How is it spread? What makes it powerful? Could we imagine the Chinese taking cultural leadership?

DM : To quote the great Duke Ellington, when asked where jazz was headed: If I knew the future of culture, I'd be there. There are many definitions of culture, but if you're talking about serious works of literature and the plastic arts, then its global influence can be measured, imprecisely, by such things as reputational surveys and auction results. This isn't the same as quality or vitality, which remains largely subjective. By the first set of measures, France is not doing so well these days. But I think books like mine are starting to ignite a national debate on re-invigorating French culture and making it more successful abroad. As for China, I recently returned from two years of teaching there. The country has a long and distinguished cultural tradition, and the contemporary art and literary scenes are exciting. But culture thrives in a climate of openness, and China is just beginning to confront this fact. The next few years will be interesting. 

 

LZ:  Should an English-speaking writer publish in France? (given how hard it is to sell foreign rights from France). 

DM : A number of English-speaking writers do quite well in France: Douglas Kennedy, Nancy Huston, Diane Johnson, Stephen Clarke, Paul Auster. Many French publishers provide the kind of attention and support that their Ango-Saxon counterparts no longer do. That was certainly my experience, with Editions Denoel. And France is a warm and welcoming place for foreign writers. Even annoying ones like me. In China, I would ask my students to imagine that a foreign writer came there and wrote a book about "the death of Chinese culture." What would happen to him? I asked. Would he be fired from his teaching job? (Heads would nod around the room.) Arrested? (More heads nod.) Deported? (Everybody nods.) Well, I tell them. I am that man. And here is what happened to me in France. My arguments were reported faithfully in the major media. I was a frequent guest on French TV. France's top cultural officials invited me to have lunch, speak at their conferences and write for their in-house publications. And a pillar of the French publishing establishment gave me a book contract. So that's how you deal with your critics. And that's why I think France will always be a great place for the people who make culture, no matter where they're from. 

The Death of French Culture, by Donald Morrison and Antoine Compagnon, Polity Press

Donald Morrison is former editor of Time magazine's European and Asian editions

Laurel Zuckerman is the author of Sorbonne Confidential and the editor ofParis Writers News.