Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

HEC: France's elite business school turns fifty!

In 1964, the Général de Gaulle inaugurated France's great business school. HEC would be reserved exclusively for men until 1973. Famous alumni include France's current president, François Hollande (H75)  and former IMF chief Dominique Strauss Kahn (H71).

Other illustrious folk include Pascal Lamy (H69), Jean-Louis Borloo (H76), Valérie Pécresse (H88), Eric Woerth (H81), as well as CEOs  Henri de Castries (H76), Baudouin Prot (H72), Louis Gallois (H66), Henri Proglio (H71), Stéphane Richard (H83), Pierre Feraud (H61), François-Henri Pinault, ,Bruno Lafont (H77), Jean-Paul Agon (H78), Sidney Taurel (H69), and many, many more. Check out HEC's Wikipedia.

Paris Literary Events this Summer

In Paris this July and August, news from writers Meghan O'Rourke, Olivia Baes, Jarrah Burns, Heather Hartley, Jeffrey Greene, Geoffrey Gilbert, Lethu Msimang, Felix Purat, Emma Ramadan, and Venessa Weller, Darcey Steinke, Shakespeare & Co., Shannon Cain,  Alan Riding, Lola Peploe, Charlotte Corman, Stanley Wells, Ian Monk, Nick Calderbank,  Nicole Peyrafitte, Pierre Joris and terrific literary events from Paris Lit Up, AUP Summer Creative Writing Institute, Shakespeare and Company's Bard on Seine Festival and more! Update ongoing!

France's Mysterious Wiretap Practices

FRANCE: After nearly a year of intensive surveillance - including wiretaps, search, seizure and interogation - a suspect who is also the greatest potential rival to the sitting President is charged with crimes unrelated to the original justification for surveillance. Here are a few questions from a curious observer:

 

Heather Stimmler-Halls on Kickstarting Naughty Paris

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 Secrets of Paris author Heather Stimmler Hall launched a major crowdfunding effort today in order to finance the printing costs of the beautiful four-color second edition of the insider Paris guidebook: Naughty Paris: A Lady's Guide to the Sexy City which will be released to the public in December.

Intrigued by her use of crowdfunding - and a longtime fan - I asked Heather to tell us about Naughty Paris' Kickstarter adventure, and how we might help her to succeed!

Anne-Marie O'Connor on the extraordinary tale of Klimt's The Lady in Gold

When Maria Altmann died in 2011 at the age of 94, she left behind a legacy that reached far beyond herself. Her struggle to reclaim Klimt masterpieces that Nazis had stolen from her family in Vienna paved the way, not just for a precedent-setting Supreme Court decision and one of most important restitutions of Nazi looted art in history, but for a long overdue telling of a story that had been too long concealed. 

If I am so excited about Anne-Marie O'Connor's book The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer  it is because she tells that story brilliantly. Framed by a dramatic, high-stakes battle for justice, The Lady in Gold is a cracking good read.  Colorful, engaging and wonderfully detailed, The Lady in Gold resurrects fascinating people in a vanished - and brilliantly complex - world. It is, perhaps, no accident that O'Connor is a seasoned war correspondent, as well as a culture writer. I can only agree with Library Journal when it writes: “The dazzling, nearly surreal ‘Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I’ is about a lot more than just art. O'Connor captures the whole story.” 

Publishing Panel in Paris June 25 at the American University

Meet the panelists!

25 June: 4-6pm The Paris Writers Workshop is opening its doors to the public for the:

Experts’ Panel, “Getting Published – A Writer’s Options”

Paris: English book news, readings, plays, workshops and submissions

 In Paris this June, news from writers Heather Stimmler Hall, Edmund White, Samantha Chang, Kristin Espinasse, Joan DeJean, Bill Reed, Gerard Nicosia, Tilar J. Mazzeo, Jennifer Dick, Kate Stables, Sabine Huynh, Karen Karbo Matt Black, Joshua Ferris, Eric Freeze,  Judith Merians, Nahid Rachlin, Chris Tysh and Lesley Wheeler as well as lots of theatre with the Irish Cultural Center, The Tower Theatre Company, the Bilingual Acting Workshop, the Théâtre de Châtelet, and writing workshops with WICE's Paris Writers Workshop and more (update ongoing!)

 

Kristin Espinasse on the joys of writing about French life

 

One of the best parts of living in France is getting to know wonderful people who I never managed to run into while in Arizona. Meet Kristin Espinasse, author of the hit blog, French Word A Day and the books Words in a French Life, Blossoming in Provence - and now, First French Essais. Beautiful, modest and wonderfully funny (see her Youtube video on opening a bottle of wine with a book), Kristin has become a top blogger, an accomplished author - and now - an innovative publisher.  

Helped by tens of thousands of devoted fans, Kristin's beautifully produced new book First French Essais immediately hit Amazon's bestseller list.  In this interview we talk with Kristin about her new adventures in writing, learning, publishing - and living in France.

FRANCE: Medically Assisted Procreation for All Splitting LGBT Movement

 GPA it's called in France. Gestation pour autrui.  

June 2 to 8: Grand Slam National et Coupe du Monde de Poesie - Paris- Belleville

Tons of great poetry and open mic events in Paris this June!

Check out the PDF of Paris Poetry Events.

  June 4 @ 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm  Double Change poetry reading: Todd COLBY and Fabienne RAPHOZ  Cost:€5 La Maison de la Poésie AT Passage Molière, 157 rue Saint-Martin,Paris, Île-de-france 75003 

June 7  FREE, Britain’s top performance poet will take to the stage of Culture Rapide  at 17h30 for an evening of poetry, comedy and spoken word magic. The event will be hosted by the lovely Anne Brechin, and will also feature the Parisian poets Bibi Jacob, Kate Noakes, Rufo Quintavalle and Troy Yorke. Be sure to come early for a good spot as space is limited. MORE INFO COMING SOON…AT Culture Rapide  103 rue Julien Lacroix, Paris, Ile-de-france75020 France

 See Full Poetry Event List Here