The popular Pompidou arts centre in Paris now has a smaller cousin 170 miles to the east.
The Metz Pompidou will have no permanent collection of its own but will show, in six-month or yearly rotations, parts of the vast collection of 65,000 contemporary works held by the Pompidou in Paris, most of which are never displayed.
There are also spaces in the spectacular new building for other contemporary art forms, including cinema, modern music and dance.
Metz, the capital of the Lorraine region, is hoping to recreate the success of the European arm of New York’s Guggenheim museum, which has transformed the fortunes of Bilbao in northern Spain since 1997.
The director of the Metz Pompidou, Laurent Le Bon, said: “For us it’s a little French Revolution – yet it’s such a simple thing. We are just saying that the big collections are for everyone, not just for Paris.”
This is the first stage in a drive to decentralise the French state’s enormous art collection. A branch of the Louvre will follow in 2012 in Lens, a former coal town only an hour from the Channel Tunnel.
by Andy Moreton
Luxique has an extensive selection of luxury hotels in France – including some of the best that Paris has to offer.
For the fifth year in a row, France has topped a list of the best places in the world to live.
International Living magazine’s 30th Quality of Life Index surveyed almost 200 countries across nine categories, including cost of living, culture/leisure, environment, and safety/risk.
“In France, life is savoured,” said International Living publisher, Jackie Flynn. “I don’t think anyone would disagree that France is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, where there is so much pride in all the small details. The French love little window boxes filled with flowers, tidy gardens, pretty sidewalk cafes and clean streets.”
International Living paid particular attention to provincial France, praising the affordability and services outside Paris, especially for retired people and their families.
Australia jumped up the rankings from fifth to second place on the strength of its economic recovery, while the US dropped from third to seventh. International Living claimed that sustaining the ‘American Dream’ had escalated out of the reach of many.
Top Ten
1. France
2. Australia
3. Switzerland
4. Germany
5. New Zealand
6. Luxembourg
7. United States
8. Belgium
9. Canada
10. Italy
The UK’s position? A lowly 25th behind the Czech Republic and Lithuania.
by Andy Moreton
Luxique can help you book some of the finest luxury hotels in Paris and in many other areas of beautiful France.
Politicians in France are once again debating one of the more contentious issues in France – whether shops should be allowed to open on Sundays.
French laws are much more restrictive than those in the US and UK, for example. Sundays have been protected since 1906, although bakers, butchers and other small shops are allowed to open until noon.
Carole Landry, a journalist based in Paris, says keeping retail businesses closed has helped cement the tradition of the Sunday family meal that many in France still hold dear.
But there has been a clamour for change over the past twenty years, with recent polls suggesting that a majority of the French believe shops should have the freedom to open on Sundays. Paris’s temple of shopping, Galeries Lafayette, has said this would create between 300 and 400 jobs and boost sales by 10 per cent.
If passed, this amendment to the law would allow shops in designated tourist areas and special commercial zones to open on Sundays.
President Sarkozy has long been a strong supporter of change. After a recent visit by Michelle Obama, President Sarkozy asked: “Is it normal that on a Sunday, when Madame Obama wants to go shopping in Paris with her girls, I have to make phone calls to get them to open?”
by Andy Moreton
Luxique offers a choice of a wide range of luxury hotels in Paris and many other French cities.
As the truffle season gets into full swing in France, local devotees of the luxury fungus are on the lookout for an unwelcome Chinese rival to their own ‘black diamond.’
Sold for one-twentieth of the price, the Chinese truffle looks so similar to the prized French delicacy, tuber melanosporum, that only experts can tell them apart.
In recent years, unscrupulous vendors have been found slipping Chinese fungi into baskets of black truffles - where they soak up the pungent smell - or serving them on a plate sprayed with artificial truffle scent.
In the Perigord region - where truffles can fetch up to 1,000 Euros (£926 / $1,290 dollars) a kilogramme - a dozen markets have brought in tough new controls to stop producers bulking up their harvest with the cut-price Chinese fungus.
For some truffle purists, however, there’s no mistaking the real thing. “I bought some Chinese truffles once - it was a disaster,” said Martine Nardou, picking up her own supply at the truffle market in Sarlat, deep in south-western Perigord. “It was a rubbery lump with no smell or taste.”
by Andy Moreton
Sample the truffles at one of the finest luxury hotels in Perigord – the Chateau des Vigiers, an internationally renowned golf and country club set in 450 acres of stunning scenery.
It was always going to be a challenge – a smoking ban in the land of Gauloises and Gitanes.
DNF Smoking Ad
The French seemed to have embraced - somewhat reluctantly - the idea of pollution-free bars and restaurants, but the association representing non-smokers, the DNF, has highlighted a problem.
Eating out in Paris
It says the ban is being cancelled out by the existence of smoking terraces, whether these are semi-covered or entirely closed. The DNF’s study found that tiny particles from cigarettes were present in large numbers in the non-smoking sections of 250 bars and restaurants in France.
“Pollution comes in through doors when they are open all the time, but also through air vents and air extraction systems,” said the study. The association wants the government to tighten the rules by sealing off smoking terraces completely from no-smoking areas.
And another thing … environmentalists say the sharp rise in the number of outside heaters used on these terraces is an ecological disaster.
It’s not just the smoking ban that’s hitting the French café trade. Changing attitudes and the poor economic climate are contributing to the loss of two cafes a day.
Honore de Balzac wrote: “The bar of a café is the parliament of the people,” but it’s clear it’s being visited less frequently these days, especially by the young.
by Andy Moreton
Luxique offers a range of top places to stay throughout France, including an unrivalled range of luxury hotels in Paris.
An important change has been introduced to the driving laws in France which will affect not only domestic motorists but also all visitors intending to use a car there.
From this month, drivers who are not carrying a hazard warning triangle and reflective jacket could be liable to an on-the-spot fine of around 100 Euros (£77 / $136). The triangles are designed to be placed about 90ft behind a car that has stopped by the roadside because of an accident or mechanical failure.
The Automobile Association is asking British motorists to help it monitor the situation to ensure that they’re not being unfairly targeted. However, the AA President, Edmund King, said there had to be an acceptance that tourists learn the road rules of the country they’re visiting.
The advice applies to those taking their own cars to France from elsewhere in Europe - rental cars should be fully equipped with the necessary items.
by Andy Moreton
