Emily in France 🇫🇷 It's Time to Talk About Journals

Le journal.

If you've ever taken a foreign language class, you're probably aware of false cognates (aka, for my French-learning friends, faux amis). These are words that certainly look like words you know in English (think embarazada in Spanish or travailler in French) but mean something completely different – for these examples, pregnant (not embarrassed) and work (not travel).

Journal is one such word: in French, it means, not journal (that gets the delightful periphrase journal intime) but newspaper. But I've been thinking about both journals and les journaux recently in an endeavor to be a little more analog.

I'm already off screens perhaps more than some, in that I read paper books and try not to take my phone to bed. (Hey! Stop laughing! I said try, OK?) But I also, by virtue of my job, spend a lot of time on a screen, and so I've been taking two activities offline: journaling, which I try (and actually mostly manage) to do every morning, and reading the paper. Like, yes. An actual paper.

Uh, how did people find the time to read a whole damn paper before?

I don't buy a newspaper every day. At my rate of consumption, that would be unreasonable, overwhelming, and frankly ecologically unsound. My current paper – an issue of Le Monde that's woefully old (I think we're pushing the two-week mark) – has been consumed in various increments on various days, depending on my whims and schedule and ability to parse French before bedtime. It is scattered throughout my home and various tote bags, a page here, a section there. It's enough to make a person feel vaguely guilty for having purchased a paper at all.

But, much as people like being surrounded by books... I think I just like the fact that my paper is here, in my space. And whenever I have a moment – or an hour – I can read about what was happening in the world two weeks ago. And I guess, for now, that's good enough for me.

What I'm Eating

Finally made it to Israeli Maafim for a truly delightful brunch. I'll have to head back soon to try the babka French toast, but in the meantime, feast your eyes on those baby falafel balls! More on the blog.

Discover more of my foodie finds via Instagram @emily_in_france.
 

What I'm Writing

1. No, despite what a new study claims, red wine isn't actually good for you. And I for one don't care. For Organic Authority.
  2. A rise in oystertarianism (that's vegan + oysters) may seem odd, but when you look at the climate impact of eating local oysters (responsibly!) it kind of makes sense. For Inside Hook.

3. You may be spending a lot of your time in Paris in museums, but that doesn't mean you have to eat at tourist traps! Here are my top spots to eat in and around Parisian museums, for Fodor's.

What I'm Saying

1. In 1789, France officially protected the separation of Church and State with article 10 of Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen. But the reality of secularism in France is... a bit more complicated. To help navigate the nuances of laïcité, I'm joined by journalist Lindsey Tramuta, author of The New Paris and The New Parisienne this week on Navigating the French.

2. On Chez Toi, Caroline Conner and I pair your home-cooked recipes with the perfect wine and most complementary cheese. This week's recipe comes from Shwetha Manoharan. Her one-pot pasta is the perfect dish to make for a crowd, with a tomatoey sauce filled with veggies and a hint of Indian spice. I pair it with a creamy, buttery cheese from the Champagne region, while Caroline chooses a young, easy-drinking red with lots of booze that's about to become your new dinner party go-to. Want to know which and why? Give us a listen on Chez Toi!

(And if you want your recipe featured in a future episode, shoot me an email! We're always up for a challenge.)

What I'm Reading

1. These Violent Delights sees Romeo and Juliet set in 1920s Shanghai, a city divided between warring gangs – one Chinese, one Russian – attempting to retain control of an ever-more-patchworked city. More on the blog. (Background art care of Papa Monaco!)

2. I don't agree with everything in this story on the pursuit of happiness, but I feel oh-so-viscerally linked with the author in that I, too, "am paid to do what I would do without pay." And I also find some truth in the "categorical imperatives" he imposes: that Americans should "behave as intelligently as they can, and should be as cheerful as is reasonable." For Americans, he suggests, "the pursuit of happiness is happiness." AKA the journey is half the pleasure of the thing, if not more. In the Washington Post.

3. File this one in "sad-but-true": here's why TV is so bad at covering climate change, in Gizmodo.

A bientôt !

Emily in France