Parisian

The Bistros, Brasseries, and Wine Bars of Paris: Everyday Recipes From the Real Paris , By Daniel Young, William Morrow, 214 pp., $24.95 French country and regional cooking may have made repeated forays into American home kitchens, but for many the mere mention of Paris conjures up an aura of perfectionism. The search for the perfect brandade de morue is, to our minds, like the search for a Parisian baguette. Regrettably, that qualifies as shopping, not cooking. Yet Daniel Young's charming volume on casual Paris dining establishments makes a fairly convincing case for a replicable...

I am famous for my cheese nights. An invitation goes out about a week or two in advance reading, "Bring a friend, bring wine, and bring a hunk of good cheese. " Even in France, where I have lived on and off for 10 years, I am famous . . . at least among my friends. Cheese night started when I lived in Seattle as a way to connect to France, where I wanted to make my home. The tradition continued and grew exponentially at my apartments in the City of Light, where tables...

PETERBOROUGH, N.H.—The Peterborough Town House’s clean vault might seem an architectural rebuke to Parisian decadence, but the Monadnock Music Festival bridged the gap on Sunday with a program of French-born refinement. The theme, “Paris of the Senses,’’ emphasized composers’ almost tactile use of instrumental color. It could also have referred to a sense of history, focusing on two periods — the 1890s and the 1920s — when Paris’s culture and historical circumstances particularly intertwined.

NEW YORK - Audrey Tautou may be forever fixed in moviegoers' minds as Amélie Poulain, the whimsical heroine with the elfin smile and the pageboy haircut who romped around the Oscar-nominated 2001 film "Amélie" as a puckish Parisian charmer, concocting elaborate stunts to brighten up a stranger's day, exact payback, or win the heart of her crush. It's the role for which she's most beloved, the one that made her an international star at 24. So how does she feel about the character today?

NEW YORK - Audrey Tautou may be forever fixed in moviegoers' minds as Amélie Poulain, the whimsical heroine with the elfin smile and the pageboy haircut who romped around the Oscar-nominated 2001 film "Amélie" as a puckish Parisian charmer, concocting elaborate stunts to brighten up a stranger's day, exact payback, or win the heart of her crush. It's the role for which she's most beloved, the one that made her an international star at 24. So how does she feel about the character today?

SOLITARY MAN (Comcast Movies: All Movies) A sweetly sour human comedy about an aging New York rascal convinced against all evidence that he still has what it takes. The role’s a field day for Michael Douglas; the mad gleam in his eye is as much the actor’s as the character’s. The rich cast includes Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Jenna Fischer, and Mary-Louise Parker. (R; runs through Nov. 11) TY BURR CRADLE WILL ROCK (Starz on Comcast)

PARIS -- Dressed for a chilly day in his native New England, David Witter answers the door of his apartment in the Marais district here. The youthful 62-year-old expatriate American is settled into his adopted city and, some might say, has a dream job. He teaches Parisians about wine -- in English. You would think that would raise some eyebrows. But it doesn't seem to. "It's not really an issue," says Witter, waving his hand in the air. "Plus, I'm not really very threatening. Once people want to know more about wine, it doesn't make a difference who's teaching it. " "The idea is a little...

‘M idnight in Paris" (2011) is hardly a case of Woody Allen venturing far afield with his storytelling. Geographically, at least, it's a continuation of his recent New Yorker's tour of Europe (London, Barcelona, etc.). And yet the appealing film does offer surprises, as does the DVD. For starters, Allen delivers the highest-grossing movie of his career with a lit-minded romp that has restless contemporary writer Owen Wilson magically tripping back to 1920s Paris to mingle with Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOK IN THE WORLD: Eight Novellas By Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt. Translated from the French by Alison Anderson. Europa Editions, 192 pp., paperback, $15 There is a surprising sweetness to these stories of redemption and reconciliation. They carry a slight pleasant aftertaste, a lingering hint of delight. The central characters, all women, get more than they deserve or ironically get more than they understand, often by giving more than they know.

Popular culture consumers are a generous and forgetful bunch. Something can disappear, then come back the same but different, and it'll seem like it never left. Certain entertainers, like Cher, have that kind of crowd-pleasing durability. So, too, does the "Rush Hour" franchise. These movies are the Cher of cartoonish action-comedies: hard to embarrass and probably not biodegradable. "Rush Hour 3" puts Chris Tucker's Carter and Jackie Chan's Lee in another senseless plot -- Chinese triads, the streets and sewers of Paris, kick, bang, boom!

The Girl from Ipanema had a Parisian touch Thursday, as Maria Bonita Extra fielded a winter 2012 collection of bourgeois cocktail dresses that look as if they'd be more at home in a Haussmanian apartment than on the sands of Copacabana. In silk chemisier dresses and cocktail numbers with constructed skirts that stood out through the hips, the models looked like something out of a 1970-era film set in one of Paris' beaux quartiers. The ultra-abbreviated hemlines, however, gave the clothes a youthful freshness: In the tres bourgeois collection's sole shout out to Brazil, some of...

‘M idnight in Paris" (2011) is hardly a case of Woody Allen venturing far afield with his storytelling. Geographically, at least, it's a continuation of his recent New Yorker's tour of Europe (London, Barcelona, etc.). And yet the appealing film does offer surprises, as does the DVD. For starters, Allen delivers the highest-grossing movie of his career with a lit-minded romp that has restless contemporary writer Owen Wilson magically tripping back to 1920s Paris to mingle with Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein.

Kathryn Wagner Historical fiction allows us to see beyond the circumstances of our own era and distinguish which aspects of the human condition are eternal and which are ephemeral. Tara Coughlin, a 28-year-old resident of Braintree, is an avid reader of historical fiction, when she isn't busy chasing after her determined 18-month-old daughter. As an artist who has always followed a less traditional path, Coughlin says, she finds herself particularly drawn to books that have a strong female protagonist and that allow her to glimpse the lives of women in...

SOLITARY MAN (Comcast Movies: All Movies) A sweetly sour human comedy about an aging New York rascal convinced against all evidence that he still has what it takes. The role’s a field day for Michael Douglas; the mad gleam in his eye is as much the actor’s as the character’s. The rich cast includes Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Jenna Fischer, and Mary-Louise Parker. (R; runs through Nov. 11) TY BURR CRADLE WILL ROCK (Starz on Comcast)

PETERBOROUGH, N.H.—The Peterborough Town House’s clean vault might seem an architectural rebuke to Parisian decadence, but the Monadnock Music Festival bridged the gap on Sunday with a program of French-born refinement. The theme, “Paris of the Senses,’’ emphasized composers’ almost tactile use of instrumental color. It could also have referred to a sense of history, focusing on two periods — the 1890s and the 1920s — when Paris’s culture and historical circumstances particularly intertwined.

Henri Regnault painted this astonishing picture in Rome in 1868 at the age of 25. It shows the two divine horses of Achilles, Xanthos and Balios, with Automedon, Achilles’s muscle-bound groom. Three years later, Regnault was dead. Regarded by many as France’s most promising young painter, he was killed in battle during the last doomed attempt by Parisian troops to break out of their besieged city in the final days of the Franco-Prussian War. Edmond de Goncourt noted in his journal an “enormous crowd’’ at Regnault’s funeral (telling, because funerals...

Kathryn Wagner Historical fiction allows us to see beyond the circumstances of our own era and distinguish which aspects of the human condition are eternal and which are ephemeral. Tara Coughlin, a 28-year-old resident of Braintree, is an avid reader of historical fiction, when she isn't busy chasing after her determined 18-month-old daughter. As an artist who has always followed a less traditional path, Coughlin says, she finds herself particularly drawn to books that have a strong female protagonist and that allow her to glimpse the lives of women in different eras.

THE French have elevated many things to high art: fashion, flirting, foie gras. Chocolate is no exception. With boutiques that display truffles as rapturously as diamonds, the experience of visiting a Parisian chocolatier can be sublime. The problem, of course, is squeezing in as many of these indulgent visits as possible while also giving the rest of the city its due. My solution: devote one full day to chocolate boutiques, and do it in style. So, on my last visit to Paris, I took to the city?

PARIS - A needed breath of fresh air has hit the northeastern arrondissements of Paris, slowly luring Parisians and tourists alike away from the city center. Hotels like Mama Shelter, restaurants like Le Baratin or L’Escargot, and cafés like Titon and Le Léopard provide a mix of authentic, hip, friendly, and even inexpensive, while introducing the visitor to a part of the city they might not otherwise visit. Lost in the outer reaches of the 20th arrondissment is one of the best of these new additions: Les Pères Populaires (The Fathers Popular, pictured here)

Paris, the 1890s. Electricity had just lighted up the Paris World’s Fair. The Eiffel Tower was brand new. And in the artists’ neighborhood of Montmartre, dancers kicked up their heels at the Moulin Rouge and other clubs, prostitutes made a good living, and absinthe, the heady, anise-flavored spirit, was the drink of choice. It was Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s moment. “Café and Cabaret: Toulouse-Lautrec’s Paris’’ at the Museum of Fine Arts ably demonstrates that, gathering prints and one painting by the artist along with works by several of his contemporaries.