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Meet France's great garden acrobat
With its bright yellow and blue plumage, the Eurasian blue tit is easy to spot in the garden.
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Petit lapin, coup du lapin: 6 commonly used French rabbit expressions
A potential new penalty for missing a doctor’s appointment has also been nicknamed la taxe lapin - we explain why
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Full tour of Carcassone’s medieval ramparts to open for the first time
Visitors will be allowed to walk all three kilometres of its historic walls from September
Quoi de neuf: French shopping in September 2018
New products, designs and ideas from around France
Sounds beautiful
Technology firm Aëdle, based in Montparnasse, Paris, was founded in 2011 – three years after its founder Baptiste hatched a ‘sound’ plan while in Tokyo, Japan. Now a leading innovator in high-end headphones, its stylish products are an audiophile’s dream.
The on-ear and in-ear ranges blend timeless aesthetics – hand-stitched lambskin leather from the South of France contrasts elegantly with aluminium – with superb sound precision (and detachable wires).
The VK-2, left, is the latest on-ear model and costs €390 while the in-ear OD-S range costs €360. The VK-X wireless Valkyrie model is also available, alongside a range of equally cool accessories such as travel pouches and credit card holders made using origami techniques.
A cool new way to stay warm
To mark its 65th anniversary, the catalogue and retail clothing company Damart has enlisted six creative thinkers to give its 100% France-made thermal underwear a cooler, all-ages appeal.
Fashion commentator Mademoiselle Agnès has made videos for social media with the aim of reaching a younger audience for what has traditionally been an older person’s market. And on the design side, lingerie designer Sophie Malagola has crafted a new line and beauty blogger Lili Barbery-Coulon a yoga range, both using Damart’s trademark insulating fabric, Thermolactyl.
The limited edition French Collection range is available in selected Damart stores around the country and online, from €14.99.
Raison to be cheerful
As we pass from sultry summer soirées to cooler autumn evenings, a glass of Breton cider suddenly looks like the perfect apéro drink.
The creation of cider is called sistronomie (from the Breton word sistr, meaning cider). The family firm Loïc Raison has been crafting cider since 1923 in Domagné, and today has its own sidrologue called William Wyme, who has created a two new tipples – cidre rubis (dark fruit on the nose, blackberry and strawberry notes in the mouth) and cidre de dégustation which pairs superbly with white meat and seafood.
Flatpacked and French
If you are seeking an affordable, easy-to-assemble dining or coffee table, bookcase or bathroom cabinet and want to buy local, why not give your local IKEA a swerve and instead buy some stylish, French-made flatpack furniture?
Symbiosis in Paris has been designing and manufacturing furniture kits for over 55 years and is now being distributed through e-commerce sites such as Amazon and CDiscount, which means a better price for the buyer (and usually free delivery).
Pictured left is an Aero oak and melamine bookcase (186.5cm high), costing from €190.99, while the Aero coffee table with oak finish costs €116.60 (at time of going to press, from www.amazon.fr).
