Paris In New York

French Women are exhausted..."In France, you are expected to do it all..."

I'd like to share with you this article from the New York Times that echoes what my friends in Paris tell me about their work and family life experience:

"Where Having It All Doesn’t Mean Having Equality

By KATRIN BENNHOLD

Could there be anything more French than this workout? 

Weeks after giving birth, French women are offered a state-paid, extended course of vaginal gymnastics, complete with personal trainer, electric stimulation devices and computer games that reward particularly nimble squeezing. The aim, said Agnes de Marsac, a physiotherapist who runs such sessions: “Making love again soon and making more babies.”

Perineal therapy is as ubiquitous in France as free nursery schools, generous family allowances, tax deductions for each child, discounts for large families on high-speed trains, and the expectation that after a paid, four-month maternity leave mothers are back in shape — and back at work.

Courtesy of the state, French women seem to have it all: multiple children, a job and, often, a figure to die for..."

See the rest of the article

Stéphane Lavoué for The International Herald Tribune

A talk with Guy Sorman, French Economist

Thursday 24th, 7pm

FIAF, skyroom

Guy Sorman, leading French intellectual, author, and economist, will present his new book, Economics Does Not Lie: A Defense of the Free Market in a Time of Crisis.

Peter Coy, Economics editor and senior Writer for Business Week will join Sorman for a thought-provoking and compelling dialogue about the model of the free market economic system.

Guy Sorman is the author of 20 books on contemporary affairs, covering the five continents. He is a regular columnist for Le Figaro, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications around the world. He taught Economics at the Paris Institute of Political Sciences from 1970 to 2000, and at many other Universities over the Globe. In 1985, he was a visiting scholar at Stanford, Hoover Institution.

He has also held several public offices, including advisor to the Prime Minister of France (1995-1997) and deputy mayor of Boulogne, near Paris.

Listen to a talk about his new book on YouTube

More info about the Evening at the FIAF

Public Lectures at the Lycee Francais

November 6, 2008 – 9:00-10:15am

Patrick Baudry Developing One’s Potential                        

Invited to speak for the LFNY Sports and Adventure Day, Patrick Baudry, a French former fighter pilot and test pilot, has flown for more than 13,000 hours on approximately 350 planes and other aircrafts. As an astronaut, he was one of the first two Frenchmen to go into space with the Soviets in 1982. He then flew on the U.S. space shuttle Discovery in 1985 which was the first French American spaceflight ever. A UNESCO goodwill ambassador, he currently works on creating and developing educational projects in Africa. He is the recipient of numerous awards.

November 7, 2008 – 2:00-3:00pm

John O’Neal   The Age of Sensibility: the Enlightenment in France

A professor of French at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY since 1984, he has written widely about the French Enlightenment authors such as Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot, and Condillac, and on topics such as morality, the history of manners, and the aesthetics of the novel, among others. The author of three books and editor of three others, he was named a chevalier in the Ordre des Palmes Académiques in 1998 and was promoted to officier in 2007

November 12, 2008 – 1:00pm-2:00pm

Fatou Diomé     Writing The Belly of the Atlantic               

Originally from Senegal, Fatou Diome moved to France where she pursued her PhD. Her first novel, The Belly of the Atlantic became a bestseller in France before being translated into other languages. Her language is authentic and vivid and traces a portrait of the difficulties of integrating in France as an immigrant, mixed with nostalgia and memories of a childhood in Senegal.

November 20, 2008 – 10:30am-12:00pm 

Mariette Job    The Journal of Helene Berr                                  

 In the spring of 1942, Hélène Berr, the daughter of a prominent Jewish family and a recent graduate of the Sorbonne, began composing a journal of her life in Paris under the Occupation. Hélène wrote regularly in the journal until she and her parents were arrested and deported to Auschwitz on her twenty-third birthday. Her parents died within 6 months, Hélène died in Bergen-Belsen in April 1945. Entrusted to her family’s cook before she was taken away, Hélène’s journal survived as a family heirloom until her family agreed to publish it last year. It has since become a number-one bestseller in France and will be published in fifteen countries worldwide in fall 2008. Mariette Job, a former librarian, is Helene Berr’s niece.

November 20, 2008 -  7:00pm-8:00pm

Alain Cléret  The cost of oil

After getting close to $150 a barrel, oil’s prices went down below $70 just a few months later. How can one explain the sudden change in the cost of oil? What is the ‘fair’ price of oil? Alain Cléret, President of TOTAL Lubricants USA, will explain some of the mechanisms involved in the changing prices of oil and the different strategies involved. This conference is presented by Accueil NY.

Free - Booking at

212-439-3820

Auditorium, Lycée Français de New York

                    505 East 75^th Street

  

Conference: “France in America 1608-2008 and the Notion of Nationality”

May 21 at 6pm
by Nicholas W. F-R. Dungan
President of the French-American Foundation

The New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West (corner of West 77th Street)
New York City

Reception Following the Lecture in the Great Hall

RSVP: [email protected]
212-829-8800 x 12

On this occasion, the French-American Foundation celebrates two anniversaries: the 400th anniversary of a permanent French presence on the American continent and the 32nd anniversary of the establishment of the French-American Foundation in May 1976. The boldness of French explorers—Cartier, Champlain, La Salle, and others—shaped the course of the early American experience and France has left a lasting, though often neglected, imprint on the North American continent. In addition, because of their unique histories, France and the United States have each developed distinct notions of nationality; Nicholas Dungan will address how each country has evolved these notions of nationality and needs to adapt them to meet new challenges in the 21st century.