The Sarkophone: Thalès Téorem

Just because Sarah Palin is the only average Joe to get a call from President Sarkozy doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be interested in his mobile device. Not an iPhone, not a Blackberry. Recently all the buzz has been around Sarko’s new handset, the Téorem by Thalès. Sarkozy asked the SGDN (French National Defense) to stop using the […]

French Animation: A very pretty picture

If anyone is going to give Pixar a run for their money, it’s French animators. Of course, everyone knows and loves Les Triplettes de Belleville, the French, Belgian and Québecois collaboration feature film that was nominated for 2 Oscars in 2003 . Two shorter, more recent, no-to-be-missed animations are: French Roast, which won SIGGRAPH’s Best in Show award […]

Silicon Valley Connect

To any French and international companies interested in expanding or setting-up in Silicon Valley, you may want to consider this virtual event (done via Adobe Connect – computer + headset mandatory, webcam optional). Hosted by Marc Dangeard (founder of Entrepreneur Commons, former President of the European American Angel Club, Managing Partner at Paris-based investment banking firm […]

Will work for food, er, ticket resto

Is Mark Zuckerberg making you fat? In France, “company loyalty” is not synonymous with “food”.

Paris is so (not) expensive

For start-ups, that is. Here’s one quick example… Yes, Free Internet. If you’re passing through Paris for business and need internet to work, LaCantine is an incubator/co-working space that offers FREE internet (and coffee!). Last I checked, that means it’s cheaper than working at Starbucks. And if you need actual très short-term office space, it’s […]

Solde.com

In France, there is no Black Friday. There is no “after-Christmas” sale or “end of the year clearout” sale. Instead, there are the semiannual “soldes.” AKA the fixed, 5-week sale that takes place in January/February and again in June/July. And January 6 is the first day of the winter 2010 sale. A study published by the Centre for […]

France, meet Twitter.

LeWeb came and left Paris and we couldn’t even get President Sarkozy – or Baby Sarkozy (Jean), for that matter – a verified Twitter account. Sad. Especially after Robert Scoble’s post-LeWeb rant (which made me cringe because it seemed so Silicon Valley-centric and arrogant), I would’ve thought French companies would’ve tuned into the need to get on Twitter ASAP. A […]