We know the American “Black Friday”: the day after Thanksgiving (which was yesterday), some run in stores to benefit from the many discounts and sales of up to 50 to 60%, sometimes reaching 80-85 % (especially for TVs and other rapidly outdated electronic products).  They line up in front of stores in some cases on Thanksgiving day at midnight, or even at 8pm and rush in to enjoy bargains … Black Friday is followed by “Cyber ​​Monday” the following Monday (while “Black Friday” is also available online) and they spend a whole week-end shopping and making “deals”, and this is another facet of the American dream … Besides in the…

Today is a day of infinite sadness. We commemorate the victims of November 13th terror attacks, which were unfortunately neither the first since January 2015, nor the last. Like many, I remember my life on that day: 13/11/2015 was the day of kindness in France (for a few years. This day has of course been changed since). I woke up in the middle of the night on early Saturday morning as it happens to me almost every night, I glanced at my phone and there, stupor, there was some breaking news about terror attacks at Bataclan and at Stade de France. There was also some news about closure of all…

First Published on November 11th, 2014 Today is November 11th. In France, it is commemoration day, all the country remembers the soldiers and civilians who died during World War I. In the United States, it is Veterans’ Day, they celebrate the veterans of all the wars waged by the country. Two countries, two different types of commemorations. While in France the official ceremonies are generally barely noticed by the “average French” (and I put myself in the lot) and that the day is appreciated mainly because today is holiday, in the United States it’s a completely different story. Let’s talk first about official celebrations. Here in the USA too there…

Given the events of last night and following the election of D. Trump to the presidency of the United States, I would like to add the following update: The American people freely chose their new president and as outsiders feeling close to Americans we can only acknowledge it. I wrote my article on Tuesday, November 8th and I still mean every word of it. There are many things I love in the USA and I admire about Americans. But it is clear that following this unexpected election, like many I feel confused and a priori pessimistic. On this US Election Day I remember a question somebody asked me not so…

I already wrote an article about Halloween in Baltimore, and how my kids were delighted then. Here in France also we try to celebrate Halloween, even more since our return from the US, mainly because kids love to dress up. We therefore bought new costumes for each of the 4 kids a few days before, whereas last year they had reused their old costumes. In fact they love mixing their costumes and create new ones. But this year they each chose a new costume. They were dressed up and we went to “parc des Poussins”, THE park of Lille with rides and attractions. The park staff encourages children to come…