According to a survey done by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Paris is ranked at #15 in the world in cost of living (Moscow ranked 1st and New York City ranked 10th), and 33rd in quality of living (Honolulu ranked 27th and San Francisco ranked 28th).

You can see the results of the survey at the Mercer Web site.

Culture Beer is a new brasserie on the Champs Elysees where you can get a good beer with some good food, and all at a good price, especially considering that you are on the Champs Elysees.

This article from the New York Times tells all about the food, the beers and the atmosphere at this fun new place run by Heineken.

Paris: Culture Biere

By FLORENCE FABRICANT Published: June 25, 2006 There are big, historic brasseries that dispense beer, to be sure, but in Paris even in these places, a meal is more likely to be washed down with wine than beer. An exception is the new Culture Bière, a classy, modern pavilion of beer that has been installed on the Champs-Élysées. Wine is not served.

Culture Bière is a sleek place with some jazzy lighting, and nothing like the Bofingers and Balzars that epitomize the Parisian brasserie look. On the ground floor is a bar, a cafe for quick bites and a boutique that sells beer accessories like glassware, and high-end foods made with beer, beer-based skin creams and other personal-care products, books, T-shirts and kegs for home use.

A sidewalk cafe serves the same menu as the comfortable upstairs restaurant that overlooks the avenue: a fairly concise list of dishes like fish tartars, plates of assorted tapas, chicken breast poached in a sauce with morels, and pot-au-feu with beer-based mustard. There is even a children’s menu for about 11 euros, or $14 at $1.29 to the euro. Various beers, beer cocktails, some soft drinks and bottled water are sold.

For me it was fine for a lunch on a warm spring afternoon. A trio of tapas (mousse of Munster cheese with cumin, a salted financier with olives, and a little vegetable salad dressed in olive oil) with the nicely bitter Fischer blond, a lovely partner, made for a satisfying interlude. The 18 or so beers that are served, mostly on tap, are grouped by color: white, blond, amber and red. The classification is on the money, and a helpful guide to the heft and intensity of flavor of most of the beers. (Prices range from 2 to 9.50 euros.)

The boutique’s food products, some of which I bought to take home because they were unusual, are of very high quality. A jar of duck rillettes with beer, foie gras made with hops, prunes cooked in dark beer, and beer-based mustards were all priced at 3.99 to 20 euros. The boutique also sells excellent multilayered ice cream and sorbet parfaits, all flavored with beer, which are served in the restaurant and are about 2.40 euros to take out.

But Culture Bière is not some clever entrepreneur’s vision. It is a calculated though subtle attempt by Heineken to persuade Parisians to drink beer. All the beers are brands in the diverse Heineken group, and they include some with relatively low alcohol (3 percent) or none at all (Buckler). But the tie-in with Heineken is not at all heavy-handed. It just might escape your notice completely, and even if it does not, it will not detract from a nice change of pace.

Culture Bière, 65, avenue des Champs-Élysées; 33-1-42-56-88-88; www.culturebiere.com. It is open daily for lunch and dinner.

Photo by Richard Harbus for The New York Times

More and more Americans are purchasing property in Paris, and while they have traditionally focused on the trendy Left Bank neighborhoods of the 5th, 6th and 7th arrondissements, now they are headed to the 17th.  The 17th has what some consider a more authentically Parisian feel to it (i.e. you don’t hear a lot of English while buying your baguette), and while it is remote in the Right Bank it is still close enough to be a short metro ride away from the center of town.  And an added plus, the costs are much lower in the 17th than in the 7th, for example.

You can read about one couple’s purchase of a French property, how they did it and why so many others are doing it, in this article from the New York Times.

June 23, 2006 marks the grand opening of the Musee du Quai Branly, a museum dedicated to art from Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.

The museum is located just in front of the Eiffel Tower, on thebanks of the Seine.  The goal of the museum is to treat non-Western art with the same level of respect and importance as Western art.  It is dedicated to the people of these parts of the world who have suffered from Western domination.

 The museum officially opens to the public on Friday, June 23.  Here is a great article highlighting the museum, from the New York Times.

37, quai Branly - portail Debilly

75007 Paris

tél : 01 56 61 70 00

Open Tuesday - Sunday 10 - 6:30 p.m.

Evening hours on Thursday until 9:30

Call it the year of the museum opening.  After the highly anticipated re-opening of the Orangerie in May, the Musée du Quai Branly is set to open on June 23.

This museum will be dedicated to the arts and civilisations of Africa, Oceania, Asia and the Americas. There will be approximately 300,000 exhibits including sculptures, fabrics and jewellery.  Many exhibits come from the collections of the Musée de l’Homme and the Musée National des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie.
The beautiful building is designed by Jean Nouvel, and includes a silk-screened glass wall extends over 39,000 square meters.  There is also a beautiful 18,000 square meter garden and a 10,000 square meter exhibition area.
The museum also hosts a library that is free to the public.

It hasn’t been a good year for La Tour d’Argent, the beautiful Parisian restaurant specializing in duck and overlooking the Notre Dame.  First, it lost its second Michelin star earlier this year which was a huge blow to the culinary institution. And now it seems that the elderly owner, Claude Terrail (88), died last week. 

His son has been managing the restaurant for some time, so the owner’s death shouldn’t affect the restaurant’s functioning.  But he will surely be missed by customers.  He was such a fixture at La Tour d’Argent, greeting every guest with a wide smile and making everyone feel welcome and at home.  It was clear to anyone who ate there that this was what he loved to do.

For more information on Claude Terrail’s death, here is the link to the New York Times article.

The Theatre du Chaillot, at the Trocadero overlooking the Eiffel Tower, is hosting the third annual Tango Festival from June 7 - 17.

Among artists expected to perform are the Orchestra El Arranque on June 7 and 8, the Great Mosalini Orchestra on June 9 and the Orchestra Vale Tango June 9, 10 and 16, 17.

Lessons and demonstrations will occur during this festival.  It’s a great way to spend some time before or after visiting the Eiffel Tower!

Metro:  Trocadero

Cost:  15 euros

For royalists, Marie Antoinette was a martyr.  For republicans she was a foreigner who deserved death at the guillotine.  Just as they didn’t agree then, French historians and film critics don’t agree today about whether this film does justice to a highly complex character in their history.

Regardless of what the historians or critics think, the certainty is that the film will bring hordes of tourists to Paris and Versailles looking for Marie Antoinette memorabilia.  Most likely to benefit from the film, the Versailles Palace (where the film was produced) will open areas of the Petit Trianon where Marie Antoinette spent a great deal of time playing with her marionnettes and holding private meetings.  More visitors are also expected at the Queen’s “hamlet” at Versailles, where she would “play” milk maiden (which hardly pleased the French people of her time).  The Conciergerie, where Marie Antoinette was held in her last days before being sent to the guillotine at the Place de la Concorde (then Place de la Revolution) will certainly get some much deserved attention.

The Louvre will be selling related items, and the fabulous pastry shop Laduree (you can see their macarons throughout the film) has an entire Marie Antoinette collection of pastry and cakes.  Other shops and designers are getting into the Marie Antoinette fashion comeback, and the Trois Marches restaurant in Versailles is offering a Marie Antoinette meal for about $127.