David Jaggard
Checking Out the Action at the Auction House
It’s Amazing the Crap People Will Buy – Twice
Note from David Jaggard: Due to by-now-way-too-familiar pandemic restrictions, about the only place in Paris where art lovers can still go to see a little taut canvas or chunks of stone with the ugly parts chipped away is the Drouot … Read More
The Salon de l’Agriculture
C'est Delicieux! & Ironique!
A note from David Jaggard: On the ever-lengthening list of events being canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most lamented is the Salon de l’Agriculture, France’s annual (and possibly the world’s largest) farm fair. So we can’t … Read More
Travel in France: How to Beat the “Gîtes” System
The Key to the Heart of France
A note from David Jaggard: France is emerging from confinement and we are free to travel again. For those who share my love of the French countryside, this article, originally posted on June 24, 2015, contains some actual useful information. … Read More
Dining in Paris: French Restaurant Manners and Methodology
Abandon All Dread* Ye Who Enter Here
A note from David Jaggard: France is now in its sixth week of confinement. All eyes are on the research community as the population awaits news of the one scientific breakthrough that we’ve all been hoping, longing and praying for: the … Read More
Weird English Shop Signs, Part 17: All-Parisian Edition
This Is Not Just Any Boutique
A note from David Jaggard: As France and much of the world endures a lockdown to slow the spread of Covid-19 coronavirus, I’m sure that many Paris Update readers are, like me, thinking back to a happier, more carefree time. … Read More
Strikes in France: Another Day, Another Delay
They’re Just Trying to Get to Work!
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in Paris Update on February 10, 2016, but seems even more pertinent today after the latest round of transit strikes. All right, all you youngsters out there, gather ’round and listen: when I was … Read More
French Wine Tasting: How to Be (or Sound Like) a Wine Expert (or Snob)
Lesson 1: Left, Good. Right, Bad.
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in Paris Update on February 8, 2017. For my most recent birthday, a friend gave me a bottle of a Pauillac grand cru classé from 1986. If you don’t have a friend like that, … Read More
The World Cup and Me, Part One: How Soccer Came to America – Sort Of
When Ignorance Was Bliss (A True Story)
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in Paris Update on June 8, 2014. As I write this, the 2014 FIFA World Cup is about to begin in Brazil. This quadrennial tournament always brings back a fond childhood memory for me. Not … Read More
C’est Ironique: A note to readers
Signing back in – sort of
As some readers know, I am also a composer. Since I started writing C’est Ironique in 2010, I have been saying, mostly to myself, that I was developing the “humor lobe” of my brain so that someday I could combine … Read More
Weird English Shop Signs: One More Time!
Signs, Signs and Signing Out
My dear readers! After seven years, four months and nearly 300 articles, I have decided to stop writing C’est Ironique on a regular basis. An irregular basis is not out of the question, but it’s time for me to … Read More