Who doesn’t know Paris, the romantic city of France, a city oozing with class and the fashion capital of the world. This is a haven for the elite and brand conscious people who live life in luxury. The shopping centers will give you the opportunity to discover the rest. Fashion firms run most of the industries here. Ranging from the clothing market, shoes and accessories, all in most business stalls, and every girl has her head up to be the next to do the catwalk. Every year this city sponsors a parade of new fashion from clothes to bags to basically almost every accessory you can think of. But what makes it actually grandiose are the models that bring the name. They are like the living images that represent a kind of lifestyle. But the real score is credited to the talented and emulous designers who gave birth to these brand names that had its roots in this country and made its way throughout the world. This fact attracted other fashion pioneers such as Kenzo in Japan and Versace and Armani in Italy. However, they have their firm position on top with the likes of Chanel, Christian Dior, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Lacroix and Pierre Cardin. Indeed, Paris booms in the fashion industry that paved way to its tourism boosts. Paris has always been among the top major tourist destination in the world of all times.

On the other hand, besides fashion itself that captivated Paris, it is also famous of its museums and fancy restaurants that add beauty to the admirable landscape of the city. Paris is a tourist resort in many ways. The notion of it being a fashion capital is not only limited to the glamour in clothing style, but include the city attractions that it is famous of. Among the lists are, the Eiffel Tower, the palace of Versailles, the Louvre museum and the Pompidou center. Fashion also means a different kind of nightlife. You can watch a show at Moulin Rouge, or an exclusive classical music on Avenue Montaigne, which is the fashion avenue itself. You can attend a relaxing concert, or find your way to try a romantic dinner cruise that is beautifully illuminated by the riverbanks. Romantic and fashionable indeed! Well, there are many choices to live your time fully in this heaven. Paris is a city that is classic and yet grand and gorgeous.

The French cuisine is extremely diverse which has similar variety of the Chinese food. And this variety on the other hand is being supported by the passion of French regarding on how to cook palatable foods in all in its different forms. The France’s incredible different climates and geographies that support the local production give the country’s different types of ingredients. Generally, if you want to know the culture of France you must simply understand the typical foods that they have. The basic meals in France such like their traditional baguette, cheese and inexpensive to the very complicated affairs that involves dozen of courses as well as different wines can take of about an hour of preparation.

Some of the foreigners have mistaken the fact, and they have just said that French foods are heavy and more complex. In fact, the heavy foods that they appointed are those foods which typically only found in France’s prestigious restaurants. Since most of the French foods are very simple that relies on the high quality fresh ingredients as well as loving preparation compared to the complicated one. Most of the French foods or dishes are coming from the regional specialties, and in fact some of these specialties became famous not only in France’s regions but throughout the whole country.

Each region of France has its own local specialties as well as general style of cooking and choices of ingredients. Such like in Provence where most of its foods typically features herbs and tomatoes and olive oil. On the other hand, it has been said that the regional evolution of cooking style has been influenced by first Local Availability—they believe that the best food in France are mostly made from the local ingredients. Second from the Neighboring countries and immigration—due to its nearby countries, some of its neighbor foods have been adopted by the French people and lastly due to the History and economic conditions of France—due to the fast pace of economic condition and style of the country it became the way for the local food tradition of France to change.

THIS article is all about my ode to the greatest French film director in contemporary times – Luc Besson. My admiration for Luc Besson started when he directed that stylish action movie starring no less than acclaimed French actor Jean Reno, Leon. Known for his Hong Kong-inspired action films, there is actually another side of Luc Besson that few people in the United States (his current home base) and France know – his 1995 film Leon dangerously borders on the pedophilia. This is actually the very first film starring Natalie Portman. Then at 13 years old, Natalie’s love interest in the movie was Jean Reno, who was already 45 then.

Anchoring on the pedophilic theme, Luc Besson took off from what another French director, Louis Malle, did 16 years earlier – the Brooke Shields-introducing vehicle Pretty Baby. As compared to the pedophilic scenes in Pretty Baby, Leon’s was pretty milder though simply because pedophilia was only one of the themes in the movie. There were two other themes explored by Besson in Leon – police corruption played perfectly by the sadistic Gary Oldman and of course that signature Hong Kong action style. Pedophilia in itself was just a side-theme; Leon (Jean Reno) wasn’t actually interested erotically in Matilda (Natalie Portman); Matilda’s crush on Leon stemmed from her own emotional confusion fueled by two reasons – a) she needed a father figure because her parents were both killed by the sadistic Gary Oldman and b) she was undergoing puberty which understandably caused her estrogen level to soar.

That was my first cinematic encounter with Luc Besson. It was only later that I learned that Luc made his very first Hong Kong-style flick Nikita earlier. Nikita is a post-teenage Lolita with a twist – she’s an assassin. Luc Besson’s groundbreaking work with Nikita which included a stellar cast of Jean Reno as the movie’s villain, Tcheky Karyo as Nikita’s handler and Luc Besson’s then wife Anne Parillaud as Nikita soon spawned the hit French cult TV series of the same title. And that was only the time that I knew Luc Besson was also the creator of Nikita.

The French are said to be the most romantic people on earth. One can only look at Luc Besson as the perfect example of that. After marrying Nikita (Anne Parrilaud), Luc Besson ditched her when she saw Milla Jovovich – her leading lady another Luc Besson trademark hit, The Fifth Element. Ah…the French!!