I don’t know about you, but I’m noticing more concern overseas these days about the greenback. From Bloomberg’s Mark Deen today: Suresh Tendulkar, economic adviser to Indian’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is urging the government to diversify its foreign exchange reserves and hold fewer dollars, he said today. “The major part of Indian reserves are in dollars — that is something that’s a problem for us,” Tendulkar said in an interview in Aix-en-Provence, France today. He also said t
By boom2bust.com

Beginning 15 July 2009 (in two weeks), all parts of the A8 autoroute in the Alpes-Maritimes will be limited to 110 kph (68 mph), down from the Nation-wide limit of 130 kph (81 mph). The western edge of the Alpes-Maritimes is about 7.5 km west of the Cannes-Mandelieu autoroute junction, exit 40.

There are 72 kilometres of A8 autoroute passing through the Alpes-Maritimes, from the Var department to Italy. Currently, the only 130-kph sections are from the Var to the Antibes tollbooth (20 km), and fr

By Russ Collins

From smithsonian.com: Via Aurelia: The Roman Empire’s Lost Highway. At first glance, it didn’t appear that impressive: a worn limestone pillar, six feet high and two feet wide, standing slightly askew beside a country road near the village of Pélissanne in southern France. A lot of people pass by without knowing what it is, Bruno Tassan, 61, was saying, as he tugged aside dense weeds that had grown over the column since he last inspected it. Tassan was showing me a milliaire, or milestone, one o
By mirabilis.ca

Thelittle village of Roumouleshas been added to Beyond.Roumoulesis located beside the village ofRiezon the Valensole Plateau, a main site of theLavender Fieldsof Beyond. It's a tiny village, with a shady terrace café, and a great little restaurant.

By Russ Collins

Today Unilever has presented at the SFP the beautiful and long story of their milestone brand – Persil, but also the new creation inspired by South of France – Persil Savon de Marseille Bouquet de Provence (from the concept to the movie and the spectacular rise in sales).But the presentation had also something special, some breaking news about allergy. Unilever, under the name Allergy – myth or reality introduced a research they did and that will be published shortly in a Contact Dermatitis (if
By 1000fragrances.blogspot.com

Ahhh, life on the French Riviera. I never imagined I’d live here one day. That I’d live in France, yes, but I thought perhaps Paris or somewhere in the countryside — the Riviera seemed to gaudy, pretentious, and superficial to me. To be perfectly honest, much of it still does, though there are a lot of down-to-earth people here too.

Today I came home to my mentally ill neighbor, “Gertrude” (not her real name), screaming her head off at her two sons, who are trying to get her put into an asylum. (I learned about her sons’ attempts this weekend from my kind neighbor, who lives above Gertrude.) Since Gertrude’s shutters were closed, I quickly went onto my terrace to see if it was safe for kitties, since they love their fresh air — I stay outside with them when Gertrude has vocal outbursts. But what did I find? Vomit. On my patio.

Just the sort of thing to come home to after a long day at work. Since it’s raining, and the, um, “muck

By fraise

No conspiracy charge by feds against Madoff is covering up links to domestic and foreign intelligence. Yahoo StumbleUpon Google Live Technorati Scoop del.icio.us Digg Sphinn Furl Reddit The failure of federal prosecutors to bring conspiracy charges against Bernard Madoff, the mega-billion dollar Ponzi scammer who pleaded guilty March 12 to eleven counts of fraud and other crimes in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, is providing cover to those who pulled the strings on Madoff’s illegal operat
By darthchaosofrspw.wordpress.com