Gift for Francophiles?
 

My sister and her husband are real Francophiles - I wonder if anyone might have suggestions of something I can buy them both as a gift that relates to their passion?<BR>Wine is out - they know what they like and already have a basement full! And I bought them a glossy photo book last year.<BR>Any other ideas? Under $100 please.<BR>Thanks so much for any suggestions!

Video or CD of French operas?

A selection of French cheeses, cheese board &amp; a nice cheese knife? Could also be packaged with pretty paper napkins, &quot;wine charms&quot; for glasses, and some gourmet crackers.

Or a CD of French chanson. A quick web search turns up one on sale from www.bluenote.com with a good selection, likewise www.amazon.fr<BR><BR>Try some searching for perhaps less internationally-known names like Lucienne Boyer..<BR><BR>

Sarah, a great idea (for your sister at least) is something that I found out about here on the Fodors site - a silk scarf printed with a map of Paris.<BR>I bought one by mail order and it is NICE Deep red border, lots of detail of all the sights etc.<BR>Fun to wear and your sister can use it to plan her next trip to the City of Lights!<BR>Hope this helps, Trish

sorry - just re-read my post and realized that I didn't give you the website. It's www.mapscarves.com. You can order online. Price is $69 if I remember correctly.<BR>Cheers, Trish

<BR><BR>A book, but not a glossy photo book. Richard Bernstein's excellent &quot;Fragile Glory: A Portrait of France and the French.&quot; Bernstein is the former Paris bureau chief of The New York Times. <BR>

A book of Art Buchwald's columns from when he was a reporter in Paris.

French-style linen? Tablecloths from Provence??

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As a dyed-in-the-wool francophile, I would love just about anything ordered from this online catalog.<BR><BR>http://www.ruedefrance.com/cgi-local...exe/?E+scstore

For the past three years I've been buying artisanal French chocolates from www.zchocolate.com as Christmas gifts and everyone seems to be very pleased. You could also look at My French Store for tablecloths and stuff.

You could also try: http://www.basicfrenchonline.com/<BR>Lots of lovely stuff for Francophiles (though I have just checked the Paris Scarf mentioned above and it does look rather fun!(

If you're looking for something really inexpensive, and your Francophile friends are cat lovers, you could get them the calendar or agenda for &quot;Le Chat 2003: Vingt Ans Apres&quot; by Philippe Geluck. Le Chat is a fat, cynical cartoon cat in a suit. Geluck has been publishing cartoons for 20 years, and published a 20th anniversary book this year - hence the calendars and agendas. You can order them on the Amazon.fr website (and I was able to order them from the Canadian Amazon.ca website). A search for &quot;Geluck&quot; and &quot;calendrier&quot; and &quot;chat&quot; should turn them up.

How about some real p&eacute;tanque balls (boules)? <BR>This place has the real ones from the main manufacturer in France, La Boule Obut: www.petanque-america.com<BR>Well under $100 and it's a great gift for a couple as they can play it together.

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From the website for the Louvre (gift shop link) I had a calendar sent to my daughter. If was more fun for her to actually get mail from Paris than from me.

Check out www.frenchcoton.com - my favorite store in Sarlat that now has a website. Lots of beautiful, high-quality items from the P&eacute;rigord and southwest of France now available from this store.

maison du chocolate now has stores in NYC and by going to their website, you can order a variety of chocolates. Williams-Sonoma also has cheeses from Bordeaux, Jean D'Alos'. Most excellent as I was there a few months ago and he has a deep passion for his cheeses.<BR><BR>Thanks for all the above suggestions, as my husband and I are turning into Francophiles, and i look forward to checking out the various websites!

Oooh - what a lot of wonderful links!<BR>Thanks so much everyone for posting!!

Should either of them be francophone in addition to francophile, a cool (and incredibly inexpensive) option is French comic books. Known as &quot;bandes dessinees&quot; (&quot;BD&quot; for short), they offer lots of insight into French popular culture and politics. And since they're comics you don't have to be incredibly great in French to figure them out. <BR><BR>One of my favorites is Claire Bretecher (Belgian, actually, but then so are many of the greats). You can also find things like the Simpsons in translation. You can find things like the Simpsons and Spirou at a journalists; for Bretecher you'd go to a book store or a BD specialist.

Try www.chezclarisse.com. Lovely giftware and foodstuffs.

Thanks so much for all this great advice! I now have enough ideas for a decade's worth of presents (and a few things for myself too!) Wonderful suggestions - much appreciated.

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Go to www.fromages.com. They have wonderful cheeses and wines which they will ship overnight express from Tours at very reasonable prices.