I discovered Karis’s Kamera hiding away in the Links Section of another Karin’s blog… an (alien) parisienne.

Now,  Karis’s Kamera is interesting because it’s not just bi-lingual – it’s actually the first tri-lingual blog that I’ve reviewed!

English, French and Swedish – what a mix – what an interesting read this was going to be!

Now, in order to be objective, I’m going to ignore everything on this blog that isn’t France related or doesn’t contain photos of pretty girls!

Tough, I know….  But it’s my football and I’ll make the rules!

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There are a lot of mad female bloggers in Paris (as we well know here, at the International Headquarters of A Taste of Garlic) but I have the feeling that French Marilyn is not one of them (although she is certainly female and a blogger!)

She does have a rather close and suspect relationship with a serial killer but, I’m going to leave the investigation of that until a little bit later on.

French Marilyn’s Blog is the blog of Marilyn Z. Tomlins who lives and writes in Paris.

I have a feeling that a review of this blog is going to be a long and tiring process so, as I always say, best fill the belly first!

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Paris Inspired is the blog of Paris Paul.

Paris Paul explains that… “In 1990, I quit my useless job in the States and sold all of my possessions in exchange for a one-way ticket to Europe and a train pass so I could run with the bulls in Pamplona. Figuring I’d ride the rails until my money ran out, I voyaged through most European capitals before falling in love with the first French girl I met and moving to Paris. One marriage, two kids and a divorce later, I’ve been on vacation in the City of Light for twenty years now.”

What a great CV!

With a resume like that, Paul had better watch out that they don’t try to offer him a major job (the top job?) at the Élysée Palace!

Paul goes on to say that… “Not a typical tourist blog, Paris Inspired is a look into the City of Light through a writer’s eyes. These are my musings about my muse, love poems for my mistress, reflections of a side to the city seldom seen: the inside.”

I want to read some of those love poems!

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Little Brown Pen is Nichole Robertson’s blog.

Nichole describes herself as a… “Girl of many words and few exclamation points, married to a fantastic man named Evan, and we have two young sons, Alexander and Liam. I rarely shop, travel often, and would choose a night in a new town over a new pair of jeans any day.”

Now, looking at all the comments on the About Page and noticing the 1176 followers on Google Friend Connect, I realise that I am the last person in the world to discover this blog!

And, I’m guessing that, being the last one to the party, everyone knows each other and all about Little Brown Pen and this will be an easy review for me.

However, just in case any of you have been stuck up the Orinoco river for the last three years (and thus out of WiFi range), detained at Her Majesty’s Pleasure or otherwise unable to connect to the internet, I’ll give you a little run down on this blog so that you can catch up and will know what everyone else is talking about at parties these days.

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You know, I was going to wait a lot longer before reviewing Paris and Beyond.

Unfortunately, temptation has got the better of me and I’ve had to give in and review it now.

It’s still a very young blog but, even so, it is already full of interesting posts.

Now, I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again….  I like photoblogs and I also like blogs about Paris.

Paris and Beyond is Genie’s blog.  Genie says of herself… “Paris reached out and grabbed me when I was 8 years old and it only took me 40 years to actually get there! I love Paris, its people, its architecture and all of France.”

Well, that’s nice. I can’t imagine people feeling the same way about Bognor (or Basingstoke, even?)

I’ll start of by asking the pertinent question; the one every visitor to her blog must have asked themselves….

Does Genie have a thing for  men in uniform?

Well, the evidence would suggest that she does!

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Who is Poulette, I hear you ask?

Well, according to her about page she is… “a 28-year-old Australian girl living in Paris. Fashion lover. Mustard lover. Chicken lover.”

And, in her first post, Poulette in Paris, she says that… “I have named myself ‘Poulette’ for a combination of reasons, but whilst on the topic of all things food related, it’s primarily because I just love roast chicken. I really just bloody love it.”

Well, that makes sense….

“Secondly (and lets be real – no less importantly) because if you type poulette.com into your browser (go, on), you will find a very explicit warning page from what I have derived is that of an ‘adult’ website.”

Hmmmm…

“Thirdly, I am female and I work in fashion….”

I think I’m beginning to understand….

“Lastly, I’m Australian. I just realised this doesn’t actually relate in any way to why I so named myself. But I do feel it necessary to highlight the point.”

Yes, it all makes perfect sense now!

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“It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing spending Sundays in Paris.”

Now, not a lot of people know this but… that was actually the first draft of the opening line of Silvia Plath’s The Bell Jar.

It got changed because the publishers read the opening line of Ted Hughes’ poem “Your Paris” which, of course, starts… “Your Paris, I thought, was American” and thought that he was dropping a subtle hint.

All of which has absolutely nothing to do with this lovely photo blog!

Sundays in Paris is a photoblog by T who is an anesthesioboist (whatever that is) who lives in Boston, Massachusetts and is a wife & mom and a doctor too.

And, she listens to classical Christmas carols all year round because they make her happy!

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Daily Photo in Paris is Laurent’s blog about the city he loves (and I’ll give a hint about what city that is… There’s a clue in the title of the blog and it certainly isn’t Basingstoke!)

With 383 posts over the last 18 months there’s no way that I’m going to be able to cover all that this photoblog has to offer.

So, instead, I plan to ask my friend, Mr Google to help me find the bestest of the best bits to share with you.

And, of course, I had to start with this lovely photo of a Citroen truck.

Now, I know it’s not a 2CV but I like to think it’s what a 2CV would become if it had to grow up!

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Whilst it has never been all that high on my list of priorities, I do have to admit, I am fairly open minded and am prepared to try most things once (apart, of course, from Morris Dancing and Incest!)

It was with this open attitude that I approached How to marry a Frenchman.

How to marry a Frenchman is Madame Bouron’s blog about her life (with her husband, of course) in Paris.

Now, to some of you it might seem a little bit unfair that I am reviewing 2 girls from Seattle, now living in Paris, in the same week.

Well, I have to let you into a little secret (and don’t tell anyone!), I’m on  commission!

The Seattle Board of International Affairs has asked me to keep an eye on it’s favourite daughters, the news of  which is doubtless going to cause sleepless nights for any other bloggers from Seattle currently living in Paris!

Moving swiftly on….

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You know, reading this blog, A Seattleite in Paris, firmly establishes what I’ve long suspected, that I really am the most desperately pathetic under-achiever!

I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, in fact, I think it’s something I can take pride in. If I knew how to cook brownies I would give the last brownie as a prize, to me, the saddest act here.

You see, even though I’ve been blogging for four years now, I’ve really not managed to address the range of subjects that A Seattleite in Paris manages to cover and my rants sound, well, wimpy and pathetic compared to hers!

I’ll try to explain….

Even though I’m at a disadvantage (living, as I do, in rural Brittany), I’d love to blog about waist high piles of dog poo.

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There are three good reasons why I decided to review Barbra Austin‘s blog today.

The first is that she, like me, blogs to say when she hasn’t blogged!

Now I know that that doesn’t really make much sense but, you’ll have to excuse me as it is rather hot here in Brittany and we’re really not used to the heat and it hasn’t rained for almost two weeks (and we’re certainly not used to that!) and my Long Johns are sticking to my nether regions and I’m a bit scared to take them off as I’m not too sure what I’ll find underneath!

But, enough of my problems. I was talking about how Barbra has the courtesy to blog about not blogging. Take a look at Une Petite Pause as an example of what I mean.

The second reason is that, in a self declared NSFV (Not Safe for Vegetarians) zone, she describes a visit to the Marché St. Quentin and is kind enough to display some of the photos that she took there!

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Je ne sais quoi is Shannon’s blog about discovering the truth about Parisians… one humiliating story at a time.

Sounds like my sort of blog!

Being a Paris blog I felt sure that there would be at least one article about Paris Pavement Garnish (in other words… Dog Crap!), and I wasn’t disappointed.

In Mr Hanky moved to Paris and had ten thousand children we learn that Shannon lives at 3 Avenue de Merde Par Tout and that sooner or later, you’re going to be knee-deep in dog excrement.

Well, I think we knew that already  but it is nice to be reminded.

But enough of the Poop and lets get on to the important stuff…..

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Put Your Flare On is Aimee’s blog.

Aimee used to work in the corporate world. Cubicals. Macho bosses. 50 hour work weeks.

She got burnt out and decided to move to France to make a life with my husband, Julien.

The she got pregnant and had a baby.

She stayed at home with Maximilien for the first year of his life and then she fulfilled a dream of hers: opening her very own café.

After being a full time working mama for a year she decided that her life wasn’t busy enough and decided (with the help of her husband) to have another baby!

Alixe, was born December 1, 2009.

Aimee’s café can be found at L’OisiveThé – so why don’t we see if she has any tales to tell?

So, give us the lowdown on L’OisiveThé (and don’t miss out the naughty stuff!)….

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The Bold Soul is Lisa Taylor Huff’s blog about (and I’m sort of going to use Lisa’s own words here)… deciding to move to Paris, having hit her 40s and found herself labeled “Over 40 and Still Single”!

Everyone thought she was crazy or at least full of shit.  But she did it anyway at the age of 45.  She sold half of everything she owned, put the rest in storage, packed her suitcases, rented an apartment and got on the plane.

A year later, out of the blue, she met  THE Guy, and a FRENCH guy no less. The Coup de Foudre.

They were married on July 12, 2008 — her first marriage at age 47, and the LAST marriage for both of them.

And Paris is now her home: her, him and his three kids, together in a quiet little house behind the big hill of Montmartre.

Oh, isn’t that sweet?

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Still in Paris and I’m feeling in a Love Story kind of mood (it must be spring!)

So I’ll start off by asking…..

What can you say about a woman who has had a threesome with her husband and the president of the United States?

What can you say about a woman who is surprised that people don’t stand in their gardens and grab their breasts?  I do that all the time!

What can you say about a woman whose husband plays the guitar?  I’m not going to be trite and ask if he prefers Beethoven or the Beetles!

That she spends her time touching her toes stark naked?

Or that she has a Potty Mouth?

Best to let you all know that she is called Peggy and her blog is Rue Rice!

Now, wouldn’t Eric Segal have done a lot better if he had started off that way?

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As the sun is shining here in Brittany (yes, sad as it might seem, I’m actually starting to miss the rain!) I thought I’d take a little trip (electronically, of course), to Paris and catch up on some of the blogs there.

Logical? You really shouldn’t expect logic on this site!

I decided to start off with Life in Paris – a blog by a 32 year old English guy called Gavin who, to use his own words, describes the blog as… “The life and adventures of a 32 year old Englishman (the proverbial ’starving artist’) who has come to find himself in Paris without plan or intention of ever setting out to live in a city, let alone a French one.”

Now, I have to say that this isn’t one of the more frequently updated blogs around (and I have emailed the author to complain!!!!) but the quality of the prose and the standard of the photography make it, in my book, a must-review site!

So, where’s the obligatory Dog Poo post?

Being a Paris based blog, I expected a big steaming Dog Poo post and I wasn’t disappointed!

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Rue Rude is another one of those blogs that seem to have been going since the dawn of time.

It hasn’t really, because the dawn of time was really rather a long time ago but…

… it has been going since September 2004, which is also rather a long time ago.

I remember being entranced by Sedulia Scott’s blog when I first came across it.  I then lost touch and have only managed to re-discover it all over again (a lovely process, let me tell you!) a few months ago.

Some things, like wine, mature with age but I have to say that Rue Rude came out of the bottle really rather drinkable, even when it was a young fruity blog.

So, how fruity is it?

Well, there is an article about a Nudist Countess if that sort of thing tickles your fancy.

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Parisienne Mais Presque is the blog of a Seattlite, who according to her own about me page… “now lives on the other side of the map, just outside of Paris. She  fell in love with and married a Frenchman in Boston, and in 2003 they took the great leap across the Atlantic. This summer they celebrate eight years of marriage and the second birthday of their son, le Petit. This is the story of  her life as a pseudo-Parisienne in her country of adoption.”

So, what is life like for a pseudo-Parisienne in Paris?

Let’s take a look….

Start with the Poop….

I’m not sure why but, I think it’s probably best to start off with the smelly stuff and get it out of the way.  This being a blog about life in Paris, I did expect a few references to the brown stuff and, I have to say, I wasn’t disappointed.

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