Readers looking for a light-hearted way to keep up with their français would do well to follow Big Picture: Croquis d'Amérique, sketches from America posted now and again by Le Monde's U.S. correspondent, Corine Lesnes (right).Lesnes has a knack for blogging: her posts are short, sometimes funny, and always to the point. Recent examples:
► Abe Obama, noting that "[f]or those who have not yet comprehended the equation Honest Abe = Obama, the President-Elect's team is driving the nail home" by having him travel to Washington for his inauguration by train -- the same mode of transport that Illinois' last favorite son, Abraham Lincoln, used a century and a half ago. Accompanying
the post is this wry illustration of a bearded Barack, replete with high collar and stovepipe hat.► Le poids de chaînes, captioning A photo taken at Guantánamo, of a sign stating the weight of the shackles with which detainees are bound.
► Tous au café, lamenting that news of mass bistro closings in France may mean the French affair with coffee is waning. Lesnes' post ends with this sigh of relief:
Thankfully, we still have berets, baguettes. And the Parti Socialiste.
Check it out.
