Why such a fame

Advantages: its fame, some of its teacher, the monument is nice
Disadvantages: administrative part, some subjects have very low results

...I'm a french student, and I chose La Sorbonne because of its fame abroad. Everywhere in the world, La Sorbonne is known as a very good university, and in the US it is sometimes compared to Yales, or other colleges. Actually, it is quite different. First, let me precise how the levels go on. DEUG diplôme d'études universitaires général. It means that once you have chosen your subject, you have different courses about it, usually 5 or6. For instance, when you study a foreign language, you have : - phonetics - history - literature - translation - french or minor course - a second minor course La Sorbonne as each university is a kind of web. There is the central part downtown, and several "mini" universities all over Paris. When you are a DEUGard, you are considered as No one and thus you are sent to areas which are...

crapitoche 17.09.2001 · Read review
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Review of Université de Paris, Sorbonne

Hotel Sully St Germain

Advantages: Location, price, atmosphere
Disadvantages: None

...Very comfortable and tastefully decorated rooms with exposed stone walls and tapestries. Great price out of high season and a wonderful position. There is a cafe/bar just across the street for breakfast. (I would never take breakfast in a Paris hotel, they are often over-priced and questionable quality.) Easy walking distance to the bars and restaurants of the Left Bank, also Notre Dame, the Sorbonne, Jardin du Luxembourg and the Marais. Maubert Mutualité Metro station only 50 metres away for easy access to all other Paris attractions, although the road up to the hotel is quite steep if you are carrying heavy luggage. For local interest, there is a lively street market in Place Maubert and the local shops are a delight of colours and tastes. A super location for exploring the history of Paris as well as sipping...

tinabee 24.03.2008 · Read review
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Review of Sully Saint Germain, Paris

Naughty Marylou - Why Did You Buy This?

Advantages: Nicely worded and looks pretty on the bookshelf
Disadvantages: Doesn't really provide any groundbreaking information

...This is one book I?m embarrassed to admit that I bought from Amazon at 7.20 GBP. In my defence, I was bored and the allure of ordering books overcame me, the cover enticed me; a drawing of a svelte French woman with fancy writing depicting the title and the words ?The Secret of Eating for Pleasure?, didn?t Dr Atkin?s say the same? Either way the author vehemently states this is a book of choices not a diet book. The author, French born and bred Mireille Guiliano is the epitome of French chic; her picture graces the back jacket sleeve and would put many 25 year olds to shame. She was educated at the Sorbonne and is now President and CEO of Clicquot Champagne. She is now permanently based in America although she comes back to her homeland frequently. After spending a year in America as an exchange student in her younger days...

marylou2u 21.03.2005 · Read review
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Review of French Women Don't Get Fat - Mireille Guiliano

Postmodernism at the start

Advantages: A short but well-done survey of Lyotard's thought
Disadvantages: For a narrow audience

...that Lyotard should be included in this series, given that he is a key thinker in modern critical thought. Lyotard studied at the Sorbonne, and ended up early in his career at a university position in East Alergia. He became involved in their struggle for independence against the French, and had an enchantment with Marxist thought that dissipated by the late 1960s. It was during the 1970s that key books on Modernism and Postmodernism appeared from Lyotard, and continued into 1990s. Lyotard's influence, however, never became a system. According to Malpas, 'for Lyotard, criticism must remain responsive to what is unique in any work, and continually strive to reinvent itself in the light of new events.' This requires an openness that a systematic structure would prohibit. Key ideas that Malpas highlights starts with Postmodernity. This...

frkurt 20.09.2005 · Read review
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Review of Jean-Francois Lyotard (Routledge Critical Thinkers) - Simon Malpas

Spellbound

Advantages: Taut suspense never lets up; direct, simple, concentrated style; human dimension.
Disadvantages: Nil.

..., played by François Leterrier (who was studying philosophy at the Sorbonne University at the time). For his work in espionage and bombing for the Resistance, Fontaine is certain that death awaits him in Hotel Terminus, and resolves to make his escape early on. In telling Devigny's tale, Mr Bresson once more strips the film down to its essentials, following his unique, 'less-is-more' principle of cinematography [as he refers to filmmaking]. The stark, black-and-white photography, restored to a pristine state on the DVD, could symbolise Fontaine's situation, too, as the prisoner is reduced to the barest minimum of survival. Sound assumes primacy in Bresson's mise-en-scène, and it's used in ways deemed radical at the time. A scene might have a sound come on, say, a motor car's engine or footsteps in a hallway, but the car or the person...

zerbine28 28.03.2006 · Read review
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Review of A Man Escaped (DVD)

Feel The ImPact

Advantages: Raises important questions, excellent characters, original story
Disadvantages: I guessed the ending - including the twist

...The Perfect Teen: she's a talented artist who hoped to apply to the Sorbonne, she's a straight-A student, she has a sensible and trustworthy boyfriend and she's an all-round decent person. Trouble is how could she ever live up to that image? How could someone with that image be suicidal? I would've liked more information on Emily, but I don't think it would've been in the best interests of the reader (just my curiosity!) and certainly wouldn't have improved the novel (it would probably make it worse, actually). Picoult isn't afraid of complicated storylines and issues, which makes The Pact (and her other novels) such a pleasure to read and so different from most other modern literature. She doesn't shy away from a challenge and she explores the characters in her novels, creating something so thought-provoking that you're still affected by it...

DoubleFantasy11 17.10.2006 · Read review
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Review of The Pact - Jodi Picoult

Panning for gold in New Zealand

Advantages: Well-written, good plot
Disadvantages: Difficult to get into

...Introduction I borrowed this book from a friend a year ago after she and the book group she belongs to strongly recommended it. It didn't really seem like my sort of book, but started it, only to give up after a few chapters. I just couldn't seem to bring myself to care about what happened to the main characters. Last week, after my friend asked for the book back, I tried reading it again, and this time, once I had got through the first few chapters, there was no looking back and I really enjoyed reading it. The author Rose Tremain was born in London in 1943 and was educated at the Sorbonne and at the University of East Anglia. She has written a number of novels and short stories on a variety of subjects - for example, 'Sacred Country', for which she won literary prizes is about a girl's struggle with her gender and 'The Way We...

sunmeilan 09.11.2005 · Read review
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Review of The Colour - Rose Tremain

Let's Make Lots of Money

Advantages: An urgent, hungry album with razor-sharp lyrics and full-on hits
Disadvantages: Some tracks are masterpieces; others clearly of their synth-pop era

..."West End Girls", the bleak track already described, and the signature tune "Opportunities". The fact this ode to rapacious capitalism was taken at face value by many listeners says much about the prevailing mood of 1986 Britain. The music is melodic and beautifully haunting; the lyrics both vulgar and sharp. "You can tell I'm educated, studied at the Sorbonne, doctored in mathematics, could have been a don... I've got the brains, you've got the looks, let's make lots of money". In retrospect, the Boys almost seem prophets for the consumerist culture of the next twenty years. This is an outstanding track. "Love Comes Quickly" was the disappointing follow-up single to "West End Girls"; despite the best efforts of numerous Petheads (the term given to PSB fans) to claim it is a seminal and romantic work, this track has never appealed to me...

Westocean 21.12.2008 · Read review
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Review of Please - Pet Shop Boys

Small, But Perfectly Formed...

Advantages: Charming Hotel in an Unsurpassable Location
Disadvantages: Small Bathrooms...Otherwise Few & Far Between.

...thing I would mention, however, is that on one of my earlier visits a couple of them did not speak English, something that could pose problems for non-French speakers? There is generally a relaxed feel about the hotel, which I particularly appreciate. This extends to the reception staff, who are not heavily starched and formal, and may well be found slumped in their seat, reading a newspaper and enjoying a coffee as you enter the lobby. There isn't that depressing sense of having to be quiet and dignified and on your best behaviour that characterises a lot of smaller French hotels in this price bracket. The Hotel de Notre Dame is within a brief stroll of the Museum of Natural History, the Institut du Monde Arabe, the Cluny Museum, the Sorbonne and the Panthéon; and is set amidst an entrancing maze of narrow streets, with countless cafes...

snowbunni 11.01.2006 · Read review
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Review of Hotel de Notre Dame, Paris

Je t'adore Paris !!

Advantages: Classic French beauty, history and ambiance
Disadvantages: None

...Notre Dame is to take a look at French History. It was on the site that Romans built a temple to Jupiter and the Emperor Tiberius. In 1163 Pope Alexander III laid the cathedral's foundation stone but the final touches were not completed until 1345, more than two hundred years later. In the Middle Ages, the cathedral was a place where the homeless slept and were fed, passion plays were performed and merchants sold everything from ostrich eggs to elephant tusks. Beautifully restored and accessible to the public, the main sanctuary at Notre Dame is a chance to walk through the middle ages During the 12th century, the school adjoining the cathedral became the academic centre of Europe, eventually becoming the Sorbonne. During the revolution the cathedral was renamed the "Temple of Reason" and, shortly after, it was auctioned off to...

oldchem 28.08.2009 · Read review
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Review of Notre Dame, Paris