Before the Massacre ~ Visiting Charlie Hebdo...

NYTimes visits Charlie Hebdo well before the massacre...

Je Suis Charlie ~ Keep Fighting Intolerant Evil...

Gunmen of unknown origin or affiliation shouting "Allāhu Akbar" -- meaning "God is great" in Arabic -- slaughtered a dozen people at and near offices of satire magazine publisher Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

This is absolutely unacceptable.

We must keep fighting for modern, civilized human rights -- freedoms such as life, liberty, and speech, including the right to mock and laugh at stupid religious ideas and spoof any so-called "prophet".  In solidarity, R.I.P. Charb, Cabu, and other victims... P.S. See fellow cartoonist's drawn tributes, eg David Pope...
P.P.S. Yes, it's now clear that our entire planet Earth is full of free-thinking and rational people who reject violent virulent swine... P.P.P.S. The perpetrators of this vicious and unforgivable crime are said to be: Said Kouachi, born in 1980, Cherif Kouachi, born in 1982. If you know or see them, beware of the allegations and report them to authorities. (Addendum: They're now dead.)
P.P.P.P.S. And all this I say knowing that Charlie Hebdo has represented uncompelling aspects of the political spectrum, from my point of view. But I absolutely respect their right to spew their spleen. As Evelyn Beatrice Hall wrote: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
P.P.P.P.P.S. This includes all of these "blasphemous" cartoons.

A Location to Remember ~ Villefranche-sur-Mer...

The most memorable part of An Affair to Remember -- i.e. the ultimate chick-flick as immortalized in Sleepless in Seattle -- was for me not the Empire State elements but rather the brief stopover in the French Riviera, Villefranche-sur-Mer to visit a lovely house atop the hill. Not clear how much of this is on-location versus in-studio, but in any case, I like the aesthetics...

Petite Ceinture ~ Wild Little Belt Rail in Paris!

Nice BBC Stop/Start story by Neil Meads with French photographer Thomas Jorion on The wild abandoned railway in the centre of Paris...

"For 32km (almost 20 miles) the tracks of Petite Ceinture snake through bustling Paris, isolated and largely unseen from street level in deep trenches, long tunnels, and bridges. Nature has reclaimed the space and it has become a haven for wild flowers and animals. The line is officially off-limits to the public, but this hasn't stopped many people attempting to explore it. There is now a fierce debate in the French capital about what to do with the tracks and stations of the Petite Ceinture that still remain."

Boiling (Mad) Frogs ~ French High-Tax Exodus...

The FT's Hugh Carnegy and Scheherazade Daneshkhu write that Entrepreneurs follow Depardieu out of France...

"Jean-Gil Boitouzet’s departure may not cause the same hullabaloo as the tax exile of Gérard Depardieu but, like the film star, the businessman is quitting France for Belgium. [The] founder of the online brokerage Bourse Direct [...] will move across the border before January 1, when President François Hollande’s new tax regime -- including a 75 per cent marginal rate of income tax -- takes effect. He says tax is not the main reason he is relocating to Belgium, but rather the anti-business culture in France. “It is like boiling the frog. But I am jumping out of the water before it boils.” A “morose” national mood and high taxes add up to a hostile “ambience”, he says. “This is a country where there is no growth, the cost of labour is very high, and when entrepreneurs succeed they are criticised for exploiting their workers.” Just how many people are treading a similar path to Mr Boitouzet and Mr Depardieu -- to less harsh tax regimes [...] -- is impossible to gauge: the two men are unusual in being open about their plans."