Repurposing the Paris 2024 Olympic Village
Dominique Perrault is the architect and urbanist who conceived of the Paris 2024 Olympic Village. On December 12 he gave the AAPA a fascinating presentation on the thinking behind the village,…
Jane Goodall has a double in Paris
Jane Goodall, world expert on chimpanzees and militant ecologist, answered questions from AAPA members on December 1 2023 just before her waxwork figure was unveiled at the Musée Grévin. Goodall realized early on in her long career as an ethologist—she will be 90 next April—that saving chimpanzees and other wildlife was not possible without protecting the environment in which they live.…
Visit to Villa Windsor, Historic Residence of Charles de Gaulle, British Royalty
Villa Windsor in the Bois de Boulogne
On November 14, about 20 AAPA members visited the Villa Windsor in the Bois de Boulogne. It's the former home of Charles De Gaulle (from the Liberation until 1947), of the Duke and Duchess of…
Thierry Marx and the free cooking schools
Thierry Marx, the chef étoilé with a rags-to-riches story who in 2012 founded a network of free cooking schools -- 10 so far -- to boost the disadvantaged into employment and a sense of purpose, met with AAPA…
Meeting with Le Monde
The AAPA met on October 20th with the CEO and Director of Le Monde newspaper, Louis Dreyfus and Jérôme Fenoglio, at their new headquarters building in Paris.
We had a lively discussion about the state of journalism in the…
AAPA breakfast meeting with Tony Estanguet, Paris Olympic Committee
The Paris Olympic Committee invited the AAPA to a breakfast meeting with Committee President Tony Estanguet at their headquarters on Thursday, October 12, for a briefing on the state of play less than a year before the 2024…
Lunch with Air France CEO
The AAPA was invited to lunch and a visit to the flight archives to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Air France at the company’s headquarters at Charles DeGaulle on Sept 29.
We were joined at lunch by Anne…
The War in Ukraine…18 Months On
The former Swiss Intelligence officer turned contrarian author spoke to the AAPA on the eve of the English language translation of his latest book, Ukraine Between War and Peace. "The West is a victim of its own narrative" Baud claims, concerning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. But he never answered our questions about what the West got wrong in that narrative concerning…
AAPA meeting with the Hungarian Ambassador in France, H. E. Georges de Habsburg-Lorraine
The ambassador commented off the record on a number of timely topics, including Hungary’s stance on the war in Ukraine; the Ukrainian refugees in Hungary; Hungary’s strong anti-immigration policies; energy issues; Sweden’s entry into NATO; and Hungary’s relationship to the European Union
Who will rebuild Ukraine?
In a two-hour, on-the-record meeting at Bloomberg on May 26, France's Odile Renaud-Basso, the first female head of the London-based Bank for Reconstruction and Development, provided a detailed inside view of plans for rebuilding war-torn Ukraine once the war ends. While current spending on rebuilding heavily-damaged infrastructure stands at some 3 billion dollars annually, she confirmed that some…