A bout de souffle: Marking a decade since their much-loved debut album, Air will release a deluxe edition of 'Moon Safari' on 31 March. It still sounds wonderful - take a trip to the moon (and 1998) with the video for 'Sexy Boy'.

It goes "WAAAAOOOOUUUW, WAH-WAOUW-WOW, WOW-WOW-WAOUH, WAH-WAOUH..." and you pull your best rock-god air-guitar poses. Watch Gary Moore and Phil Lynott, real-deal rock gods, perform their famous duet live in the 1980s.

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The best of times: A new series of concerts sees acts from the UK capital playing in the French capital, and vice versa. Could the same concept work for an Irish city?

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The French electro DJ/remixer is one of the first names revealed from the annual Trinners shindig. Watch the dog-heavy video for 'Poney Part 1'.

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...not seen at all in Paris by your blogger. We're sorry we missed his appearance in the French capital last weekend, especially since we hear the RSAG live show is very impressive. You can find out for yourself if you're heading to the Childline Rocks concert on 28 February.

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The award-winning French singer/strange-sound-maker is back! At last! Two new songs from her forthcoming 'Music Hole' album are now available on her website. To prepare you for an eventual Irish concert (you hope), watch her performing her biggest hit a capella. Shy and quiet she isn't.

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Le Irish Touch from a Dublin dancefloor duo. Watch the video by Kelly Goeller from NYU School Of Arts for 'We Don't Speak French', which features in the Hot Press series of collaborations.

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Charlie McCreevy, EU Commissioner, gave the European music industry the perfect Valentine's gift: the extension of performers' copyright from 50 to 95 years. French record companies are mightily relieved.

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Ballet-go-backwards: An erstwhile electro-lounge act find a new singer and start making lovely indie-folk-pop in the English style. We approve. Cocosuma's 'We'll Drive Home Backwards' features the single 'Cinders', with a video featuring two ballet legends hard at it.

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The day of love in the city of romance. Trust a rugby-following Irishman to be cynical about it; here's The Divine Comedy.

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Our rugby team was narrowly beaten by the French yesterday, but that was nothing to the thrashing their song gave ours. The world's most famous national anthem: what else should we have expected when it even beat down the Nazis in 'Casablanca'?

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A little green man of grass, carrying your drumkit home. On a strange subconscious level, what better soundtrack than a recently-dropped Irish band?

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The French cabaret-pop chanteuse's wonderful 2006 album 'A L'Autre Bout Du Monde' finally gets released in Ireland on 11 February.

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Wish you would hear: The first great French album of 2008 is 'Ghost Days' by a Floyd-referencing, Drake/Smith influenced singer-songer. Watch the bittersweet single 'Everything Else', with its cracking opening couplet and Wanderly Wagon video.

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From a hidden corner of the DC attic, here's the video for Neil Hannon's French version of one of his biggest hits, reworked as a duet with French actress Valérie Lemercier.

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Franco-Israeli folk-pop singer-songer Yael Naim is the star of the annual music industry conference in Cannes. She now seems certain for world domination - or at least lots of expensive promotion and some carefully-chosen jingle-work. Here's 'New Soul', soundtrack to Apple's new MacBook.

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Bon sang! Ireland's mysterious, cult, reformed, etc etc, live in Paris on 9 July!

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Kind of bleu: If you're going to feel down in Paris, do it like Jeanne Moreau and Miles Davis. Here's some classic jazz and French cinema.

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A new album from the celebrated French electro-soundscapist, who has previously recorded with a range of female Irish singers. Watch a sample of his work with Bjork from his most famous album.

Joie de vivre: Energetic teenage punk-pop from Toulouse by a band with their sights on the UK. They're certainly not extinct, but perhaps the male of the species may become endangered: watch them performing their brilliant 'Do You Like Boys?' - the first great French single of 2008.

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Marion Cotillard's prize-winning portrayal of Edith Piaf should ensure yet another (much-deserved) revival of interest in France's greatest female singer. Here's our choice as Piaf's greatest performance.

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The annual pan-European music showcase happens this weekend in the Lowlands. France will have a strong contingent of its electronica sector, but indie duo The Dø look most likely to be the biggest Gallic hit of the festival. Familiarise yourself with their hit-to-be, the whiny 'On My Shoulders'.

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Hardcore rap producer Mosey turns out to be none other than the son of the President of France, target of the rappers that he produces. In France there are laws against this sort of thing, you know...

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...in the Dublin meaning, that is. Topically-named if you're a Dutch-speaking French resident, terribly-named in every other sense, check out this Lille group's fine acoustic indie-pop (in English, not Dutch or French), starting with the video for 'Good Enough'.

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Gitane (moi non plus): Paris’s live music venues and Left Bank cafés become smoke-free zones from today, as France’s smoking ban takes effect in restaurants and bars.

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