The best Christmas gifts to support French startups
As Christmas approaches, the need to buy ever-more original presents for friends and family grows - and now, a list has been published of the best gifts made by French start-up companies.
The list, put together by French news source 20 Minutes, is aimed as a simple way to support French innovation, entrepreneurial spirit, and the local economy.
And while all the products available are made in France, many are still available on easy-to-use popular websites such as Amazon.fr, to make ordering them as simple as buying any other gift.
While some include novel alternatives to often-seen items - such as an iPhone music amplifier made of environmentally-friendly cardboard - others are a little more innovative, including a linen bag filled with charcoal, which is designed to purify the air of your home.
Other items include a keyring, named TiBe, that can be attached to your phone, and can be tracked to avoid loss. Its other ingenious feature? It can be programmed to make your phone ring at any time (which may come in useful next time you want to escape a particularly boring conversation or meeting, perhaps).
For friends and family who relish a good tech gift, other technologically-advanced presents on the list include a small cube - named Hector - that can communicate with your smartphone, and undertake a range of tasks, from playing radio in the garden to sitting inside your refrigerator or wine cellar, ready to alert you if the temperature or optimum conditions change.
Dodow is another one. This circular device promises to help you get to sleep twice as fast, as it projects a calming light in certain rhythms, inviting you to synchronise your breathing to it, thus enabling you to relax quicker and sleep better. It is also suitable for children aged six and over.
Speaking of kids - or big kids, even - more playful gift options include the “Bionic Bird”, a plastic drone in the shape of a bird, which has mechanised wings, and can be “flown” around by your smartphone.
Other kid-friendly options include an innovative electric toothbrush - branded with the popular computer game Rayman Raving Rabbids (LesLapins Crétins) - which joins up with a startup-created smartphone app, allowing kids to use their toothbrushing time to chase the critters, all the while improving their brushing skills.
Play aside, for those of us who do a little too much work hunched over a computer, another startup-created option is a range of underwear that promises to help. Lyne UP underwear company include “tension” areas hidden in the fabric of the clothes, which encourage you to improve your posture. The clothes - which include vests and short-style pants - can even be washed on a normal 30°C washing cycle, making them easy to use everyday.
And, when the working day is over, a glass of wine never hurt. Luckily, the D-Vine ‘Starter Pack’ product pours you glass after glass that is perfectly aerated, and held at the exact temperature needed for that particular vintage, in just 45 seconds.
Perfect for a happy Christmas...
