User's Guide: Reading List

Destination weddings rock. For the last week, Nick and I have been enjoying a ridiculous amount of fun in Canada, where we attended a beautiful wedding in Whistler, B.C. In addition to toasting and celebrating our friends’ marriage – and gettin’ down with our bad selves on the dance floor – we ate our way around town, did a little skiing on Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, and had a blast on a guided snowshoe hike where we tasted a few natural forest delights like tree sap and an edible moss called “grandfather’s beard” (as our guide promised, both tasted like tree), and learned about bear scratches…including tips on how to I.D. the scratches that mean you need to run. It was a great final taste of winter.

But this morning, as I rolled my jet-lagged self out of bed to the sound of birds outside our window (which had cruelly been chirping at me to wake up since just before 5am), I realized that I had a lot of Luxembourg news to catch up on. While away, I scanned a few headlines here and there, but being such a long distance and so many time zones behind definitely takes a toll on staying caught up on the goings-on around town.

So, as I’ve been flipping through my favorite English language local news sources, I thought it might be helpful to those of you who are new to town to take a look at my reading list. Then you, too, can stay caught up on all of Luxembourg’s news, from the crazy (e.g. the swan that was shot in Diekirch, or the recent would-be muggers in the Grund escaping to freedom via elevator); to the helpful (e.g. this weekend, there’s a job fair at Luxcongrès; also this weekend, museums around the country are offering free entry).

Of course, the best very thing you can do in order to keep up on Luxembourgish news is learn French, German or Luxembourgish and read the truly local news direct from the source. I am including that list at the end, in case you'd like to cheat practice like me and read them by using Google Translate.

I'm always on the lookout for more sources, so please contribute in the comments section below if you know of a great English language news source I'm not including.

Subscription News

City Magazine: A monthly publication from the Ville de Luxembourg, City Magazine is published in English and French and is full of information, from city history to upcoming events to profiles on people and neighborhoods. The best part? It's completely free if you live in Luxembourg. To subscribe, call (+352) 47 96 41 14 or send an e-mail to citymag@vdl.lu that includes your name and Luxembourg address. Subscriptions in Europe, outside of Luxembourg are also possible and the price is minimal, just e-mail citymag@vdl.lu. You can also find City Magazine on Facebook and on Twitter. It took me eight months after moving here to find City Magazine, and it's a gem.

352LuxMag: 352LuxMag is a weekly news magazine that you can have delivered to your home in Luxembourg for 100€ for 100 issues (2 years). Or, keep an eye out to find it for free all over town, from the tourist office to your local coffee shop. It's worth a read, containing highlights from the previous week's news involving Luxembourg and surrounding areas, feature articles on social challenges faced by people in Luxembourg, updates contributed by local clubs and organizations, current movie listings and a great upcoming events section. To subscribe, send your name, address, phone number and e-mail address to subscription@352luxmag.lu and they will respond with payment details. Or look for an issue on newsstands now and complete and mail the subscription form inside.

The publication also offers two daily e-newsletters (both are free). They typically contain more or less the same information, but in different formats. The first is focused more on the print version of 352LuxMag and you can subscribe here. The second is the more informative of the two and is more of a daily digest of what's new on the 352LuxMag.lu web site; to subscribe, follow this link and enter your e-mail address in the box at the top of the page that reads "subscribe to newsletter," then click "ok". Expect to see content from both e-newsletters in your weekly news magazine, but rest assured, the recycled content only makes up a piece of the publication.

Ville de Luxembourg on Facebook: This isn't a news site, but you can still find information here. Upcoming and current events in town are listed here, from lectures to festivals to exhibits to tours and other activities. Posts are done mostly in English, but also occasionally in French, German and Luxembourgish. You may need to look elsewhere for details like where, how to get there, cost, etc., but this is a great starting point.

While these are not news outlets either, I also recommend checking the online weekly circulars for Auchan and Cactus once a week for their in-store specials. These circulars are an unlikely source of information about upcoming festivals and holidays. I never would have had a heads up on Liichtmessdag and Chandeleur had I not seen them featured prominently on the Auchan online grocery circular! Plus, you'll see what grocery items are on sale for the week, to boot.

And last, you'll stay on top of things when you return often to web sites like AngloInfo (also on Twitter), Expatica and Just Landed - sites that offer great information on settling in to Luxembourg that you probably started checking long before you relocated here. These sites are frequently updated with helpful information, from weekly English language movie times to directories of gyms, hair salons (with stylists that speak English), ethnic stores and restaurants, and so much more. AngloInfo also features a guide to upcoming events in Luxembourg and its own sponsored blogs that post content about living in Lux, in addition to a great list of other blogs written by people living in Luxembourg.  

Online Outlets

If you follow the links, City Magazine and 352LuxMag both have an online presence, and I've noted how to follow them online above. You might also be familiar with Station.lu, and if you are, you'll know that it's joined forces with News352 to become 352LuxMag, so these days both station.lu and 352luxmag.lu take you to the same web site. Worth a visit for scanning the headlines in addition to perusing the user forums.

MyMosaik.lu is an online news aggregator; they print stories that appear in the French, German and Luxembourgish language media, and they run English language news from organizations in Luxembourg. I follow MyMosaik.lu on Facebook and on Twitter, and I frequently also check the web site for news. If I don't have time to fiddle around with Google Translate, this web site always gives me my local news fix.

Radio ARA is an English language radio station in Luxembourg (103.3 and 105.2 or listen online). Every morning, they publish a brief recap of the day's news in English on their web site. Great for reading on the go if you're looking for a quick serving of news on your way out the door in the morning. I'm following them on Twitter and love being able to click right to the news each morning when they post the link.

Luxemburger Wort is one of Luxembourg's most widely read daily newspapers. In May of 2011, the Wort became the very first daily newspaper in Luxembourg to publish an online version in English. Check it out online in English, German or French, or buy a subscription (in German) and have it delivered to your doorstep. The Wort also offers a free iPhone app, available in English, German and French.

News in French, German & Luxembourgish

If you're learning one of these languages, you can scan these publications as they are and then check your "work" by using Google Translate to make sure you understood everything correctly. (This is something that's helping me pick up a few new words in French each week, anyway...!)

L'Essentiel: This daily publication is offered for free at newsstands around town. You can pick up a print copy or head to the French or German version of their web site for all of the latest local news. If nothing else, there's a great weather map that you can understand in any language. If you have an iPhone, I also highly recommend their iPhone app. 

Point24: Another free daily publication up for grabs at newsstands around town. The print version contains content in German and in French. 

Luxemburger Wort: This is a daily newspaper that can be purchased for delivery to your home or from newsstands in town. It's written in German, but they've teamed up with Point24 to offer a French version of the news, so you can use Google Translate for either. (And as you just read above, as of mid May 2011, the Wort is published online in English!)

Link Roundup

• City Magazine
• 352LuxMag
• Ville de Luxembourg on Facebook
• MyMosaik.lu
• Radio ARA
• L'Essentiel (in French and German)
• Point24 (in French)
• Luxemburger Wort (in German and French and English)