Good-bye Lawn – Drought Hits 32 Areas
Despite flash floods, a very wet late winter and early Spring, water is now officially in short supply across 32 French départements with restrictions in force from 22 July 2010… (Purchase access with TinyPass…)
Stay Fit, says Exoudun Mayor, Swat a Fly
Now here’s a Mayor who knows what he wants .. dead flies and fit citizens. Jean-Marie Auzanneau-Fouquet mayor of Exoudun, a tiny 620-strong community in Deux-Sèvres département (79800), Poitou-Charentes, says swatting flies keeps you fit and is eco-friendly.. after a fashion anyway. Confronted by villagers overwhelmed by the excessive fly population this year — weather [...]
Flu “pandemic”: Scam, Scandal or Waste?
Reports surfacing in France, the UK and Italy suggest the 2009 swine flu pandemic scare bore signs of a significant overreaction to reality. Oreste Rossi an MEP for Italy’s Northern League is seeking a European Parliament inquiry into the World Health Organisation’s handling of the swine flu affair. In France an official parliamentary report shows [...]
Contador Wins le Tour – Sheep Shake Pelaton
Spain’s Alberto Contador has claimed the Tour de France for a second time after winning a 52 km long individual time trial from Bordeaux to Pauillac. Contador extended his lead in the race, winning by 39 seconds after a tough push from his rival, Andy Schleck of Luxembourg. He finished off the 2010 Tour with [...]
Want a TGV train seat – one euro on Ebay
Calling all train buffs. For four weeks from end August the operators of the recently refurbished Thalys, the joint service offered by the Belgian, French, Dutch and German railways, is auctioning items from its old coaches on eBay . Anoraks can line up bids on eBay between August 25 and September 18 for 120 train [...]
Fired – the Whole “Les Bleus” Squad
Foul-mouthed on field, sex on sidelines, training strikes, ignominous play and now fired … the lot of them. France’s new coach Laurent Blanc has sacrificed the full 23-man World Cup squad and announced that fresh faces will play Norway in France’s friendly fixture scheduled for August 11. The decision to punish the disastrous World Cup [...]
Now Rent-a-Vine on the World Wine Web
Thought you knew all about wine, well until you’ve raised and bottled your own Château Bordeaux , from the comfort of your easychair, you don’t even rank. The ultimate for the wine snob in us all – must be owning one’s own personally-branded wine, grown under one’s own supervision on one’s own grapevine rented on [...]
Haiti Hoax, Fake Site and Fools Gold
The Quai d’Orsay says it is considering taking legal action against a group of activists responsible for a cloned French Foreign Ministry website proclaiming Paris is to repay the equivalent of 90 million gold francs to Haiti, its former Caribbean colony. The site’s creators, who identified themselves as the Committee for the Reimbursement of the [...]
France leads Europe with burqa ban
On an overwhelming majority vote the French National Assembly July 13 passed a law banning the use of face coverings in public — a bill designed to give a lead in a Europe increasingly angered by fundamentalists opposed to assimilating into host cultures. The bill was passed on the eve of Bastille Day– 221st celebration [...]
Digital Dragon set to slay Rural Cinema?
French arthouse screens, rural and mobile cinema along with intimate neighbourhood cultural facilities are under imminent digital threat of closure, a group of rural cinema afficionados warns. On 16 June 2010 deputies in the National Assembly voted in a new law regarding digital equipment facilities for film screenings and set out in this bill. Before [...]
A Strap-Hanging, Low-Cost TGV by 2012?
Taking a leaf out of Ryanair’s book, France’s prestigious luxury high-speed Train à Grande Vitesse (TGV) is planning a charge-for-the-loos, standing-room only, strap-hanging, low-cost service from 2012. Ouf, not what the Paris-Cannes travelling set expects! Describing “low cost” flights as a great success, the SNCF Board July 6 unveiled a plan to adopt a low-cost [...]
Seven Cannonballers in High Speed A6 Arrests
Seven UK performance car drivers returning to London at very high speeds in an unauthorised motorway rally, have been arrested by the French gendarmerie . Two have been detained in custody and their expensive luxury cars confiscated. The seven vehicles were taking part in the 2010 edition of “Cannonball Run Europe” between London, Calais, Belgium [...]
Les Bleus Could Lose Big Sponsors Cash
First the team were summoned for stiff words from the president about besmirching the name of France, and now big ticket sponsors are threatening a cash flow squeeze after Les bleus turned the air blue with their recent World Cup histrionics. France’s sporting daily L’Equipe, demanding the sacking of those responsible, called it “a monumental [...]
Bettencourt Feud Ends Up in Court
Here begins the tale of a billionaire, a sweet-talker, an estranged daughter, a butler with some tape transcripts, a minister’s wife and a possible whiff of political scandale. For the media anyway, L’affaire Liliane Bettencourt surfaced some 3 years ago as a family dispute, involving the cosmetics billionairess and a society photographer-confidante said to have [...]
On Its Way the 2010 Tour de France
The Tour is off and the fight is on in what sports blogger Jon Bois calls “the single most physically demanding event in sports.” The 97th edition of the world’s greatest cycling race, started in Rotterdam, and will hurtle through the Netherlands, Belgium, the Alps and the Pyreneés to its glorious end in Paris on [...]
Festivals 2010 – Cahors Blues meets Africajarc
Bands and performers of all stripes and flavours woo the crowds with Jazz and Les Blues, playing a prominent part. Apart from a full programme downloadable here Cahors Blues Festival (10-17 July 2010 in Cahors on the Lot river) offers a Springboard for new Blues talents with the finals this year on Tuesday, July 13 and [...]
