Au Revoir Triple A, But How Credible Is S&P?
Less than 100 days before France’s presidential election Standard & Poor’s has hit nine euro-zone countries with sovereign downgrades and trimmed a notch off the prized French Triple A, a blow to President Nicolas Sarkozy’s re-election chances. (Read more online here) Not unexpectedly this Friday 13th move was seized on by the opposition to score electioneering [...]
What the Greek Debt Crisis is Really About
What’s going on in Europe has nothing to do with solving the Greek debt crisis and everything to do with preserving a corrupt system based on limitless debt and growing government power writes Dan Denning on Australia’s Daily Reckoning site. By Dan Denning • February 21st, 2012 • (Reprinted with the author’s permission © 2005 – [...]
Polls – Something Fishy Going On?
Why are French opinion polls so different from one another are they being manipulated asks France24? Earlier France Radio’s chief political commentator Hubert Huertas noted that a poll today (February 28) compared against one of ten months ago offered static results. He said the latest Ipsos Radio France poll (measuring soundings today against May 2011) showed [...]
Voilà an Old Ruffian making a Renaissance
Common old Carignan is making a comeback from overlooked corners of rocky terroir where, unpressured, it is allowed the time to flaunt its flambouyant flavour. Making the Irish-Languedoc connection from cuisine to culture, Mar Hampla writes Evening Hérault from a ‘sunny little shack’ near the Canal du Midi, a blog liberally laced with Irish condiment and full [...]
Georges Dufayel – a Model Modern Retailer
Georges Dufayel popularised the practice of buying on tick long before bank cards came on the scene. Know anything else about his Grands Magasins Dufayel emporium in Paris? Toronto writer Philippa Campsie of the Parisian Fields blog is on a mission to research and record little known treasures of Paris and finds Wikipedia offers an ideal [...]
Mademoiselle – What Might Richelieu Say?
Might the Académie Française – high priests of all that is acceptable in the French language — be tempted to step in over a government ban on using the honorific“Mademoiselle” for official purposes? French Prime Minister François Fillon has directed Ministers of State and Prefectures to ensure that the word “mademoiselle” and other phraseology it [...]
Pininterest Lampoons Sarkozy’s Style
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s team recently got very touchy about some spoof Twitter accounts set up just as he launched his re-election campaign. There was an outcry when a number were subsequently taken down after complaints by campaign managers. Now an unidentified someone who describes himself as “Compte parodique à la durée de vie potentiellement (très) [...]
Long Before Bits and Bytes Hit
Ah yes things were simpler then and its not that long ago. The first mass market personal computer, the Commodore, was introduced in January 1977 followed in quick succession in the same year by Apple and then Radio Shack’s TRS-80. Memory was something you lost with age An application was for employment A program was [...]
Ritual Animal Slaughter a Health Hazard?
French TV has exposed official concerns about the state of the nation’s abattoirs and worries about the safety of the beef and mince consumed by a nation of dedicated meat eaters. According to a 30-minute reportage by a team from the national TV station France 2 screened in its magazine programme Envoyé spécial on [...]
Parisians Lineup for Portuguese Tarts
An unpretentious 11-letter word is set to be a hot topic on election bandwagons rolling across France as left and right contenders attempt to unseat the sitting head of state from his apparently highly precarious perch. Most polls and commentators suggest President Nicolas Sarkozy is fighting for his political life in the April 2012 ballot which [...]
Figaro and My Fer Lady
Le Figaro has this amusing headline over its recent report on the ‘inoxydable‘ lady in the Meryl Streep film now released Europe-wide and in cinemas near you. The conservative paper’s report on The Iron Lady is here: See our Oscars 2012 report here For a YouTube clip of the trailer, see here: and cinemas through [...]
French issues: En Route to the Presidency
President Nicolas Sarkozy announces he will stand for re-election as head of state — first round of voting is on April 22. Listen to Elena Casas Montanez of France 24 with some of the details. So they’re off. All main players — Nicolas Sarkozy, François Hollande, François Bayrou, Marine le Pen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon — are [...]
Democracy at a Dangerous Crossroad
What is driving the Eurozone crisis is contagion fear coupled with democratic deficit. If, following a Greek ‘credit event’ Italy and Spain defaulted, France would be forced to recapitalize its banks and government debt would soar turning France from creditor to debtor in one swift move. The connection between the 2007-8 financial crisis that was [...]
Breton Easter Island Rises on a Hilltop Valley
In a bid to rival Easter Island and its ‘moai’ perhaps, residents of Brittany are raising monumental statutes of their own, high on a sloping hillside at Carnoët, an area misleadingly named the Valley of the Saints. (Read more online) The Breton version is a vision of a local philosophy teacher and is backed by the [...]
Does Marine le Pen face the Guillotine?
Want to run for the French Presidency? No problem just lineup 500 mayors and/or local officials from at least 30 different départements willing to supply a reference or parrainage , and you’re on your way. Well that reportedly, is proving more difficult than it sounds for the far-right Front National candidate Marine le Pen. She [...]
A Ringtone to End all Ringtones
Do hapless or selfish mobile phone users drive you dotty in the concert hall or theatre? Well here’s one performer’s response to that rude ringtone… In the video clip below Lukáš Kmiť is shown playing a violin solo at the Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Presov, Slovakia, when that electronic tune intervenes. The photojournalist who posted [...]
Algeria: 50 Years on Still a Burning Issue
There is uproar in the neighbouring villages of Samatan and Lombez (Gers) in the Pyrénées foothills, over one man’s plans to ‘celebrate’ the 50th anniversary of the end of the Algerian conflict. (Read more online) For, half a century after a cease fire ended the Algerian War and brought down France’s Fourth Republic, feelings still run high [...]
Chocolate with a Saint Valentine’s Passion
Everyone knows the French sustain an ongoing and passionate love affair with chocolate especially, it would seem when it’s a little risqué. (Read more online) So it was perfectly natural to find an artisan chocolatier-pâtissier has taken the passion literally and as Saint Valentine’s Day fast approaches, is offering a somewhat special chocolate gourmandise to celebrate [...]
The Devastating Death of Canal du Midi
Man and machines are attacking hundreds of kilometers of 200-year-old plane trees whose twisted trunks now groan, crack and splinter as power saws fatalistically devastate one of France’s crown jewels (See film review below). . The terrible slaughter underway is dramatically captured here in a short film by Jacques AMAGAT showing brutal images against a [...]
Good Help is Hard to Find in Winter
Hints & Tips With Mike Alexander In this part of the French News Online “Lifeslyle” Section, professional gardener Michael Alexander, takes us, gently, through those tasks you should be tackling in the garden this month. Prune Wisteria now Good Help is Hard to Find in Winter I can tell it has been a harsh winter [...]
