H2g2 Coup de coeur du mois: Loup d'Argent's 'new' French Language Helpdesk has actually been open for business since April, but since it hadn't yet been mentioned on this page, it's plenty new enough to be the coup de coeur for September . All comers are invited to post queries about French problems, and may even get answers to some of them,

It was a long hot summer in France, known as 'la canicule' (heatwave), and sadly resulting in many deaths among the aged and handicapped. Reports of the actual number of deaths caused by the extraordinary heat have varied at different times, not least because it is not always a 'direct' cause, but a factor. None-the-less, current estimates place the toll at over 10,000. Even more sadly, quite a number of victims' corpses remained unclaimed, in spite of several official calls to check on elderly, handicapped or otherwise 'at risk' family members, friends and neighbours. One of the key factors in the tragedy is the traditional 3-4 week absence of whole families from their home region on summer holidays. Indeed, it has even been (controversially) suggested that too many GPs were absent for the same reason, and that due care was not available in many areas. In a bid to prevent the same thing happening in future, there have been proposals from the government to abolish a bank-holiday, with the resulting tax revenue going to finance a scheme to protect those at risk in the summer months.

There was also a whole series of forest fires that swept through various areas in the south throughout the summer (a problem not limited to France, of course). The destruction caused has added to the already beleaguered farming community's problems in a devastating year for them. It was not a good summer for the French.

So much for summer.


September is called 'La rentrée' in France, because of the tradition of the nation grinding to a standstill in August because everyone is on holiday. And 'la rentrée' is also very often the opening of the striking season (they don't strike while they're on holiday, usually, although this year the 'intermittents du spectacle' [er, 'entertainment workers???] *were* on strike, preventing many of the bigger theatre and music festivals from going ahead this summer). So September should see a return to the troubles we had in May this year! Ho-hum, such is life in France.

Frankie Roberto did finally arrange a small Paris meet-up at the start of August, and i'll find a link to that to replace this one, which is the original invitation thread: here. I'll also try to get a better update done of the page, even though i don't think many people ever come here (esp. since it hasn't changed at all in the past 9 months!

Below you will find some news from France, links to h2g2 entries, outside links and even the odd conversation thread. French language postings are acceptable but may be moderated if too involved. This depends on the French skills of individual moderators and thus varies from post to post. A good rule of thumb is that most simple phrases pass muster so it is best to avoid vocab much beyond intermediate level. If you want to chat with some other French speakers, there is an interesting thread called Let's Parlez Franglais! Venez nombreux!

The 'Paris - France' in the title is just so that the h2g2 search engine picks it up with all the usual search words. If anyone knows some clever way to do 'keywords' for entries, I'd love to hear about it. Alternatively, some clever, witty title that is not too long, gets all the words in and sounds good... Any offers?

Chirac shocked at Blair's rude reception!

Relations between France and the UK were soured recently when President Chirac left a meeting with Tony Blair declaring in disgust that 'no-one had aver been so rude to him in all his diplomatic career. The upcoming summit between the two states has been postponed indefinitely.

The French govt. lift the ban on Brit Beef!!

Well, there's not much left in the UK these days, with the state of farming post BSE and F'n'M, but for what it's worth, the French govt have finally agreed to lift their 'illegal' ban on British beef imports. They must figure it's not worth paying all those fines to the European commission considering the minimal amount of beef that is likely to imported under the circumstances!

Papon released

Controversial former Vichy high official and active nazi collaborator Maurice Papon has hit the front pages once again after a court ruled that he should be released from prison on health grounds. This is a very sensitive case that caused a furore at the time of his multiple trials and appeals. Papon is regarded by many to be responsible for many deportations of Jews and other 'undesirables' under Pétain's Vichy regime of 1941-44.

Well, that's the news...

Yes, they do exist in translation in French, and yes, i really have actually bought a copy, from a bookshop in deepest Alsace, which is pretty deeply French. I gave the first book to a friend whose sense of humour seemed to be receptive to DNA's style, and i was not mistaken. Not only did he lap up the first one, he promptly went out and bought the 'restaurant' of his own volition.

This is not all (you will have guessed that by now my friend has read the lot - not checked whether DG is easily available in Frog, but it undoubtedly will be in print). He also passed it on to his 16 year-old daughter who had over-heard him raving about it. Once again, the DNA magic did it's stuff (though from what they tell me the translator must have had to do some pretty spectacular verbal acrobatics to deal with some of the names and word-plays. Of course, Slartibartfast is funny in *any* language! . She too has read the lot and I am proud to say I've done my little bit in bringing a bit of classic British comic literature to our European neighbours.

France return from World Cup 2002 in Japan/South Korea early after failing to score a single goal!

Nobody in France really saw the victory coming in 1998, despite the tournament being on held on home soil. Then the French stars divided and conquered Europe's biggest clubs, only Dugarry staying in France (the French fiscal system leaves clubs unable to pay the huge salaries of modern football stars), coming back together to win the European Championship in 2000. This was the 'proof of the pudding', in many pundits views, because the '98 final had been such a shambles. In 2000, with Brazil in decline, the French football team really looked like the best in the world.

But they returned home from the 2002 World Cup without scoring a goal

²

- the first title-defender ever to do so badly! They were without their acclaimed playmaker and French superstar Zinedine Zidane for their first two matches, providing the first shock of the tournament by losing to Senegal in the opening match. Then the early sending off of Thierry Henry, arguably victim of some harsh refereeing, left them to fight off the Uruguayans for over an hour in what was a very physical game. Neither side managed to score and the French were left needing to beat Denmark 2-0 in order to qualify.

In spite of this I found many French fans optimistic that their side would pull the necessary result out of the hat with the return of their all-powerful magician, Zizou le magnifique. In the event Zidane seemed not to have fully recovered from the thigh injury that had kept him out of the first two encounters. Denmark were strong and France seemed unable to find their rhythme. 2-0 was indeed the restult, but it was the Danes who found the net. France never did in Japan and Korea in 2002, and their will be much said in the coming days about where it all went wrong. C'est la vie!

So in the end Jean-Marie Le Pen scored under 20% in the second 2nd round! Jospin has retired from political life and President Chirac has another five years at the helm. The new conservative government is headed by a relative unknown from the mid-west Poitou region named Jean-Pierre Raffarin. A disappointment for young hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy, one Chirac's leading supporter and spokesman. Their will be new elections to the National Assembly in June, though, and the new right-wing coalition between the Chiracist RPR and sections of the more liberal UDF may not be in government very long if the Socialist party have their way.

Legislative Election results - first round.


A new record low turnout, in spite of all that was said about abstentions letting in Le Pen in the presidentials!


A comfortable majority for Chirac's Union for a Majority for the President party (UMP) - cobbled together from the various right-wing groupings.

Second round - as expected, large majority of the UMP.
This gives Jacques Chirac almost total power in France. One current affairs magazine has a full frontal of Chirac 'enthroned' in a handsome antique 'fauteil' - looking very regal, quoi!. It is quite true that as long as he keeps all those deputies who fell into line with his new right-wing group he is holding all the strings. There is considerable pressure on the new president and his new government to *use* this power and have something to show for it, and not just in five years time, but in five *months*! They want results!

In keeping with tradition, Prime Minister Raffarin officially handed the President of the Republic his resignation, a purely symbolic act before being re-instated. Indeed, most of the interim government formed in May remain in their posts. The notable exception is a certain X who has resigned because of accusations of involvement in the illegal funding of his political party.

The Guignols is an excellent 5 minute puppet-based satire tv programme, broadcast every evening on Canal+ (de-crypted for non-subscribers) and satirising the main news programme on rival TF1. Those in the UK who remember Spitting Image would recognise the style. Chirac is currently being lampooned as 'Supermenteur' (Superliar'), when dodgy right-wing cronies get asked awkward questions Chirac disappears on some ridiculous pretext and in a flash - Supermenteur arrives on the scene and saves the day by coming up with some outrageous political lies (some of which are fearsomely close to his *actual* statements!). It's pretty harsh on old Jacquot, but great fun!

An interesting character on the show is Sly Stallone. The Stallone puppet is almost never used to portray the muscle-bound actor of Rocky and Rambo fame, but rather various aspects of the US generally. He appears in different costumes, each indicating in some way who he represents in a given sketch or slot. In a suit he is usually just the behind the scenes power-mongers of the US administration.

For instance, Bush is portrayed as sub-humanly stupid and never appears without his 'aide', Stallone. The President never speaks for himself but is usually seen 'playing' in the background. A typical example of his antics was a scene where he shoots himself in the head and Sly says, "It's ok, he didn't hit any vital organs!" Or there was the time when some specialist doctors were called in to try to locate the presidential grey matter but gave up, leaving a torch inside his empty skull and switching off the lights in the oval office to give a halloween lamp effect. You get the idea.

In another less obvious guise, Sly is dressed in black and purple church robes and represents the Catholic church. He has a 'dictionary of excuses' for all the various scandals (often rather sordid, in fact) that churchmen are involved in.

When wearing a suit and glasses, the same puppet embodies the forces of 'evil, uncaring, megalomaniac capitalist corporations' and laughs in the face of French social security policies. In this guise he usually refers to the French as the 'smelly cheeses'. This is quite a good indicator of the anti-globalisation/anti-americanism tendency present in parts of modern French culture.

The edited guide has a France section containing lots of articles relating to... well, i won't say it. There is also an edited guide entry on France. It's a bit hit and miss, if you ask me. If anyone's interested, perhaps it would be worth preparing an update.

There is a university project about Paris, France's capital city. It includes quite a good variety of articles about places of interest, driving tips, food and drink etc. Well worth a visit if you're planning a trip or just interested in finding out about this wonderful city.

The storming of the Bastille; Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette with her famous 'Let them eat cake!' (why did she say that?); Robespierre, StJust and the terror; or just good ol' 'A Tale of Two Cities'! What do you associate most immediately the French Revolution?

I would welcome anyone who is interested in French history at all to pop over to the universtity project about the French Revolution . It's a fasctinating period and there is no shortage of available subject material, so why not think about contributing something?

Anybody who follows French current affairs in France will be familiar with

José Bové



. For those who haven't heard of France's favourite anti-globalisation and anti-malbouffe³ campaigner, this piece from PurpleJenny will bring you up to date. A character in the world of French politics not to be missed.

There is an article on the wines of Bordeaux, though it has not been edited yet.

This could be handy if you're on a trip to Paree - Ex-pat bars in Paris, all shiny and edited and everything.

Recently on the front page, Whisky's excellent - Ex-pat bars in Lyons, France. Did you know that the French spell it without the S? Whereas Marseille is spelt with it! Or is it the other way round?

Another useful one from Whisky - French Public Holidays.

There is also an edited article on Toulouse.

Here's a single edited entry on Strasbourg and the neighbouring town of Kehl on the other side of the Rhine and thus in Germany.

And an introduction to the Cite des Sciences and de l'Industrie, Paris, France.

Well, this was kind of a spur of the moment page and I don't have anything much else to hand to put up here. I suspect that no links to French language sites will be approved, although perhaps if they have English versions... Any requests?