My week since my return from North Carolina has been so crazy that this week’s French Friday is going to a mélange (mixture) of bullets, because that is all I have time for, désolée (sorry).
- First, as a foodie, I cannot not say often enough how wonderful it is to be married to a man who is not only French, but a damn good cook. Even on nights when we are too tired to cook there are no bologna sandwiches, mais non! Last night my husband threw together duck confit, fresh tomato salad and champagne. So okay the duck confit was from a freezer pack, but how’s that for a thrown together meal? Vive la France!
But mon dieu…I turn my attention away for two weeks and France starts falling apart!
- Don’t even get me started on the whole Roman Polanski thing! It is a shame that this is taking place 30 years later, because by all rights he should have been extradited long ago, and you can’t tell me he has never filmed in another country or visited another country which had extradition agreements with the U.S. – it’s only Switzerland who had the balls to do it? And the two Ministers, Bernard Kouchner (Minister of Foreign and European Affairs) and Frédéric Mitterrand (French Minister of Culture and Communication) did a tremendous faux pas by proclaiming their public support for him because he is a great director – support which has waned away in the past couple of days, along with that of many of Hollywood who originally protested his arrest. Because when it comes down to it, great director or not, he drugged and raped a 13-year old child. Period. End of story. France needs to just back away slowly and let the U.S. have him.
- 24 France Telecom (a company partially owned by the French government) employees have committed suicide in the last 19 months. All due to the stress of the brutal management culture of a company. Nearly all of the victims were in their 40 and 50’s which is an age that is often discriminated against in the French workforce, and nearly all had been transferred from managerial roles to an Orange (like Verizon) Call Center. For the time being the government has assigned someone to manage the process of work transfers and there is a freeze until the end of October, so it will be interesting to see what comes of this. To be fair, France has one of the highest suicide rates in all developed countries and there was also a period of time when there were even more suicides at France Telecom (29 suicides in 2002, 22 in 2003, 12 in 2008 and 12 so far this year), so this has been a problem that is now very much in the open and very much needs to be addressed.
- Clearstream. There is an EXCELLENT write up in English regarding this political trial of the century going on in France. The truth is the truth will probably never be known, but damn it would make an excellent movie! I don’t who would play the characters in the Hollywood version, but I keep picturing Jack Nicholson as Nicholas Sarkozy. Think “A Few Good Men,” I keep imagining: “You want zee truth…(shaking of his fist)…you can’t handle zee truth!”
- And speaking of Nicholas, one of the most adored children’s book series in France, Le Petit Nicholas, has been made into a movie and opened in theaters this week. I love the books and the movie trailer made me laugh out loud. I am not sure if they would bring that to the U.S. because it would have to be sub-titled, but you can get an idea from the trailer.
That’s all I have time for this week!
A bientôt !
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I am just curious. How did you get your blog on Amazon? I have been trying to figure out how to do it. Is it successful?
Now, all those negative undertones about Polanski make sense – and the fact my father thought he was a creep deluxe. I had no knowledge of the story prior to recent events. What a sorry, creep sack of doo!
Don’t get me started on the Polanski thing either….! However, the Le Petit Nicolas sounds wonderful!
I’m a little naughty because I’d rather have bologna than duck! I’m with you on Roman—lock the guy up. Cute idea for a blog! I’m visiting from SITS roll call and want to win a t-shirt—love it love it love it. xo