Sunday 14 March 2010

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France

Contributors of the day

Liberally Conservative

Liberally Conservative

Enigma4ever

openDemocracy

Staffjam

Jon Newton

James Joiner

Monroe Anderson

Monroe Anderson

Rob Port

Shaun Mullen

Wajid Ali Syed

Emma Naylor

Manzer Munir

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The new French revolution

The new French revolution

France, Canada and the UK are among countries united in their determination to ram home the Three Strikes element of ACTA, the entertainment industry’s last desperate attempt to gain exclusive control of how, and by whom, content is distributed (...)

12 Mar. 2010 | | Jon Newton

Yeboah the gorilla - a French "lover" in London

Yeboah the gorilla - a French "lover" in London

French men have something of a reputation - deserved or not - when it comes to "ardour and amour". Whether they actually live up to it is, of course, open to debate. But what of their male counterparts in the rest of the animal kingdom? (...)

3 Mar. 2010 | 1 comment | Johnny Summerton

A very discrete Turkey Season in France

A very discrete Turkey Season in France

Don’t know what I mean by Turkey season? Don’t you worry, surely you are not on your own, The ‘Year of Turkey’ – also commonly referred to as Turkey Season in France started in July 2009 and ends in a few weeks on the 31st of (...)

1 Mar. 2010 | 1 comment | Arzum Karasu

Ordeal over for three "troublemaking" French tourists in Brazil

Ordeal over for three "troublemaking" French tourists in Brazil

On Tuesday a Brazilian court handed down fines to two French citizens, and acquitted a third, accused of inciting a "passenger rebellion" aboard a Paris-bound flight from São Paulo on December 6. Unless there’s an appeal in the case, the (...)

25 Feb. 2010 | 1 comment | Johnny Summerton

Najlae Lhimer, a family violence victim, falls foul of French immigration laws

Najlae Lhimer, a family violence victim, falls foul of French immigration laws

Najlae Lhimer is back in Morocco. She has been there since last weekend after French authorities deported her because she was in this country illegally. But the story of the 19-year-old isn’t a just case of illegal immigration. Instead (...)

24 Feb. 2010 | 1 comment | Johnny Summerton

Arts & Entertainment

Jessy Matador is Eurovision-bound for France

Jessy Matador is Eurovision-bound for France

It’s official. This year’s French entry at the annual musical jamboree, the Eurovision Song Contest, will be sung by Jessy Matador. Who? You might well ask! Probably unknown to many in this country, the choice was immediately (...)

23 Feb. 2010 | 1 comment | Johnny Summerton

Strike at French oil refineries

Strike at French oil refineries

A strike at French oil refineries lifted prices to a five-week high Friday, with the benchmark West Texas Intermediate finishing the week at $79.81. The French strike threatened to limit U.S. imports of refined products from Europe. An easing of the (...)

22 Feb. 2010 | 2 comments | Staffjam

French justice system fails in the case of Tanja Pozgaj

Tanja Pozgaj should be alive today enjoying life with her 18-month-old son Ibrahima. Instead she’s dead, murdered by her former partner, Mahamadou Doucoure; a man she had reported to the police and local authorities on several occasions as being (...)

22 Feb. 2010 | 1 comment | Johnny Summerton

France - Shoplifting pétanque player becomes repeat offender

France - Shoplifting pétanque player becomes repeat offender

Even if you have only a passing interest in France and things French, the chances are you’ll have heard of pétanque. It’s a game played by thousands in this country and as with many a sport it can inflame the passions of both participants (...)

19 Feb. 2010 | | Johnny Summerton

Marseille’s overzealous radars leave drivers seeing red

Careful how you drive if you happen to be paying a visit to the southeastern French city of Marseille. Recently-installed radars are doing their work - and then some - and not always to the benefit of the law-abiding motorist it would appear. In a (...)

18 Feb. 2010 | 1 comment | Johnny Summerton

French baker fined for sounding his horn gets his day in court

French baker fined for sounding his horn gets his day in court

Paulo Païs appeared in a French court on Monday to appeal a 1,000 euros fine imposed on him for breaking the highway code and "misusing his van horn" while making his early morning rounds. Païs runs a bakery in Nesles-la-Vallée, a village 40 (...)

17 Feb. 2010 | 2 comments | Johnny Summerton

French scientist turns down 15,000 euros award

French scientist turns down 15,000 euros award

François Bonhomme doesn’t agree with the French government’s policy of honouring scientific excellence with financial rewards and has taken a stand by turning down a payment of €15,000 made to him last December. The 55-year-old is a (...)

16 Feb. 2010 | 4 comments | Johnny Summerton

A homeless Frenchman’s residence tax riddle

A homeless Frenchman's residence tax riddle

The case of a homeless Frenchman sent a demand for local residence tax. Spare a thought for Emile Busson, a Frenchman who has had problems with the tax authorities here. He recently received a demand for taxe d’habitation, or local residence tax, (...)

15 Feb. 2010 | 3 comments | Johnny Summerton

Arts & Entertainment

French entry for Eurovision Song Contest - Christophe Willem?

It’s one of those rumours that has been doing the rounds on the Net over the past week, and just like any speculation, once it’s out there it seems that it won’t go away - even though it has been denied. Christophe Willem, the winner (...)

10 Feb. 2010 | 3 comments | Johnny Summerton

A French Valentine’s Day Kiss-in against homophobia

A French Valentine's Day Kiss-in against homophobia

The title pretty much says it all as once again the group Kiss-in contre l’homophobie readies itself for action - this time on Valentine’s Day. February 14 is the date set for the next Kiss-in, an event which since it was first held in (...)

9 Feb. 2010 | 3 comments | Johnny Summerton

A Disney disappointment for Parisian family

A Disney disappointment for Parisian family

It was supposed to have been a family treat as a group that included six adults and nine children made their way to a cinema in Paris to see a matinée performance of the latest Disney film "The Princess and the Frog". But it ended up with the (...)

8 Feb. 2010 | 3 comments | Johnny Summerton

DSK for French president 2012 - part...are you still counting?

DSK for French president 2012 - part...are you still counting?

An update on the French media’s fascination with a potential presidential bid by Dominique Strauss-Kahn in 2012. The next presidential election here in France might be a little more than over two years away, but that doesn’t stop pollsters (...)

5 Feb. 2010 | 3 comments | Johnny Summerton

Ridding French of its Anglicisms

Ridding French of its Anglicisms

The French are at it again - or so it would seem. Someone appears to "have the hump" with the number of English words creeping into everyday use in France and wants to try to put a stop to it. This time around it’s the junior (...)

4 Feb. 2010 | | Johnny Summerton

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy pulls out of San Remo festival

San Remo "sans" Carla. It’s the news that’s rocking (forgive the weak musical pun) Italy at the moment. France’s first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has pulled out of the country’s San Remo music festival due to take place in a (...)

4 Feb. 2010 | | Johnny Summerton

France - bride requests annulment minutes after marriage

France - bride requests annulment minutes after marriage

"I do" and then "I don’t" barely 10 minutes later was very much the pattern of events for a newly-wed bride in France last weekend. The wedding and almost immediate request for an annulment happened in the city of Tours in (...)

29 Jan. 2010 | 2 comments | Johnny Summerton

Modane - a French town that shares its name with a laxative

Modane - a French town that shares its name with a laxative

It’s winter here in Europe, just to state the obvious. And of course that means snow and enough of it hopefully for French ski resorts and surrounding towns to do a booming business in tourism. But one small town in the département of Savoie (...)

28 Jan. 2010 | 2 comments | Johnny Summerton

French national identity: the debate and the case of Anne Sinclair

The difficulties of "proving your Frenchness" even for the famous French. France is in the throes of a debate on national identity. At least some sectors of society and in particular politicians from the right are, with the agenda being led by the (...)

28 Jan. 2010 | 2 comments | Johnny Summerton

EDF boss Henri Proglio makes a two-salary U turn

EDF boss Henri Proglio makes a two-salary U turn

The recently-confirmed new boss of the French utility giant, Electricité de France (EDF), has agreed to relinquish his rights to claim a second salary with his old company, the multinational Veolia, where he remains chairman of the board. While his (...)

25 Jan. 2010 | 2 comments | Johnny Summerton

Panicking ponies in busy Paris traffic

Panicking ponies in busy Paris traffic

Now here’s a sight you don’t see every day in Paris - thank goodness. And one motorists on the boulevard périphérique, the busy ring road around the French capital, probably had a hard time believing: riderless ponies galloping through the (...)

25 Jan. 2010 | 2 comments | Johnny Summerton

Madness on a French motorway - changing drivers at 130km/h

Madness on a French motorway - changing drivers at 130km/h

While most motorists might get from A to B with only the slightest of hitches and the minimum of mistakes there are also of course plenty of daft driving stories, plain stupid ones, those involving reckless fools and others simply defying belief. What (...)

22 Jan. 2010 | 2 comments | Johnny Summerton

The death of the France’s Super Nanny - Cathy Sarraï

The death of the France's Super Nanny - Cathy Sarraï

Tributes have been rolling in thick and fast after the death was announced on Wednesday of Cathy Sarraï. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of her. The name - until this week - probably wasn’t familiar to most French. But her face (...)

21 Jan. 2010 | | Johnny Summerton

EDF’s Henri Proglio - the man with a Fat Cat salary

It might only have been worth a one-liner in the middle of the broadcast on TF1’s prime time news on Tuesday, but confirmation that Henri Proglio, the recently-appointed big cheese at the French utility giant, Electricité de France (EDF) would in (...)

21 Jan. 2010 | 1 comment | Johnny Summerton

Dominique Strauss-Kahn has the "wind in his sails"

This Thursday’s issue of the weekly French news magazine, Le Point, should make interesting reading for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, or DSK as he’s most commonly known here, the head of the International Monetary Fund. Because even though his (...)

21 Jan. 2010 | 2 comments | Johnny Summerton

Frenchman held in UAE for bomb pleasantry

Frenchman held in UAE for bomb pleasantry

Yet another story of a French citizen falling foul of local authorities while abroad. After the case of those detained in Brazil in December for causing a disturbance on a ’plane, comes the story of Jean-Louis Lioret, who finds himself behind (...)

19 Jan. 2010 | 2 comments | Johnny Summerton

The next generation of Sarkozys

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy has become a grand-father for the first time. In the early hours of Wednesday morning Jessica Sebaoun-Darty, the wife of Sarkozy’s second son, Jean, gave birth to a baby boy, according to the Internet site, (...)

14 Jan. 2010 | | Johnny Summerton

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