The French Journal

Mister France - 2008

Because I have neither time nor pride this morning, here's a video with excerpts of the finale of Mister France contest for 2008. BTW, it's thirteen minutes long.

If you want full-screen, click on the video screen itself, which will take you to SPlanet site. (Not required. It's a matter of how much detail you want.)

Blog life: Links, items of interest

Goings-on in the French blogosphere:

• Craig McGinty of This French Life has discovered Imagiers, a YouTube page with dozens of little videos to help you learn the language.
• Charles Bremner of The Times (London), one of the best of us, has a list of what France is talking about this month. Topics include high prices, Sarko swearing a farm show, mayoral elections, Ingrid Bettancourt, and Marion Cotillard. Charles got his info from Paris-Match, which got it from IFOP. Let's see how many degrees of separation we can manage.
• Looking for a gay bar in Paris? Hidden Zipper goes to Raidd. Intense eye candy. HT Marjorie @ My Inner French Girl.
• Added some new links to my sidebar, including Walt's Another American in France, which aligns nicely with Living the Life in Saint-Aignan.
• Thanks to the redesigned SuperFrenchie for adding me to his blog roll.

There will be nombrilisme*

Patching together a post out of odds and ends. Look for thematic connections only at your peril.

• Sarko's work ethic. After rallying the troops during his election campaign with declarations that France needs to devote itself to hard work, it does seem as if the omnipresident has lost his way, doesn't it? I suppose if you want to become a jet setter, the French presidency is as good a platform as any.
• French soap. So I said to myself this morning, what haven't you written about? And I responded, "Soap." Easier said than done. To be continued...
• Reading the dictionary. My favorite on-line French-English dictionary is WordReference.com. Beyond its functionality,the word forums are a fun spot to linger and get help if you need help with translating.
• Montpelier. A brief visitors' guide, courtesy of The Telegraph. I couldn't get too excited about the article, but someone out there may find it useful.
• Gay, American, living in Toulouse? That would be CyberFrance.
• By the way. Anyone know anything about French soap? Other than L'Occitane?
• "I got carried away." That's my favorite (alleged) quote (as reported by The Daily Record) from Jérôme Kerviel, the Soc Gen trader whose deals at one point may have exceeded the entire worth of the bank. You know how these things are.
• You can take the boy out of Utah. Mitt Romney couldn't leave the presidential race without one last swipe at the French. (HT Miquelon.)
• Well, Mitt Romney isn't doing anything these days. A British poet, a candidate for membership in the prestigious l'Académie française, failed to get the required number of votes. But so did everyone else who was up for election. (BBC & Le Figaro.)
• Ending on a positive note: 100,000. The French Journal had its 100,000th hit last night, probably around 8:00 PM. I had intended to celebrate but missed the event. Whoever you were, I love you.

* = Navel gazing.

Books: Old Gay Paris

People who know about the life of Colette will be familiar with "Willy," one of her husbands, who often took credit for her early work. The Third Sex, a book not by Colette but originally published under Willy's authorship, has been reissued, and The New York Times reports that it is a fascinating relic of a time in Paris when "the love that dared not speak its name...didn’t quite know what its name was yet and was trying on many different ones, all at the same time." The book, which first appeared in 1927, has never before been available in English. Publicity material calls it "a vivid description of the world of European homosexuals in France, Italy, and Germany during the late 1920s." Part cautionary tract, part guidebook, it's the kind of closety book with which which gay and lesbian people were once familiar, with warnings like "Don't dare go to this address where inverts congregate. The exact address is...." You can read the first chapter (actually the introduction).

Film: L'homme de sa vie/The Man of My Life

Opening this week in the U.S. is L'homme de sa vie/The Man of My Life, a movie starring Bernard Campan and Charles Berling about a relationship which develops between a married man and his gay neighbor. I saw the picture during a film festival last summer; despite a tendency to circle back on itself too much, stalling the action, I thought it was an intriguing movie with some delicate, interesting touches. Not to mention that I'd be a sucker for anything in which Charles Berling, a favorite, plays a gay man. I'm a little surprised by the negative tone of the stateside reviews that I've read (such as this one from the NY Times); acknowledging its imperfections, I'd still say it was more intelligent and grown-up than most films I've seen this year.

It was directed by Zabou Breitman. I couldn't get the subtitled trailer to fit properly, so the French one heads the post. The subtitled trailer is here.

Truc: Le Cabaret des hommes perdu

On Broadway this weekend, the Tony Awards will be given out. A fortnight ago, I wrote about Les Molières, which the French awards recognizing the tops in Paris theater, and named as "best musical" was Le Cabaret des hommes perdu (The Cabaret of Lost Men), a gay-themed show. I included a clip in the post, but since then I've come across a site that has everything you always wanted to know about the show, including more videos. So if theater is your interest, or gay French things are your interest, or gay French theater things are your interest, this one's for you.

France for the Gay Traveler

June is Gay Pride Month, so for the last item I'll crib from the French Guide site, here's material on France for the Gay Traveler. This 24-page brochure is largely a general introduction, and it's dated, but there are lists of gay-friendly accommodations and other resources across the country.

I've tested a bunch of suggested links with limited success; some were defunct, others I couldn't find. For what it's worth, many of them are aimed at gay men and not lesbian women. I've tried to avoid listing any here that have links to adult material.

• Paris-Gay.com. It bills itself as the ultimate gay Paris guide. It may not be that, but it has an English language version.
• Paris-Marais: Tips on Gay Life: Paris's gay neighborhood, the site has plenty of info on the local scene.
• Gay Provence: Good place to go if you're heading south.
• Gay Vox: A French language site about local activities.
• Tetu: France's most popular gay magazine (in French).

Of course, there's a gay section on France Guide itself. You can order the brochure; a .pdf version does not seem to be available.

Two last tidbits. In 2007, the Paris Gay Pride Parade is on June 30; and saying "I'm gay" in French is simply "Je suis gai" (m) or "Je suis gaie" (w).

Les Molières honor the best in French theater

Les Molières are the French equivalent to the Tony Awards in the U.S. or, I suppose, the Oliviers in the U.K. The big winners (Yahoo/AFP/fr) this year were announced yesterday; they included a production of Cyrano de Bergerac, which was put on by the famed troupe, la Comédie-Française, and which took home six awards. Le Cabaret des hommes perdus/The Cabaret of Lost Men, a gay-themed show with comic and melodramatic elements, was recognized as the best musical. Most of the awardees are unfamiliar to me, but you can view a full list of them (in French) after the jump.

Here is an advertisement for Les Cabaret des hommes perdus; it's in French, and there's brief nudity and mature material (if you understand the language).

News - April 26, 2007 - Royal/Bayrou debate?, Sarko ahead in polls, Gay-bashing past and present, Chirac's new home

• Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal has offered to debate François Bayrou (who's no longer in the running but who has a considerable base up for grabs). The details for staging the debate have been difficult to arrange. (Le Monde/fr)
• Three new polls still show conservative Nicolas Sarkozy in the lead, 53% to 47% for Royal. (Bloomberg)
• Gay-bashing is in the local news. Two youths are on trial for a 2003 incident in which a gay man in Nancy was thrown into a river, where he drowned. Another gay man was attacked Sunday in the village of Brive-la-Gaillard and is in a coma. Two 20-year-old men are suspected of the crime. (TF1/fr)
• On leaving the presidency, Jacques Chirac will move to a Quai Voltaire apartment on the Left Bank overlooking the Seine and the Louvre. (Expatica/AFP)

News - February 21, 2007 - Airbus cuts 10,000 jobs, No to gay adoption, Taillevent loses star

• Germany and France are in disagreement over which country should bear the brunt of 10,000 jobs to be cut by EADS/Airbus. (IHT)
• French courts have ruled that the partner of a lesbian mother cannot adopt the child they are raising together. (365Gay.com)
• The grand restaurant Taillevent lost its third Michelin star after 34 years in the top ranks. "Inconsistent quality" was the cited reason. (Bloomberg)