The French Journal

Sarko the Vulgarian

Let's start the day with a commentary from The New York Times entitled "A Lowbrow in High Office Ruffles France."  Its premise: culture-loving France, used to leaders who hobnob with poets and intellectuals, is somewhat aghast with the antics of its Celine Dion-loving, text-messaging, jeans-wearing president. The main hope for the future? The new Mrs. Sarkozy. One interviewee "speculated the other morning that Ms. Bruni and her sister, a filmmaker and actress, might make a kind of project of the president, culturally speaking: Pygmalions to his Galatea." Hilarious.

Analyzing Sarkozy and France on Charlie Rose

How are things going in France? Charlie Rose get the opinions of Roger Cohen of the International Herald Tribune, Jim Hoagland of The Washington Post, and Elaine Sciolino of The New York Times.

Trucs, Part I: Politics, food, culture, web stuff

Francophilia galore:

• Politique reborn. Boz, the blogger whose site Politique closed down earlier this year, is back with Sarkozy the American, a similar mix of observations on the French political scene. A welcome return!
• Meringues, as a matter of style. A writer from The New York Times remembers fondly a French friend who could throw together a dinner party menu in about six seconds. One secret: a dessert made with meringues. Here's the formula.
• Just when you thought the "Death of French Culture" was dead. The Cultural Services of the French Embassy has made available "A Letter to Our American Friends," a translation of the "official" French response to the much-discussed Time magazine article.
• Do you iGoogle? If so, Samantha of The French Corner has put together a theme/wallpaper that might add a little French flair to your homepage.
• Gay, Ex-pat, living in Toulouse, Part II: I erred last week in suggesting that CyberFrance: Lost in France had this territory all to himself. Here's another: France Tales, a melange of photos, videos, and observations. There may be more...
• What's new for the French traveler? The Independent (U.K.) offers a list of some of this year's new options for exploration: The Wellington Quarries in Arras, Lourdes's 150th, the Toulouse version of Vélib’, tours for the family, etc.

I know I'm forgetting something. Will add as the day passes.

I saw half of Ségolène Royal

Last year's Socialist Party candidate for the French presidency, Ségolène Royal, is in Boston this week, making a series of appearances at Harvard and MIT, who are jointly sponsoring her visit. Star gazer that I am, I endeavored to catch up with Royal at an afternoon session held in Cambridge yesterday, but due to a late departure from work, the creative route that I improvised to MIT, and an event announcement which led to a non-existent address, I arrived about fifty minutes into the session, after Royal had made her remarks, and well into the Q&A. I believe she spotted me as I entered the room and that she was disconcerted by my resemblance to François Hollande, at least when I'm viewed from 200 feet away. (In the future, I will think of that largely imaginary encounter as "our moment.")

At first I was disappointed by the substance of the questions posed by the MIT crowd, as they all related to the university system. Students are so insulated, I thought. Then I realized that the subject of the talk had been Reforming French Higher Education, so my disappointment changed into an admiration that the questioners could stay on topic. Obviously, it would be ridiculous for me to offer any summary of the event, but I came away with the impression that French higher education, while of excellent quality, is very rigid when compared to America's. If you decide to become a doctor in your mid-twenties, tant pis, you should have thought of that when you were eighteen and had entered business school. In a similar vein, foreign enrollment in French universities is not impossible but might as well be, and elitism is still a factor for those Français et Françaises attempting to matriculate in the country's best schools. In other words, the French bureaucracy that we all know and love doesn't stop at university gates, and it is counterproductive.

As for Royal herself, she was articulate, warm, and wry. Able to understand most questions asked in English, she chose to respond in French, her words translated by a MIT French professor. (Note to translators: Try to avoid your own commentary when doing your job. You're not why we're there.) It's sexist to comment on a politician's appearance, since that's usually done only when said politician is a woman. Having offered that concession, I note that fluorescent bulbs made the MIT auditorium look grubby, but Royal, in contrast, was far from being a victim of the bad quality of the light.

As always when it comes to these matters, the best reportage on Royal's visit is available on Art Goldhammer's French Politics blog.

Kouchner gets done by the NYT

The Sunday New York Times Magazine devotes thousands of words this week to a profile of French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. M. le Ministre comes across as forceful, stylish, egotistic, dedicated to the underdog and to the limelight. Did I mention egotistic? The article traces Kouchner's evolution from being a sixties radical, to founding Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders -- described in the article as “a sort of medical wing to the worldwide guerrilla movement.” Following a number of roles in government and work with the United Nations, his present position is a long-sought accomplishment. His chief skill would appear to be a great ability to get people who hate each other to sit down and talk, but the NYT is not convinced of his effectiveness.

There are odd allusions in the piece to Kouchner's fondness for women, but little detail; one can only presume that an American reporter may have been disconcerted by an occasional sexist remark, but the reader ends up wondering why they are there. And it ends this way: Having given the reporter a ride to his apartment after a long flight, "Then Kouchner dropped me off, and the car drove him to his splendid apartment overlooking the Luxembourg Gardens." A cheap shot.

Gopnik + Sarko & Bruni

In this week's New Yorker is a commentary by Adam Gopnik on the romance between the omnipresident and singer Carla Bruni. There are a number of ripe quotes, such as "...what is particularly pathetic is his delusion that Bruni is a notch on his belt, when he is so obviously a notch on hers."

I'm overbooked for the next day or two and in a rush, so forgive me if I simply give you one more block of text: "The tone in the upper reaches of the French press has been not “We have a right to know!” but “Do we really have to cover this crap?” The Olympian Le Monde omitted any reference to the President and his woman from at least one front page last week, while the rest of the press has struggled, with subtle semiotic hints, to place it linguistically in the right geography: L’Express, in its cover story on the pair, called Sarkozy “Le President ‘People’ ” (with the word “people” in English, so that nobody would miss the point), and a number of other journals have taken to calling him the Bling-Bling President, a name meant to take in his taste not only for former models but for yachts and showy restaurants as well."

NYT: Mayors, Bruni, Marienbad, & Afaria

France was all over the NY Times yesterday, and here's the line-up:

• French political double-dipping. A news piece examines the latest scheme by the Sakozy government, in which many of his ministers are running as mayoral candidates in various locales, including some arrondissements of Paris. They will serve in both offices, which is legal. The "theory" is that the elections will give the officials a closer tie to "the people," and election results will serve as a referendum of sorts. The "practice" will probably be something less than that.
• A portrait of Bruni. The NYT Style section provides a laundry list of reasons to hate Carla Bruni: she's rich, beautiful, intelligent, successful in careers as supermodel and chanteuse, and about to land a position as France's first lady. She's also apparently a nice person, if occasionally a home-wrecker. (I guess this means my chances of becoming Evita are rapidly decreasing.)
• This year at Marienbad.  A revival of Alain Resnais's 1962 intellectual puzzler, Last Year at Marienbad/L'Année dernière à Marienbad, leads Mark Harris to examine the movie and the controversy it caused, and to remember a time when there were tiny theaters that played foreign films for months. Mostly I remember Pauline Kael's review of the film (she hated, hated, hated it), which had lines like: "About the only question I came out asking was 'how many changes of costume did the girl actually have?'"
• Afaria way from the usual spots. We all want to know about the Paris restaurants where "the locals" go, and then we find out that locals usually like places in neighborhoods that require a bit of a trek to get to. For those who don't mind taking the Metro to the far-off 15th arrondissement, the NYT suggests Afaria: Basque-ish, unpretentious decor, cheap, and delicious.

Twice-told tales: Cassoulet, Armagnac, Tati, No smoking, the Sarko show

For the weekend, I have a bunch of articles which cover subjects of past posts. In other words, old topics, new articles:

• On the road in search of cassoulet. Time offers a story about the history of the hearty French dish, cassoulet, made of beans, pork, duck, and whatever local tradition holds. The prize quote: "When a cassoulet arrives at the table, bubbling with aromas, something magical happens — it's Communion around a dish." For the devoted, there's even a Route de Cassoulets.
• Armagnac, Part II. The NY Times visits a producer of Armagnac, the French brandy that lives in Cognac's shadow. The difference? "If Cognac is feminine...Armagnac is masculine, dense, powerful, individualistic, reeking of terroir." Connections: The Darroze family, the producers profiled in the piece, also claims famed Parisian chef Hélène as one of their own.
• Tati the dancer. Also from The NYT: A "Dance of Film" festival is the pretext for an examination from a different vantage of Jacques Tati, the French film comic whose acting was largely non-verbal. The reason to consider his work "choreographic"? He used movement expressively.
• Defense de fumer: As far as the world is concerned, the biggest news from France this week is that smoking in cafés is now verboten. Here's a sample story, this one from Business Week. There are hundreds of others.
• Nic + Carla, BFF. Second runner up: 'kozy's romance. Charles Bremner has the latest in his Times (London) blog, along with news of a recent book about last year's election, one which highlights how much Chirac and de Villepin loathed Sarkozy. There seems to be a new "sensational" book like this every month -- Reza, Royal, La femme fatale, Jospin, Eric Besson...who says the French don't like political gossip?

Blog robbing: "Culture" backlash, Royal excuses, Saint Nick's Day, and the 14th Arrondissement

For this post, I'm going to steal from other blogs, but it's morally okay because of attributions.

• The culture wars continue. Last week's Time article about the death of French culture has inspired lots of chatter, including a screed in The Guardian by Agnès Poirier who uses it a pretext to knock Americans. One of the many commenters responded cleverly. (The beginning, in italics, is a quote from Poirier, and the rest is the response.)

"Forget winning a ticket to the Superbowl, sleeping with Paris Hilton or getting an Oscar: for some Americans, there is nothing more titillating than the idea of the end of France. It pops up regularly on the cover of serious and prestigious publications."

"Yes. Wherever one goes in the Midi of the United States, one find Americans sitting in their ramasseurs and their intimate cafes earnestly discussing the decline of French civilization while sipping from mason jars of claire de lune. French culture and its decline is an obsession over here."

HT This French Life.

P.S. More on the French reaction from The Telegraph (U.K.), via Frogsmoke.

P.S. And mon amie Polly Vous Francais also defends the honor of France in her post of 7 decembre.

• A Royal martyr. Defeated French presidential candidate Ségolène Royal has published a new book, and Charles Bremner of The Times (London) has the skinny: "True to form, she writes as if she did not really lose, at least not morally...Her non-victory, as she depicts it, was the fault of everyone else, especially the party elders who she says set out to sabotage her...She was also dragged down by François Hollande, her party leader and life-long partner who was having an affair with a journalist." Royal also claims that Hollande asked recently for a reconciliation, which she refused.
• Christmas comes early to Alsace. Le 6 decembre, the feast of Saint Nicolas, is celebrated around Alsace, Lorraine, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, and Brittany with visits from Père Noël, and mon amie La Belette Rouge offers the deep background.
• Thievery galore in service of tears. Blue Vicar published text from the final scene of Paris, Je T'aime. Spoken by an American visitor to the city, the words apotheosize the feelings that new Francophiles feel when they go to France for the first time and are overcome. I'm going to scoop Blue V., for a video of the entire segment is on YouTube; enjoy it while you may; who knows when the copyright police will swoop down. You might need to turn up the sound. I cry every time I watch it.

Kouchner on Rose

From talk-meister Charlie Rose: a conversation with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. Topics include the recent conference at Annapolis and the Mid-East situation, France's stance on Iraq, his new boss, and a wide range of other matters. Kouchner has an impressive command of English. A little dry, perhaps, but a rare opportunity to hear from one of the most important men in France.