Local Economy Wrecked by Chirac?
Bill Clinton gift-wrapped a pair of cowboy boots, the Comoros islands framed a prize stuffed fish and various world leaders gave gold-plated camels, diamond encrusted swords and statues of sumo wrestlers.
When Jacques Chirac used vast state funds to build a lavish museum to house all the gifts given to him as French president, his political opponents feared a vanity project. Now the Museum of President Jacques Chirac, incongruously located in a secluded rural village in central France, has fallen so badly into debt that it has plunged the local economy into crisis.
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French Heritage Sites to become Hotels
The French president Nicolas Sarkozy. His government says it can no longer afford the upkeep of some of its listed landmarks.
Paris boasts so many historic monuments it has been called a living museum. But now Nicolas Sarkozy is under attack for seeking to sell the capital’s heritage to luxury hotel chains.
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50 years on and France still wrestles with legacy of writer Céline
“One can love Céline without being an anti-Semite as one can love Proust without being a homosexual!” French President Nicolas Sarkozy quipped during a visit to India in 2008. While Sarkozy’s reasoning was peculiar, it nonetheless reflected a dilemma that many lovers and caretakers of French literature wrestle with: how, and even whether, to honour the late author Louis-Ferdinand Céline.
The writer of Journey to the End of the Night may the president’s favourite, but Céline’s name will not be included in this year’s liste des célébrations nationales, an annual honour-role marking significant anniversaries linked to France’s cultural heritage.
The writer’s literary genius is not in question. But 50 years after Céline’s death, his brazen anti-Semitism and support for France’s pro-Nazi Vichy government continue to cast a shadow on his groundbreaking body of work.
After a reported two days of calculated consideration, French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand announced Friday that Céline would be barred from the list, which honours, among other people and events, the creation of France’s National Centre of Space Research, the first issue of the world-famous comic book series Asterix, and the birth of classical composer Franz Liszt.
“I welcome Frederic Mitterrand’s gesture,” Richard Prasquier, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF), told France24.com. “I find it unthinkable that Céline be evoked as an example to celebrate. When the pen is despicable, so is the writer.”
A running controversy
Louis-Ferdinand Céline, who died on July 1, 1961, is France’s most widely-read author after Marcel Proust. He rose to prominence in the 1930s, but wrote viciously anti-Semitic essays during the rise of Nazi Germany.
He collaborated with the Vichy regime and was exiled after France’s liberation, but returned home in 1951 after being granted amnesty.
In the days before the controversial writer was excluded from the culture tribute, Serge Klarsfeld, the president of the Association of Sons and Daughters of Jews Deported from France (FFDJF), wrote: “Céline’s talent as a writer should not let us to forget the man who appealed for the murder of Jews during the occupation.”
Like the CRIF, the FFDJF also hailed Mitterrand’s decision. Céline’s censure in 2011, however, did not win unanimous praise in France.
Following the statements made by Jewish groups, several academics and writers urged the culture minister not mix Céline “the literary genius” with Céline “the anti-Semitic bastard.”
Henri Godard, one of France’s leading specialists on Céline, told us that the decision, “Looks like censorship, even if Céline is an immensely difficult case.”
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Ivory Coast votes in historic Presidential election
AFP – Ivory Coast voted on Sunday in a decisive presidential election aiming to end a decade of instability after a build-up marred by deadly violence.
Polls opened at 7:00 am (GMT) and were to close at 5:00 pm across the west African country where some 5.7 million voters are eligible to vote, choosing between President Laurent Gbagbo and ex-prime minister Alassane Ouattara.
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Categories: News Tags: Abidjan, Africa, Alassane Ouattara, Bouaké, Côte d'Ivoire, Henri Konan Bédié, Ivorian Civil War, Laurent Gbagbo, Ouattara, Politics, president, War/Conflict
FRANCE: Sarkozy hails ‘unity’ of new government team
A crowd of journalists and photographers gathered on Wednesday morning in the gardens of the Elysee presidential palace. Indoors, the new government cabinet led by Francois Fillon, the third cabinet under the French prime minister, met for its first official meeting and later posed for the traditional family portrait.
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Categories: News Tags: Élysée Palace, Eric Besson, France, François Fillon, French presidential election, Government, Government of Andorra, Grand Croix of the Légion d'honneur, Hungarian nobility, Nicolas Sarkozy, Politics, Presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, president, Prime Minister, Prime Minister of France
English as a Second Language
The majority of English speakers coming to France are a little nervous about speaking French as a second language and one finds a similar reaction amongst French students who are learning to speak English. But some 18 to 25 years old French students are paying up to $6,000 annually to master a second language they all studied for six years in high school before earning their Baccalauréat degrees and entering the job market.
Categories: Education Tags: Baccalauréat, cultural products, Education, Education in France, English as a foreign or second language, English-language education, even advertising, Foreign language, France, French immersion, French language, Julien Petitpas, Language acquisition, Language education, Language schools, Languages of the United States, Modern language, Multilingualism, Nicolas Sarkozy, Paris, president, Sociolinguistics, USD, wider tool
High Speed Living in France
The very first TGV (Train à grande vitesse) departed on its journey between Paris and Lyon in 1981, since when, living in France has sped ahead of the rest of Europe in the race to build a fully functioning high speed rail network.
Currently having almost 1,250 miles of specially built lines linking many of its major cities in service, France is looking for new ways to extend its lead.
Categories: France Travel, News Tags: EUR, Europe, Eurostar, France, French government, French national rail authority, Gare de Champagne-Ardenne TGV, Guillaume Pepy, high speed rail network, High-speed rail, High-speed trains, Jean-Marie Guillemot, LGV Est, Loire Valley, London, Lyon, Montpellier, Nicolas Sarkozy, Nîmes, Paris, president, rail infrastructure, Railteam, short-haul air travel, SNCF, Strasbourg, TGV
Cash Cow Investment
Known for their mistrust of banks, the French are not just stuffing money into mattresses in these anxious days of recession and minuscule interest rates, they are also putting their hard cash into cows.
For Pierre Marguerit, cows make a safe, secure investment, allowing for long-term growth from a renewable resource. Cow contracts are hardly new, but go back to Richard Cœur de Lion (Richard I). The French word for livestock, “cheptel,” is the root for “capital.”
These are not literally cash cows. However, Mr. Marguerit says his investment in Holsteins will bring a 4 to 5 percent return a year after taxes, based on natural growth, i.e. the sale of their offspring. That compares to the present interest rate of 0.75% on the basic French bank account.
Mr. Marguerit says that last year his business went up by 40 percent, and so far this year, it has practically doubled. He is the managing director of Élevage et Patrimoine, a cattle investment firm in eastern France, and president of Gestel, which works with farmers and investors.
Categories: Financial Tags: bank account, Élevage, EnVoiture Simone, EUR, Europe, food, France, Franche Comte Elevage SCA, French Association for Investment, Gestel, head, Jérémie Romand, Lyon, managing director, Marguerite, massage, Patrimoine, Patrimoine Participations, Pierre Marguerit, president, Richard Cœur de Lion, Richard Durand, Richard Lowkes
Civil Partnerships
Foreign civil partners living in France will have their relationships officially recognised for the first time, thanks to a measure passed by the French National Assembly yesterday (29 April).
The move means that British ex-pats who have had civil partnerships in Britain will now have their union recognised in France as PACS, which is a form of civil union in France. While similar to a British civil partnership, PACS can be entered into by both same-sex and opposite-sex couples.
Photo: kimberlyfaye
French president Nicolas Sarkozy now has 15 days to “promulgate” the measure into law, after the National Assembly endorsed the Senate’s position, which passed it last month.
Currently, same-sex couples who live in France but have legal partnerships or marriages registered in other countries are not legally recognised as a couple.
This means that an ex-pat who has entered into a civil partnership in Britain is subject to a higher rate of inheritance tax if their partner died, than somebody with PACS – especially if property was owned.
The measure has been welcomed by both the European Union and the European Parliament, who had been putting pressure on the French Government to recognise the legal status of same-sex couples that had registered their partnerships in another country.
“We have been calling for this for some time,” said the president of the European Parliament’s all-party Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian Rights.
“I am looking forward to similar moves in other countries and eventually hope that same sex partnerships will be recognised throughout all 27 Member States of the EU.”
The non-recognition of foreign same-sex couples in France has been particularly frustrating, as PACS are recognised by EU countries that have same-sex partnerships laws.