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While we were out shopping and looking for our scary movies (which we couldn’t find), we missed the trick or treaters!!!!! I wanted to see French kids going door-to-door because everyone around here said they do – and I only halfway believed them. I wondered what they’d say at the door. According to my mummy-dearest-in-law, they say this…. drum roll…..
On veut des bonbons! / We want candy!
That’s so pushy.
Me: Sweetie, let’s get some French Horror films for Halloween tonight!
Him: Which? I don’t think there ARE any.
Me: What??! We need to watch horror movies on Halloween in between passing out candy.
Him: There’s only going to be a few kids that will come, though.
(Note: We’re in the north of France near Boulogne-sur-mer, where the American “trick or treat” tradition of Halloween is beginning to catch on slightly.)
Me: I can’t believe there aren’t any French horror movies. That’s lame.
Him: Let’s ask Yann; he’ll know.
Yann (on IM): Go online here. (Thanks, Yann!!)
Me: There’s one called, Baby Blood! another’s called, Promenons-nous dans les bois (Let’s Take a Walk in the Forest…) or Maléfique (Evil)! This one’s about some prisoners who find the diary of a prisoner in the beginning of the century. The diary has magic spells to help escape from the prison… Yeah…
Him: They’re going to suck, you know.
Me: I know! It’s going to be so much fun!
In between stuffing yourself on candy corn today, play this time waster game called Bashing Pumpkins!
Play now
A quick reminder that tomorrow is La Toussaint, in France, a national holiday, and EVERYTHING is closed – well, everything except cemeteries and flower shops. What to do? Go to the flower shop, gets some flowers (typically carnations) and then go to the cemetery and pay your respects to the dead.
Related: Toussaint / All Saints Day
From Adrants:
If you live in France and happen to have found a baby in the frozen food section of your local grocer, fear not. This isn’t the latest baby dumping stunt by a distraught teenager; it’s just a home-grown campaign to promote France’s national child abuse phone number, 119. Another clue this isn’t one of those baby-in-a-trash-barrel things: the babies here are tiny, plastic and wrapped in bags like toys.
It’s not a sanctioned campaign but a one-off from a group of people who think the cause needs greater promotion. We’re not sure what we’d do if we found a frozen baby while reaching for a bag of frozen peas but we sure like the approach these guys took to call attention to the issue. Watch the video.
From World News Yesterday:
Former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld fled France today fearing arrest over charges of “ordering and authorizing” torture of detainees at both the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the US military’s detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, unconfirmed reports coming from Paris suggest.
US embassy officials whisked Rumsfeld away yesterday from a breakfast meeting in Paris organized by the Foreign Policy magazine after human rights groups filed a criminal complaint against the man who spearheaded President George W. Bush’s “war on terror” for six years.
Under international law, authorities in France are obliged to open an investigation when a complaint is made while the alleged torturer is on French soil.
According to activists in France, who greeted Rumsfeld shouting “murderer” and “war criminal” at the breakfast meeting venue, US embassy officials remained tight-lipped about the former defense secretary’s whereabouts citing “security reasons”.
Anti-torture protesters in France believe that the defense secretary fled over the open border to Germany, where a war crimes case against Rumsfeld was dismissed by a federal court. But activist point out that under the Schengen agreement that ended border checkpoints across a large part of the European Union, French law enforcement agents are allowed to cross the border into Germany in pursuit of a fleeing fugitive.
“Rumsfeld must be feeling how Saddam Hussein felt when US forces were hunting him down,” activist Tanguy Richard said. “He may never end up being hanged like his old friend, but he must learn that in the civilized world, war crime doesn’t pay.”
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) along with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), and the French League for Human Rights (LDH) filed the complaint on Thursday after learning that Rumsfeld was scheduled to visit Paris.
UPDATE: Please contact French Consulates in the US to urge prosecution of Donald Rumsfeld. A full list of consulates can be found here.
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Not as if you haven’t seen, like, 72 million men peeing on stairs in France but thought I’d post yet another to add to your collection. That other guy below better watch out.
EquitExpo, the international Fair Trade Expo starts today and continues through the 29th.
The expo serves to promote fair trade (fair price), as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of a wide variety of goods – and focusing in particular on exports from developing countries to developed countries.
Expect conferences, round tables, merchants and exhibitors from 30 different countries. Also featured are: concerts, theater plays and a cyber café.
French farmers, fishermen, and craftmen will be present at the farmer market of EquitExpo, next to the organic restaurant.
EquitExpo 2007
Sport Center of l’Île de Vannes
15 bd Marcel Paul
93450 L’Île Saint-Denis – France
Entrance: free
Sorry for the late notice but I just read about this in Bike The Big Apple via Treehugger:
This unique tour is being offered to highlight French influence in the city! Unlike the real Tour de France race which covers over 2,100 miles in 22 days our is a leisurely paced course that allows participants to take a gastronomic tour de cuisine of France as well as to experience the historic and contemporary ties between France and the United States.
The tour begins on the upper East Side of Manhattan, where we will see the influence of the Ecole de Beaux Arts. In the late nineteenth century Paris was the place to study architecture, and Americans adopted it in some luxuriant mansions that we will pass. As we enter Central Park, the priceless urban escape from the city itself, we will stop for an insight look into the apartment of Pierre Berge, the partner of Ives St. Laurent, as well as his magnificent view of Central Park.
Leaving Central Park, which is free of motorized vehicles on weekends, we will stop at Lafayette Square. Here is the forgotten but impressive sculpture to George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette, whom Washington view as his “adopted” son. Here is surely the perfect place to recall the critical role of the French in helping us win the Revolution against the British. In Morningside Heights, our first French culinary stop before passing by a church modeled after the Cathedral at Chartres!
As we head downtown through the upper West Side, we will pass by the statute to Joan of Arc…
Sometimes I really love my host country. Will George Bush come to France? What will happen to him upon arrival? Inquiring minds want to know.
From World News:
Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld got an unpleasant surprise during his visit to France today when human rights groups filed a complaint with the Paris Prosecutor before the “Court of First Instance” (Tribunal de Grande Instance) charging the chief architect of President George W. Bush’s “war on terror” with ordering and authorizing torture.
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) along with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), and the French League for Human Rights (LDH) filed the complaint while Rumsfeld was in Paris for a talk sponsored by Foreign Policy magazine, and under French law, an investigation must be opened if an alleged torturer is inside France.
“France is under the obligation to investigate and prosecute Rumsfeld’s accountability for crimes of torture in Guantanamo and Iraq,” said FIDH President Souhayr Belhassen. “France has no choice but to open an investigation if an alleged torturer is on its territory. I hope that the fight against impunity will not be sacrificed in the name of politics. We call on France to refuse to be a safe haven for criminals.”
“The filing of this French case against Rumsfeld demonstrates that we will not rest until those U.S. officials involved in the torture program are brought to justice,” said CCR President Michael Ratner. “Rumsfeld must understand that he has no place to hide. A torturer is an enemy of all humankind.”
The criminal complaint states that because of the failure of authorities in the United States and Iraq to launch any independent investigation into the responsibility of Rumsfeld and other high-level U.S. officials for torture despite a documented paper trail and government memos implicating them in direct as well as command responsibility for torture – and because the U.S. has refused to join the International Criminal Court – it is the legal obligation of states such as France to take up the case…
It’s been TOO LONG since the last time I posted a game, soooooo here’s Chat Noir (Black Cat), a puzzler where you have to confine the cat by clicking on dots (they turn dark when they become barriers). Ok, it’s from Japan but the TITLE is French…
Related: More games by French developers:
Ouverture Facile
Jeu chiant
L’expresso empoisonné
Run n Roll
Recyle
The Museum
Parallel Parking Game
Ladybugs
Boulangerie the Game
Solitaire
Exploring off the beaten path in France oftentimes can and will lead one to real gems in unexpected places. The restaurant at the Hotel Les Ursulines in Autun, a small town in the very heart of Burgundy, is one of them.
We’ve been to the Les Ursulines restaurant for dinner and everything is always excellent. Here is a sample of a few dishes they offer.
Vegetable Tart with Roasted Langoustine in a Milky Parmesan Foam Sauce
Saffron Mussel Soup (disguised as a cup of coffee), a surprise dish from Chef Jerôme Bru
Seared Foie Gras with a fig tatin in a Burgundy cassis sauce
Filet of Charolais beef with cured Morvan ham in a Bordelaise sauce (Cooked “a point” it melts in the mouth) served with a potato tart
Warm Peach Souffle with Sicilian Pistachio Ice Cream
Cassis Poached Pear with Mango Sauce
Mousse au chocolat
That said, the dinner does not cost 20 euros hee! but the week day Menu Affaires “Business Menu” at Noon does! For that you get an appetizer, main dish, dessert, glass of wine and coffee. A steal!
Restaurant Les Ursulines
4, rue Rivault
71400 Autun
Burgundy France
Email: welcome@hotelursulines.fr
Website: Hotel Ursulines
Although I didn’t see it in the news, apparently Paris-based AOL France just laid off more than half of their employees. That obviously made these newly unemployed people very, very, VERY happy – so much so that they made a video dedicated it to “any lost love.” AWWWWW. And it’s happy and it’s cute and it’s just all around feel good.
I’m not surprised about their enthusiasm for unemployment. In France, unemployment benefits are excellent. Plus they are required to receive severance pay, and well, it’s nice to have time off during the upcoming holidays and chill for several months (or years for that matter) before looking for a new job (or not). In any case, getting laid off in France is a happy event – as is expressed here on this adorable swan song video called, “L’amour à la française,” which by the way was this year’s French entry for cult event, The Eurovision Song Contest performed by kooky fun band, Les Fatals Picards (They’re from Picardie).
A password-protected, high-resolution version is here: on Vimeo. The password is “aollover.”
[via]
945 Euros for the iPhone in France? WHAT a steal. This is listed on France’s Amazon.fr but there’s no description, really, and it’s not clear if this is the unlocked iPhone, though I suppose it’s got to be. That is sort of insane. Will French first adopters want to PAY that much?
See the Listing of Apple’s iPhone on Amazon.fr
[via]
“…The joint suicide of André Gorz, the French philosopher and founder of the magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, and his British-born wife Dorine, who was suffering from a fatal disease, has turned the love letter that he wrote to her into a surprise bestseller.
Gorz, 84, a friend of Jean-Paul Sartre, and Dorine, 83, committed suicide by lethal injection at their home in the village of Vosnon, east of Paris, on September 22. Two days later a friend found them lying side-by-side in their bedroom.
Gorz’s 75-page Lettre à D. Histoire d’un Amour (Letter to D. Story of a Love), published a year earlier, was a tribute to his wife. One French critic described the work, which won him a wider audience than his essays on ecology and anti-capitalism, as his “intellectual and emotional testament”.
The couple met by chance at a card game in 1947 and married in 1949. “You will soon be 82. You have shrunk six centimetres and you weigh just 45 kilos and you are still beautiful, gracious and desirable,” the book starts. “It is now 58 years that we have lived together and I love you more than ever.”
Gorz goes on to describe finding out in 1973 that Dorine, who managed foreign rights for the publisher Galilée, suffered from an incurable condition…”
Read the rest at TimesOnline published for the first time in Britain
American expat and Pastry chef, David Lebovitz, will be signing copies of his books, The Perfect Scoop
Where? Details are here
france booksigning david lebovitz paris
Sort of. This is Lyon’s “Eiffel Tower”
france lyon eiffel tower photos
Only if people around the world know the truth is there some chance for change. Films like this make it happen. ~Vaclav Havel
“Total Denial is the story of a historic lawsuit: Fifteen villagers from the jungles of Burma bringing suit against giant oil corporations for human-rights abuses, in U.S. courts. Legal battles ensue.
Producer/Director Milena Kaneva, has been documenting abuses of Burmese villagers caused by the Yadana pipeline. Her “guide” during this journey was Ka Hsaw Wa, introduced by Kerry Kennedy in her book “Speak Truth to Power,” as: ” ….A man of such incredible courage and commitment and with the firm belief that one man can make a difference.” Ethnic Karen, Ka Hsaw Wa was one of the leaders of the student movement for democracy in Burma in 1988. He has been hiding in the jungle for more than seven years. Wanted by the police both in Burma and Thailand , Ka Hsaw Wa has gathered the evidence of thousands of victims of human rights and environmental abuses.
In 1995, along with the co-founder of Earth Rights International, Katie Redford, Ka Hsaw Wa brought this precedent-setting lawsuit to the U.S. courts. The lawsuit continued for 10 years
In 1992, two Western oil companies French TOTAL and American UNOCAL (now CHEVRON), then based in California embarked on a joint venture with the Burmese military regime, to build a gas pipeline. The Burmese army, hired by the companies to provide security for the project, forces many in the local population into slave labor. Burned villages, raped women, tortured and killed porters, hundreds of thousands of men, women and children hiding in the jungle is the picture of a silent genocide. Total Denial was shot in Burma, Thailand, Europe, and the U.S. courts between 2000-2005…” (From the Film’s Press Release)
For information and screenings of Total Denial: Total Denial Website
france burma human rights silent genocide total unocal myanmar oil companies slavery news chevron total denial
The Sécurité Routière, France’s Department of Road Safety has released this year’s television spots that will again send shivers down your spine just like last year’s. The TV spots focus on the concept of “just,” i.e., “You’re driving just a little too close” or “You just forgot to signal that you were turning” or “You just ran a red light” or “You just killed someone.” The French Sécurité Routière doesn’t mess around! But these spots effectively show the catastrophic consequences of a driver’s small actions.
Watch these ads here and here.
france road safety accidents in france driving in france
“…Orange will sell the iPhone in both locked and unlocked versions for the country, a company spokeswoman says. Béatrice Mandrine, elaborating on yesterday’s launch date announcement, explains that while a standard version will be tied to Orange and cost €399 ($560), shoppers will also be able to buy an unlocked iPhone for an as-yet unspecified premium. An official announcement of its cost is expected to be made in November, some time before the November 29th release; Mandrine has declined to say, meanwhile…”
Un sourire, c’est gratuit! / A smile is free!
Climb up the steps (Montée Chazaux) toward the Basilique de Fourvière in Vieux Lyon (Lyon’s Old Town) and just before you reach the top of the stairs, you’ll see this funny collaborative graffiti on your left.
Taking a photo of this wall earlier today made me smile.
france lyon graffiti art free smiles
From New World Notes:
“In 1793, a French journalist named Jean-Paul Marat was taking a cold bath to alleviate his skin disease when a woman allied with his political enemies managed to wheedle her way into the washroom, and knife him in the chest. As immortalized in the painting by Jacques-Louis David, the place and moment of his death seems essential, and arrested in time.
Until, that is, a guy named AM Radio (left) decided to convert it into an interactive experience. In recent months, AM has astounded Residents with builds of stunning depth and elegance, but so far it’s his recreation of David’s “Death of Marat” that’s impressed me most. Especially after he added a poseball animation in the tub, so anyone who sits on it instantly recreates Marat’s final sprawl. For awhile, though, AM Radio’s installation sat unused on a platform high in the sky, but Bettina Tizzy, the energetic founder of the SL art maven group Not Possible in Real Life found it a better home, in her public park of Chaykin Forest. Thus making it possible for any Resident to die like Marat. (Direct teleport at this link.) So that’s where I went to expire like my fellow journalist, deep in Bettina’s woods; feeling lonely, I called her and the…”
Continue reading: Die Like Marat: Turning David’s Masterpiece into an Interactive Experience
france die like marat second life interactive experience
Remember Mr. Pott the Potter? This is Mr. Mortar the Mason.
