This fun and kooky scopitone is from the 60s and is called, “Comic Strip” featuring Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot. From what I can tell, Serge is beckoning Brigitte to come into his comic strip for some serious SHEBAM! POW! BLOP! and WHIZZZZ!

Click on the image to see the video at YouTube.

The Eurovision (the European annual talent show that has taken on a cult following)’s contestant from France is a guy named Sébastien Tellier. I like him; he’s fun and silly - though I’ve listened to the selected song and I have no idea what it’s about.

So, the big scandal in France is that he’s singing in English NOT in French. OMG!

So frickin’ what. The Belgian band, Ishtar, is singing in a non-existent language.

Anyway, that is sort of old news and I am a bit behind. However, when I watched the youtube video of “Divine,” the song he’s supposed to perform at Eurovision, I noticed something. Is it my imagination or is he not even in that video? Maybe, just MAYBE he’s in a couple of shots at most, but I don’t think that’s him lip syncing him - just other people wearing a wig and fake facial hair. Take a look at “him” at the pool. C’mon, that is totally not Sébastien Tellier. See, I told you he’s fun and silly!

Look.

This is what Sébastien Tellier looks like:

It made me wonder if Thomas Bangalter & Guy Man de Homem-Christo from Daft Punk actually perform in their own vids. It doesn’t really matter, I suppose.

But! Will the REAL Sébastien Tellier show up for Eurovision Belgrade (May 20) 2008? On verra.

Lumiere Technology digitized the Mona Lisa and describes the process.

Watch the video

Tags: paris, france, mona+lisa, louvre, art, videos, digitzing

Do most Americans even know who Tex Avery was? I’m not sure but the French sure know American cartoons and the people behind the cute characters from way back when. This year La Poste commemorates Tex Avery, a prolific American animator, cartoonist and director whose bold style broke away from the realism established by Walt Disney. Tex Avery would have been 100 years old today.

The French Post Office paid hommage to this great animator, and came up with the cutest postage stamps featuring Droopy, the mild mannered, monotone basset hound. Avery created Droopy in 1943 at MGM, which was originally called, “Dumb-Hounded.”

Everyone (I’ve asked) in France knows Droopy, and loves him. They’ll inevitably say, Droopy’s famous line in the most dreary, lifeless tone possible, “Vous savez quoi? Je suis heureux.” (You know what? I’m happy.)

Related: Stamps in France

I don’t know why I enjoying spying on other people’s wedding registries, but I do. Here’s what (previously) Cecilia Sarkozy now Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz Attias requested at Le Bon Marche:

List (a pdf file)

Or you can check on Le Bon Marche’s registry directly (Groom name: Richard Attias, Bride’s name Cecilia Ciganer-Albeniz, Marriage Date: March 23, 2008)

[via]

Can you imagine the First Lady of another country posing nude? *shudders!*

Here’s the ad that’s gotten Sarkozy’s undies all tied up in knots. The bubble above Carla Bruni’s head says, “With Ryanair, my whole family can come to my wedding.” [Source: Daily Motion]

Watch the music video

From Fondation Cartier:
“The Fondation Cartier is hosting a major solo exhibition of the visual work of American artist and performer Patti Smith. Drawn from pieces created between 1967 and 2007, it strives to provide an insight into her lyrical, spiritual and poetic universe. Her expressive voice serves to magnify the installations created specifically for the exhibition: a synthesis of photographs, drawings and films.”

Land 250, named after Patti Smith’s Polaroid camera, will also showcase found objects (i.e., a stone taken from the river in which Virginia Woolf committed suicide), polaroids of items belonging to her former lover, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jimi Hendrix’s guitar and items owned by Arthur Rimbaud.

Smith has also produced a short film that explains her work in the gallery.

Lastly, she plans to perform at the museum, both alone and with guest artists, and she also will be giving informal poetry readings. She will be an active curator of the museum’s bookshop, which will be selling a newly published collector’s edition of her artwork.

Land 250, Patti Smith at the Fondation Cartier
261, Boulevard Raspail
75014 Paris, France
tel (+33) 1 42 18 56 50
March 28 to June 22, 2008
For more information visit the museum’s website: Fondation Cartier

Related: David Lynch’s work at Fondation Cartier,Ron Mueck in Paris

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From Reuters:

“French film maker Luc Besson is to make a full length movie inspired by French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s “Earth from the Air” images of the planet, French retailer PPR, the film’s sponsor, said on Monday.

The film, with the working title “Boomerang,” is intended to contribute to “raising awareness of the dire condition of our planet,” PPR said. It is due to be released on World Environment Day — June 5 — in 2009.

It follows in the wake of Al Gore’s Oscar winning “An Inconvenient Truth” and Leonardo DiCaprio’s “The 11th hour.”

Any profits from “Boomerang” will go to a foundation set up by Arthus-Bertrand to promote sustainable development, PPR said.”

Why Travel to France is having weird technical problems, which should be fixed shortly. Regular posting should resume in the near future. In the meantime, here are some recent news items from France:

Jose Bove - started a hunger strike yesterday against genetically modified foods in France. A decision regarding OGM (GMO) in France should be reached by the end of the month. (article in French)

Free Cars in Paris? - the Mayor of Paris is proposing the introduction of Voiturelib’–2,000 electric-powered vehicles that subscribers can drive off without booking at dozens of sites, 24 hours a day, and then leave anywhere in the city.

No Smoking - France finally banned smoking in restaurants, bars and cafes effective January 1, 2008, which is a breath of fresh air!

Remember the EU Constitution France Voted Against? It’s here to stay (without the votes of EU countries) in the form of the Lisbon Treaty

Feminists in France have petitioned the French government to remove the title Mademoiselle or Miss from official administrative documents

France bans the word “E-mail” in government documents

U.S. expats facing tax ’sticker shock’ - and Lousy Health Care to Boot

French Ministers get graded and evaluated, Sarkozy is exempt from being evaluated.

Calais Mayor Defies Sarkozy - A welcome center for asylum seekers heading to Britain from France was opened despite objections from the government.

Some Sarko Gossip FWIW from Time:

It was just two months ago that the French media shrugged off their curiosity about President Nicolas Sarkozy’s divorce from his wife Cécilia, and said they would not pry into the private life of their first-ever single President, nor care which women he chose to date.

Yeah, right. That cool vanished on Monday, with the unveiling of Sarkozy’s new love interest — the singer and former supermodel Carla Bruni, whose previous companions include Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton. The conservative daily newspaper Le Figaro — which strongly supports Sarkozy — on Monday splashed a quarter-page photo of Bruni on its front page, which is typically reserved for dry political news, under the headline: “The president’s girlfriend.” Bruni’s photo appeared next to an article predicting a tough week ahead for Sarkozy’s reform program, over which trade unions are planning mass strikes. The President’s happier news lay tucked inside the “France Politique” section, where one half-page showed three more images of Bruni, 39, including one of her without trousers, her flawless bare legs crossed on a couch next to her acoustic guitar. Although the Elysée Palace has refused to comment on the reports, three national magazine covers will feature the new couple this week, according to the newspaper.

News of Sarkozy’s new relationship first broke on the website of the newsweekly L’Express. The magazine’s editor Christophe Barbier told a French television talk show on the weekend that Bruni, a friend of his, had told him that she was involved with Sarkozy. That confirmed mounting rumors that Sarkozy was not alone in his palace bedroom.

Read more

These unique walking tour books will make great holiday gifts for the people passionate about Paris, its architecture, and history and who are interested in exploring places where famous writers, painters, kings and queens hung out in the City of Light.

Walks Through Napoleon & Josephine’s Paris allows you to see the Paris of today and yesterday, simultaneously. Not only can you visit some of the same shops and restaurants that the Emperor and Empress used to frequent, but you will also find yourself being sidetracked (time and time again) by other historical sites and famous places of today that you will inevitably pass along the way.

Walks Through Marie Antoinette’s Paris has photos that you may not have seen anywhere else, the information about Marie Antoinette is a history enthusiast’s treat. The size of the book, which adds to it’s charm, is suitable to take with you as it guides you along in the footsteps of Marie Antoinette.

The Impressionists’ Paris: Walking Tours of the Artists’ Studios, Homes, and the Sites They Painted allows travelers to venture beyond the museum walls and trace the footsteps of these great artists, including Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Edouard Manet, just to name a few. Three city walking tours–surprisingly manageable considering the city’s size–cover not only the sites depicted in many of their paintings, but also the studios in which they worked, the buildings where they lived, and–this being Paris–the cafes in which they gathered.

The Historic Restaurants of Paris: A Guide to Century-Old Cafes, Bistros, and Gourmet Food Shops First sentence of the book: Marcel Proust, who was transported back to childhood with the taste of a tea cake known as a madeleine, was among the early regular customers at this chic salon de the that faces the Tuileries Gardens…

Walks In Hemingway’s Paris: A Guide To Paris For The Literary Traveler 7 walks take the reader to every Hemingway (and Fitzgerald) site in Paris. The walks include wonderful quotations from many of Hemingway’s novels, short stories, and his memoir of Paris.

Picasso’s Paris: Walking Tours of the Artist’s Life in the City Pablo Picasso’s presence still can be felt in Paris. Four walking tours follow the painter from the gaslit garrets of fin-de-siècle Montmartre to the Left Bank quarter where he sat out the Nazi Occupation. Both art book and travel guide, this pocketable volume identifies the sites where Picasso created some of his best-known masterpieces and describes his celebrated circle of friends, among them Gertrude Stein, Henri Matisse, Jean Cocteau, and Coco Chanel.

Literary Cafes of Paris Away from the tourist throngs, the reader can people watch and sip for literally hours reflecting upon Hemingway at the Brasserie Lipp, Picasso at the Cafe de Flore, Shirer at the Brasserie Balzar and so much more.

Walks Through Lost Paris: A Journey Into the Heart of Historic Paris chronicles Paris’s great periods of urban reconstruction through four walking tours. With a special focus on the work of Georges-Eugene Haussmann, this book provides a history of each site along with the motives behind the urban redesign and the reactions of Parisians who witnessed it. Detailed maps take you through a city whose changes were captured by photographers and artists in each stage. Hundreds of color photos, diagrams, and engravings splendidly survey the massive transformation that resulted in the Paris of today.

Quiet Corners of Paris 81 often overlooked, always beautiful, locales: hidden villas, winding lanes, little-known 19th-century passages, serene gardens, and cobblestone courtyards. Some of the places have breathtaking views, others are filled with historic and architectural details, from stone archways, garden follies, boxwood mazes, ornamental statuary, stained glass, and Renaissance fountains.

Is it my imagination or did Frylock leave Cartoon Network to pursue a singing career in France? Here’s a screenshot of Florent Pagny’s just released music video of
“La Chanson de Jacky” from the new CD, Pagny Chante Brel:

Here’s Frylock from Aqua Teen Hunger Force:

Watch the clip with Conan and James Lipton on YouTube.