The Village of Cap d’Agde, Where Being Nude is the Law
Before the weather gets too chilly, I thought I’d mention the village of Cap d’Agde, where being butt naked is obligatory. If interested, you’ll still have time to enjoy the sun à poil (in your birthday suit).
The village of Cap d’Agde, also called, “The Naked City,” is a seaside port and resort along the Mediterranean not far from the cities of Carcassone, Nimes and Montpellier. (in the Hérault department, in the région of Languedoc-Roussillon). It is supposedly the world’s largest naturist village. “Naturism,” which many people call nudism, is legal so it isn’t uncommon to see families walking around naked in supermarkets, shops, banks, restaurants, hotels, hairdressers, camp sites, etc. The beach in Cap d’Agde, which extends across 3 kilometers of beach, enforces a “nudity mandatory” policy, which means you MUST be nude there. I’m not sure what happens if you have any clothes on. Do the police rip them off of you? Are you arrested for wearing a sock? What happens in the COLD winter?
So anyway, this is a place where you can literally let it all hang out, perfect for an even tan with no bathing suit lines. Definitely not for everybody, and for the most part, it’s really no big deal - But don’t be led to think it’s entirely a wholesome place to vacation with the kids. Cap d’Agde is a lot of things.
While it IS perfectly okay to vacation here with kids, the place fulfills a whole spectrum of expectations, primarily regarding sexual satisfaction. For example, during the day families and kids are at the beach to have fun in the sun, but at the same time, others may be scouting the territory to find potential sexual partners for the evening or couples will be looking for other couples to switch partners with. Say, you’re invited to a party one night in the village. It would very a rare occasion if that party didn’t involve gratuitous non-committal sex with multiple partners. In other words, it has some innocence but on the other hand, anything goes. So with all the swingers clubs scattered amidst the family shops and restaurants, and the people, voyeurs and all (yes there are naked voyeurs here), it all seems pretty relaxed. For some reason these two incongruous communities: happy family fun and the old school naturists, and the sex motivated swingers with pierced genitals, work harmoniously side by side.
tags: france, travel, nude beaches, cap d’agde, naturism france, naked city
France Bans TV Shows for Babies From AP:
“France’s broadcast authority has banned French channels from marketing TV shows to children under 3 years old, to shield them from developmental risks it says television viewing poses at that age.
The ruling also ordered warning messages for parents on foreign baby channels that are broadcast in France _ such as Baby TV, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., and BabyFirstTV, which has ties to News Corp.’s Fox Entertainment.
The High Audiovisual Council, in a ruling published Wednesday, said it wanted to “protect children under 3 from the effects of television.”
France’s minister for culture and communication, Christine Albanel, issued a “cry of alarm” to parents in June about channels dedicated 24 hours a day to baby-targeted programming. In a newspaper interview, she called them “a danger” and urged parents not to use them to help their children get to sleep.
She was referring to BabyFirstTV and Baby TV, two foreign channels that can be seen in France on cable television.
The council’s ruling aims to prevent the development of such programming on French channels, by preventing them from marketing content as suitable for the under-3 age group.
It also orders French cable operators that air foreign channels with programs for babies to broadcast warning messages to parents. The messages will read: “Watching television can slow the development of children under 3, even when it involves channels aimed specifically at them.”
The ruling cites health experts as saying that interaction with other people is crucial to early child development.
“Television viewing hurts the development of children under 3 years old and poses a certain number of risks, encouraging passivity, slow language acquisition, over-excitedness, troubles with sleep and concentration as well as dependence on screens,” the ruling said.
When BabyFirstTV began airing in the U.S. in 2006, it escalated an already heated national debate. The American Academy of Pediatrics has said babies should be kept away from television altogether. Critics say such channels are used as a baby sitter.
BabyFirstTV and other companies say their products are designed to be watched by babies and parents together in an interactive manner.
Guy Oranim, chief executive officer of BabyFirstTV, said he “respectfully objects” to the French council’s ruling. He said the channel’s content is carefully screened to ensure it is positive and educational, and that the channel encourages parents to make sure their babies don’t go overboard on TV but include it in a balanced schedule.
“One of reasons we created BabyFirstTV is that we thought there was no good programming for babies on TV, and according to the research that is out there, most of the babies are watching TV anyway,” he said.
The three companies behind BabyFirstTV are Regency Enterprises, a film and TV production company that is a partner of News Corp.’s Fox Entertainment; Kardan N.V., an investment group based in the Netherlands and Israel; and Bellco Capital, a private Los Angeles-based investment fund.”
tags: france, television, france bans tv for babies, baby first tv, baby tv
Tax on Snacks 
Get ready to pay more for snacks, anything considered fattening and food and beverage items deemed generally unhealthful.
The French government needs money! Forget about them caring about the health and well-being of the people, they’ve blatantly come out and stated they will tax these foods because it will be another tool to help the country’s financial recovery.
What are they taxing? “Certains produits “trop gras, trop sucrés, trop salés qui ne sont pas de stricte nécessité” Products that are too fatty, too sugary, too salty, that aren’t of strict necessity will be taxed a whopping 19.6%. Even one of the last remaining affordable items in France, wine, will be subject to this tax. KWA?!
This law will not go into effect for a while, so you have some time to try to accept this new change, which will be hard to swallow for many junk food junkies.
Article: Le Monde
Related: Roasted Chicken Flavor Potato Chips, Ketchup Flavored French Fry Chips, Smoked Ham Flavored Bugles
france, tax on junkfood, deficit
You, Your Cell Phone, Dangers and What to Do 
By now, you’ve probably heard about a correlation between cell phone use and cancer. But geez, you can’t listen to those things because you absolutely love your cell phone. Who doesn’t? You were so freakin’ relieved to find out that those popcorn popping celphones were a hoax. Don’t lie. This love you have for your cute electronic companion has conveniently ousted from your head any negative publicity your mobile beloved has received. You really want to ignore them! Here’s you, “cell phones are dangerous??? NAH….. Don’t be silly! Cancer? Pfff. That is ridiculous. I use mine all the time and I’m fine!”
Do you say that because you don’t WANT it to be true? You can want all you like but just because you don’t want it to be true doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
No one WANTED cigarettes to be the leading cause of death, cancer, heart disease and lung disease (among other things), did they? Many cigarettes smokers said, “they smoked all the time and they were fine!”
No one wanted to believe that the building material called asbestos would kill them. No one wanted to think that anything was wrong with their PVC window frames? Check your hospitals, do they have any PVC? Answer: No. “But the PVC pipes and windows were so cheap,” people say…
Hospitals also don’t allow cell phone use, or wifi for that matter. Do people wonder WHY? I wish they did.
The warnings have been around for a long time but it has been in French news more and more this year. I mean, you can’t let your peeps keep doing harmful things to their bodies, can you France?
French Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin also went on France 2 TV and rehashed the well-worn theory connecting cell phone use with cancer.
In the U.S. neurosurgeons can’t admit that cell phones are dangerous and cause brain cancer, but they WILL admit that they NEVER put a cell phone up to their heads. Ever! What do BRAIN SURGEONS know, anyway!??!
Hang on. Aside from being rant-errific, I do have some useful information that might prompt you to reduce the amount of risk to which you subject yourself.
Both Europe and the U.S. have defined safety limits for exposure to radio frequency (RF) energy produced by mobile devices. The SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) or DAS (débit d’absorption spécifique) in France is a measure or index of the rate at which RF energy is absorbed by the body when exposed to radio-frequency electromagnetic field.
In the United States the FCC requires that phones sold have a SAR level at or below 1.6 watts per kilogram (W/kg) taken over a volume of 1 gram of tissue.
In the European Union, the SAR limit is 2 W/kg, averaged over ten grams of tissue. For whole body exposure there is a limit of 0.08 Watt/kg averaged over the whole body.
What you can do: Find out the index of your mobile phone then act accordingly. If it’s too high, get a different phone that is safer. Here’s a chart with a list of phones and their SARs.
As an example, the new 3G iPhone’s SAR (or indice DAS in French) is 1.388 W/kg. The first generation iPhone was 0.974 W/Kg. Other examples: Motorola Razr2 v9 is 0.52. The Samsung SLM is 0.48. As low as some of the phone’s indices are, neurosurgeons STILL won’t put them up to their heads!
What you can do: Like neurosurgeons, DON’T put the cellphone up to your head. Use speaker phone mode. Note: Bluetooth devices and unshielded wired-earphones amplify the signal. In other words, they radiate more, NOT less.
What you can do: Remember that the industries will ALWAYS deny the existence of any dangers. Not only that, they are responsible for those “counter” studies that come out after researchers warn about the dangers of a product. Scientific studies have been suppressed by the cell phone industry and the government to protect their profits. Do not buy that game.
What you can do: Reduce your cell phone use to a bare minimum. Keep conversations short.
What you can do: Don’t let kids use the phone at all if possible. If they must, not for more than a minute at a time. Ideally, they should never use them or use them only for emergency situations.
What you can do: Turn your cell phone off when it isn’t needed and especially when you are driving your car. When driving with your cell phone on, the waves ricochet inside the car because cars are metallic, creating a Faraday Cage.
What you can do: When possible, keep the cell phone as far away from your body as much as possible.
Links: SAR, Get Little Kids Away from the iPhone and iPod Touch, Cell Phone Dangers Revealed, Patents Prove Cell Phone Dangers from Wired, Hidden Dangers of Cell Phone Radiation, Chemical and Cell Phones, Harmful Effects of Cell Phones, Hazards of the Wireless Age, Reduce Risks, Mobile Phones more dangerous than smoking
france, How to Reduce Your Cell Phone Risks, cell phones and cancer, SAR, Indice DAS
French Couple Fined for Sex Video at the WWI memorial in Vimy Thursday July 24th 2008, 3:18 am
Filed under:
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french laws,
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I think there might be more visitors to Vimy from now on…
From afp:
“A French couple were given a four-month suspended sentence and made to pay one euro in damages to the Canadian state for making a porn video at a World War I memorial, officials said Wednesday.
The verdict came just six months after another couple were fined for taking nude photographs of themselves at the same memorial at Vimy in northern France, which pays tribute to the 60,000 Canadians who died in the Great War.
In the latest ruling Tuesday by a court in the town of Arras, the married couple in their thirties, who put the video on a paying website, were also fined 500 euros each after they were found guilty of exhibitionism.
The symbolic one euro in damages was ordered because the Canadian state was a civil plaintiff in the case.
“The memorial has been known for a long time as a place where exhibitionism and voyeurism is common,” prosecutor Elise Bozzolo told AFP.
The memorial, two huge pylons that can be seen for miles around, was created in memory of the April 1917 battle of Vimy Ridge, a costly victory for Canada.
The site draws around half a million visitors each year.”
tags: france travel vimy wwi memorial sex video one euro fine
July 1 - Mandatory Yellow Vest and Triangle in Cars 
Beginning today, cars in France must carry a gilet de sécurité / bright, yellow vest with 2 reflective stripes and a triangle de pré-signalisation / a reflective red warning triangle. These are to be used if you have an accident or must pull off the road for break downs and other emergencies. Note: The vest must be in the cab portion of the car, that is, where the drivers and passengers are, and not in the trunk.
The police will be performing random checks to verify that you have these obligatory items. If you’re caught without them after October, 1, you risk a fine of 90 to 135 euros.
You can sometimes get free kits with vests and triangle at a gas station if you have your oil changed or have your tires checked. Otherwise, they are available to purchase at gas stations for about 15 - 20 euros.
tags: france travel gilet de sécurité triangle de pré-signalisation road+laws+france mandatory+vest+triangle
