The French documentary, “Le Monde Selon Monsanto / The world according to Monsanto,” directed by independent filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin, airs tonight on ARTE.

The film paints a grim picture of a no-holds-barred evil corporation with a decades-long track record of environmental crimes, health scandals and endangering the population of the entire world.

It will open your eyes to many things and you’ll never look at food the same way again.

Read about it at ARTE (in French) More about it here (in English)

See the movie trailer here

From AFP:

A letter of love sent by a French 13-year-old to her late mother, addressed to “Paradise Street, Heaven,” was returned to sender with a postage fine slapped on, a report said Thursday.

On the second anniversary of her mother’s death the young girl from central France, named as Anais, wanted to send her a “message of love, like a bottle in the ocean,” according to the Journal de Saone-et-Loire newspaper.

But two days after she slipped it into a local postbox, marked with her mother’s name but no stamp, her missive was returned as a mistaken address — along with a 1.35 euro (two-dollar) fine for unpaid postage.

Asked to explain the mishap, the French post office said there really was a town in the area called Heaven — “Ciel” in French — but that the street was unknown.

From AFP:

“Mr Rude, a new Mr Men character with a French accent and a flatulence problem, is threatening to put the wind up Anglo-French relations, reports said Monday.The new bright orange cartoon is the first with a foreign accent to join the children’s book and television series, whose more traditional characters include Mr Happy and Little Miss Helpful.

“Oh, parr-donne me!” says the ball-shaped figure in a heavy Gallic accent, after noisily breaking wind in a game where children are invited to pull his finger on the Mr Men website www.mrmen.com/uk.

“Oh, don’t seem soo sur-praased,” he adds, before emitting another fart. “You pulled it.”

A new series of the Mr Men show, featuring the classic childrens’ characters, will start later this month on television channel Five, which insists it did not intend to offend the French.

“Mr Men is a comedy show for four to seven-year-olds … The fact Mr Rude has a French accent is meant to be light-hearted and tongue-in-cheek and no offence to the French people is intended,” a Five spokesman told the Daily Telegraph.

The French embassy in London refused to comment, but a source quoted by the daily said: “It is obviously meant in a light-hearted way but it won’t improve Anglo-French relations.”

A spokeswoman for Chorion, the new show’s makers, defended the use of a French accent. “It is a kids’ comedy show, it is not meant to be offensive or anything like that,” she said.

In the late 19th century a French baker, Joseph Pujol, who could break wind at will, played to packed houses with an act that included imitating animals and blowing out candles, styling himself Le Pitomane, or “fartiste”.”

Oftentimes people will refer to their region’s department by a number, which totally perplexes me since I just have no idea what they’re talking about. I just don’t know them. Also there are numbers on license plates that indicate where the driver is from, so if you know which number represents their corresponding department, you’ll know where they’re from, for what that’s worth. (For now, at least. I heard they will be getting rid of these numbers on plates, so you won’t know where that driver is from.) With all of France’s regions, departments, numbers, etc., and there are a LOT to know (for a relatively small country), it might or might not help you to learn some of them. So if you’d like to get to know France more intimately, play this game. Here, you’ll get quizzed on French prefectures, regions and departments (by name, by number), and rivers. It’s hard! But, it can be helpful when reading the news about France and when someone, say at a party, tells you about 21. You can happily respond, “You’re from Cote d’Or? LOVE that department.” Or something to that effect.

Play a game or two at Geographix

It’s already December, which means you have a couple of weeks to get in all of your holiday shopping. I don’t mean to nag, but you should do that now, unless you like doing that last minute crazy psycho shopper madness. Since this is a site about France, I’ll be suggesting France/French related items. Here’s Part I. I got this idea from my very good friend’s 5 year old daughter, who fell madly in love with Paris and France after reading the classic children’s book, Madeline. I started looking for other books and DVDs about France for kids and came up with these:

This is Paris This is Paris takes kids on a really fun tour of famous buildings, beautiful gardens, cafés, and the Parisians-artists, and even thousands of cats. Young readers will travel along the banks of the Seine, through the galleries of the Louvre, and to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

The Little Prince Fun and Adventure Inspired by the famous tale by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, kids will discover a whole galaxy of board games, mazes, connect-the-dot puzzles, finger puppets, masks, coloring pages, and more activities - all the while learning about everyone’s favorite little prince.

Postmark Paris: A Story in Stamps Ten-year-old Leslie tells her story of living in Paris for a year, illustrating this appealing odyssey with postage stamps.

Monsieur Saguette and His Baguette Monsieur Saguette, on the way home, transforms his ordinary baguette into something extraordinary. (No matter how tempting it is to find an innuendo here, just remember this is really a kids story…)

The Magical Garden of Claude Monet A great way to introduce kids to famous artists, this is a story about a little girl who thinks that Monet is the gardener and is immersed in his gardens at Giverny.

The Truffle Hunter The story of an inept pig who is abandoned in the forest where she finds true love in the form of Raoul, a wild boar. Raoul teaches her the lost art of truffling, whereupon she returns to her home with a fine chef. But she has also learned the value of freedom.With charming style the book tells of problems that reveal hidden opportunities.

The Cat Who Walked Across France A cute cat in France travels through lavendar fields, palatial castles, canals, Paris and beyond.

Anatole A bicycle riding Parisian mouse named Anatole makes his living by tasting the cheese in a cheese factory and leaving notes about its quality. This story makes me wonder if it was the inspiration for Ratatouille.

Katie and the Mona Lisa Katie convinces a sad Mona Lisa to leave her portrait in order to regain her famous smile. Katie leads her to several other famous Italian Renaissance works.

Let’s Learn French Coloring Book This introduces kids ages 3 to 6 to every day French vocabulary using the same simple techniques that help children build vocabulary in their native language.

French for Children Cute, catchy songs and the humorous, serial adventures of SuperCat captivate the imagination and foster language acquisition. The set in the series contains an 80-page full-color activity book coordinated with two 60-minute CDs as well as a Parent/Instructor CD packed with helpful tips.

Click here for more kids books about France

This year’s Christmas stamps and cards are not as cute as last year’s (here too) but there are some other fun items just released from the post office in France. Adorable holiday-themed stationery, playing cards, snow globes, stickers and figurines are being sold online at La Poste, as well as some cartoon-network-esque T-shirts. For every order at La Poste, one euro will be donated to UNICEF.

Lastly, a reminder that French Santa writes back to kids and adults (how nice of him) who send him a letter or email by December 18. Email him from here and check out the other goodies for kids there too.

La e-boutique du Père Noël