I know you’ve been wondering what I’ve been up to, so I thought I’d pop in and tell you: I’ve been eating these potato chips!
Nevermind that the French don’t have pepperoni pizza here, at least with the same name. When I first came to France I simply didn’t think they had pepperoni pizza as a choice. What a fool I was. They call it “chorizo” here but since I’m from California, I imagined the Mexican chorizo, which is a spicy ground sausage but it’s more like the Spanish chorizo, which is actually pretty close to pepperoni. So. Will the French realize what this is? I guess the picture helps. But oh the mysteries of life continue en France. Oh well. Anyway, these chips are good but it’s only the first chip that tastes like pepperoni pizza. After that one, the rest tastes like bbq (aka paprika in France) potato chips. (NOT knocking those, of course.)

I couldn’t resist posting this hilarious video. (Click on the image to watch the video.)

From gawker:

Carla Bruni Asks for a Finger Up Her Butt, in Seven Different Languages

France’s first lady is tres embarrassed that an old, raunchy episode of a talk show called Eurotrash has surfaced online. Now the French government is scrambling to get it yanked from YouTube. Here’s what they don’t want you to see.

Apparently the French government fought to remove a longer version of this video—in which Carla showcases a pair of “hot international sex guides” that teach international tramps how to say phrases like “Do you like my titties?” and “Put your finger in my bottom” in seven European languages—from YouTube. Eurotrash hosts Antoine de Caunes and designer Jean-Paul Gaultier (in the hot pink sailor suit, obviously) ooh and aah at the multilingual promiscuity of “Italy’s most elegant export.”

The yanked version apparently showed Carla discussing celebrity affairs with Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton. The Daily Mail reports Carla is “shocked and dismayed” at the video’s “sudden reappearance.”

I wonder if growups will want to stay in these Barbie rooms. I don’t want to think about that.

From August 6th until September 2nd 2010, two rooms at the hotel will be entirely re-decorated exclusively with Barbie furniture, accessories and other items. The Plaza Athénée brings to life the secret dreams of little girls.

Family Package includes one Barbie room and one Deluxe room for the parents (adjoining rooms) from 1,600 € or one Barbie room and one Deluxe suite from 2,500 €. Daily continental breakfast included for both children and parents. The Barbie room is not suitable for children under the age of 36 months and for teenagers over 16.

For more information +33 1 53 67 66 67
or go visit the website.

The following massacred French recipe was committed by the folks at that omnipresent family cafeteria/restaurant in France, Flunch, not me this time around.

We strolled by a Flunch yesterday and saw this huge sign for a new offering: The American Galette. While you’d think it would resemble a French sandwich américain, with its nonsensical bratwurst, grilled veggies and fries inside a baguette – surprisingly, La (chouette/nice)  galette américaine sort of makes sense (in a Frenchy way) sporting basically a burger and its fixings inside a galette (a savory crepe usually made with buckwheat flour). Is it any good? I dunno but I think it needs fries inside!

A new trend in fashion in France? For those of you who’d like to adopt this style, I certainly hope the weather warms up.

Seen on a sidewalk in Paris. Our story: it’s a message from an anglophone to a French lover. Now, hopefully that person can read English. If not, here’s what it says, Oui, t’était un bon coup au lit.

This is a guest post from Why Travel to France contributor, Patricia. (Thanks, P!)

I thought readers would appreciate this funny, French item I found in a supermarket the other day. It made us laugh out loud but somehow I’m not sure any French person would notice it. It’s an ironic twist on air fresheners: a foot! Just guessing, but I have a feeling who ever came up with this item, was another marketing exec who had no idea that some consumers (like me) might see it as “funvertising.” I mean, using a foot to freshen a car … is brilliant, isn’t it? I love it. Frenchies, you are priceless, and you made my day when I found this Smelly Foot Air Freshener.

Maybe the tagline should be: Rafraichissez l’intérieur de votre voiture avec un pied qui pue...

Wait a minute. Do French people LIKE the smell of feet? I didn’t think of that.

Ikea has moved into four Parisian subway stations for two weeks only. Cute idea, but will they have to burn the furniture later? Oh, maybe they’ll go in the “As is” sale section! [via]

Here’s Marion Cotillard introducing a new, revolutionary product to help women in the work place. Click on the image to watch the video.

From the telegraph:

Now the stereotype has been confirmed – by a French poll that completed the character assassination by labelling the capital’s inhabitants “snobbish” and “self-regarding”.

“We find them to be hard working and cultivated,” the political magazine Marianne said of Parisians in an editorial published alongside the survey.

“But we consider them to be above all way too arrogant, aggressive, flirtatious, stressed, chauvinistic, snobbish, and self-regarding than other French people.

More than 70 per cent of those questioned thought Parisians were more snobbish than other French people, while more than 65 per cent thought them more aggressive and arrogant. However, many of the French questioned did not think any of these characteristics were particularly negative, with 68…

Read full article

After years of complaining about the lack of pancakes in France, I’m at it again but this time to moan about pancakes attempting to infiltrate the palettes of French people all across the Hexagon. I have mixed feelings about this, obviously.

These were part of a freebie bag handed out from a road toll booth leaving Paris. It looks like the packaged brioche company, Pasquier, is testing out a revolutionary new product: pancakes.

To be fair, these pancakes were not horrible, but I wish they had been giving out free wine.

From the telegraph:

France’s reputation for culinary genius has traditionally set the standard to which all other countries aspire. It has always been synonymous with outstanding cooking, with its kitchens as important a part of Gallic culture as its art and language.

Not any more, according to a devastating investigation behind the kitchen doors of restaurants in Paris.

Rather than master chefs and fresh ingredients, restaurants in the world capital of haute cuisine are increasingly relying on microwave ovens and deep freezers to feed their customers, it found.

Industrially produced ready-meals, “flavour sprays” and untrained catering staff are all part of an unsavoury mix which is dragging down standards in French cooking, according to a documentary shown on France’s Canal+ station at the weekend.

It sought to prove that such deception is becoming increasingly common. Using hidden cameras and even searching dustbins, investigators found numerous restaurants trying to pass off third-rate food as the real thing.

Read the full article

Tagline: To smoke is to be a slave of tobacco.

It’s clear that who ever was responsible for this anti-smoking ad for teens in France was in search of shock value. The article from the telegraph says it shocked France, but I doubt that. It’s definitely in poor taste and has a lame sexual innuendo but I believe people here would just do their Gallic shrug and unexcitedly say, “Pffff.” I’m sure these anti-smoking ads will not in the slightest deter teens from smoking, in any case.

Here’s an excerpt from the telegraph:

The adverts, presented earlier this week, show an older man in a suit pushing down on the head of a teenager with a cigarette in her mouth, in a position that suggests oral sex. Another version of the advert shows a teenage boy in a similar position. The accompanying slogan reads: “Smoking means being a slave to tobacco”.

“The campaign trivialises sexual abuse – worse, it implies guilt on the part of the abused,” read one angry comment on the website of “Droits des Non-Fumeurs” (“Non-smokers’ Rights), the organisation behind the campaign.

Droits des Non-Fumeurs said the posters showed neither rape nor abuse, but were meant to shock.
The adverts, which will be published in newspapers and bars, are designed to target young people in France, who are beginning to smoke in increasing numbers despite a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants.

Read the full article

Here’s the context from which this dialogue was taken: Dominique de Villepin en visite à la ferme (article in French).

Click here to see more “Dialogues entre…”!

What, you’re only welcome if you speak English? AND you’re a biker? Seen in Mesvres, France (Burgundy).

From the telegraph:

The film, “La France change, ma région doit changer” (France is changing, my region should change) shows an eco-friendly house with solar panels on the roof, smiling schoolchildren and a mother hugging a little girl in a sunny garden.

A voice-over boasts about Mr Sarkozy’s achievements since 2007, and the benefits of living in France.

But the French TV channel Canal+ has discovered most of the footage was bought from Getty Images, and shot thousands of miles away in the US.

The family house used in the video is in Escondido, California – and UMP party bosses even failed to spot that a car parked outside it has US number plates. The class of happy schoolchildren from a mix of ethnic backgrounds live in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. And the mother with her child in the garden is really in..

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I think I’ve lived too long in France because when I saw this ad booklet from a supermarket chain, everything looked fine, nothing out of the ordinary. No French person would find anything unusual about it except my sweetie.

^{Click on the image to enlarge it}

He screams, “foire au gras! foire au gras!” Me looking at the ad, “et alors?” (So?) He continues, “for your blog!” Me: “It’s just an ad.” Him: “Yeeessss, but it’s GLORIFYING fat. Does that not seem blogworthy?” Me: “Fat is good, though.” Him: “They’d never celebrate and dedicate the virtues of FAT for FIVE pages in an American food ad, EVARRRR. Let alone sell tubs of fat, which they’re doing here.” Me: “Oh yeah.”

Some people seem to have a need to know what it’s like to live like a hamster, and if you’re one of them, here you go. Hamster Hotel! Located in Nantes, live like a king hamster, eat seeds, run in a hamster wheel and sleep on hay, all for the *bargain basement* price of 99 euros. Free wi-fi, hamster people!

Hamster Villa
2, rue Malherbes
44000 Nantes, France

Following Sarkozy’s horribly embarrassing nepotistic naming of his 23 year-old son to the powerful political post inside EPAD, the reactions are numerous. Many college students are requesting to be adopted by Nicolas Sarkozy so they’ll have a better chance at “finding” a good job; people are outraged, defenders are insisting little Sarkozy got elected! Whatever. WHY do you think he was elected? A few words: HIS DAD’S URGING. Duh,people.

Anyway, this one’s my fave. It’s a hilarious spot advertising a fake iPhone app called, “L’application Jean Sarkozy pour L’iPhone.” You don’t need to speak French to understand what that’s all about.

From wired:

Finally, fishermen off the northern coast of France have found a large parasitic isopod (a relative of the louse) that has evolved a rather hideous method for survival in its host: it gets into the fish’s mouth and then devours its tongue. It then attaches itself at the back of the fish’s throat where it presumably feeds of whatever the fish normally eats. The really bizarre part is that the fish doesn’t seem to suffer any ill effects other than the loss of its tongue.

HEE. Doesn’t everyone already KNOW he’s short? Anyway.

From the telegraph:

Twenty short people were ordered to stand behind French President Nicolas Sarkozy to make him look taller while delivering a televised speech.

They were bused in after being “vetted” by aides of the French President who made sure none were more than his own height of 5ft 5ins.

The extraordinary scene unfolded at the Faurecia motor technology plant in Caligny, south of Caen, in Normandy, last Thursday.

Despite Mr Sarkozy’s lack of inches, he looked far more statuesque than usual as he posed in front of the group of white-coated technicians on a specially erected stage.

In a broadcast on French television on Monday, a woman researcher admitted on camera that she had been chosen because of her small size.

Asked by the TV journalist Jean-Philippe Schaller if it was necessary for her to be no taller than the President’s 5ft 5ins – a height which rises to around 5ft 7ins thanks to his stacked heels – she replied: “There you have it.”

Pictures were then shown of the 20 workers on board a coach which brought them in from other parts of the three-mile-square Faurecia site.

All admitted that they were among the smallest members of the 1,400-strong Faurecia workforce, and had been selected to replace the usual workers in the unit where Mr Sarkozy made his speech about the car industry.

Mr Sarkozy, who is notoriously…

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Dating from the end of the 17th century and standing 450 square meters (4,843 square feet), a chapel in the small village, Massat (Midi-Pyrénées), is up for sale. Or should we say it’s up for auction on eBay.

Interested? The good news: it features old stained glass windows, a romanesque porch, fine wooden beams and several decorative statues. AND. It has serious potential! The bad news: it’s still a fixer upper, desperately needing significant renovations on the floors, roof and electrical wiring.

The village’s mayor, Léon-Pierre Galy-Gasparrou, decided to sell it because the municipality can’t afford to pay for the repairs. Besides, there isn’t a permanent priest and there are two larger churches in the community.

Buy it now!

UPDATE: This listing was removed just after I published this blog post.

via

Don’t try this at home.

From the latimes:

I’d seen pictures of this oddly unsettling Barbie Foosball (a.k.a. table soccer) table floating around the Internet for months, but figured theChloé Ruchon designed “Barbie-Foot” — the game is called “babyfoot” in France — was just a one-off piece of art created for the doll’s 50th birthday.

Then, just this morning, I received an e-mail informing me that: 1) said table is part of the current window installation at Colette in Paris, and 2) a supply of just nine of these limited-edition Barbie torture devices, manufactured by Bonzini, a French company that’s been making such contraptions since 1936, and are available through the store (though, as of this posting, I couldn’t find an online link to purchase the table).

The real kicker isn’t anywhere on the table, though — it’s the price tag. The perfect accessory for your Barbie Dream House will set you back a cool 10,000 euros. At current exchange rates that works out to just over $654 per player.

Take that, G.I. Joe.

– Adam Tschorn

An unexpected (to me) warning was issued on the radio today regarding tonight’s episode of Les Experts Miami. It has something to do with a very violent initial scene and France Inter suggested to parents that they not allow their kids to see it. I think if any kids heard the warning (which they probably didn’t because kids would not bother with this station), it would make them want to watch it even more – but I kind of appreciate the heads-up. Anyway, I’m not too much of a fan after watching it a little – Really horrible acting (actually the French dub actors are better!), same stories from all other police shows and just how many times can we watch that guy put on and take off his sunglasses? So bleh. Sorry, experts!