Corsica

Recently we took ourselves on a wonderful trip to Corsica, which is tucked away down in the Mediterranean. Although it is a hell of a lot closer to Italy than it is to France. (Barely 20km north of Sardina) and only 40km off the coast of mainland of Italy, Corsica is part of France, and was given to France by the British around about 250 years ago.

That being the case the Corsicans are a fiercely independent bunch. They have their own language that has developed over many hundreds of years (which sadly now is dying out) and they still have a good degree of animosity towards foreigners (especially the French) A lot people seem themselves a lot more as descendants of Italians (the Island was part of the Genoeese kingdom from the 1500's)

During the last 30 years or so there has been a very strong Corsican Independence movement who want to restore the Corsican language, and basically sever all ties with France and go about things on their own. Throughout the 80's and 90's there was a lot of terrorist acts both on the Island and on mainland France by the Corsican independence movement. They targeted banks, real estate agents, famous people's holiday homes, and any other major instruments of the French authoritities.

People here speak their native Corsican language, however it is slowly dying out, and it's mainly older people who speak it. Most young people only speak French nowdays. Most of the road signs around the island are written in both Corsican & French (however some of the Nationalists have gone around and graffitied out the French ones on quite a lot of road signs)

Recentlythings have quietened down a lot, thanks to a lot of investment in infrastructure by the French goverment on the island, in an attempt to win over the people.

Mercifully for us, a lot of this money has been spent on improving the roads around the island. Roads in Corsica a narrow and very windy, as the island is quite mountainous and lots of roads wind their way up and through the mountains, and also around the cliffs near the sea. Some of the smaller roads are barely large enough to fit one car on, let alone a car coming the other way. Oh and also people let their animals graze on the sides of the roads here. So don't be suprised to see some cows, pigs, sheep, or goats casually wandering down the road and nibbling away at the grass on the verges.

At the time of the year we were there it was great for some summer activities. In winter there are even ski resorts up in the mountains. For my mind though the best part of Corsica was the food (as it always is) Like elsewhere in France, they have the big 3 things that make for a yummy meal. Cheese, Wine & Meat. All of these three things are absolutely exceptional in Corsica (i think I ate a plate of Charcuterie every night)

Most famous French people in France (Personnalités préférées des français)

Every year there is a poll done amongst French people to find out who the most famous French person is amongst French people. This has apparently been going on since the early 90's. For over 10 years, the head of this list was Jacques Cousteau.Just recently this list has been released for 2010, and for the second year running the most famous/preferred personality in France, is tennis player come musician Yannick Noah.
Most kids these days have absolutely no idea that back in the late 80's early 90's Yannick Noah was actually an exceptionally good tennis player (although he only ever made it to number 3 in the world, but if you were regularly up against people like Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Ivan Lendal, you would probably be number three also.)
Once he hung up his Dunlop Volleys, and went to cash converters to trade in his tennis racquets for a guitar and some synthesisers, Yannick decided that he was going to ply his trade in the music business. So much so, that he is soon to be playing a sell-out 80,000 seat concert at Stade de France this weekend.

Needless to say, going down the list there are a lot of people I have not heard of. Number 2, Danny Boon (no relation to David) is a comedian, and if you have seen a few funny french movies, you have probably seen him.
Number 3 you have probably heard of, Zinazine Zidane. Despite retiring 4 years ago, after being chested in the head by a diving Italian, he still remains popular with the French masses.
Pardon my ignorance, but the rest of the top ten reads like a who's who, of people I have never heard of, or lets face it are never to likely to have heard of growing up half way across the world.

Heading further down the list (looking for people I actually have heard of) number 12 is Sophie Morceau, a famous French actress, who I only know as the hot chick in Bond Film, 'The World is Not Enough'

Searching further through the list its getting hard to find other people I know, as sadly it is choc full of singers and actors/actresses I have never heard of, and unless you are a massive fan of French cinema/music, you are likely to not know also.

Number 22, is previously posted singer Jonny Halliday, whom I read in the paper yesterday is back in the studio recording his new album, a year after he nearly died.

Number 26, is recently disgraced French soccer player (wow there seems to be a few of those these days), Franck Ribery. Who got his hands all over an under aged prostitute just prior to the World Cup. (She's 18 now and trying to become a celebrity, a bit of a Paris Hilton type)

Number 35 is Robert de Niro's favourite sex counsellor Gerard Depardieu. (If you don't believe me, read here) http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/sep/14/gerard-depardieu-de-niro-erection

Number 37 is another disgraced French Footballer whose hands touched things he shouldn't Thierry Henry

At number 41 is French (Neanderthal) Rugby player Sebastian Chabal, who manages to squeeze his big frame, massive beard and hair in just ahead of French President Nicolas Sarkozy at number 42. (His wife Carla comes in at number 48)

Claude Francois

Okay, chances are you have never heard of Claude Francois, in fact neither had I until recently, but that doesn't mean you should continue to live in the dark with who he is any longer.

Claude rose to prominence in France in the 60's and 70's becomming one of the most loved and prominent French recording artists of the time. He recordered hundreds of songs during this period, mainly in French, many also in English and some in other languages such as Spanish and Italian. Indeed he recorded over 350 songs in French during his career and he wrote many of them.

He also re-wrote many popular songs into French that had been recorded at the timein English. (Including 'I go to Rio' by Peter Allan) See video


There is one reason why every English speaker who has even a passing interest in music should know who Claude Francois is.
In 1967 Claude wrote a song called 'Comme d'Habitude' (translated to 'As Usual' in English) which became a very popular hit in France. During that summer an American named Paul Anka was holidaying in the south of France and kept hearing this song on the radio and something about it really twigged with him. On his way back to the US, he stopped by Paris and had a meeting with Claude, asking if he could buy the rights to the song as he wanted to re-write and re-record it into English. He later did this, and then went to see Frank Sinatra with this new version which was titled "My Way". Frank ended up recording it, and of course the rest is history.

So there is your little piece of trivia, one of the greatest songs of the 20th century was originally written by a semi-obscure Frenchman.

Claude became increasingly popular during the 70's as he moved away from his youthful 60's style ballads to more mainstream music of the time (Disco). He also had a dance troupe that accompanied him called the "Claudettes" (see Peter Allan video) Claude also has the honour of being the 6th highest selling artist in France of all time (just behind Celine Dion) but ahead of The Beatles, Madonna and Michael Jackson. (Johnny Hallyday as I have dicussed in a previous post is actually number 1)

Claude's fame rose throughout the 70's, however his life was without incident. In 1975 he was caught up in an IRA bombing while he was staying in a hotel London and was lucky to escape relatively uninjured. In 1977 he was followed by a crazed fan in his car, and was shot at while he was on his way home.


On the 9 & 10th of March 1978 Claude recordered his latest songs for an upcomming new album.
The next day (11th of March) Claude was at home preparing to make an appearance on a popular TV variety show. He was at his house in Paris and was having a shower to prepare for the show. During his shower the lightbulb in his bathroom stopped working, and while he was standing in his bath with water around his feet reached up to take out the offending light bulb. He was immediately electrocuted and suffered a fatal heart attack as a result. He was by himself and was not discovered untill some worried friends came round after he could not be contacted by the producers of the show. His death at age 39 was announced on the show.

France went into mourning, and indeed there were allegedly (i have this on good authority from a couple of older French people) a couple of young girls who committed suicide so they could join Claude as they could not stand to be in a world without him.

On the day of his funeral 15th March 1978, his latest single was released post-humously titled, "Alexandrie, Alexandra" and naturally went on to become his highest selling single.
Luckily for us he performed this song many many times before his death. So here it is. If you are only going to watch one video on this page, watch this one. The dancing is awesome!


Claude is now buried in a cemetery in Dannemois about an hour outside Paris where he lived. The building still stands in which he was electrocuted, and indeed the street outside is now named after him.

Biggest spoilt brats in world football

It would be remiss of me if I did not make some sort of comment about the inept display by the French National Football team at the World Cup.

From a purely French point of view, from talking to French people about it, people seems rather pleased at the goings on in South Africa over the last few weeks.

People here are genuinely ashamed what transpired against Ireland a few months back, and feel that they probably did not really deserve to be there. There is nothing more French than going on strike, and at the World Cup, of course the team decided to go on strike. That really was the last straw for most people here. So much so that on their arrival back in Paris, Thierry Henry was summoned to a meeting with the President himself (who allegedly cancelled some meetings with some NGO's in order to receive Henry) to find out what the hell went on.

People here are sick of the embarrassment caused to the nation by a bunch of overpaid, spoilt clowns. I think a lot of people took some joy from the ignominy of the French Football team, being flown home from South Africa in economy class.

Roland Garros 2010

Spent four days of the French Open this year wandering around the lovely grounds of Roland Garros and cheering on all of the Australians to victory. Especially Sam Stosur (who of course made it to the final). We were actually lucky enough to grab some tickets to the Women's Final after we found out that Sam had made it.

So decked out in my best green and gold we headed down for the final, but alas, it was not to be Sam's day. Despite overpowering 3 of the top 10 women in her way to the final, and then coming up against a no name Italian in the final, the pressure of being the favourite was a little to much for her and she finally succumbed 4-6, 6-7.

But it was an enjoyable afternoon nonetheless, and the other 3 days of the earlier rounds I spent checking out the outside courts was equally as pleasurable.

Perhaps next year will be Sam's year.

Ile D'Artz

Last weekend we ventured out to the Atlantic Coast in Brittany to take part with some friends in a fun run around an island called 'Ille d'Artz'. The island is located a short trip from Vannes on the bus, and then of course because the place is an island, a 20 min ride on a boat in order to get there.

The Island is not very big, about 5km long and 1km wide and there are about 500 permanent inhabitants on the island who live in 5 small villages

spaced around the island. There are not very many cars on the island, most people get around on bikes, and of course everything on the island has to come there via boat. There is one small supermarket, in the main town a few scattered restaurants, a church, a town hall a couple of small hotels and that is pretty much it. Its a very slow relaxing place, and because it was not yet summer the influx of tourists was yet to occur.

A friend of ours has a lot of family on the island and owns a house there, so a large group of us who were participating in the run bunked in for the weekend to try our hand at the fun run on Saturday.

Friday night dinner, was the local delicacy of savoury crepes, which are a specialty of Brittany, made ourselves at home on a special crepe making machine. As we were feeding 12 people who were staying at the house, (and were getting ready to run the next day) about 60 crepes were made and a massive feast was had. This was followed by a visit to the local small pub in the village, to carbo-load on local beer, preparing us for the run the next day.

Saturday we awoke to slightly overcast skies and a slightly cool breeze, (we were on the coast after all) and it was pretty perfect weather for tackling a fun run. After a nice breakfast we wandered down to the start line to complete our registration and pick up our numbers, ready for the 11:30 start. Already a good crowd had gathered around the start, and by the time 11:15 came around there were around 200 participants all milling around, stretching and looking nervous about what was to come.

At 11:29 we all lined up on the start line, and at 11:30 we were off on a scenic route that took us through all of the villages along the coast and back into the centre of the island to finish at the highest point on the island (about 20m above sea level) next to the church.

There were a lot of serious runners who had made the trip over for the run, but also a lot of locals who were running also. It looked like everyone from the island who was not running was lining the streets to support the runners, which was pretty good. It is a very small island and it seems that everyone knows everyone who lives there. As I was running around, the people who were running near me were constantly greeted by spectators who knew their name and wished them good luck. Our friend's uncle was actually one of the organiser's of the race, and word had spread that there were a couple of Australian's who had come all the way out specifically for the run. I was pretty easy to spot in my Australian Soccer jersey, so received a good deal of support from the locals during the run.

After an hour and 5 minutes of busting my guts around the island, I made my way up the hill to the finish line. (Where many others had already finished). I officially came 64th in the mens race, which sounds alright, however there were only 72 entrants in the mens race so I was pretty much near the back. But it was pleasing enough to have actually finished, and I was not completely buggered or sore after which was also pleasing.

Le Kangourou

I have noticed as I have been here for a while that the Kangaroo is a very popular logo for companies in France to have. Here are a selection of companies that use a Kangaroo as part of their corporate logo.

Computer Stuff

USB Drives

A Stage Show

Daycare

Some sort of baby carrying thing

Trucking

Pizza

Health Insurance

Had to slip the Wallaby in there as well

A French pastime, Striking.

French people love a good strike. Any excuse to down tools and take to the streets is keenly supported by most Frenchmen and women.

It is with this background that I must report to you that we are currently facing a strike in Paris of monumental proportions, one that started a couple of weeks ago and is expected to continue until the 6th of May. You see, the city of Paris is trying to change the working environment of the City of Paris Swimming Pool ticket controllers.

Yes the lovely people who stamp your ticket then open the gate for you at the local swimming pool are on strike. (They do not even sell the ticket, that is performed by someone else!) Because of this strike, many pools have had to shut their doors, or seriously modify their operating hours, and it is causing heartache for regular Parisian swimmers.

This was reported today in the Parisian newspaper "Le Parisien". It appears to be having a serious effect on the leisure activities of some Paris residents. They interviewed disgruntled swimmer, Phillipe who said (in French, here is the translation) "'It's very annoying, not knowing before going there, if the pool is open or closed. It has happened several times, I go for nothing". He then went on to say, "I just swim during my lunch break. I found the door closed on two Wednesdays". (How utterly unacceptable I hear you say.)

The City of Paris, want to try and change the reception arrangements at their pools across Paris, so that basically the person who sells you the ticket is also the person who lets you in the gate. (Sounds simple enough) So the "gatekeepers" are going to be turned into cashiers, but the problem is that the city of Paris apparently already employ 87 people as cashiers at its various swimming pools, and they do not want to force any redundancies. According to the paper, they believe that up to 50 will retire or move onto other employment within 4 years.

All of this does not sit very comfortably with the union, as one cashier and union member said (again in French) "This will result in a deterioration of working conditions at the expense of everyday tasks such as monitoring the changing rooms" (obviously a VERY important task).

So those of you planning on visiting Paris anytime in the next couple of weeks would be well advised to leave those speedos or swimming costume at home. As if you turn up to your local pool, it may well be closed.

French TV - TF1

I can't believe I have been here for 11 months and have not written about one of my favourite topics, Television. There are a multitude of free to air TV stations in Paris (19 to be exact) but of course the age old problem still exists, despite so much variety, there is still little worth watching.

TV here is no different to Australia or indeed anywhere else in the world. We are fed a steady diet of reality (especially reality cooking shows), American crime drama, American sitcoms, French drama, documentaries, news, current affairs, game shows, sport and light entertainment.

One genre that is a lot more prevalent here than elsewhere are panel style discussion shows. French people love to speak and argue about anything, and the only thing they enjoy more than actually arguing about something, is watching people argue about something.

I will start with TF1, number 1 on the dial and home to generally the best TV.

TF1 is home to some of my favourite game shows. 'Le Juste Prix' (The Price is Right) hosted by comedian Vincent Lagaf. The format is very similar to the one most of you would be familiar with, as hosted by Ian Turpie or Larry Emdur. Differently to the Aussie version that in order to win the showcase of prizes at the end of the show, the contestant must guess the correct price of the showcase within 30 seconds, with Vincent

giving them the "higher" or "lower" call after each guess.

This channel is also host to 'La Roue de la Fortune' (Wheel of Fortune) host by Christophe 'Eddie McGuire' Dechanne. I call him Eddie, because he hosts many other TV shows, such as 'Une Famille en or' (Family Feud) and an occasional chat show. He is never on TV in anything other than an annoying V-neck long sleeve shirt.

TF1 also hosts 'Qui veut gagner des millions'

(Who wants to be a millionaire) Although translated directly it is actually, "Who wants to win some millions". This is hosted by the very delightful Jean-Pierre Foucault, who like Eddie, doesn't mind dragging out a question until after the ad break.

A distinctly French game show is hosted by a man with the largest facial birthmark I have ever seen on TV, Jean-Luc Reichmann. Jean-Luc hosts a show called 'Attention a la Marche' which translates to "Mind your step".

Contestants compete against each other answering quiz questions to in order to challenge the carry over champ on the final "steps" round. Each correct answer in the final round and the contestants move up a step, first to the top wins.

TF1 shows a lot of the usual American drama crap such as 'Les Experts' (CSI) 'Dr House' (House) 'Grey's Anatomy' , 'Mentalist' and others, none of which I watch cause they are all shit.

TF1 has a strong stable of Reality TV offerings such as

'Secret Story' (Big Brother), 'Koh-Lanta' (Survivor) , 'Star Academy' (where people dress up and perform as their favourite performer), but my favourite would have to be 'La Ferme Celebrities en Afrique'.

This is basically Celebrity Big Brother, but the house is actually a farm somewhere in Africa. The celebrities (none of whom I have heard of because they are all D-listers) face tasks each day which generally involve doing things they don't enjoy with animals. Eventually they will all be voted off and one will reign supreme. They are about halfway through the series at the moment.

News is always very important to any Frenchman or woman. The two most important times for news everyday are 1pm and 8pm, which is when the major news bulletins are on most channels. 'Le Journal de 20h' is the major daily news program on TF1 and it is read each day during the week by the lovely Laurence Ferrari and on weekends by Harry Roselmack.

Johnny Hallyday

Anyone outside of the French speaking world has probably never heard of Johnny Hallyday, and before I arrived in France, I had never heard of Johnny Hallyday either. However once you have set a couple of roots down in this country, it is impossible to escape the hype around Johnny Hallyday.

Who is Johnny Hallyday I hear you ask? In a nutshell he is the French version of Elvis. BUT! He differs from Elvis in quite a few ways.

First of all, he is still alive (which is more than I can say for 'The King'). Secondly, he is not particularly fat. Thirdly he sings in French. And finally he actually has the ability to act. (Sorry Elvis fans) Johnny is easily the biggest celebrity in France and his face is constantly plastered over magazines.

He is starting to get on a bit in the age department, (as he was born in 1943. This year he will be 67), however age has not stopped him from rocking on, dying his hair blonde, and having a few facelifts.

He became famous in France in the 60's by singing rock & roll songs in French. Since then his career has skyrocketd (at least in France) and has continued almost unabated until today. If you can't find something to talk about with a French person, just ask them what they think about Johnny Hallyday. A word of warning though, if you are going to do this, be prepared to be talked at for the next hour. Everyone has an opinion on him.

He has been quite prolific, in a musical sense. Since 1960 Johnny has released 45 studio albums and 26 live albums. Off the stage he has been prolific also, having been married 4 times, with 3 children, all of whom are famous in their own right.

In a testament to his on-going popularity, last year on Bastille Day, Johnny gave a free concert in the Champs des Mars, in front of the Eifell Tower, which was attended by an estimated 700,000 people.

A large shadow was cast over the French nation in November 2009. Johnny was the lead story on every news show and on the front page of

every newspaper as his deteriorating health was beamed all over France. For a week, France held its breath while Johnny was in an induced coma in a Los Angeles hospital following a botched operation to repair a herniated disc in his back following an earlier operation after being diagnosed with colon cancer. Fanatical Johnny Hallyday fans (of which there are many in France) made death threats against the doctor who botched Johnny's initial surgery.

Johnny was brought out of his coma after 3 days (much to the relief of the entire nation) and recovered well. Indeed since this Johnny has begun legal proceedings against the doctor.

Skiing in The Alps

Last week we spent a very fruitful week on the slopes at a place called Le Corbier. It was a very different experience to skiing in Australia I must say and there a few things that Perisher and their like could probably learn from some of these resorts.

First of all, this being France, the food was somewhere in the vicinity of 900 to 1000% better than anything you would ever find on the slopes in Australia. French people of course love their food, and just because you are skiing does not mean that you should miss out on sitting down and having a proper meal. Some of the restaurants we ate at up on the mountain were exceptional, as were those in the villiage. It certainly puts to shame some of the crap school camp style bistros you find on the slopes in Australia. (I am looking at you Blue Cow Terminal)

We sampled some of the local delicacies. Savoie was the region we were in, which as it turns out is the home of fondue. During our stay we sampled a couple of different types of Fondue. One was your traditional cheese type, which involved three types of cheese (beaufort, reblochon, and comte) mixed together in a heated pot, in which you dip your cured meats. The other style of fondue which we had, was a heated pot of red wine and meat broth, in which you dip cubes of raw steak. The heat of the liquid cooks the meat and it soaks up the flavour of the red wine & beef stock as part of the process. Obviously you hold your little cube in there for as little or as long as you like depending on how you like your steak.

Just because your are heading to the snow, doesn't mean you need to leave your dog back in Paris. French people love their dogs and it would be unfair that the smallest member of any French family should miss out on the annual skiing trip. I saw pooches of all sizes being walked around in the snow, (and of course pissing and crapping in the snow). I am a little unsure what the dogs do all day while their owners are out skiing however. I would imagine that there are a few carpets in Le Corbier that had become a little soiled because some poor pooch was cooped up inside for a wee bit too long while their owner had a little aperitif after a hard days skiing.

This resort would have been a great place to be a 'Liftie'. They didn't seem to do much, apart from sit in their warm little huts at the top/bottom of the ski lifs, and come out only when there was a problem. Oh sorry, did I say problem, I meant cigarette. There was not one T-bar at the entire resort (which had 72 lifts), only chair lifts and poma/j-bars. It quickly hit me why there were no T-bars at the resort, if there were T-bars, then that would mean that the lifties would actually have to do some work. Grabbing each and every T-bar down and sticking it on the arse of customers all day would not be a French persons idea of a decent job. Most of the Poma/J-bars were self service, and the liftie only came out of his/her hut if there was a major issue. Even the Poma/J-bars in Oz, are not self service, you still have a Liftie who grabs it and puts it in your arse for you, so this was a little strange to get used to.

Lift passes, were awesome, they worked on RFID. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, its the same as your little security tag at work that unlocks the door when you swipe your card near it. (Or like the E-Tag in your car at the toll booth) Each lift has a little gate, and if you are carrying a skipass as you get close to the gate it reads your pass and the gate opens. Awesome! Perisher pull your finger out and get it.

Le Corbier is part of a group of 6 ski resorts all connected called 'Les Sybelles' and is the 3rd largest resort in France. It was pretty enormous (over twice the size of Perisher Blue) so we were pretty spoilt for choice over places to ski. It was certainly a lot steeper than I had been used to in Australia and I did feel sorry for those who were learning to ski there. There were plenty of people snow plowing down runs that were way beyond their level of ability because there was not a lot of good areas for beginners. The snow was awesome and a week is never enough for skiing. But its better than nothing.