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.