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.