Maîtres mots

  • Il y a longtemps que notre pays est beau mais rude.

       --Newspaper editor Olivier Séguret, 25 January 2012

    The USA are entirely the creation of the accursed race, the French.

       --Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966), writing to Nancy Mitford, 22 May 1957

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French Freedom of Speech

Today the cheminots are:


  • "À nous de vous faire préférer le train!"
    "Voyager autrement"
    "Avec le SNCF, tout est possible"
      --Former ad slogans of the SNCF (French national trains), each in turn quickly dropped

Fun French words

  • ouistiti

    (literally: marmoset)
    Etymology: onomatopoeia from the sound a marmoset makes. Actual meaning: this is what you say in France when you want people to smile for the camera.

    Selon une étude réalisée par le fabricant d’appareils photo Nikon, le « ouistiti » utilisé en France au moment de se faire prendre en photo est le petit mot le plus efficace pour s’assurer un joli sourire.

Who's en colère today?

  • Private sector

    First strike in 43 years at an aeronautics company in Toulouse, Latécoère


    Public sector

    The SNCF (toujours eux), regional train employees in the Lyons area guaranteeing unpleasant travel from the 17th-21st December
    Also yet another strike by Sud-Rail, a particularly truculent SNCF union in the south of France, this time five days in January: 6,7, 21, 22 and 23. "We have no choice." Right.

    Marseilles trams on strike until February

Go back to school in Paris!

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Comments

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Hi !

In a more warlike vein, "rafale" is also used as "burst" (burst of gunfire) and "hail" (hail of bullets). It's a all-purpose name which fits a fighter/interceptor such as this to a T. (smile)

There was an article the other day in one of the French financial papers stating that the avionics were "obsolete already", which was allegedly one of the reasons the South Korans and Saudis weren't signing on.

Best,
L'Amerloque

Is that what that was! I was wondering what that loud noise and zooming airplane past my window earlier today could possibly be for. Both me and my dog jumped when we heard it.
Thanks for clarifying! I like your blog a lot.

At LeBourget on 21Sept06 at ca. 1500 hrs saw two groups of four fighters make one low level pass on a heading of approx 150. Each formation consisted of two Tornadoes (?) in a line followed closely by two Rafales. The latter had white painted nose sections and blue fuselages. I have a low quality photo of the 2nd group that I can send to anyone interested. Don't know what the occasion was but they surely went over Paris!

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Today's quotation

  • In Paris, the purest virtue is the object of the filthiest slander.

      –Honoré Balzac (1799-1850), in Scènes de la vie privée

    À Paris, la vertu la plus pure est l'objet des plus sales calomnies.

Le petit aperçu d'Ailleurs

  • Annual Geminids meteor shower (shooting stars!) coming this weekend, if it's not too cloudy out at night.

News about France in English

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