Strikingly Different
French attitudes to demonstrating are in sharp contrast to our own British approach.
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Froggy News - July 2007
French attitudes to demonstrating are in sharp contrast to our own British approach.
Who will be high on Sunday’s flat stage?
2004 Tour de France finale
Every morning before leaving my apartment, I buy a newspaper from the kiosque on the opposite side of the road. It seems the French have fallen ill to Tour de France fever. Everyone is high on disappointment. Sipping my very own drug à la caféine, hallucinations of newspaper cartoons mimicking a bunch of druggie cyclists climbing up the Alps make me chuckle to myself. Then, while scraping the last dregs from my espresso I take a look at the morning’s newspaper, L’équipe. It unapologetically tries to ignore the event’s drug ridden demise in an attempt to make this year’s Tour de France an intoxicated sporting success. Today’s headline, "Le Tour en Marche", is a mere stab in the dark at pumping up the events deflated tyres
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Culinary conversations on a terrace
The word restaurant was first used in Paris by an eighteenth century soup vender who went by the name of Monsieur Boulanger. Two hundred and forty two years later, I find my self basking on the terrace of a modern day ‘Boulangian’ equivalent in the heart of Paris. Every time my French girlfriend and I treat ourselves to a meal at one of Paris’s many dainty and modestly set restaurants, I am continuously astounded by the experience
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Bicycle frenzy in full swing
Almost two years ago during a trip to Lyon, I was amongst the first to experience an innovative and genius new scheme giving city dwellers the opportunity to travel round the city by bike. Moreover, I don’t seem to remember paying a single Euro for the pleasure. Gone were the days of gazing haphazardly into a labyrinth like map of bus routes; no more extortionate taxi rides either. All I had to do was jump on a push bike and peddle to my hearts content
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Joyous scenes along the Seine
Walking along the rive droite of the Seine is as soothing an experience as it is awe-inspiring in the months or July and August. Although toplessness and skimpy bikini wearing were outlawed last summer, Paris Plage is back in style for another four weeks of summer festivities. I admit wholeheartedly that the splendid concoction of music concerts, newspaper corners , reading tents, open-air internet cafés and this year’s all new boating attraction makes London’s murky river banks seem all the more flaccid
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Britain and France in mutual agreement? Not very likely
Three years ago, while Britain and France were celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the entente cordiale, it was revealed that only 9% of Britons admitted to feeling an affinity with France compared with 24% who admired America. Only 4% of French people said they could trust the British. Tony Blair was over a year into his dealings with the Iraq war and Jacques Chirac registered a net popularity rating of plus 19 points in comparison to Tony Blair's minus 20
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Living the bohemian dream
La Tour Montparnasse in Paris's fourteenth arrondissement
Today, I find myself in the centre of Paris’s fourteenth arrondissement, just south of the river and a short walk from the famous Boulevard Saint Michel. Just two weeks after my arrival in Paris, I am sharing my living space with an Australian author, an American student at l’école polytechnique and an English lecturer at the Sorbonne. The landlord is an artist who used to be a soldier in the French foreign legion. Admittedly, such a mixture was never predicted
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