A decree banning women from wearing trousers in Paris is still technically in force. The rule banning women from dressing like men – namely by wearing trousers - was first introduced in 1800 by Paris' police chief and has survived repeated attempts to repeal it.
In 2007, French President Sarkozy commissioned Nobel prize-winning U.S. economist Joseph Stiglitz to give new thought to the way GDP is calculated so that happiness and other quality of life measurements can be included in measurements of French economic growth. But Jean-Philippe Cotis, head of France's statistics office, said if statisticians were forced to include measures of happiness into GDP calculations, the publication of statistics would happen "much later." Measuring happiness is also complex and expensive, he said.
More than 1,200 items from the homes of late fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge are being auctioned in Paris. The Christie's auction of items ranging from chandeliers to paperweights is being held in the Marigny theatre near the Champs Elysees. The four-day auction is expected to raise up to 4m euros, which Mr Berge has pledged to HIV/Aids research.
The Comité Colbert, a 70-member French luxury industry group including Christian Dior, Baccarat, Boucheron, Hermès and the Plaza Athénée hotel, have launched a webste Ccolbert.com.con, aimed at promoting French luxury goods to China’s nouveau riche, accoridng to a slavish puff in the NYTimes. The website promises “you will find yourself wandering through space, admiring marvelous images, videos and sounds and gravitating towards different constellations in the galaxy of French luxury: romance, classicism, craftsmanship, elegance and creativity.” But on a recent visit, the website was only accessible by downloading special UnityWeb player software, an obvious impediment and marketing blunder, since few
internautes are willing to install a new browser to view just one website.
Europe fears that it has become an insignificant part of the American president’s worldview. In France, Olivier Debouzy, a lawyer and former French Foreign Ministry official, wrote last week that foreign governments were “opaque” for Obama because he projected his own notion of American rationality on them. Mr. Debouzy asserted that the president also showed a sense of his and America’s superiority to foreign leaders. But wait, see next item!
People in France are content with the way the current president of the United States is doing his job, according to a poll by Ifop published in Paris Match. 84 per cent of respondents say their assessment of Barack Obama’s performance is positive.
On Nov, 5, 2009, Tony Musulin, a single 39-year-old man who drove an armored bank security van in Lyon, France, stole more than $17.2 million in unmarked bills. In his two weeks on the run, Musulin had become one of the country's most popular antiheroes. Many people in France are still very angry about the economic crisis and hold a grudge against the banking system for being one of the causes of it.
A video of French President Sarkozy awarding the Legion of Honor to
Franco-Arab actor
Dany Boon reveals Sarkozy’s trademark mix of bonhomie, egoism, crudeness, condescending paternalism, veiled racism, lame jokes, and chip-on-the-shoulder defensiveness regarding his own Jewish-Hugarian-Greek ancestry. The UK Times recommends this “unusual glimpse of the odd, defensive character of the President of France” for a better understanding of France today.
A new Web site, www.enjoybordeaux.com, set up by the Conseil Interprofessionel du Vin de Bordeaux (the promotional body for the Bordeaux wine region of France)
is aimed at lifting sales of the region’s wines in the United States. On the site, people can post questions to a panel of sommeliers, who answer via video chats.
Carla Bruni denies influencing her President-husband
UKTelegraph. Nov. 14, 2009
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the former supermodel, has denied she has any influence over political decisions made by her husband President Nicolas Sarkozy. But critics see her influence behind some of the decisions that most surprised Mr Sarkozy's core conservative supporters, including the appointment of several controversial Left-leaning figures within the establishment.
France’s Foreign Legion is now serving in the foothills of the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan as part of NATO's U.S.-led International Security Force. The legion's Afghan contingent consists of 750 men of more than 80 nationalities. Some have joined up for high-adrenaline life, some are dodging the law, some have come from poor countries simply to earn a decent wage.
Public support for Nicolas Sarkozy continues to erode in France, according to a poll by Ifop published in Paris Match. Only 39 per cent of respondents approve of the president’s performance, down six points since September. About 49 per cent of respondents approve of the way French prime minister François Fillon is handling his duties, down three points in a month.
France cheered when a security van driver stole more than 11 million euros from the Bank of France and disappeared with the loot. The popularity of criminals, especially corporate theives, reflects the prevailing French view that laws are made to be broken. This sort of anti-authoritarian anarchism shocks Anglo-Saxons, who see in it another sign of French immorality.
Book publishers and authors in most countries outside the US won a significant concessions on Friday as Google and American book industry representatives agreed to make changes to their landmark digital books settlement. The amendments, made after strong objections from the government of France and others, will mean that 95 per cent of all foreign works will no longer be included in Google’s digital book archive, said Richard Sarnoff, chairman of the Association of American Publishers.
After more than a year in the doldrums, the euro area emerged from recession during the third quarter, helped largely by export growth and improved industrial production in Germany. The European Union’s statistics agency, Eurostat, reported that France enjoyed a more muted rebound during the same period. Its G.D.P. grew 0.3 percent — the same increase as was reported during the second quarter. Analyst had expected it to grow by 0.6 percent.
France could be in for a photo finish in the next presidential election in 2012, according to a poll by CSA released by LCP. In an eventual run-off scenario, 51 per cent of respondents would vote for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and 49 per cent of respondents would vote for current president Nicolas Sarkozy.
American screen icon Clint Eastwood hs been raised to Commander in France's Legion of Honor. French President Nicolas Sarkozy presented the 79-year-old actor and director with the decoration. The UK Times’s Charles Bremner skeptically asked, “What is the service that Eastwood has rendered France?” Sarkozy's office replied that the honour is deserved because Eastwood "is a global star who is very fond of France." So basically France gives medals to famous people who like it, and then announce the mutual admiration pact as “a prestigous honor.” Totally unrelated, a few days earlier, Variety reported that Eastwood had cast Belgian actress Cécile de France in his next film, Hereafter, a meditation on death partly set in Paris.
Air France will strip down its coach-class service on European flights to reduce ticket prices by as much as 30 percent and better compete with low- cost carriers and high-speed trains.
Ft.com. November 12, 2009
Euro Disney, located outside Paris, has plunged back into the red, sending its shares 10 per cent lower on Thursday as Europe’s largest theme park missed performance targets for the 2009 financial year.
With western Europe’s biggest Muslim population (some 6 million souls), France struggles against legal and social concessions to Islam. But now,
to the dismay of some politicians on both right and left, the government is trying to introduce elements of sharia (Ilsamic financial law and practices) —under which “usury” is forbidden. As usual with France and its foreign partners, money trumps moral or ethical considerations.
Islamic finance is a growing business. Worldwide sharia-compliant assets grew by 29% over the past year to $822 billion, according to The Banker
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