Life's a beach for Saudi king

Mirandole beach (screenshot BFM TV news report)

What do you do if you're the king of Saudi Arabia holidaying at your private villa on the Côte d'Azur in the south of France for a month with an entourage of around a 1,000 people and you discover there's a public beach (albeit small) at the foot of where you're staying?


The answer is simple really.

You flout the laws of the land, start constructing your own personal lift (after all, it would be too stressful to have to walk) and block access for anyone else.

It's a story that has been brewing for the past fortnight when French national media began reporting that preparations were underway for the impending one-month-long stay of the king of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, at his luxury villa in the town of Vallauris.

"The White Palace on the water", Vallauris (screenshot BBC news report)

 To avoid any unwanted hoi polloi upsetting the king's holiday plans and to ensure his privacy and security (and that of his family), the Mirandole beach at the foot of the villa was closed temporarily while the necessary construction work (without permits) was undertaken.

Some locals, upset by the manner in which a public beach seemed to have been commandeered without any consultation  were concerned that the closure would be extended for the duration of king's visit.

It's a fear that has become a reality as, even though  Michelle Salucki, the mayor of Vallauris, put a temporary stop to the work and wrote to the French president, François Hollande, to argue against the de facto privatisation of public property, she was overruled by higher powers with the sous-préfet, Philippe Castanet, invoking the need to provide security for a visiting head of state and Hollande...well, not reacting at all.

Yes, it's all a question of security...oh and the not-so-small matter of purchasing power.

Cash rich and shopping happy Saudis apparently come with the reputation of spending - big time.

And several reports have appeared on French telly showing how pleased local (luxury, of course) shop owners are at the prospect of all that lovely lolly passing through their hands.

Sod principles and the fact that public beaches are exactly that - public - and supposedly accessible (although there are plenty of other exceptions that prove the rule) to all.

And ditto for the petition that has so far attracted over 100,000 signatures insisting that the beach should be "available for the benefit of all".

"I'm talking about the equality of citizens before the law and the respect of coastal law," local councillor Jean-Noel Falcou said in  BBC news report (see, this story has captured the interest of media outside of France).

"A natural area, a public beach, is an inalienable. It's part of our common property. The point we wanted to make is that not everything can be bought."

Sadly Monsieur Falcou, it appears it can if the power behind the money is one authorities don't wish to offend.



Vallauris: la famille royale saoudienne veut... par afp

Sarcelles - two months after anti-Semitic violence at pro-Palestinian rally

"Is there a ‘rising tide’ of anti-Semitism in the West?" asked the BBC on its site back in August 2014.

While the figures the Beeb presented in its piece seemed to question newspaper headlines suggesting a significant increase, it admitted that anti-Semitism clearly remained a problem.

And this clip from a recent edition of France 2's investigative news magazine "Complément d'enquête" will surely only fuel the debate here in France.

(screenshot from "Complément d'enquête")

The TV crew revisited Sarcelles, "a multi-religious suburb north of Paris with a vibrant Jewish community", the scene of attacks on Jewish-owned businesses and a synagogue during a banned demonstration in July again the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

It was to "take the temperature" among those living in the town, two months after the events, and one young man they interviewed had no qualms expressing sentiments which, to say the least, were shocking.

So much so that the mayor of Sarcelles, François Pupponi, condemned the "calls of hatred and murder" expressed during the interview and said on his Facebook page that he would ask the justice minister, Christine Taubira, to "begin proceedings" against the individuals interviewed.

The clip is in French, of course, and you can judge for yourselves whether the interviewee was fully aware of what he was saying or whether it was a more a case of a puffed-up few minutes of (hateful) television "fame".

Face caméra, un jeune de Sarcelles déclare: "Ici, les juifs on les tue si on veut !" sur WAT.tv 

Universal Music's boss pays unsuitable "tribute" to Georges Moustaki

French singer-songwriter Georges Moustaki died on Thursday at the age of 79.

As you would probably expect from an artist of his stature, there were many moving tributes.

The national daily Le Figaro called Moustaki "un artiste extraordinaire"

On her official page, the minister of culture, Aurélie Filippetti, paid homage to "the man who had composed for some of France's musical giants before revealing himself as a great interpreter of his own songs."

Given Moustaki's roots (both his parents came from Corfu) TF1 took perhaps the more "popular", but nonetheless fitting approach.

Alongside running a segment on Moustaki's career, the channel's prime time news sought the reactions of a couple other famous Greeks (in France).

A tearful Nana Mouskouri sang him a short "message of love" and TV presenter Nikos Aliagas remembered the "sincerity in his eyes".

Outside of France, international news organisations such as the BBC and Deutsche Welle ran pieces on their sites.

And the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova sent her condolences to Moustaki's family and friends in a statement on her official page.

Inevitably their were also tributes from the famous and the less well known on Twitter, expressing their sense of loss and admiration for the man, or simply linking to videos and performances of their favourite songs.

Everyone, it seemed, wanted to their pay respects to the man and his life - and quite rightly.

Except for one particular person. Pascal Nègre, the head of Universal Music, France - the label for which Moustaki recorded.

 Alongside calling Moustaki one of "the last legends, an artist and a poet" Nègre couldn't, it seems, resist reminding his 35,000 or so followers that Moustaki's works were available on Universal - ending his tasteful Tweet with RIP.

While many might view Nègre's Tweet as inappropriate (and indeed were soon poking fun at it in reply), he couldn't see anything wrong with what he had done.

"Why should I regret it?" he said.  "I paid tribute to an artist we were fortunate enough to produce and I simply gave information that we hold a lot of his musical catalogue."

Well, as you obviously need telling M. Nègre, it's called opportunism. And it's in pretty poor taste.





Georges Moustaki - Le facteur par kyssiane

Not yet another flippin' TV cooking programme - French MasterChef season 3

Turn on French telly it seems, and among the trash reality programmes, imported US series and sports you'll be treated to something that in recent years has become a trend - cooking shows.

Thursday sees the return to French screens of MasterChef - for its third season.

MasterChef - The contestants (screenshot TF1)

Yep the self-proclaimed home of gastronomy and the country which has, if not exactly its food then the whole business of preparing, serving and eating it as one of Unesco's intangible world heritages, has succumbed to the invasion of the culinary game show that, quite frankly, seems to put the emphasis as much on it being a contest as it does the obvious talent that some participants have.

It's not enough that there's a whole channel, Cuisine +, dedicated to food and what can be done with it in the kitchen (available without encryption to those who have the very basic Canal + subscription on channel 41)

Both M6 and TF1 have taken concepts which originated in the United Kingdom and adapted them for a French viewing public.

On M6 there's a daily serving of "Un dîner presque parfait" (based on Channel 4's "Come dine with me") which has also morphed into a "very best of" version to find an annual winner among the purely hobby cooks.

And proving there can never be too much of a good thing. the channel also has Top Chef an adaptation of the US show - this time professionals who obviously need the exposure take on each other to be crowned...well you fill in the blanks.

Both the very best of Un dîner presque parfait and Top Chef have more or less the same set of judges.

For the moment TF1 has just the one cooking game show, MasterChef - oh and the inevitable sidekick, Junior MasterChef for the highly precocious.

The original concept is of course British - so a huge round of applause to the BBC - dating from 1990 and revamped into the international monster it has since become in 2005.

Sadly France has also caught the bug

There's little need to explain how it works. Even of you're unfamiliar with the original, it doesn't take a doctorate to work out that the a panel of judges struts and tuts, nods and shakes collective heads and decides the fate of the contestants as they're put through ever more ludicrous kitchen scenarios to find the eventual winner.

MasterChef - the judges (screenshot TF1)

Chefs Frédéric Anton and Yves Camdeborde along with journalist and food critic (and thereby living by the maxim perhaps of those who can't, write about it) Sébastien Demorand
will be returning once again as the jury.

The (cough, cough) "excellent" Carole Rousseau will play host (not much to do there apart from call out names and explain to viewers what's happening in her monotonous pitch) and all the contestants of course are going to give the best of themselves - not just 100 per cent worth because that would be undestatement but 200 per cent, 500 - or hey even a 1,000 per cent. Why not?



Something like 24,000 apparently applied to take part, but thankfully the judges have whittled that down to (just) 100 among whom of course will be this year's winner.

Full of hyperbole, the promotional videos says the level of candidates this year is incredibly high (well it's hardly going to say they're a bunch of no-hopers, now is it?) there are going to be more surprises, some really difficult tests and  of course exceptional moments including - apparently - serving up a meal from a cave for some pot holers!



Why?

Well, because this is not really about cooking is it? Instead it's a game, entertainment in which, we're led to believe, the best cook wins.

To avoid the programme, be sure to be watching another channel or doing something entirely different from 20h50 on Thursday evening.

Bon appetit.

French Olympic champion Florent Manaudou in BBC transgender error

Ah the joys of the Internet.

The surprise winner of the 50 metres freestyle, Florent Manaudou, certainly appears to have something of a sexual orientation issue if you read the BBC's initial report on the race.

Florent Manaudou (screenshot TV5 Monde

 

Oh there's a photo of the strapping lad all right - all 1.99 metres of the 21-year-old giving what appears to be a cry of delight after winning in a time 21.34 seconds in a race that, if you blinked, seemed almost to be over before it had begun.

But then read a little further into the piece and that's when you discover that for the BBC, Manaudou - Florent that is - described as "the sister of former Olympic 400m freestyle champion Laure."

(screenshot from BBC site)

OK someone made a silly mistake and probably a person who knows little or nothing about sport - which 12 hours later still hadn't been corrected (perhaps it has by now).

But it brings a smile to the face and it's humbling that even an esteemed broadcaster such as the Beeb can make such a glaring blunder in its effort to be first and not necessarily the most accurate with the news.

"Tourette's Superstar" - French parody - funny or lame?

In March the BBC announced plans to launch a new kind of reality TV show - one which "will follow three Tourette's sufferers as they prepare to sing live in front of friends and family."

It was apparently no April Fool and it didn't take long for French "comedians" to latch on to the idea of parodying the idea.

Nicole Ferroni and Jérémy Ferrari (screenshot "On n'demande qu'à en rire")

The lampooning came in a recent edition of "On n'demande qu'à en rire", an early evening comedy show broadcast on France 2 public television to provide a showcase for new talent.

The whole premise of the programme, devised and presented by Laurent Ruquier, is that established comedians can help give up-and-coming ones a helping hand by telling them what they think of their sketches and voting accordingly.

The studio audience also gets its say as does the viewing public - once a week.

Contestants are given a topical story as the theme of their stand-up routine and if they secure enough points they can come back again...and again...and again.

The whole thing is a sort of wannabe factory production line for would-be comedians with professionals giving their thoughts on those that might follow in their footsteps.

So in principal, the idea has something going for it.

Except for one thing.

It's extremely unfunny most of the time.

On the whole it's not clever or entertaining but rather daft and mindless.

Take the case of that recent sketch lampooning the BBC's plans for a Tourette's TV reality show by Jérémy Ferrari.

It earned the perfect score - 100/100 - from the judges, Ruquier and the studio audience.

Ferrari is one of the darlings of the show having appeared more than 70 times and together with several other regulars, put on a performance of Tourette Academy.

He was the MC - a sort of cross between Benjamin Castaldi (Loft story and Secret Story) and Nikos Aliagas (Star Academy) - his "partners in comic crime" were the contestants.

The audience howled, the judges were full of praise and Ruquier was beside himself.

Really? Was it that funny?

Or do you think it's all...well rather lame?

It doesn't matter if you don't speak French as the sketch really is a case of one where actions speak more clearly than words.

French-bred horse Neptune Collonges wins Grand National - but at what price?

Saturday was the 165th running of what is for many in the United Kingdom a national institution; the Grand National at Aintree.

Neptune Collonges (Wikipedia)

And just as every year since 1960, the BBC broadcast the race live.

In France it could be seen on...er the equine sporting channel Equidia live TV and there was a special reason for the French to be in front of their screens applauding because for the second time in four years a French-bred horse won.

Back in 2009 it was 100-1 outsider Mon Mome who won by 12 lengths.

This time around it was a much closer affair with another French-bred, British-trained horse, the 11-year-old grey thoroughbred Neptune Collonges putting in an amazing turn of speed to beat Sunnyhillboy by a nose in a photo finish.

And that after four miles and four furlongs of what is arguably the most gruelling of horse races.

Neptune Collonges in photo finish with Sunnyhillboy (screenshot Racing UK TV)

But somewhat overshadowing the thrill of the win has been the death of another of horse in the race, Synchronised.

Before the field was underway this year's Gold Cup winner had provided and made quite a spectacle of himself unseating his rider, champion jockey AP McCoy, but being passed fit by course vets to race once he had calmed down.

Everyone knew and knows how dangerous horseracing is and perhaps the Grand National is the most challenging race there is.

But safety measures have been tightened over the years and officials have made changes to the course and size of some of the fences and the infamous Becher's Brook, although still surely the most frightening of obstacles, isn't quite what it once was.

And it was to be Becher's that would prove to be the undoing of the nine-year-old Synchronised when he fell and unseated McCoy on the first circuit.

These horses are bred to race and jump though. They love it and live it, don't they?

That's the argument put forward by many and indeed the way the riderless Synchronised continued jumping certainly seemed to add weight to that argument.

Except five fences he fractured a leg as a result of jumping and had to be put down.

And he wasn't the only fatality during this year's race.

According to Pete, suffered the same demise after he was brought down at Becher's second time around.

In fact, a quick look at recent statistics from the British Horseracing Authority shows that 20 horses have died in races over Grand National fences since 2001 and 10 have died in the race itself in the last 12 years.

Yes the day was a great result for French-bred horses but as a sporting event - was it really worth it?

Do the French really need 72-hour antiperspirant protection? Does anyone?

There's a myth - still doing the rounds apparently - that the French don't like washing and instead prefer to douse themselves with perfume.

Take a look at this dumb question posted on a health forum and answered last year.

In 2005 the BBC's Denise Winterman looked at some of the reasons the British in particular might still hold (ignorant) stereotypical notions of French toiletry habits.

It was one element in an article exploring how some British viewed "their cross-channel neighbours with suspicion and antipathy."

That the French have an aversion to soap and water or - at least are not as clean as other nationalities - is of course more than just fallacy. It's discourteous, xenophobic and has no place in the minds of any sane thinking person.

So why then do the manufacturers of antiperspirants choose to market a product to the French that promises "48 hour protection"?

And there's worse still in terms of their judgement on the perceived personal hygiene needs of the French because some also offer 72-hours-worth of "security".

Who the heck needs 72-hour protection?

That's three whole days of accumulated perspiration for men or glow for women - bearing in mind that only horses "sweat".

What in heaven's name is going through the minds of manufacturers when they come up with the idea that anybody requires such a product in everyday life?

This apparent desire not to wash and instead use a deodorant is admittedly not just a French phenomenon - at least not if the commercials are to believed

Scoot around YouTube and you'll pull up any number of ads from countries around the world all presenting the virtues of 48 and 72-hour protection.



Here are just a few - some tasteful - others less so.







What next? 96 hours perhaps.

It gives new meaning to the reaction "Hum"

French "help" for Ben Ali stuck at Paris airport

Equipment to "maintain law and order" including police uniforms and tear gas, destined to be delivered to Tunisia before the fall of its former president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali has been stuck at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport since last Friday.

But there are conflicting explanations as to why it was never dispatched.

On Wednesday the French government's official spokesman, François Baroin, confirmed that an order, placed by the former Tunisian president with a private company in France, had been prevented from leaving Paris shortly before his fall from power.

"Ben Ali placed an order directly with the company supplying the equipment," he said.

"Customs officials did their job correctly and it never left," he added without, as the weekly news magazine Nouvel Observateur pointed out, wanting to elaborate on what role (if any) the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, had played in the decision.

As far as the French website Rue89 is concerned the load, containing as much as seven tonnes of tear gas, was held up because of "technical rather than political" problems.

Tear gas for Tunisia (screenshot from Rue89 video)

Customs officials authorised the export of the equipment, it says, but red tape and in particular the "need for it to be inspected" got in the way.

The journalist Jean-Dominique Merchet, who specialises in military and defence topics, offers up a different explanation though.

On his blog for the magazine Marianne, Merchet wrote that the 'plane carrying the cargo was due to leave late on Friday morning but customs officials "suddenly became very picky."

Soon afterwards, according to Merchet, the head of Sofexi, the group supplying the equipment, received a call from the "highest authority at the Elysée informing him that delivery was out of the question."

Such contradictory explanations are perhaps only to be expected from a country which the BBC described as having been "in a fluster over the Tunisian crisis"; a reaction that still seems to prevail perhaps as illustrated by Rue89's unsuccessful attempts to discover what will now happen to the equipment held at Roissy.

When it contacted the ministry of defence it was referred to the interior ministry, which then referred it to the Elysée which in turn referred it to the ministry of foreign affairs, from which it is still waiting for a reply...



Du gaz lacrymogène bloqué à Roissy
envoyé par rue89. - L'info video en direct.

Rachida Brakni's banking dilemma

Do you think the French actress Rachida Brakni had any problems with the recent remarks made by her husband Eric Cantona?

Rachida Brakni (screenshot from LCL commercial)

You remember surely.

Cantona is the former French international footballer who called on people to withdraw all their money from their bank accounts.

The suggestion from the newly-discovered "political philosopher" (as one BBC report dubbed him) came during an informal interview with journalists in October.

His idea was that rather than taking to the streets to demonstrate, people could go to the local branch of their bank and withdraw all their money, "Causing the banking system to crumble".

A peaceful protest of sorts to send a message to the whole banking system and financial services which, as far as Cantona was concerned, were at the root of much of the current misery in the world; homelessness, poverty, injustice.



It was a message that quickly found its way on to the Net with a campaign beginning, a date fixed for the "revolution" and financial experts and politicians wading in to urge caution.

The day of protest (December 7) came and went.

The world survived.

But wait.

What about that initial question as to whether Brakni had a problem with her husband's remarks.

After all she must know the guy pretty well. They've been married for the past three years and the couple have a one-year-old son, Emir.

The question has to be asked though because...well what was that commercial the 33-year-old actress appeared in for a couple of weeks back in April this year?

Oh yes. That's right.

It was for one of France's biggest banks LCL (Le Crédit Lyonnais) encouraging people to apply for mortgages - of all things.

Rachida Brakni dazns une publicité LCL Vidéo jeanmarcmorandini sélectionnée dans Pub

Ho hum.

Dinner time in the Cantona-Brakni household must have made for interesting conversation.