(Really) Petty theft - grounds for suspension?

Hot on the heels of a French supermarket which backed down after threatening to sack an employee for "stealing" from a rubbish bin, comes an incident of a similar nature.

USB key (from Wikipedia, author Usb-thumb-drive.jpg: Evan-Amos)

This time around it concerns a store from one of the country's largest chains and a name known throughout many parts of the world, Carrefour.

As reported in the regional daily Le Dauphine Libéré, management at one of its stores just outside of the southern French city of Avignon has suspended two employees for, as the paper headlines the story "stealing a couple of pens and some chewing gum."

Now while that might tell part of the story and give the impression that management has meted out a punishment that seems inappropriate to the alleged crime committed, it remains a little misleading.

As the paper goes on to say, management claims to have caught the pair red-handed as they left the store, not just with a couple of pens and some gum but also a USB key.

"I just took the pens to use for work," Yassine, one of the men who has been suspended, told the newspaper.

"None of the products was on the shelf and they would all have ended up in the bin or being given to the Food Bank," he added.

Hmmn. The argument that a USB key - or a ballpoint or fountain pen for that matter - might, if thrown out, find its way to the Food Bank doesn't seem a very convincing line of defence does it?.

But perhaps the fact that the "hoard" taken by the two men is reckoned to be worth between 20 and 25 euros suggests that the store's management has rather overreacted.

It's hardly an amount to make a dent in Carrefour's profits.

Of course as far as the director of the store, Fabrice Bertin is concerned, that's not the point, nor the fact that Yassine has worked for Carrefour for the past six years.

"Theft is a serious offence and can result in a warning, a layoff or dismissal," he told the French website Le Post.

"For the moment the case is being investigated and I'll meet the two men on July 20 to decide what measures, if any, to take."

Claude Guéant's "dildo" voting rules slip-of-the-tongue

Oh don't you just love it when a politician commits a slip-of-the-tongue?

It's especially gratifying when it's a blunder that gives a completely different meaning to what was meant to be said and furthermore comes from someone who doesn't come across as particularly "sympa", as the French would say, or personable.

Claude Guéant (screenshot from Le Post video)

Such was the case this week with the interior minister Claude Guéant.

He has made something of a name for himself since taking office at the end of February primarily for his racist and xenophobic remarks such as the "French no longer felt at home in France" and "France doesn't need foreign bricklayers and waiters".

This time around it was nothing so obnoxious - just a simple blooper which proved that he is human after all.

Guéant was speaking to parliamentarians in the National Assembly and addressing the issue of the Socialist party's primary to choose its candidate in next year's presidential election.

The governing centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) if which Guéant is a member isn't too happy about the primary on a number of levels.

It'll be open to anyone as long as they register and if it's successful could potentially give the party a momentum heading into next year's election proper.

It also raises the question as to whether there shouldn't be a similar sort of primary for the UMP, especially as the current president, Nicolas Sarkozy, isn't the most popular of political figures and some from his party might be quite happy with an alternative candidate.

So the UMP has been questioning the legality of the Socialist party's primary (along with that of the Europe Écologie - Les Verts party, EELV) on the grounds that drawing up lists of potential participants in the voting process contravenes the law.

But that wasn't quite how it came out of Guéant's mouth as he substituted "code électoral" or the voting rules and process with "gode électoral" or the electoral dildo.

Guéant's gaffe was similar to the one made by the former justice minister and now member of the European parliament Rachida Dati, back in April when, during a television interview, she too managed to muddle "code" and "gode".

Dati has something of a reputation for unintentional sexual innuendo - remember her much-reported "inflation/fellatio" faux pas last year - and admits that she often talks too fast.

Guéant though is a much more dour character and as can be seen from the accompanying video from the French news website Le Post, he was speaking much more deliberately... and from notes.



lapsus: Claude Guéant évoque "le gode" électoral par LePostfr

La Ciotat - France's first non-smoking beach

If you're thinking of lighting up while sunbathing on the beach in the southern French town of La Ciotat, make sure that smoking is allowed.

Plage Lumière, La Ciotat (screenshot from BFM TV)

Because the local authority of the town, that is just half-an-hour's drive from the city of Marseille, has decided to follow the example set by New York earlier this year by banning smoking on one if its beaches.

It's a first in France and, as the deputy mayor Noël Collura says, is a way of allowing families with small children the chance to enjoy the beach without coming across cigarette ends in the sand or being disturbed by smoke.

What's more smokers seem to be respecting the ban.

"We thought we would be handing out lots of fines," he told BFM TV.

"But that just doesn't appear to have been the case," he continued.

"Instead if someone tries to light up on the beach it's usually one of the other holidaymakers who'll point out to them that it's a non-smoking area."

No-smoking sign on Plage Lumière, La Ciotat (screenshot from BFM TV)

Just to ensure that smokers respect the ban, police regularly patrol the beach, and they can hand out fines of up to €38.

On the whole though, their job at the moment has just been one of pointing out the new restrictions.

"We ask them either to put out the cigarette or to smoke outside of the zone," policeman Cédric Chartier told France 2 news

"Usually there's no problem and they do as we request."

Apparently the Town Hall has already been contacted by other seaside resorts in France thinking of introducing similar bans.

Meanwhile if you're in La Ciotat and are really desperate for a ciggie while you sunbathe then, as the French news website Le Post points out, you'll still be able to.

The ban only applies to the Plage Lumière - for the moment - which still leaves smokers free to

Mélanie Laurent - France's latest singing actress

Mélanie Laurent has released her debut album, En t'attendant.

So what? You might be thinking. Well the fact of the matter is that she's not really a singer - well at least not until now.

And some are not sure that Laurent really is, even after the release of her debut album on May 2.

Mélanie Laurent (screenshot from clip En t'attendant)

The 28-year-old is an accomplished actress and already has one César (the French equivalent of an Oscar) under her belt as most promising actress in the excellent 2006 film Je vais bien, ne t'en fais pas.

Since then Hollywood has sat up and taken notice and she secured the role of Shosanna Dreyfus in Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds.

Laurent has also written and directed films; one of them, De moins en moins, was nominated for Best short film at the 2008 Cannes film festival, which brings us full circle as she'll be maîtresse de cérémonie at both the opening and closing of this year's cinematographic extravaganza on the French Riviera.

Somehow, somewhere along the way, Laurent has also managed to pack in recording her debut album En t'attendant.

The two-year project with the Irish musician Damien Rice resulted in what Laurent calls, "The fulfilment of a childhood dream."

"I didn't wake up one morning and think 'Hey I think I could be a singer'," she says.

And that's probably just as well because the impression you could have of some French actresses throughout the years is that they have had exactly that thought.

The list of those who've had a stab at treating the rest of us to their vocal cords includes (among many, many others) Catherine Deneuve, Brigitte Bardot, Isabelle Adjani, Jeanne Moreau, Sandrine Kiberlain, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Vanessa Paradis.

Some, such as Gainsbourg and Paradis, have made the transition back and forth without any problem.

Others - well perhaps it would have been better had they stuck to their day job.

So which camp does Laurent belong to?

Well reviews for her album have been mixed.

There has been praise for Rice's arrangements and the strength of his voice (on two duets) but doubts cast on the quality of Laurent's and her ability to deliver.

"The album is beautifully made...and often seductive," says Radio France Internationale.

"But Laurent needs to impose her personality more in her voice."

And that's a point of view picked up by Frederic Le Rouzo writing for the French website Le Post.

He applauds Laurent's approach describing it as "simple and modest" but at the same time the impression the listener has, "is of a flat voice, banal...one which does not transmit emotion or make us dream."

"One can only wish her a continued acting career in which she will easily find success," he concludes.

Ouch!

Laurent hasn't taken such criticism well and reacted angrily in an interview with the regional daily Le Berry républicain during Le Printemps de Bourges.

She was appearing at the music festival shortly before the release of her album..

Laurent lashed out at journalists saying that they seemed only too willing to criticise and that it didn't seem to matter someone in the public eye said or did, there were those only too willing to find something disparaging to say.



You can judge for yourselves by listening to the title track of the album.

And cast an eye over the comments from those who really count - potential fans.

Some are enthusiastic but other are far from being gentle with the suggestion that the last thing France needs is "another Carla Bruni-Sarkozy" soundalike.

Ooh. That's a little below the belt.

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy pregnancy rumours

Speculation is rife on the Net that France's first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is pregnant.

The source of course is an irreproachable one; the French weekly celebrity gossip magazine Closer, which asserts in its latest edition that "someone very close to the couple," had provided the information.


It's a story which really doesn't matter whether it's true. The very fact that it's out there in the public domain - albeit it Twitterdom and the less serious elements of the mainstream media - means that it has somewhat taken on a life of its own.

The presidential office - the Elysée palace - has reacted of sorts when questioned by the national weekly newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche with "It's a matter which touches on the private life of the president" - another way of saying "No comment' in a country which has very strict laws which are largely accepted when it comes to public figures.

Perhaps that explains why the so-called story has not really made on the sites or pages of France's main newspapers and magazines, let alone the airwaves and screens of radio and television.

As Bruno Roger-Petit points out on the French website Le Post, there has been almost complete indifference from the mainstream media (other than the usual suspects) to the speculation so far.

Perhaps that's not so surprising as this is the third time in as many years that rumours have surfaced about an impending patter of tiny feet at the Elysée palace.

Just run a Google search and you'll be able to pull up umpteen articles maintaining Bruni-Sarkozy has at one point or another been expecting.

Be that as it may, Closer is sticking to its guns this time around.

The editor of the magazine, Laurence Pieau, confirmed the "scoop" to the national daily Le Parisien, saying that she was certain the information was more than reliable.

"We would not have divulged the news without being completely sure," she said.

"It has been corroborated by several different sources and we are convinced that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is in the earliest weeks of her pregnancy."

The next few days and weeks will tell whether the rumour is true, but in the meantime, Closer has created a buzz, ensured its sales for the following week, and taken everyone's mind away from political affairs that might actually be of some importance over the coming year as campaigning hots up for the presidential elections in May 2012.

Sarkozy's government reshuffle and the Neuilly-sur-Seine "quintuplets"

Much has been made over the past couple of days of the government reshuffle here in France.

For some perhaps it was a case of "out with the old and in with the older" as familiar faces such as Alain Juppé and Xavier Bertrand made a return to the political front line and a whole heap of potential electoral threats in the 2012 presidential race were summarily dispatched to pastures new.

But while the instinct is perhaps to get bogged down in the minutiae of what it all means - or doesn't - politically speaking, there are of course some slightly more irreverent angles on the current line-up of ministers.

There's the fact that Michèle Alliot-Marie, a stalwart of the ruling centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) now takes over at the foreign ministry; her fourth consecutive top notch job (following defence, interior and justice) since she re-entered the government back in 2002.

And there's the appointment of her partner Patrick Ollier as the minister responsible for parliamentary relations, making the pair perhaps the most politically powerful couple in France, and the subject of a smile or two maybe as they attend their first cabinet meeting together on Wednesday.

If that were not enough, there's also the "bizarre" (as the French website Le Post puts it) coincidence that no fewer than five of the now 31-strong government (cabinet and junior ministers combined) were born in the same place.

Where?

Neuilly-sur-Seine, the swanky, wealthy suburb to the west of the French capital, and very much the former stomping ground of the French president himself.

Rue Berteaux-Dumas, Neuilly-sur-Seine, (from Wikipedia, author - Metropolitan)

Sarkozy was mayor of the town from 1983 to 2002.

He spent much of his childhood in Neuilly and his mother, Andrée, still lives there.

Sarkozy's second son, Jean, is currently a regional councillor representing the town in which he, of course, was born.

As France 2 television points out, the French sociologist Michel Pinçon doesn't find it so surprising that Sarkozy has turned to those whose roots are in a town which "embodies social excellence" even if it is a place which in no way reflects the rest of the country.

"It's the town which has the highest number of people paying wealth tax in France," he writes in the book he co-authored with his wife, Monique, "Le président des riches".

"Even being born in Neuilly and not necessarily living there is of social significance."

All right, so it might be stretching a point somewhat to imply that Neuilly has somehow become Sarkozy's preferred recruiting territory.

But perhaps it's something to mull over during Tuesday evening's hour-plus television broadcast (on three channels) when Sarkozy will doubtless deny the suggestion (should he be asked) that his reshuffle is nothing more than strengthening his position within the UMP to run for re-election in 2012.

Just for the record the Neuilly "quintuplets", as Le Post calls them, are Brice Hortefeux, Frédéric Lefebvre, Bruno Le Maire, Valérie Pécresse and Georges Tron.

World's oldest living twins aren't French but Belgian - or are they?

A couple of weeks ago the French media was paying tribute to Raymonde Saumade and Lucienne Grare as the pair celebrated their 98th birthday and entered the "Guinness World Records" 2011 edition as the oldest living twins.

It was a story that caught the imagination of many broadcasters and news outlets around the world and one which definitely appeared to have legs.

The TV cameras showed up, journalists seemed to fall over themselves to discover the secret of the sisters' longevity, which they revealed included the odd tipple by drinking "whisky or pastis, and mixing in a bit of exercise".

The pair certainly seemed to make a fine couple as they basked in their new-found notoriety.

Except it transpires that Raymonde and Lucienne aren't the world's oldest living twins, even if they will officially appear as such in the next edition of the "Guinness World Record".

According to Belgian media, there are a couple of sisters living in the French-speaking part of the country, Wallonia, who last weekend celebrated their 100th birthdays.

Screenshot from Belgian television, Gabrielle Vaudremer and Marie Hendrix - the world's oldest living twins?

And naturally the country's television cameras were on hand to film Gabrielle Vaudremer and Marie Hendrix as proof that the world's media and the "Guinness World Record" book had got it wrong.

The oldest living twins are Belgian.



Or are they?

You see Gabrielle and Marie, although definitely two years older than Raymonde and Lucienne (they have the birth certificates to prove it) hadn't taken the necessary steps to make their claim official.

A "formal application" has to be made for a record to be entered into the publication and although Craig Glenday, its editor-in-chief, has "invited all twins who able to prove they're over the age of 98 to submit an approved request" for the moment it's the younger French sisters who are officially the oldest living twins - if that makes sense.

Just for the record there is apparently another pair of French twins, Paulette Olivier et Simone Thiot, who are eight months older than the "record holders" but they're happy allowing Raymonde and Lucienne to grab the limelight by preferring their peace and tranquility and refusing to talk to the media.

And to complicate matters even more, the Belgian twins (Gabrielle and Marie in case you've lost track) were actually born near the northern French town of Beauvais before moving to Belgium as children.

So are the world's oldest living twins French or Belgian?

Or perhaps neither as the French website Le Post points out that according to the "Shanghai Guinness World Records" book, sisters Qiao Junior and Qiao Senior turned 105 last year.

The death of Jocelyn Quivrin and the rise of the "new monsters"

The omnipresent mobile 'phone complete with camera capability can capture moments that many, and not just those in the media spotlight, might wish to forget.

A quick "click" and the damage is done with videos and pictures making their way to a wider audience via the Net as everyone and anyone becomes a "photojournalist".

But sometimes there has to be a limit, as would hopefully appear to be the case in the recent death of the French actor, Jocelyn Quivrin.

Just over a week ago Quivrin was killed in a road accident as he apparently lost control of his car at the entrance to a tunnel on a motorway in a western suburb of Paris.

Quivrin, who most recently appeared in the French film LOL (Laughing out loud) alongside Sophie Marceau, was just 30 years old.

Initial media reports suggested that he had been driving his Ariel Atom, a high performance sports car, well in excess of the speed limit especially as the vehicle's speedometer had been blocked on impact at 230 kilometres per hour (143 mph).

Police however were more circumspect and their caution seemed to be warranted according to a report in the daily newspaper Le Parisien, which said that experts' analysis indicated that he had been travelling at 97 kilometres an hour before the accident happened.

But the exact circumstances around Quivrin's death remain unclear even though police have called for eye witnesses, and this is perhaps where the tale takes a more than slightly macabre turn with the presence of a mobile 'phone.

Because someone on the scene shortly after the accident occurred and before the emergency services arrived decided to use their 'phone to take some images of what had happened and then try to sell them to the highest bidder.

Thankfully though the French media didn't take the bait. In fact among those offered the film there was outright condemnation.

"Pure voyeurism," headlined the French news website, Le Post, which also informed readers that a deputy editor-in-chief of a weekly magazine had turned down the pictures saying they had "been taken minutes after the accident, but there's no question of our buying them and to be quite honest it's appalling."

And from Jean-Claude Elfassi, one of this country's most notorious paparazzi and therefore no stranger to controversy himself, came equally strong language and the description of such behaviour as that of 'the new monsters".

"This person is sadly like so many others," he wrote.

"He tried to negotiate (payment) for these pictures with my friend, Guillaume Clavières, the head of photography for Paris Match, a magazine that has published some of the biggest scoops of the century," he continued.

"But Guillaume didn't want to sell his soul to the devil, and I can understand that."

While the pictures haven't yet surfaced in the pages of a magazine, maybe it's only a matter of time before an editor somewhere decides that it's worth paying a euro or two in an effort to boost circulation figures.

Let's hope not.