Fleur Pellerin - the French minister of culture who hasn't read a book for two years

Here's a question for you.

What was the last book you read?

Don't worry if you can't remember.

Or if your answer is that you haven't picked up on for a few months or even years.

Because you're not alone.

Fleur Pellerin (screenshot - clip from Le Supplément, Canal +)

Astonishingly enough (perhaps - although nothing should come as a surprise with what some might - unkindly - describe as the motley crew currently governing France)the country's minister of culture, Fleur Pellerin revealed at the weekend that she hasn't read a book for the past couple of years.

The admission came during Sunday's edition of Le Supplément on Canal + as Pellerin was being interviewed by the programme's host, Maïtena Biraben.

While waxing lyrical about a lunch she had shared with this year's winner of the Nobel prize for literature - French author Patrick Modiano - Pellerin was asked which of his books was her favourite.

The minister probably wished the ground would open up before her, as she let out the longest, "Er", smiling (or was that grimacing) with embarrassment before coming clean.

"I have to admit - without any difficulty - that I've not really had the time to read for the past two years," she said.

"I read a lot of notes, a lot of legislative texts, news, AFP stories, but I read very little otherwise."

A visibily gobsmacked Biraben gently pointed out that perhaps it was time to read something by Modiano who was, after all, "The Nobel prize winner this year."

All right, all right, culture isn't just about reading books. There's painting, music, sculpture, dance, theatre...heck a whole panoply of arts.

But from a country which has such a proud and rich literary tradition, and from the minister of culture to boot, such a disclosure comes as something of a shock...and of course opened the door for a deluge of criticism on social media.

That said, there was also support from some quarters for the 41-year-old's honesty.

Writing in L'Obs (Le Nouvel Observateur's new name) Dom Bochel Guégan defended Pellerin, saying that she had been "principled enough to recognise her ignorance and to admit it quite simply" and that maybe (as junior minister for Small and Medium-sized enterprises, innovation and the digital economy and then, since August, switching to the culture minister portfolio)  "she had perhaps been a little too busy over the past two years to find time to read."

True - after all politics is a full time job in itself.

Still...

Quand la Ministre de la Culture explique qu'elle n'a pas lu de livre depuis 2 ans! sur WAT.tv 

Rachida Dati's post election cannabis fashion faux pas

So the first round in the presidential elections is over with French voters unsurprisingly choosing the Socialist Party's François Hollande to go head-to-head with the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy on May 6

The media is now in post first round overdrive with analysis and interpretation of Sunday's results and speculation over the outcome in a fortnight's time.

As such, one of the invited guests on Monday morning's edition of La Matinale on Canal + was none other than Rachida Dati.

Rachida Dati (screenshot from Canal + La Matinale)

You remember her - the woman brought in to Sarkozy's government as justice minister at a time when diversity - both ethnic and gender - was his buzzword, and then when the honeymoon was long over, dispatched to the country's version of sending someone to Coventry (apologies to that UK city, but it is an expression) and made to stand in the European elections.

Having "served her time" without creating too much of a media stir in France, Dati was brought back into the fold as Sarkozy's official campaigning got underway.

And in spite of herself perhaps she has been something of a non-contraversial star in so far as she didn't draw too much attention to herself for off-the-cuff and misplaced remarks.

Well, let's face it, Sarkozy had Nadine Morano for that.

But the day after the night before - and things look to have gone a little wrong for Dati - at least in the vestimentary department.

On Monday she appeared on La Matinale, the breakfast show on Canal +, to put the inevitable positive spin on Sunday's results.

And as she was talking, answering questions put to her by journalist Caroline Roux, the camera kept showing her from the back.

Why?

Well emblazoned on the back of her top was a pattern which looked for all the world to be that of a giant cannabis plant leaf.

(screenshot from Canal + La Matinale)

La Matinale's presenter, Maïtena Biraben, couldn't resist asking Dati about it at the end of the interview and the least that can be said is that the former justice minister floundered.

"There have been several messages on our Facebook page wondering whether your top is smoking," said Biraben to a non-plussed Dati.

"So what is the design on the back of your top - Cannabis?"

Looking rather uncomfortable and probably realising how this could play out later in the day, Dati denied that it was a cannabis plant leaf.

"Hemp?" suggested Biraben with a smile.

"No, not that either," replied Dati. "It's something else."

"Eucalyptus," said Biraben in a pretend Euruka! moment.

"Exactly," affirmed Dati, followed by some insincere laughter.

"But you can smoke eucalyptus too," chirped Biraben

"Yes...er...no, perhaps but eucalyptus makes you calmer," was Dati's final response...er - this obviously wasn't going the way she had planned.

La Matinale du 23/04 - Partie 1

Neither Biraben nor the viewers were prepared to leave it there though and later in the programme the production team provided a picture of a cannabis plant leaf side by side to one of the pattern on the back of Dati's top.

Rachida Dati (screenshot from Canal + La Matinale)

Draw your own conclusions but as one viewer wrote, "If it's not cannabis, what have I been smoking for the past 20 years?"

Maïtena Biraben's absurd parody tribute to Queen Elizabeth's 60th anniversary

It was an entry and a half for the presenter of Monday morning's edition of the Canal + breakfast programme "La Matinale".

To mark the 60th anniversary of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne, La Matinale's presenter, Maïtena Biraben, began the programme disguised as...well who else really?

Maïtena Biraben as Queen Elizabeth II (screenshot from La Matinale)

Dressed from head to toe in what was presumably meant to be a regal version of Barbie pink and donning a ridiculous wig, Biraben got the programme underway to the strains of the 1977 hit "God save the Queen" by the English punk band the Sex Pistols.

An indication surely that just in case viewers were having a hard time realising the whole thing was a parody, the "fun" had to be underscored with a dated song that "attacked Britons' social conformity and deference to the Crown".

Ha ha.

If you're telling a joke and nobody's laughing, try repeating it.

That's bound to raise a smile heh?

Morandini Zap: Maïtena Biraben arrive sur le plateau de "La Matinale" déguisée en Elizabeth II Vidéo jeanmarcmorandini sélectionnée dans Replay TV

Thankfully the remainder of, what is usually, an excellent way to begin the day, had a more conventional approach to reporting and presenting, including a special on the anniversary, an interview and a look at the relationship the British apparently have with their head of state.

Biraben quickly "lost" the absurd garb although it some of it managed to find its way on to fellow journalist Léon Mercadet towards the end of the programme.

Funny?

Well, mildly so perhaps, although it's not hard to imagine that if the Queen had seen it (not exactly likely it has to be admitted) she might well have quoted one of her antecedents to the throne, Victoria, with a cutting, "We are not amused".

Warning.

Biraben ended Tuesday's edition of La Matinale with a hint that viewers should expect something "special" the following day to mark the release in France of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace 3D.

Oh yes.

After Biraben as Queen Elizabeth II comes Darth Vader perhaps?

Tears for the death of Annie Girardot

We're used to scenes of television presenters fluffing their lines or unable to hold back a fit of the giggles for one reason or another.

But it's surely unusual to see one so visibly moved that they're close to tears.

That's exactly what happened during Tuesday morning's edition of the Canal + breakfast programme "La Matinale".

The show's presenter, Maïtena Biraben, had difficulty controlling her emotions, as did fellow journalist Léon Mercadet.

And the reason was quite simple; their reaction to a short montage paying tribute to one of France's most enduring and acclaimed actresses, Annie Girardot, who died on Monday at the age of 79.

Annie Giradot - acceptance speech during Césars in 1996 (screenshot from YouTube video)

Annie Girardot may not be a name with which many people outside of France are that familiar - especially if you're not a lover of this country's cinema.

But she was a giant of the French film industry during the 1960s and 70s, and had a career that began as an accomplished theatre actress, spanned five decades and included more than 120 films for the big screen and over 50 for television.

Girardot starred in six films directed by Claude Lelouch who compared her to Edith Piaf, saying she was the stage "equivalent" of the French singing legend.

Her long career saw her win three Césars - the French equivalent of the Oscars.

In 1977 she picked up the best actress award for the title role in Jean-Louis Bertucelli's "Docteur Françoise Gailland".

And Girardot twice won best supporting actress; in 1996 for the part of Madame Thénardier in Claude Lelouch's "Les Misérables" and again in 2002 when she played Isabelle Huppert's mother in Michael Haneke's "La Pianiste" (Die Klavierspielerin).

Her acceptance speech at the 1996 awards was a "declaration of love" for the French film industry from which she had been sidelined for several years, and it was one that couldn't fail to touch the hearts of those in the audience and viewers at home.

"I don't know if the French cinema missed me," she said.

"But I missed the French cinema...so much."



In 2006 Girardot went public with the news that she was suffering from Alzheimer's and became something of a symbol of the illness here in France especially after the screening in 2008 of Nicolas Baulieu's "Ainsi va la vie".

It was a documentary which managed to bring home the full force of Alzheimer's while remaining a mostly dignified, tender, loving homage to the star.

Baulieu followed the actress and her family until filming stopped in February 2007 when he said that Girardot was no longer aware of the presence of the cameras.

Among the many, many tributes that have been paid to Girardot since the news of her death was announced is that of France's minister of culture, Frédéric Mitterrand.

"She lit the stage as she lit life: with a humanity and a dramatic depth that touched everyone," he wrote.

"Her death is a painful moment for French cinema, which has lost one of its biggest stars, but also for the public, with whom she had a long and affectionate relationship."

Little wonder perhaps then, that both Biraben and Mercadet had trouble holding back their tears on Tuesday morning - and they probably weren't alone.

Smile - It's just another December day in France

Prising oneself out of bed - even when one has the benefit of the pre-dawn chorus of howling hounds - is no easy matter.

But it's made all the more difficult at the moment by the fact that it's still pitch black at 6;30am outside, and will remain so for the next couple of months.

Anyway the dogs had been fed and potted, yours truly was slouched over the kitchen table, traditional cuppa (with just a nuage of milk) in hand, gawping bleary-eyed at the small screen in the corner.

Yes decadent perhaps but habit-forming, and informative in terms of getting a head start with the day's news (that's my side of the story) watching the excellent Maïtena Biraben present La Matinale on Canal +.

There was an interview with Dominique Paillé, a spokesman for the governing Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) party.

The issue at hand - why the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy had backtracked on two reforms apparently so dear to his heart - Sunday shop opening hours and the reform of secondary school education.

Paillé helpfully and spinningly told viewers that there had been no "backtracking" just a consensus of opinion within the (UMP) party that it was better to introduce Sunday opening gradually (10 days a year to be determined by the mayors).

Then he informed us that the delay by the education minister, Xavier Darcos, of reforms to the secondary school system had nothing to do with fears that French youth - rather notorious for revolting - might follow the violent lead of those in Greece.

Instead the government would now have the chance to explain "properly" what was behind the proposed changes to the syllabus and loss of teaching jobs - one year exactly because they now apparently won't come into effect until September 2010

So you see, "no backtracking" by Sarkozy, even if the presenters and most of the front pages of the French newspapers say so.

Then the news headlines. Snow (how unusual for December), the danger of avalanches in the French Alps and 90,000 households still without power.

By all accounts the French utility, EDF, was working overtime to restore electricity - well let's hope they're all being paid healthy bonuses - remember Sarkozy's mantra "work more to earn more"?

Another day of delays on the trains as the after-effects of Monday's strikes by some drivers are still felt by those trying to make their way to work. Just another strike as far as most French are probably concerned - c'est la vie.

More on that crazy, single-handed, round the world sailing race, Le Vendée Globe. It seems the competitors are in iceberg waters still, and a Briton, Mike Golding has just taken the lead. Hurrah. Mad!

The sad news that German actor, Horst Tappert, had died at the age of 85.

He was the star of the long-running detective drama "Derrick" which, although it stopped being made around a decade ago, is still watched by over one million people each day here on France 3 and has been sold around the world.

Then that moment at the end of many a news bulletin, when the world seems to stand still and greet you with a massive hug, a great big silly grin and a loud "hello" with the "and finally" story.

So.......and finally. No story, no earth-shattering news, no words. Just a video to brighten up the start of your day as it did mine.

Go on. Sit back, take a break from the rest of the day, and enjoy - pretend it's Sunday morning, evening if it's actually Tuesday.

Go on - smile