Same-sex marriage legal in France unless...your partner is the "wrong" nationality.

So you're French and either gay or lesbian, and you want to marry your partner.

Well, as you probably know, given all the media coverage there was both domestically and internationally, now you can - in France at least.

Since May 18, just a day after the "wise men" of the Conseil Constitutionnel (Consitutional Council) approved the bill that had made its way through both the National Assembly and the Senate, and the president, François Hollande, had formerly declared it law, France became the 14th country to recognise same-sex marriage.

Less than a fortnight later Vincent Autin and Bruno Boileau exchanged vows and rings in front of the  mayor, of Montpellier Hélène Mandroux, and a global audience to become the first same-sex couple to marry officially in France.

Progress indeed.

Montpellier's mayor Hélène Mandroux with Vincent Autin (right) and Bruno Boileau (screenshot AFPTV)

Except the so-called "Mariage pour tous" isn't quite what it's cracked up to be.

Ah yes. You knew there had to be an anomaly didn't you.?

Because if you're French and your partner and prospective spouse happens to come from one of any 11 countries then it's tough, because you won't be able to marry them in France.

A circular from the ministry of justice and signed by the minister who so energetically and eloquently guided the same-sex marriage legislation through parliament, Christine Taubira, says as much.

And the French website StreetPress managed to get its hands on the document and publish it in its entirety (available to download as a pdf file).

The countries concerned - in no particular order other than the one given in the circular - are Poland, Morocco, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, Slovenia, Cambodia, Laos, Tunisia and Algeria.

Yes a heap of countries with which France has historically had (and continues to have) very close links and a couple (Poland and Slovenia) who are fellow members of the European Union.

None of that matters though because, as far as the ministry of justice is concerned, when couples of the same sex wish to marry and "one of the spouses is a national of one of these countries, the state registrar shall not solemnise the marriage."

On Rue89, another French website, 25-year-old "Lise" (that's the name she chose to use in the interview) who currently lives in Berlin with her partner "Agnieszka" explains how she discovered the couple wouldn't be able to marry in France in spite of the new law because she had made 'the mistake of falling in love with a Polish woman."

It's all apparently to do with individual bilateral agreements between France and each of the 11 countries on the application of the Marriage Act and, for the ministry of justice, it's now up to the foreign ministry to find a solution and "revise the agreements" as necessary.

Nothing like passing the buck.

Hallelujah.

After heated parliamentary and media debate and sometimes violent street protests which only served to fuel the decidedly homophobic views of a very verbal minority, the government still couldn't get the legislation right.

It drafted and passed a bill which, in its detail, could never truly completely deliver on what it had promised - and that's "Mariage pour tous".

Friday's French music break - Vigon Bamy Jay, "Feelings"

Take a couple of old geezers who've both had long careers but not ones that have seen them hit the headlines perhaps as much as they deserved, mix together with a former member of a now defunct television talent show winning group and allow them to sing one of the most excruciatingly sentimental songs ever and welcome to Friday's French music break, "Feelings".

The trio currently wooing French airwaves with their rendition of the song are
Vigon Bamy Jay.

Vigon (right) Bamy (left) Jay (seated) - screenshot from official video

It's the first track to be released from their album "Les Soul men" and most definitely rates high on the barf value: not so much for their talent - which all three undeniably have - but more for the choice of a song which over the years has surely come to symbolise schmaltz.

Vigon (Abdelghafour Mouhsine) is a Moroccan rhythm and blues singer who came to the wider public's attention in 2012 during the first edition of The Voice.

The sprightly 67-year-old has a long musical pedigree as does another member of the trio  Gaudeloupe-born Érick Bamy -  another singer in his 60s.

Bamy, a former backing singer to Johnny Hallyday, had his "big break" in another television programme last year, the French version of the "Got talent" show imaginatively entitled "La France a un incroyable talent".
And it was yet another talent show which launched the career of the third member of the trio, Jay Kani.

He was a member of the R'n'B group Poetic Lover which won "Graines de star" back in 1997, had a string of hit singles and a best-selling album "Amants poétiques" a year later but eventually disbanded in 2000.

With voices that have an individual quality and a pedigree in R'n'B and soul, it's a shame the three have chosen to release yet another version of a song which became an international hit for Brazilian one-hit wonder Morris Albert back in 1975 and has been covered by just about anybody and everybody over the years.

And that includes a version by Israeli singer Mike Brant who brought the song "back to France" in a manner of speaking the same year Albert was having a hit with it everywhere else in English.

Brant released "Dis lui", which you'll notice is also the refrain used in the Vigon Bamy Jay recording.

At this point you might be asking how come "back to France"?

Well the person responsible for the melody in the first place was French songwriter Louis "Loulou" Gasté who, back in 1988, successfully sued Albert for copyright infringement of the his 1957 song "Pour toi" and was officially recognised as "the sole creator of the song".

Anyway, Vigon Bamy Jay are giving a private concert in Paris on March 13 and the album "Les Soul men" contains covers of much more worthwhile songs which should show off their individual and collective talents better including "Sitting on the dock of the bay", "Ain't no sunshine" and "Unchained melody".

It's just a pity they chose to release "Feelings" as the first single.

But judge for yourselves and maybe visit their official website for more information and updates.

Incomplete film faction - the "Intouchable" Nicolas Sarkozy

It hasn't taken long has it?

Hollywood is reportedly casting for its own version of last year's runaway French cinema success, "Intouchables".

And the bookies' favourite to play the role of one of the lead characters is British actor Colin Firth.

He's also the choice apparently of the original film's directors Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano.

François Cluzet as Philippe in "Intouchables" (screenshot from official trailer)

But it can now be revealed that Firth has competition.

Because, while the US brothers, Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who've bought the rights to produce the remake might also be in favour of the "touch of class" Firth could bring to the film, Hollywood insiders say there are other names circulating and among them apparently, is none other than the former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

"The feeling in Hollywood is that the French film industry is on a roll after this year's Oscars and casting a Frenchman in one of the lead roles is seen as something of a masterstroke," an unnamed studio executive says.

"And the name on everyone's lips is that of Nicolas Sarkozy who doesn't have much to do at the moment apart from making frequent trips to Morocco and the occasional session of the Constitutional Council."

Sarkozy is said to be mulling over the idea and will apparently talk it over with his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, an accomplished and experienced actress in her own right.

"That could swing things in Sarkozy's favour even though he doesn't really have a grasp of English yet," the insider continues.

"Carla would make an excellent coach both in terms of acting and learning the language. And as far as the film is concerned, just think what sort of media coup it would be to have a former French president playing one of the leads.

"It would be a tremendous box office draw around the world."

Sarkozy's name was mentioned after reports that the current French president, François Hollande, had turned down the role because, "He was too busy and it would represent a conflict of interests."

Just a reminder for those of you who might have forgotten or haven't yet seen the film, the role for which Sarkozy is being considered and Hollande has turned down is the one played by François Cluzet.

In the film Cluzet is Philippe, a rich tetraplegic living in a luxury Paris apartment is in need of a 24/7 live-in carer.



In case you were wondering, there is a slight embellishment of the truth in this piece: Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is far from being an accomplished actress.

Investigation to be launched into passenger revolt at Toulouse airport

France's junior minister of transport, Thierry Mariani, has called for an enquiry into the events of Saturday evening at Toulouse's Blagnac international airport which saw passengers aboard a Moroccan lowcost Jet4you 'plane stage what has widely been reported as a "mutiny".

Jet4you 'plane on the tarmac at Blagnac airport, Toulouse (screenshot BFM TV)

But he remained guarded in an interview on national radio, stressing that, "Passengers taking over an aircraft could not be approved."

"We'll try to find out what really happened, and if the company is at fault, there will be sanctions," he told Europe 1 radio on Sunday.

"But the pilot must be the person who is in charge on a 'plane," he added.

The 137 passengers aboard the Casablanca-bound 'plane refused to buckle their seat belts after the captain informed them that the aircraft would be making unscheduled stops in the French cities of Bordeaux and Lyon to pick up other passengers; adding another six hours to what would normally have been a 90 minute journey.

They demanded that the company provide a direct flight to their destination.

What happened next was reminiscent of a similar incident just last month which saw angry Ryanair passengers refuse to leave one of its 'planes when it arrived in the Belgian city of Liège after being diverted from its original destination Beauvais in northern France - 342 kilometres away.

The pilot of the Jet4you 'plane cancelled the flight, allowed those who wanted to, to disembark, cut the lights and heating and left the remaining 85 passengers on board in the dark.

And that's where they spent the whole of Saturday night.

Interviewed by BFM television (see video) the following day some of the passengers described how difficult conditions had been on board the 'plane with children crying and everyone being cold and hungry, and they criticised the airline's lack of professionalism.

Once again it seems a low-cost airline takes the term "budget" to mean that it can do and say anything.

In Ryanair's case it was to have their passengers arrive almost 350 kilometres away from their scheduled destination.

For Jet4you, it seemed more than acceptable to triple the duration of a trip to suit its own planning.

On Sunday the company informed passengers that it would fly them directly to Casablanca in the evening.

But somehow doesn't it all seems rather a lose-lose situation, both for the passengers who spent a miserable night on the tarmac and the airline, which hardly did anything for its PR image?

Angry Ryanair passengers stage a sit-in

Ryanair Boeing 737-800 (Wikipedia, photographer Adrian Pingstone)

Lowcost airline Ryanair might well be the cheapest way for many Europeans to fly from point A to point B, but it surely needs a lesson or two on how to treat its passengers.

During the night of Tuesday to Wednesday more than 100 of them refused to leave one of its 'planes after it arrived in the Belgian city of Liège after being diverted from its original destination Beauvais in northern France - 342 kilometres away.

Beauvais of course is the town Ryanair refers to as "Paris" on its list of destinations, even though it is in fact almost 80 kilometres from the French capital.

Most of those on board were reportedly French, returning from holidays in Morocco, and their night of misery began when the flight left - three hours late - from the Moroccan city of Fez.

Unable to land in Beauvais because it was too late and the airport was closed, the 'plane was diverted to Liège, not a destination to which the airline normally flies, and landed late in the evening at 11.30pm.

But the passengers hadn't been alerted ahead of time according to one of them, Mylene Netange.

"The plane didn't land in Beauvais but in Liege without warning us," she told Agence France Presse.

"Consequently, we refused to leave the plane."

The passengers reportedly refused to be budged for four hours, demanding that an alternative means of getting home be provided.

Remember they were over 300 kilometres away from where they should have been.

But their protests seem to have fallen on deaf ears as far as Ryanair was concerned.

Instead they were left sitting in the dark after the pilot and cabin crew had disembarked and it was airport officials who took over the task of trying to negotiate with them and arrange alternative transportation.

Great PR for Ryanair who, as the French daily Libération points out, only a few days ago announced a net half-year of €424 million.

There must be a moral somewhere in this tale.

Najlae Lhimer, a family violence victim falls foul of French immigration laws

Najlae Lhimer is back in Morocco.

She has been there since last weekend after French authorities deported her because she was in this country illegally.

But the story of the 19-year-old isn't a just case of illegal immigration.

Instead it's surely an example of a law being zealously enforced without any respect to the rights of the individual and one which, as far as women's rights groups are concerned, makes a mockery of the government's policy to raise awareness of the issue of domestic and family violence.

Najlae first came to France at the age of 14, leaving Morocco to escape being forced into an arranged marriage.

She moved in with her brother in the town of Château-Renard in the centre of the country.

But as it turned out, life with him was far from easy to say the least.

He was reportedly a man with a reputation for being authoritarian, and one who didn't like to see his sister emancipated.

So much so that when he "found a cigarette butt" in her room last week, he hit her, to such an extent that she was unable to go to work for eight days.

Najlae decided to file a complaint against her brother.

But as Stéphanie Revillard, a friend who encouraged Najlae to go to the local police explained, rather than being seen as the victim, the 19-year-old found herself being questioned about her status here in France as she didn't have the required identity papers.

"In spite of the fact that she was injured, in spite of the fact that she was there to file a complaint against her brother and she was in fact the victim, she was detained," said Revillard.

And that detention quickly led to her deportation as the police contacted the local préfecture, an "expulsion order" was signed and Najlae put on a 'plane bound for Morocco.

Once there, she was taken into custody once again, this time for having "illegally fled her country" five years ago.

She has since been released and is currently being looked after by the local branch of le Réseau éducation sans frontières, RESF.

Women's rights groups in France have been quick to react to Najlae's plight and criticised the speed with which she found herself sent back to Morocco.

"The deportation of Najlae, a young woman who was in distress, is abominable," said Dominique Tripet from the Orléans branch of Droits des Femmes.

"It's an example of the increasing rapidity with which the (French) government violates human rights and republican values."

Speaking to the national daily Libération by 'phone on Monday, Najlae described what life had been like since she returned to a country she hasn't seen since she was 14 and where she apparently doesn't know anyone.

"After remaining 24 hours in jail, some members of RESF came to collect me," she said.

"I don't understand how or why I'm here," she added.

"I am lost ... "

A demonstration in support of Najlae is planned in the streets of Château-Renard for March 6.

According to France 3 television, Najlae's brother still hasn't been questioned by police.

France 3 Centre : Najlae, 19 ans, expulsée vers le Maroc
par Dj-Sheit