Call me! French reggae group fans dial the right, wrong number

Have some sympathy for Anthony De Sousa.

The 24-year-old plumber from the town of Evreux in the region of Haute Normandie in northern France has been inundated with telephone calls and text messages these past few days and it's not because suddenly clients have discovered his talents with a wrench.

Nope.

Instead fans of the French reggae (well that's how they're described) group Tryo have been calling, hoping to be able to talk to one of the band's members.

(screenshot from video clip for "Greenwashing")

That's because the group included De Sousa's number at the end of one of the tracks of their recently released album "Ladilafé" with singer Guizmo telling listeners to 'Call me".

And that's exactly what fans have been doing according to the regional daily Paris Normandie.

"Often when I answer, the fans simply hang up immediately because they realise it's not Guizmo the other end of the line," De Sousa told the newspaper, clearly not amused that his number had apparently been used in a song but also feeling compelled to answer just in case it was a business call.

Tryo appear to be more than contrite for something which their record company said was 'an innocent mistake" with Guizmo simply coming up with a random number while in the recording studio without thinking of the possible consequences.

"We meant delete the number from the album but we simply forgot," said another band member, Bibou

According to Europe 1, they've apologised to De Sousa, offered to meet the costs of changing his mobile 'phone number and help out in any marketing campaign that might be necessary to inform existing clients and find new ones.

That should be the solution to De Sousa's problems although he's not too keen on the idea.

"I've built the business up over the past three years and clients know that they can reach me on this number," he said.

"I don't really want to have to change it."

A great media buzz for Tryo's new album (in the sense that any news is better than no news at all) but at the expense, albeit inadvertently, of poor ol' De Sousa.

Oh, one last thing. Tryo is the very same group which on their 1998 debut album "Mamagubida" included the track "France Télécom", a satirical song thanking the communications giant for the omnipresence of the mobile 'phone in everyday life.

Ah - the irony of it.

New Michelin guide to France throws up a few surprises

Michelin Guide to France 2011 awards star to French restaurant that has closed

Back in January the word was, among those apparently "in the know" on the Net that the new Michelin hotel and restaurant guide for France would hold a few surprises.

(From Wikipedia - author, Trou)

How prescient that turned out to be, because to the consternation of many a top chef in this gastronomical delight of a country, there were no new names added to the list of those obtaining the much-revered three stars when the 2011 edition was published on Monday.

It was, as the national daily Le Monde reported, "The first time it had happened (or not happened as the case might be) since 1992."

And with Michel Trama's Les Loges de l'aubergade in Puymirol in the southwestern département of Lot-et-Garonne losing one of its stars the number of elite three-star restaurants in France now totals 25.

But wait. That's not really the surprise that has created something of a buzz since the guide's publication.

Instead it's the awarding of a star for the first time to Max Bichot's Les Hêtres in the village of Ingouville in the northern French département of Seine-Maritime.

Now hold your horses if you're thinking of making a beeline for the place to discover what's on the menu and try out some of Bichot's specialities.

Because, as the regional daily Paris Normandie reveals, Les Hêtres has been closed for the past couple of months.

Yep, Michelin has awarded a star to a restaurant that no longer exists.

"The star came too late," Bichot told the newspaper.

"I closed the restaurant on December 30; all the staff have been fired and the property has been sold." he added.

Bichot, who took over the restaurant in 2009, invested €200,000 in the business but was forced to close at the end of last year because,"There simply weren't enough clients."

"Perhaps if I had had a mention in either the 2009 or 2010 guide it would have made a difference," he told Europe 1 radio.

"Readers of the guide would perhaps have come to taste what was on the menu rather than going past the restaurant without stopping," he said.

So a Michelin star but no restaurant, Bichot is both reportedly proud and sad at the same time.

For the moment though he has no plans of opening another restaurant, preferring to "avoid the stress" by helping out in his partner's kitchen.