François Hollande's...er...Brazilian cheese coup

He came, he saw and he...well achieved very little.

The French president, François Hollande, completed a two-day trip to Brazil last week, during which he "touted" France's technology, and came away with what could hardly be called the coup of the century.

Hollande had hoped to return home with a multi-million euro signed contract for 36 Rafale fighter jets made by a consortium led by the French giant Dessault - after all it has been a painfully ongoing matter of negotiation for the past four years.

Instead he secured an agreement that, as of immediate effect, Brazil would lift its three-year ban on Roquefort cheese!

Yes talks with his Brazilian counterpart, Dilma Rousseff, saw Hollande achieve what has been described as "striking a blow" for the French cheese industry.




Somehow though "Cheese ban lifted" doesn't quite have the same ring to it as "Multi-million euro fighter jet contract signed".

Yes, yes, "Mighty oaks from little acorns grow" and all that.

But the news, while it'll undoubtedly please the ewes in Aveyron, is hardly one that'll provide a real boost to the French economy in general and kick start the long-promised recovery.

At least the news should please the ewes in Aveyron

All right already, so Hollande also sealed a pledge to "double trade" between France and Brazil.

But that's all rather wishful-washy targets (with the exception perhaps of the purchase of a French "supercomputer" and an undertaking from France to help fund a new metro in São Paulo) which, as the whole Rafale experience has shown, can in the end, come to nowt.

Back in 2009 under Hollande's predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, it was announced that Brazil would buy 36 Rafale fighter jets.

Four years later the deal still hasn't been done with reports now circulating that the contract is dead in the water...er...that's doesn't quite sound right does it? - "will be shot down for cost reasons" - that's so much better.

Still, when the history of Hollande's presidency is written, he can at least be remembered as the French statesman who brought Roquefort cheese back to Brazil.

Baaaaa, hurrah.

US law: guns and French cheese - compare and contrast

On his blog, Americablog.com, John Aravosis takes a look at a graphic which has been pretty widely circulated around the Internet recently, especially after the shootings in Aurora, Colorado.

It illustrates the relative  ease (written into the US constitution of course)  with which an individual can legally purchase and own a firearm in the States.

And it contrasts that with the restrictions there are in some parts of the country with importing cheese - French cheese in particular.

Aravosis set out to explore how much myth there was surrounding the seemingly ridiculous comparison.

His conclusion? He couldn't "confirm that any of the cheeses listed in the graphic above are actually "banned" in the US" because there exist variations, depending on the way in which they're produced and age, which make them legal.

That said, the graphic, while not entirely accurate, surely shows just how ridiculous the United States appears to an outsider in terms of its gun laws, the individual's right to bear arms as covered in the Second Amendment and....of all things....the need to protect its citizens from cheese - of all things.

"CHEESE" - it's the annual Salon d'Agriculture...and election year

Watching the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, making his way around the annual Salon d'Agriculture in Paris on Saturday was more than just a little surreal.

Salon d'Agriculture (screenshot TF1 news)

Surrounded by a heaving scrum of journalists armed with microphones and cameras, Sarkozy spent over four hours at the show in his official capacity but, this being an election year, much more was riding on his presence and of course his behaviour.

Few will forget his now infamous 2008 visit to the show and the "Casse toi, pauvre con" mark he left on it.



And, on several occasions since, he has not exactly endeared himself to France's farmers with some of his comments.

He's also a devout towny - born and bred - who, according to political journalist Michaël Darmon, has always insisted that when he has been zapping around the country in his official capacity, he manages to avoid, in so far as possible, staying overnight in "the provinces".

But Darmon says Sarkozy's advisors have done their work and he also seems to have realised the importance of appearing to be a friend of the country's farmers, to such an extent that a recent opinion poll showed him to be well ahead in their voting intentions.

Farmers may have apparently been won over, but does anybody else really believe that Sarkozy actually enjoys nibbling on the smelliest of cheeses, watching cows being milked or having to pat a handsome horse?

Nicolas Sarkozy at the Salon d'Agriculture (screenshot TF1 news)

Somehow it just all seems to be too contrived and so very far from the obvious enjoyment displayed by his predecessor, Jacques Chirac, who always appeared to be at ease taking a healthy swig of whatever was pressed into his hand or tucking in to regional produce.

Still, four hours of pressing the flesh and proving to the French electorate that he is every much a child of rural France as the next man or woman is an essential part of Sarkozy's road to re-election.

And it's one all the other candidates will have to endure or enjoy if they wish to replace him at the Elysée palace.

The day after Sarkozy's visit, it was the turn of François Bayrou, leader of the centrist Mouvement démocrate (Democratic Movement, MoDem) party and there was no real difficulty for the "son of a farming family" as he is always eager to point out.

Once again Bayrou appeared to be in his element

Tuesday should be more "interesting" though as the Socialist party candidate François Hollande has promised to spend a marathon 10 hours at the show.

That's an awful lot of cheese!

Belgian "cheese dish girl" Lara Clette to change her name

Last November a report by a journalist from the French-language newspaper group Sud Presse caught the imagination of readers both in Belgium and abroad, especially after it had been picked up by one of France's national dailies.

It soon became something of a buzz in the French-speaking world and it concerned an eight-year-old girl and the name her parents had "lumbered" her with when she was born; Lara.

Nothing too horrendous about that, you might be thinking, and it certainly didn't strike the parents or the authorities who registered her birth and name when she was born as being too onerous, even though an official in the city of Namur had apparently "hesitated at the time".

The family's surname was Clette giving the girl the same name in French as the famous Swiss cheese dish.

Raclette cheese (from Wikipedia, author en:User:Grcampbell)

Lara's father insisted that neither he nor his wife had thought about the possible implications of the first name-surname combination when she was born and only realised when the grandfather came to visit while his wife was still in hospital after the birth.

"We thought about changing Lara's name but the nurses thought it was pretty and so did we, so we kept it," he told Sud Presse.

"When we thought about it a little more a couple of months later, I went to see the local authority to see whether we could have the surname changed and I was told that there would be little chance of the courts accepting it."

And so Lara remained a Clette, as did her six-year-old sister Yaël.

There weren't any difficulties at school, according to the father who, when interviewed added that, "If it becomes awkward when she's a teenager then we'll try again to change her surname."

That was back in November before the story was picked up by newspapers outside of Belgium such as the national French daily Aujourd'hui en France - Le Parisien, which asked in its headline " "Lara Clette, future ambassador of Swiss cheese?"

Or a reported invitation from the tourist office of canton Valais in Switzerland inviting Lara and the rest of her family to spend a week's holiday in the place where the cheese dish originates.

The buzz created was too much for the family, and the father has now confirmed that he has applied to the appropriate authorities to have the surname of both girls changed - taking on that of his wife's family "Deresteau".

"It had been at the back of our minds for the past couple of years," he repeated to Sud Presse last week.

"And after the jokes made (in foreign newspapers and on the Net) it just became too much for us and we found it hurtful and now we just want to turn over a new leaf."

As RTLinfo.be reports, a change in name may be "granted only in exceptional circumstances" and according to Belgian law, if nobody opposes the change within the next 60 days both girls will officially be allowed to change their surnames.

Pinup girls promote French cheese

Looking for an unusual Christmas present? Well the Association fromage de terroir might just have the answer.

It's a non-profit organisation set up in 2001 to support France's cheese makers and retailers and help them "educate the public and the industry in general".

And for the sixth year in a row it has produced a calendar giving cheese rather a different angle.

It is, as the Association describes on its website, both "cheeky and sexy" (there's no denying that) with the 12 pinup girls striking poses which apparently follow the course of French history throughout the centuries from the Middle Ages to the present day.

The intention, according to the Association is to "celebrate not only the role of women in the tradition of cheese-making but also to emphasise the importance of France's gastronomic heritage in which cheese has played an important part."

Of course in France wine and food are an integral to the country's history and culture and that was undoubtedly very much in the minds of Unesco experts last week when they decided to recognise French gastronomy as a world treasure.

And cheese is undeniably an essential part of that gastronomic heritage.

France is well known for the diversity and number of cheeses, and there are plenty of quotes to back up that up including most famously former president Charles de Gaulle's 1962 quote, "How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?"

Proceeds from the sales of the 2011 calendar will help the Association (in its own words) "to continue the fight to maintain biodiversity, which guarantees the beauty of our land and the quality of our cheeses."

It puts forward a whole argument about independence, freedom of speech and the threat to France's small producers of high quality cheeses from multinationals flooding the domestic market with cheaper alternatives (you can read all about it on the website).

Screenshot from YouTube, "Making of the 2010 calendar"

But is the Association's claim that its calendar "promotes the art of the French life style" really anything more than jumping on the "sex sells" bandwaggon as a way of the ends justifying the means?

After all the link between Géraldine Gruyère, Estelle Livarot, Adeline Camembert and the nine other lasses is pretty flimsy (apart from the creative surnames) if not downright non-existent to say the least.

Still it isn't the first time, and certainly won't be the last, that an image of a pretty woman is used that has little or nothing to do with the product or service that is being promoted.

The calendar can be purchased from the modest price of €18.75 from the Association's website.