FRENCH NEWS - in English of course. Politics, sports, reviews, travel, a slice of life in France and stories you might not necessarily be able to find elsewhere on the Net.
It features a young cyclist who, first of all, rides past a woman trying to hail a taxi.
The cyclist reaches over and rings the bell of a rental bike, one of many in a rack close to where the woman is standing. A less-than-subtle message that it would be a healthier option - as the woman heads over to them.
Next up, some workmen, with the cyclist tapping on their helmets, which have been left on a table. As he rides off, the workmen are seen putting them on.
Another subtle message.
Finally, a woman whose glasses have broken. The cyclist stops and gestures towards an opticians. She's last seen entering.
Throughout the commercial, which incidentally uses "Temps à nouveau", the first single from the excellent Jean-Louis Aubert's 1993 album "H" as its soundtrack, there a voiceover telling us (just in case we hadn't got the message) that the young generation fully understands the importance of health insurance and that Malakoff Médéric gives both employees and companies the means to look after our health needs better.
The message is reinforced by the wording on the cyclist's tee-shirt changing throughout the commercial to coincide with each brief encounter: "What do we do to look after our health?" to "less stress", "protection" and "make savings".
All well and good.
Except there's one glaring oversight surely.
The cyclist - so concerned about the health and safety of others - isn't wearing a helmet.
Oh well, never mind. There's no legal requirement to wear one in France and besides some would argue that statistics show they offer little or no protection.
So that's all right then.
Here's the commercial on Musique de Pub's YouTube channel.
Whenever you're watching a report on telly - wherever you might be in the world - and up pops a photo of the Eiffel Tower, you know the film, report or whatever, is about either Paris or France.
Simple isn't it? It's an instantly recognisable symbol not of only the capital but the whole country - at least to those from the outside.
But there is of course another typical emblem of France - much more representative of everyday life and instantly identifiable to anyone who lives here - la pharmacie or chemist.
They appear to be everywhere - especially in larger towns and cities. Over 22,000 of them spread throughout the country.
Stand in front of one in your nearest town and the chances are you'll be able to see another one not so far away, its familiar green cross flashing outside when open for business.
Yes, you know you're in France when you drop in at the doctors thinking you just have a heavy, if lingering, cold, are diagnosed with bacterial bronchitis (ah, it's so much more reassuring to have a label put to something, it almost makes you feel legitimately "sick") and then sent packing to the chemist or la pharmacie.
Now comes the point when you realise you should have been paying attention to what the doctor was telling you while poking, prodding, taking your temperature, asking about generalised or localised aches or pains, and listening to that whistling sound coming from your chest.
Because instead of just the anticipated antibiotics, there's also, a course of cortizone, paracetamol ("Pill or soluble form sir?"), breathing apparatus to "help inhalation in times of serious loss of breath or wheezing" as well as what looks like a vacuum cleaner complete with even more drugs and instructions on how to use it.
Just back from la pharmacie
At least that's what appeared on the counter; a fair mountain of drugs it seemed, fit to still the beating heart of even the most fervent hypochondriac (and what's the betting that France has more than its fair share based on such evidence) as the pharmacist runs through the prescription.
Luckily she (in this particular case) doesn't just leave you standing there wondering, "What the heck".
She's a trained professional after all and, besides, can see (and hear) you're (a) pretty zonked out (foreigner).
So before allowing you out of the door, she goes through the whole prescription and treatment not once, but several times ensuring you know what to take, when and how.
And explains the purpose of the "vacuum cleaner" breathing machine (on hire for a week), how it works, where to place the liquid and "How to breathe correctly, sir".
Yes the "patient" - who is now recovering rapidly thanks to the marvels of French drugs (bring 'em on) really should have been listening more carefully as he sat in front of the doctor first time around.
But he thanks his lucky stars there was another trained professional on hand to "walk" and "talk" him through it.
Time for a not entirely appropriate blast from the past.
While YouTube has slapped a "potentially inappropriate content for some users" warning for those thinking about watching the video and requiring them to verify that they're adult enough by signing in first, the French-based video sharing website Dailymotionseems to have no such qualms.
As Laetitia Reboulleau writes in the French edition of the monthly women's magazine Marie Claire reactions to "Sexy fingers" video have been mixed.
"There are those who find it 'shocking'," she writes, "while other simply fail to see the link between its content and the rapid finger prick HIV test."
Launched by AIDES, a French association involved in the fight against HIV and viral hepatitis, and created by the JWT advertising agency, the "Sexy fingers" video is part of a new campaign in France to promote the use of the rapid finger prick HIV test.
The monthly gay magazine Têtudescribes the video as "simple, original and rather sexy, using animation throughout to show the various sexual activities that can be achieved with just one finger."
And that's the link to the rapid test according to Floriane Cutler, AIDES director of communications.
"We want to create a buzz to make people realise how easy it is to be tested," she says.
"It's a video for everyone and while it's making the point that the test is a simple one, it's only meant to be show a 'tendency' (as in a pregnancy test) and not a definitive result," she adds.
"Of course it should be followed up by a proper HIV test."
Alongside the video there's also a website with an Android application allowing users to play a game, all clearly aimed at a younger generation.
And it's being backed up by an AIDES campaign this summer to offer finger prick testing by specially-trained volunteers in nightclubs and bars, initially in the French capital and then later across the country.
As far as the association is concerned it's meant to make getting the test almost as familiar as talking about sex in the first place.
But, as Reboulleau points out in Marie Claire, there are those who question how people will react to being given the news that they've tested positive in front of their friends.
Back to that video though, and whatever you think of it - whether it works or misses the point entirely - it's good to see the folk at YouTube taking a stand on the moral well-being of those who it deems potentially inappropriate viewers.
Since when has a campaign encouraging people to get themselves tested warranted a warning - no matter how suggestive it might (or might not) be?
He's very much alive - something to which his family, friends and now television viewers in France can attest.
But French bureaucracy, it seems, has had a hard time believing it and has certainly needed some convincing.
At the end of May the 67-year-old received a call from his local chemist telling him that the social security office had been in touch informing him they were refusing to reimburse the cost of supplying a prescribed medicine a week earlier because...get this...Rolland was dead.
"It certainly gave me something to think about and I had to keep asking my wife to reassure me I was still alive," he toldTF1 news with something approaching a smile on his face.
But as he was to discover, proving to French bureaucracy that he was still alive was far from being a laughing matter and would be harder than he thought.
First of all he made his way down to the local health insurance office where he repeated what his chemist had told him.
After plenty of hunting around, an employee discovered that somehow the death certificate of another person had made its way into his file and there had obviously been an administrative error.
As the daily newspaper France Soirreports, the error was rectified immediately and Rolland was able to return home safe in the knowledge that French bureaucracy knew he was alive.
Wrong!
A couple of weeks later the pensions office sent a letter to his home, addressed to his heirs.
Rolland was on the blower immediately to explain that there had been a mix up and...well let's allow him to take up the story as to what happened next.
"The person the other end of the line told me that I would have to provide a certificate proving I was still alive," he said.
"So I went to the town hall to see if one could be supplied...only to be told that no such certificate existed."
While Rolland was busy trying to acquire some sort of non-existent official document to prove he was alive, his wife, Josette, took matters into her own hands.
She rang the pensions office, managed to get hold of the person who had sent the letter to her husband's heirs and was told to, "Have him sign a sworn statement (une attestation sur l’honneur) that he's still alive."
"It was surrealist," Josette told France Soir.
Quite.
End of story?
Not exactly.
The pensions office now had their records straight, but Rolland thought it perhaps wise to contact the office handling the supplementary pension fund to which he was also entitled - just in case.
And that was definitely a smart move, because according to their records, he had been dead since February!
While her husband remains somewhat phlegmatic about the whole mix-up Josette is less understanding.
'It's still amazing that the social security office which made the error in the first place, didn't bother to inform the other departments," she told France Soir.
"If something similar happened to someone more fragile and less able to understand bureaucratic red tape, it could well end up with their being dead - officially and for real."
Not only is it inadvisable to leave child alone in a car, it's also dangerous and neglectful.
Everyone surely knows that it's not only inadvisable to leave a child unattended in a car, it's also dangerous as the temperature inside can be life-threatening, even with the windows open.
Some parents though appear to "know better" as in the case of a German couple over the weekend in the town of Villeneuve-lès-Béziers in the south of France.
They left their three-year-old daughter alone in their vehicle in the car park of a supermarket while they went about shopping.
Other customers noticed her by herself in the four-wheel drive and informed the store's management who made three announcements (two in French and one in German) asking the owners of the vehicle to come to the information desk immediately.
There was no response.
In the meantime the store's deputy director, Vincent Touya, had gone out to the car park to see for himself what state the girl was in, and even though the car windows were open slightly, as he told the regional daily, Midi Libre, he had to take immediate action.
"She seemed to be all right but the car was in full sun and the outside temperature was already 30 degrees," he told the newspaper.
"I put in a call to the emergency services and they told me I had to get her out of the car at once," he continued.
"So I took a hammer and broke the window. She was bright red, sweating heavily and when I took her in my arms her hair was soaked as though she had just taken a shower."
He carried the girl into the store and gave her some water and food.
They were eventually found and according to Touya didn't appear in the least concerned - quite the opposite.
"The mother just continued shopping and filling her trolley," he toldEurope 1 radio.
"And the father looked at me as though I were guilty of something."
But it gets worse.
Far from admitting any negligence, the parents insisted that their daughter had been asleep in the car and they hadn't wanted to wake her.
"There wasn't a word of thanks from either of them and the father even said he would file a complaint against me because I had broken the window of his four-wheel drive," said Touya.
Lewis Alexander Mawhinney applied for a job as a German teacher in the southern French town of Digne-les-Bains in December last year.
The 26-year-old, originally from Northern Ireland, apparently came with excellent qualifications.
As the national daily France Soirreports, because the local education authority was particularly short on German teachers, it immediately offered him a job under contract at two of its schools; the Pierre-Gilles-de-Gennes lycée and the Maria-Borrely collège.
He began on January 3. But not all was as it at first appeared.
Cloth embroidered by a schizophrenia sufferer (from Wikpedia, author - cometstarmoon)
"We had no reason to complain about his behaviour and I never heard the slightest negative comment about him from his colleagues, pupils or parents," Pascale Garrec the director of the lycée is quoted as saying in the regional daily Midi Libre.
"It was during a conversation outside of the professional context that I became concerned over some of the 'peculiarities' about comments he made."
Among them were claims made by Mawhinney that he was a secret service agent working for Scotland Yard, and that led Garrec to alert the local police.
His behaviour in the classroom was also somewhat unusual according to pupils who spoke to another regional daily La Provence, and some of them found him "weird".
"He didn't seem to know the rules of German grammar," one pupil told the paper.
"When we asked him a question, he wouldn't reply immediately and instead would give us the answers the next day after having searched the Internet."
Another commented on the teachers apparent "normality" inside the classroom but odd habit of "putting on his gloves to open and close the door so as not to leave fingerprints."
Investigations revealed that the man described as "discreet" had in fact escaped from a clinic in the Northern Ireland capital Belfast in 2008, where he was being treated for schizophrenia after a knife attack on a man the previous year.
Mawhinney has been fired from his post and is being held in a psychiatric unit in the town awaiting his return to Belfast.
Dog's are well known for their powers of sniffing, guiding and licking themselves in places that would be rude if we humans tried to do the same thing.
And there are surely more than enough stories circulating on the Net about animal cruelty and just how much we use and abuse Man's Best Friend.
Here though is a tale of a dog, which according to the regional French daily La Nouvelle République has learnt a remarkable skill, and it's being put to good use.
Aspirant, a six-year-old Malinois, or Belgian shepherd dog, can detect patients with prostate cancer.
Aspirant (Screenshot from video accompanying La Nouvelle République report)
He's a military dog at the French airbase of Orléans-Bricy in central France and has undergone training to be able to detect signs of prostate cancer in urine samples.
It's all part of a programme of experiments conducted by Olivier Cussenot, the director of the research unit of urology at the Tenon hospital in Paris, who was put in contact with the airbase in 2007 because, as ministry of defence veterinarian Philippe Ulmer told the paper, "We have dogs capable of detecting all sorts of products such as drugs and explosives.
Over a period of months Aspirant, with the help of his handler, was taught to tell the difference between urine samples which came from patients diagnosed with prostate cancer and those without, always, stressed Ulmer, with the sense that, "Aspirant thought it was a game and when he correctly identified a 'positive' sample he would be rewarded."
And the training seemed to work - far beyond the expectations of many, according to Ulmer.
"One day we were surprised when he indicated that a negative sample was apparently positive," he said.
"It was then sent off to Paris for analysis and the tests came back proving that the dog had been right; the patient had indeed developed prostate cancer."
Journalists, including Bruno Besson from the paper, were treated to their own demonstration of Aspirant's ability last Friday when they were invited to see him in action at the airbase.
"Three samples were hidden in the drawers of three different tables," writes Besson.
"One of them was 'positive' and the other two 'negative'," he continues.
"Aspirant entered the room, sniffed the first table and then went to the second where he immediately sat down and didn't move. He was right!"
Aspirant might be unique in France, but there are reports of "canine cancer detection" (Wikipedia's catchy little title for the screening which it defines as relying "upon the olfactory ability of dogs to detect very low concentrations of the alkanes and aromatic compounds generated by tumors") in other countries.
In 2006 The Pine Street Foundation in Marin County, California published the findings of a study it had carried out claiming that it had trained dogs "to detect lung cancer in the breath of cancer sufferers with 99 percent accuracy."
And in 2004 the British Medical Journal published a paper outlining the results of a test to determine "whether dogs can be trained to identify people with bladder cancer on the basis of urine odour more successfully than would be expected by chance alone."
The funeral will be held in the Polish capital Warsaw on Thursday of one of the country's most well-known and popular actors, Krzysztof Kolberger.
He died last weekend at the age of 60 following a long battle with cancer.
A graduate of the Warsaw Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1972, Kolberger began his acting career at the Teatru Śląskiego in the southern Polish city of Katowice but shortly afterwards joined the National Theatre in Warsaw where he made his name and remained a member of the company until 1982 and rejoining it in 1999.
Making the transition from theatre to television and cinema, Kolberger became a household name in Poland and also worked with some of the country's greatest film directors including Andrzej Wajda and Krzysztof Zanussi.
He went on to become a director himself - both for theatre and opera, including what was acclaimed as a "spectacular recital dedicated to the memory of Pope John Paul II," which featured the poems of a "young Karol Wojtyła."
In his 40s Kolberger was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma, undergoing surgery several times which he is quoted as saying "changed in a significant way his approach to life and career, including the way he acted on stage and the way he directed."
I met Kolberger just once, a few years after he had been diagnosed, and remember him as a gentle, smiling man who took an interest in others and did not dwell on his own health.
It was, as Christophe Musial - an art collector and personal friend of the actor - said, a characteristic of not only the way Kolberger lived his life but also dealt with his illness.
"Krzysztof obviously couldn't keep to a tight schedule after he was diagnosed with cancer, but that didn't prevent him from working," Musial said.
"He simply changed the focus somewhat of what he was doing, and although he was still active in the theatre, the bulk of his most recent performances were on Polish television and in film.
"In addition to that though he also travelled quite a bit around Poland giving recitals. He was renowned for the beautiful timbre of his voice and people just loved to listen to him reading poetry.
What has been the reaction in Poland to the news of his death?
"It's quite amazing how much coverage there has been on television and radio and in the newspapers and it's an indication of how popular he was.
His death has been major news; TV channels cleared their schedules to carry so many tributes from the world of theatre, television and film and replay some of his most popular films. They also repeated interviews Krzysztof had given over the years
And thinking about it, it's more than understandable. Here was someone who in his early 20s became a national heartthrob. He was attractive, adorable and a good actor into the bargain. Everyone loved him.
As the years went by and he matured, his popularity didn't wane. Perhaps because I knew Krzysztof as a friend, I had lost sight somewhat of how widespread his appeal was as an actor."
I read one tribute from the Polish actress Joanna Szczepkowska who said, "Krzysztof was always smiling. That is what we must remember. He did so much for us and chose to give us all a good feeling." What did she mean by that?
"She was right. Krzysztof really was always smiling.
Joanna also said that Krzysztof was 'almost saint-like in his qualities' and by that she meant he radiated a warmth and goodness and, although he might have been suffering, did so in silence and never made a great deal about being ill.
On the contrary. When he went public several years ago that he had cancer, it was almost as though he was trying to break a taboo in Polish society.
Krzysztof set an example. He didn't talk about how cancer was affecting him, instead he was very matter-of-fact about it, showing that he was determined to continue working and encouraging others in a similar situation not to be afraid of the illness, not to give up the fight and to make the most of their lives.
I remember him saying once in an interview that it was as though he had a friend inside of him. 'It's my cancer,' he said. 'And we have to learn to live together.'
He also said that one of the most important moments of his career was when Polish television asked him to read the spiritual testament of John Paul II after the Pope’s death.
Krzysztof thought John Paul II was an inspiration in the way he coped with his illness not hiding it, not being afraid of it and not giving up.
You said tributes had been pouring in ever since Krzysztof's death was announced, not only for his acting ability but also for the way he publicly handled his illness in later years. What personal memory do you have of him that has left a lasting impression upon you?
"I remember a few years ago, shortly after Krzysztof had been through a major operation, I was at his home and he appeared weak, exhausted and had difficulty moving or even speaking.
That didn't stop him from returning to the theatre a couple of days later playing just a small role in which he was required to rush on stage, jump over some obstacles and begin shouting.
When I saw him perform, I couldn't believe it was the same man I had seen a few evenings previously. He was so full of vitality.
After the show though he was exactly the same as he had been before; drained and tired.
'Where had all the energy come from?' I asked him, amazed that he had been able to perform in the way he had.
'Ah you forget,' he replied.
'I'm an actor.'"
Krzysztof Kolberger, born Gdansk August 13, 1950, died Warsaw January 7, 2011
"Feed a cold and starve a fever" goes the saying familiar to many of us.
Regardless whether it's true or not there is apparently a way to treat cold and flu symptoms that might - to say the very least - appear somewhat unorthodox, if not a little decadent.
With this season's number of flu cases in France now having reached the epidemic threshold as defined by the Groupe régional d'observation de la grippe (with the entirely appropriate acronym of Grog) it comes as a timely reminder perhaps that there is a way to beat the bug.
Well at least, according to the French health website Top santé.com, there's a surefire trick for dealing with the symptoms and aiding recovery.
It's a recipe, in all senses of the word, plucked from the pages of Remèdes de famille : Se soigner malin et naturel de A à Z by Henry Puget.
And it involves imbibing a glass of the fizzy stuff.
That's right, Champagne, albeit warm.
Just before bedtime apparently, you should pour one glass of bubbly into a saucepan, add two sugar lumps and bring to the boil.
Allow it to cool before drinking and drift off into the Land of Nod.
At this point you might be thinking a number of things. Firstly that Puget is something of a "Quack" out to make a quick Euro or two.
But rest assured he's a bona fide general practitioner living in Paris who, as the blurb tells us, "has been treating patients and successfully offering advice for the past 30 years by combining high tech with natural therapies."
And to cast aside any doubts you might have about the efficacy of the recipe (bearing in mind that it's not so far removed from a traditional rum-based grog) it works because "after drinking you'll sweat a lot throughout the night as the chemical action of the components of champagne mixed with sugar neutralise toxins from the cold or flu."
So if you feel a slight tickle in the throat or an aching in the joints, you know what to do.
Don't plunder the medicine cabinet for a bottle of linctus.
Instead follow the "natural" way of Dr Puget's advice and do as Ab Fab"s Edina and Patsy would without any hesitation.
Break open the Bolly!
A bottle of Bollinger (image from Wikipedia, author - Manchester2k6
Passengers aboard a flight from the Portuguese capital Lisbon to the southwestern French city of Toulouse found themselves in quarantine when they arrived at their destination - the reason, a suspected case of cholera aboard the 'plane.
But in reality it turned out to be a false alarm caused by a misunderstanding between one of the passengers and a member of the cabin crew, and a system of "coping" with a potential crisis that took on a dynamic of its own.
A Portugalia Embraer 145 (image from Wikipedia, author - Bthebest)
It all began half an hour after take off when a passenger aboard the scheduled flight, operated by Portugal's national airline TAP, felt unwell and made his way to the loo.
Concerned for his state of health, a member of the cabin crew attempted to find out what wrong.
And that was when the problems really started.
The stewardess, who reportedly didn't speak a word of French, misunderstood what the passenger - himself a doctor - had said.
Somehow she confused his explanation of "having a simple stomach ache" as being a "suspected case of cholera" and she took the appropriate action by informing the captain.
It was, of course, a false alarm, but one which quickly took on a life of its own.
The passenger was confined to the back of the 'plane, the cabin crew donned the obligatory masks, no food was served for the duration of the flight and the authorities in Toulouse were alerted.
In the meantime another doctor aboard confirmed the passenger's self-diagnosis, but that could not prevent the 'plane being greeted on landing by the emergency services and a two-hour quarantine being place while investigations were conducted.
It was, as Françoise Souliman, the secretary general of the préfecture of the département of Haute Garonne, explained afterwards, a false alarm based on a simple misunderstanding, but one which had required appropriate action.
But that perhaps was little consolation for the passengers who were reportedly offered no explanation throughout the flight and must have been more than a little concerned when, on arrival, they saw the emergency services board the 'plane.
Ice cream to beat the heat, screenshot BFMTV report
It's hot in France at the moment - very hot.
and the country's meteorological service, Météo France, has put several regions on heatwave alert for the next couple of days. Daytime highs are forecast to peak at 37 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country and not dip below 20 degrees at night.
The heatwave is not predicted to be nearly as long or as fatal as the one that hit much of continental Europe in 2003 and during which around 15,000 (mainly elderly) people died in France.
But the health minister, Roselyne Bachelot, is not taking any chances and has advised local authorities to "be on their guard".
"Départements are ready and health facilities have been prepared. The number of hospital beds available is higher than normal at this time of year and mayors throughout the country have maintained lists to pinpoint those most at risk."
The eastern region of Alsace is expected to be one of the hottest places with temperatures in the main city of Strasbourg rising as high as 37 degrees Celsius.
The Prefect of the region, Pierre-Etienne Bisch, has put health and emergency services on high alert.
In Paris and the surrounding départements, local authorities have introduced a "system of support and guidance" for the most vulnerable citizens.
France's second largest city, Lyon, the surrounding metropolitan area and the whole of the Rhône département is the third region of the country in which emergency services are on high alert following Météo France's heatwave warning.
The hot spell also coincides with what is the second weekend of the summer holidays and tailbacks are expected on many of the country's motorways.
While the metro in the French capital for example has become a roasting tin for commuters and tourists alike and some bosses in companies around the country have encouraged employees to stagger their working hours and come in earlier to avoid the heat, one man in the south-western town of Moissac tried another way of dealing with the hot weather.
It's winter here in Europe, just to state the obvious.
And of course that means snow and enough of it hopefully for French ski resorts and surrounding towns to do a booming business in tourism.
But one small town in the département of Savoie in the French Alps has other thoughts on its mind at the moment as its elected officials decide whether to take a drugs manufacturer to court because of an advertising campaign that potentially damages the image of the townsfolk.
Intrigued? Then read on.
The town is Modane with a population of almost 4,000 and perhaps best known for its international TGV station as it's close to the border with Italy.
The problems began for the mayor of the former - the town that is - when he had his attention drawn to the advertising campaign of the latter - the manufacturer of the drug offering relief for constipation - which started a couple of weeks ago.
It apparently contains a visual which is a little too suggestive in which the drug is heralded as promised relief for bowel difficulties to someone seated just a tad too long on the "throne".
Now before you start cracking all the same sort of jokes that have been entertaining some corners of the French media, this is a serious business as far as the town's mayor Jean-Claude Raffin is concerned and he's currently considering whether to resort to the courts to avoid any "confusion" and "embarrassment" that might ensue.
And he could well have the weight of French justice on his side as the names of villages, towns municipalities and départements are protected by law in France to ensure that there's no "infringement on the earlier rights of a local authority including its name, image or reputation."
It's a slightly different take perhaps to begin with on the "swine flu" - or H1N1/influenza A as it's more commonly called here - epidemic in France.
The first case of a domestic pet coming down with the flu, confirmed last week by the director general of health, Didier Houssin.
The sick animal is a cat in the Bouches-du-Rhône département in the south of France and belonging to a family that had also been suffering from the flu.
The vet taking care of it had apparently found the cat to have bronchial pneumonia and diagnosed flu.
No need to panic though that the nation's pets will soon be victim to the same epidemic that has already seen the death of 150 people in this country (according to official statistics released by the health ministry on Wednesday) as it is for the moment just an isolated case.
"There have been several cases of this type abroad in pig and dogs in China recently," said Houssin.
Ah yes. The vaccination process which started off tentatively in October among health professionals and then a couple of weeks later was extended to certain sectors of the general public according to a priority list of those most susceptible to the possible effects of the flu such as those with nursing infants, children, expectant mothers and people with respiratory problems.
Where does the country stand at the moment?
Well the 3,000 special vaccination centres set up to "handle the hordes" were pretty underused during the first few weeks but then of course the French panicked somewhat and there were reported cases of some people waiting more than three hours before being able to get themselves (and/or their children) vaccinated.
From that slow start though, almost 3.8 million people have now been vaccinated, and the health minister, Roselyne Bachelot, expects the number to reach four million by the end of the week.
And she's obviously hoping that the numbers will increase significantly especially as the rest of the general public have started to receive their "official invitations" required before they can make their way to a vaccination centre.
While the figures for those consulting their doctors with suspected symptoms of the H1N1 had, according to official figures, stabilised over the past week, Bachelot warned against any general complacency.
"You should know that in general, outbreaks of flu evolve in waves and it is very possible that more waves will follow," she said.
So you've got a cough or maybe are running a temperature and you think you might be coming down with "swine flu" (H1N1 or influenza A as it's more commonly called in France).
Well now (for those living here) there's a simple online test to determine whether the symptoms you have are cause for concern.
Quizz-grippe.fr has been developed by a team of four medical and web experts, who insist that the site is completely independent of financial, political and commercial interests and allows users to determine for themselves whether the symptoms (if any) they, or other members of their family, have are in any way those that might indicate H1N1.
"And that's based on how often it occurs among those who've already had influenza A."
In other words it's still possible that someone has the flu even if they don't have a fever of 38 degrees celsius which occurs in around 75 per cent of influenza A cases, especially if they have enough of the other symptoms.
Before filling in the quick questionnaire users are warned that the "results" cannot be taken as a substitute for a proper examination by a doctor.
And then it's time to take the test.
Based initially on a number of criteria such as age, sex, where you live (only available to French postal codes of course) the "quiz" then asks what initial symptoms there have been - from coughing and a sore throat to fever and fatigue, before moving on to a second list of symptoms such as sensitivity to light or sudden panic attacks.
Click on any (or none) before passing on to the next step to determine what sort of cough you have and a final set of questions asking when symptoms first started occurring and whether you've had a vaccination for seasonal flu and/or against H1N1 itself.
A last click gives users the result with a reminder to consult a doctor if symptoms persist (in the case of influenza not being detected) or to dial an emergency number when "according to the information you provided you show signs that suggest you have the flu".
An innovative use of the Internet and a useful tool to reassure users without of course replacing the need when appropriate for a visit to the doctor?
Or an example of the general public being encouraged to self-diagnose symptoms and perhaps working themselves into an unnecessary frenzy?
A large proportion of a still sceptical French public will decide for itself this week whether to be inoculated against "swine flu" (H1N1 or influenza A as it's more commonly called here) as the government's vaccination campaign steps up a notch.
Among those given priority in the next stage of vaccinating the population at large are parents and childminders of infants under six months of age, health workers who haven't yet had the jab and the "more vulnerable" among the French especially those with respiratory problems.
From the second half of November until the end of the month letters will be sent out to other sectors of the population according to their perceived level of risk.
Pregnant women, who are also considered a priority, will have to wait until the vaccine that doesn't contain the chemical additive adjuvant is given the government's green light, while vaccination of the country's 12 million school children is scheduled to begin from November 25, with the education minister, Luc Chatel, stressing last weekend that it would be entirely voluntarywith the decision being left to parents.
Adults over the age of 18 and in good health will be the last to receive a letter inviting them to be vaccinated.
So all well and good with the government finally delivering on its promise to be in a position to vaccinate the entire population.
It has in total ordered 94 million doses of the vaccine.
But in spite of the government's campaign and an increase in the both the number of confirmed cases in recent weeks and deaths reported linked to the H1N1 virus, the French seem to remain largely unimpressed with the most recent poll indicating that only 21 per cent of them intended to get themselves vaccinated.
And although Bachelot remains upbeat about the 10 per cent of health professionals who have so far voluntarily turned up for the jab since the vaccination became available to them as a priority last month, even she has had to admit that the figure is "insufficient".
In fact as the health minister, Roselyne Bachelot, pitched up at the Necker hospital in Paris to launch the campaign, just 20 doctors and nurses were waiting to be vaccinated - sorely outnumbered by the camera crews and photographers on hand to record and report the event.
The problem it appears is that many of them are sceptical of the vaccine's efficacy and wary of the potential side effects.
Bachelot though was on hand to put an upbeat spin on things, emphasising the importance of getting vaccinated and rejecting contradictory reports from some experts who've questioned the benefits of the vaccine, the speed with which it has been produced and its possible side effects.
Moreover she was adamant that hospital workers had an obligation to both themselves and patients to be vaccinated.
"Medical professionals are indispensable for looking after the sick and therefore it's necessary to protect them to be able to preserve our health service which could be put under pressure if the epidemic intensifies," she said.
The message is having a hard time getting across not just to those working in hospitals but also to the public at large it seems.
The French remain largely reticent with recent polls showing that between 60 and 65 per cent of them have no intention of getting themselves inoculated when the vaccine becomes available to the general public at the beginning of November.
And they're hardly helped by family doctors either, just over half of whom have said they won't be heeding the call to turn up at one of the 3,000 centres specially set up to administer the vaccine.
Although only anecdotal a couple of weeks ago this particular resident was presented with the dilemma most of us are likely to face at the beginning of November.
It happened while he was getting his annual jab against seasonal flu from his GP and inevitably the conversation turned towards H1N1.
"So will you be going along to one of the centres to get vaccinated?" he asked his doctor.
"No," came the simple reply. "And nor will any of my colleagues."
If those who are supposed to know about the benefits of the vaccine can't agree among themselves, how are the rest of us supposed to make an informed decision?
A new device developed by a French orthodontist promises a good night's sleep for snorers...and their partners!
Help could be at hand for those among us who suffer from snoring - both the "culprits" who noisily sleep their way through the night and their partners who have to endure the rumblings and snortings coming from the other side of the bed.
On Tuesday a laboratory in the northwestern French city of Rennes launched an "innovate device" which promises to put an end to sleepless nights by reducing the level of snoring and the amount of sleeping apnoea (the temporary cessation of breathing while sleeping).
Ah yes, where have we - the long-suffering partners forced to share the night time with high volume snorts and grunts reverberating around the bedroom - heard that before?
There are countless devices out there on the market that claim to reduce snoring, endless tips on how to sleep soundly while making less of a racket and (as a last resort perhaps) surgery for those who snore.
But as the British Snoring & Sleep Apnoea Association (yes there really is such a body) says on its website "There isn't a cure for snoring," only ways in which it can "be successfully controlled."
And that would seem to be the promise behind the product launched this week called the "Blue nocta".
It's a brace that has been developed by an orthodontist in Rennes, who spent more than 10 years testing several prototypes before coming up with the final product.
The brace itself isn't innovative, several others already exist apparently. But what is groundbreaking is "a screw that allows the patient to adjust the device before going to sleep," according to Denis Masquilier the head of the laboratory that'll be marketing it.
And here's the good news - no scrub that, GREAT news. It has been tested on around 500 people and has had a "one hundred per cent success rate".
"We mustn't forget that because of snoring and sleep apnea, sleep is disrupted," says Masquilier.
"People who snore are often people who wake up tired."
Ah M. Masquilier, that might indeed be very true, but they're surely not alone as anyone with a partner who could snore their way to Olympic gold would be able to testify.
All right so the cost of the brace at the moment is perhaps rather steep - €470 - and won't be reimbursed by the social security here in France, but it could be the answer to many people's prayers and the promise of a full night's sleep.
A Christmas present for the Superior Other One maybe?
There are two quite different perspectives that have appeared in France over the past couple of days on the same story: perhaps reflecting the attitude held by many people here and elsewhere over the real dangers associated with "swine flu" - or "grippe A" (influenza A) as it's called in France.
In Sunday's edition of le Journal du Dimanche there was an interview with one of this country's most well-known doctors and a member of parliament for the centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) professor Bernard Debré.
He played down the dangers of the (H1N1) virus and accused the government of over-reacting and responding to media pressure.
The following day there was a reply from fellow UMP member and minister of health, Roselyne Bachelot, who insisted in an interview with the national daily, le Figaro, that the government's response was measured and appropriate.
The crux of the matter as far as Debré is concerned is that the current strain is no more dangerous than seasonal flu and in fact could be less threatening.
Part of the problem, he insists, is the reaction there has been to the latest outbreak in light of the so-called bird flu which he describes as "Being very dangerous to human beings with a mortality rate of 60 to 65 per cent but at the same time less contagious because it's difficult to cross from species to species."
"This (H1N1) flu isn't dangerous. We've even realised that it could be less threatening than seasonal flu," he said.
"At the moment there have been around 800 deaths worldwide and the southern hemisphere has undoubtedly reached its peak of contamination," he added.
"Of course the virus could become more virulent, but that's not the opinion that has been expressed by a majority of virologists."
Debré says that the reaction from the French government has to an extent only served to increase fear among the general public. But at the same time he admits that governments around the world have had their hands forced somewhat.
"From the moment the World Health Organisation started issuing daily reports and holding press conferences, governments really didn't have an option but to follow that lead," he told le Journal du Dimanche.
"It's my contention that the French government has come under pressure because of the political over-dramatisation within the media of the risks the virus presents."
The flip side of the argument of course comes from Bachelot, who told le Figaro that as far as she was concerned the government's reaction to the threat had been the right one.
"I treat this pandemic very seriously and I don't base my approach on the opinion of politicians or try to make a media splash," she said.
"From the beginning I've consulted the most renowned and respected experts - French and European - and if we look at what they have had to say in the media about the government's response to this health crisis, they point to it having been in proportion and correct."
In answering Debré's assertion that the virus isn't dangerous and is no more harmful than the possible effects of seasonal flu, Bachelot perhaps not surprisingly, is more cautious.
She admits that the virus might not be particularly harmful at the moment, but its ability to spread quickly requires that governments have a system in place that can cope with a wider outbreak.
And for Bachelot, the threat lies in the potential rate of infection based on statistics for those who catch seasonal flu.
"On average seasonal flu kills around 2,500 people in France - among 2,5 million people who catch it," she says.
"Some experts say that this virus could lead to around 20 million people becoming ill and that presents a potentially serious problem to public health even if the virus remains relatively harmless in many cases."
The number of cases of "grippe A" reported here in France so far has been 483, of which none has been deadly.
It must surely be the fear of many when entering hospital - to be admitted for a routine operation and then a medical error changes your life.
Such is that case here in France of a 67-year-old woman who is now being treated in a Paris hospital because a doctor mistakenly removed a kidney she had received as a transplant back in 2003.
And at the weekend the family filed a complaint against the surgeon responsible, Philippe Rogé.
Sefika Altintas was originally admitted a couple of weeks ago to the Saint-François de Mainvilliers clinic near the city of Chartres, 96 kilometres south of the French capital, for an operation to remove an abdominal hernia.
It was a routine operation even though Altintas was diabetic, and had spent 11 years on dialysis until she received a kidney transplant six years ago.
But Rogé apparently made a vital error during the course of the operation and somehow identified a healthy kidney as tumorous and decided to remove it.
After the mistake had been identified, Altintas was flown by emergency helicopter to the Kremlin-Bicêtre hospital in Paris, where she's now in intensive care.
Even though her life is reportedly not in danger, the repercussions to her health will be enormous, according to the family's lawyer, Marie-Élise Pagnon.
The kidney that was removed is now too damaged to be re-transplanted and Altintas will have to await until another match becomes available before undergoing yet a further operation.
In the meantime she will receive further dialysis treatment - something she had put behind her six years ago.
Even though Rogé has admitted that a mistake was made, Pagnon insists the case raises a number of issues that must be addressed and questions that must be answered.
"Did the kidney really present any evidence of being tumorous and how is it possible to confuse the two?" she asks.
"And even if there had been evidence of a tumour (there wasn't) would it really have been necessary to remove it immediately?"
Not surprisingly perhaps, Rogé has been suspended from the operating theatre.
For the hospital, the case doesn't stop there and its director, Véronique Besse, has promised that there will be complete transparency during an internal inquiry as to what exactly happened.
Medical mistakes happen - that's for sure. And when they do they can have dreadful consequences for patients as the case of Altintas illustrates.
But Besse's reassurances aside, for the Saint-François de Mainvilliers clinic it's not the only high-profile case to have made the headlines this year.
In January, a baby died several hours after being born at the same hospital and the parents filed a complaint against four gynaecologists.
In case you're unfamiliar with the tale, Vlaeminck is the Belgian teenager, who last weekend , popped along to the local tattoo local parlour to have three little stars tattooed on her face and ended up with 56.
The 18-year old claims she fell asleep while the tattoo artist, Rouslan Toumaniantz, got on with the job and when she woke up she was horrified to find the left side of her face covered in 53 more tattoos than she had bargained for.
Anyway, as the story has made its way around the globe, there have been a fair few doubts cast on the veracity of Vlaeminck's version of events, with the often repeated question being how could she possibly have dropped off while having her face tattooed.
Disbelief is how many have reacted to the story including, as you'll clearly see from the accompanying clip, that of the French television presenter, Marina Carrère.
She's one of the hosts on the daily health magazine, Magazine de la santé, broadcast live on national television each on France 5.
On Wednesday, Carrère, along with co-host Michel Cymes, was giving a round-up of the latest health news stories and of course the case of Vlaeminck and her 56 tattoos.
Perhaps its a reaction that best sums up what many people think of the whole story.
Oh, and don't worry. You don't need to speak a word of French to understand what's going on.
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