Sarkozy inspires hip-hop "save-the-world" video

Early into his "reign of office" there was a rapping video dedicated to the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, featuring him as "The King of Bling Bling" which you might remember.

While that clip focussed on Sarkozy's apparent love of "show", the latest music video to hit the Net and starring the French president is somewhat more sober - at least in terms of content.

screenshot from video

It was made by the team of the weekly television programme, "Tout le monde il est beau" on Canal +.

It's a show, hosted by the excellent Bruce Toussaint which, in its own words "revisits the previous week's news stories". In other words it's no holds barred when it comes to poking fun at whenever and where ever it deems appropriate.

In its most recent edition it took Sarkozy's speech at the United Nations in New York last week when he pressed for "a global tax on financial transactions to fund development aid" set it to the music of Alicia Key's monster 2009 hit "Empire state of mind" with reworked lyrics and came up with something described by the French site Le Post as a special "New York hip-hop and bling-bling" version.



The latest musical clip is just one in a long line of those featuring French politicians that have made the Net since Sarkozy came to power in May 2007.

There was the Lipdubbing bandwaggon which the Youth wing of the party so memorably jumped on last year with its video featuring government ministers lip-synching to "Tous ceux qui veulent changer le monde" ("Everyone who wants to change the world"). You can watch it again here should you wish.

Before that a French rapper offered up an ode, or rather a love song, to the former justice minister Rachida Dati just as she was preparing to leave the government and take up her post at the European parliament.

And when Sarkozy reshuffled his government in January 2009 there was another somewhat irreverent video to "celebrate".

All the while of course there has been the support and participation - musically speaking - of a real singer in the shape of France's first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

She most recently brought her own very special universe to rework David Bowie's "Absolute Beginners" - à la Carla.

"If music be the food of love, play on" wrote William Shakespeare in the opening lines of "Twelfth Night".

Well if the Bard were around today perhaps he would adapt his well-known quote a little to comment on French political life and the fun many seem to have in setting politics to music.

Georges Larnicol sets sail - in a chocolate boat

At first sight it seems not only like a mad idea but also one that's pretty impossible to pull off; setting sail in a boat made entirely of chocolate.

But last weekend that's exactly what Georges Larnicol did in the port of Concarneau, a town in the Finistère department in Brittany in north-western France.

Screenshot from Ouest-France video. Georges Larnicol and first mate Joël aboard the chocolate boat.

Not only did Larnicol manage successfully to launch his 3.5 metre chocolate delight, he also managed to clamber aboard and stay afloat for one and a half hours.

As you can see from the accompanying video (courtesy of the regional newspaper Ouest France) it wasn't all plain sailing for Larnicol and his first mate, Joël.

They needed the help of Larnicol's colleagues from the diving club at which he has been a member for the past 11 years to keep the boat afloat and prevent it from tipping over.

Concarneau: le bateau en chocolat - Ouest France
 Concarneau: le bateau en chocolat

Mots-clés : bateau chocolat concarneau larnicol

Video de ouestfrance

And there was a good deal of bailing out of water as the two men headed further out of port.

After one and a half hours though Larnicol once again made dry land to the applause of the one thousand odd spectators who had been present to witness his exploit.

It wasn't the 55-year-old's first attempt to set sail in a chocolate boat.

In August his plans were scuppered when his Chocolate boat Mark I broke into pieces.

But Mark II, which took more than 400 hours to construct, met with more success and pleased with the outcome, Larnicol is promising to build a bigger 12-metre boat complete with chocolate mask for 2012.

For killjoys who might be critical of the apparent waste (of chocolate) involved, Larnicol, not surprisingly perhaps a chocolatier by profession, points out that only "recycled decorative chocolate" was used in the construction of his boat.

In other words, chocolate that was past its sell-by date and could not be eaten.

As the BBC says in its piece on Larnicol's watery exploits, Chocs ahoy!

Cows "trash" French cemetery

The image of cows grazing quietly in the field is surely one of those simple delights of the countryside - be it in France or anywhere else for that matter.

But in the northern French village of Radinghem those gentle creatures decided to go walkabouts last Thursday in search of pastures new.

Unfortunately, as the regional newspaper La Voix du Nord reports, for their owner and the local villagers the 33-strong herd ended up in the village cemetery which, not being enclosed in any way, offered them easy access.

That's where the herd spent the night, and not just chewing the cud.

Instead cows being cows they managed to wreak their own kind of bovine havoc, damaging graves stones, knocking over ornaments and generally causing a mess that left more than a dozen final resting places "trashed".

The following morning Michaël Baheux, the village mayor, after having been informed what had happened, closed the cemetery, put a clean-up campaign into action, contacted some of the families concerned and had photo's taken of the mess so that insurance claims could be made against the owner.

A stonemason has apparently also been contacted to give quotes for repairs.

Proof perhaps that village life, although generally more sedate, can also have its moments.

Moo!

image from Wikipedia, author Daniel Schwen