François Hollande stands firm on same-sex marriage

Well good for the French president François Hollande.

He has repeated that there won't be a referendum on proposals to allow couples of the same-sex to marry or to adopt.

"It's a promise I made to the French and it has to be honoured (some throat clearing might be necessary in believing the next bit) just as the other promises I made, have to be," he said in his New Year wishes to parliament this week.

All right so the protests might not be over yet, but with the end of January approaching and the proposals due to go before parliament, it's maybe Hollande showing that he actually has the cajones to follow through on a pledge.

Perhaps he's not so "Flanby" after all and is less lightweight with no hard core set of principles than his critics might claim.

From Wikipedia

After all, isn't there a sense of social justice in allowing those who wish to marry someone of the same sex, to do so?

Those 800,000 who marched in Paris recently (a questionable figure anyway as official statistics provided by the police put the number at around 350,000, even if we all know those can also be "massaged") will now just have to get used to the idea that the law is likely to pass.

As will those who claim to be oh-so-proud of their discriminatory and reactionary views as to what constitutes a "marriage", because - well it's going to happen, just as it has in Argentina, Belgium, the Netherlands, South Africa or Spain (to name but a few).

And that, dear reader, is called progress.

Welcome to the 21st century...France.

Can France find its Pudsey?

M6 is currently broadcasting the seventh season of "La France a un incroyable talent", the French equivalent of "Britain's got talent".

Canadian impresario - Gilbert Rozon, the artistic director of Cirque Pinder - Sophie Edelstein and Wouter Levenbach - the Dutch-born singer better-known in this country under his stage name Dave - are back again sitting through the usual motley bunch of acts from which they and later the viewers - can find that "incredible talent".

Precocious children all "autodidact" of course convinced they can sing, dance or play an instrument.

Acrobats from around the world (that's right, the programme is not confined to purely French "talent") who've clearly trained professionally but want an extra bit of exposure by being on telly.

Dance troupes in all shapes and sizes.

"Comedians"- well they think they're funny even if nobody else does.

Those with a message, political, social or just downright dumb such as bursting out of a bin liner or slapping food all over the table.

Motorbikers, magicians, drag acts, choirs - young and old - bands, singers...the list goes on an on.

Still it makes for - ahem - suitably mindless television with presenters Sandrine Corman and her sidekick Alex Goude entertaining themselves as much as the viewers and all the while keeping the show going.

Somehow though anyone watching must be left with the feeling that the real "talent" is to be found elsewhere, especially as immediately following the programme there is the additional and imaginatively- named "La France a un incroyable talent, ça continue".

It recaps what has just been broadcast - very handy if you missed the show in the first place - takes a look at what has happened to past contestants since they first appeared and, most importantly perhaps, allows viewers a glimpse of what's going on in other countries.

And given the original concept is one that has pretty much been picked up around the world, there's obviously enough material out there.

Somehow though you get the feeling that the copies aren't really a patch on the original which gave the world Susan Boyle (although she didn't win) back in 2009 and earlier this year brought us a 16-year-old girl and her dog.

Pudsey (screenshot from "Britain's got talent")

That's right. Ashleigh Butler and her six-year-old performing Border Collie, Bichon Frise and Chinese Crested cross Pudsey walked - or should that be danced? - off with the title of "Britain's got talent" in May this year.

And it's only thanks to "La France a un incroyable talent, ça continue" that viewers here have finally discovered the dog's truly amazing talent.

So here's the video.

Enjoy.

Woof.

Virginie Razzano stuns Serena Williams in three-set thriller at Roland Garros

It might not seem like a big deal, but there's so much more to the story than the headline suggests.

And it's little wonder that the French sports pages are buzzing and the media is reporting the exploits of France's Virginie Razzano in the first round of this year's Roland Garros tournament.

Virginie Razzano (screenshot YouTube video)

Why?

Well first up of course there's the fact that Razzano - currently ranked 111 in the world - beat former number one and the 2002 winner Serena Williams.

No mean feat in itself as Williams was seeded fifth in this year's tournament and had never lost a first round match before in any of the four majors.

It was also the manner in which the 29-year-old Razzano beat her opponent, turning her game around from the brink of defeat.

At 1-5 down in the second set tie-break, after having lost the first set 4-6, the game pretty much seemed lost for Razzano.

But as often happens in tennis, Razzano rallied (sorry) taking the next six points to win the tie-break and the set.

More was to come in the final set though as Razzano clearly on a roll, raced to 5-0 lead, had three games taken off her by Williams and then needed eight match points to seal victory.

Remarkable stuff for both those lucky enough to be among the crowd at the Court Philippe Chatrier and those following the game on telly; three hours and three minutes of great sport.

But wait.

There's more.

Because Razzano's victory provided the starkest of contrasts to her first round match at last year's Roland Garros.

Just a week before the 2011 tournament, Razzano had lost her coach and fiancé Stéphane Vidal.

The pair had been together for nine years and shortly before he died, Vidal, who had a brain tumour, had made Razzano promise that she would play in Paris to "honour him".

Although she lost in her first round match, the press conference after the game was probably one of the most moving moments of the two weeks and led Europe 1 sports journalist Christophe Lamarre to describe how touched those present had been by the dignity and courage shown by Razzano.

Asked (a daft sports reporter's question) on Tuesday after beating Williams, whether the win was some sort of "sign of destiny" Razzano preferred a level-headed answer.

"Is it fate? I don't know," she said.

"What's certain is I wanted to win this match," she added.

"Honestly though, the past is the past. I've mourned and now I'm ready to move forward with my life. It took some time. But today I feel good."

Razzano's second round opponent will be 22-year-old Arantxa Rus from the Netherlands.

Even if you're not that keen on tennis, you'll surely feel the tension in the two accompanying videos of the last game of the match.

Toutou rista - the Doggie Doo poop-scooping game in France

Not sure how to keep the children entertained at Christmas?

Well family games manufacturer Goliath thinks it has the answer with the release in France of Toutou rista.

Toutou rista (screenshot from promotional video)

It's the French version of the same game launched on an unsuspecting German, Spanish and Dutch market last year.

In Germany, under the name of Kackel Dackel it was a huge hit with the promotional video going viral.

None the wiser?

Well perhaps the English name will give the game (sorry) away as it's also being released in the United Kingdom and The United States under the name of Doggie Doo.

It's a game which "aims to teach children how to take care of dogs with poop-scooping gameplay" and French toy industry magazine La revue du jouet named it best infant toy game in France for 2011.

"Feed and walk your little pup, when he makes a mess you clean it up," says the game's manufacturer, Goliath.

"The first player who has 3 pieces of dog mess on his shovel wins the game."

The rules are simple although they include the rather...er...worrying extra remark, "You can only pick up the dog’s mess when it has fallen on the table. When it is hanging outside the end of the dog, just tap him on the back until it drops."

Charming!

Enough said.

Tour de France anti-doping tests and cheats

Tour de France route from Wikipedia uploaded by Sémhur

Cycling's premier event, the Tour de France, starts on Saturday. But even before the first stage gets underway in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, scientists are claiming that the Tour's anti-doping test are flawed and some riders have found new ways of cheating.

According to the BBC, Pierre Bordry, the head of the French Anti-Doping Agency (Agence Française de Lutte contre le Dopage, AFLD) has raised concerns over the reliability of tests scheduled to be carried out by the sport's governing body the International Cycling Union (UCI) during this year's Tour.

Last year AFLD and UCI shared responsibility for testing but, as the BBC reports, there was friction between the two bodies with the French claiming that the UCI had given some top riders preferential treatment and had relied only on screening samples rather than backing them up with customs information and police investigations.

The UCI will conduct tests alone this year with observers from the World Anti-Doping Agency, Wada, on hand to oversee the screening process.

As far as Bordry is concerned, that's proof that Wada also has some doubts about the UCI's ability to keep the Tour drug-free.

"I think if this year there are three people from Wada to control UCI, surely there is a reason for that," he told the BBC.

Bordry is also critical of the new passport introduced by the UCI to establish a "biological profile" of every rider based on blood and urine samples taken throughout the year.

It's supposed to set a norm of levels for each rider but Bordry says it can be easily foiled by taking small but regular amounts of doping substances.

Bordry is not alone in his concerns ahead of this year's Tour.

Bloomberg News reports that while testing in cycling has become more rigorous, riders have found new ways of cheating.

"Cyclists are transfusing less blood and injecting smaller doses of stamina-building drugs to try to get around more intensive doping tests, according to four scientists who analyse exam results," it says in a report that looks at the general problem of doping in cycling.

“I’m afraid things are as bad as they’ve ever been,” Michael Ashenden, an anti-doping researcher on Australia’s Gold Coast told Bloomberg News.

"What I see is the incidence of riders trying to dope and avoid detection isn’t very different to how it has been throughout history.”

The UCI has defended both its passport and its testing, insisting that it does more than most other governing bodies to try to combat drug-taking.

"We have created the most sophisticated tool that many other international sports organisation would like to introduce," Enrico Carpani, a UCI spokesman told the BBC.

"We are explaining, we are selling the biological passport to other federations so that's proof that this new approach is the most important and the most reliable that sport has today to fight against doping."

This year's Tour de France, the 97th edition of the race, will begin on Saturday with the prologue in the Dutch city of Rotterdam.

The final stage will be on July 25 with riders crossing the line on the Champs Élysées in Paris.

A French firm where workers are busy doing nothing - and getting paid for it

Every day Carmen Girard turns up for work at National Power Packs in Pontarlier in the département of Doubs in eastern France.

The 36-year-old has been working for the company, which assembles rechargeable batteries, for 15 years.

But since June, Girard and her four female colleagues have quite literally had nothing to do.

And they're getting a regular monthly income for not doing it.

A month earlier their boss informed them that assembly and production were being transferred to facilities just outside of Rotterdam in the Netherlands where he lives and that the company in Pontarlier was effectively ceasing its activities.

The machinery has remained in place and so have the five employees. They weren't fired - and still haven't been.

Instead they have received their regular monthly salaries for doing absolutely nothing apart from turning up each day.

A typical day starts for Girard at 8.30am.

"First of all I deal with my personal letters and emails, then we watch television, play Scrabble, Rubik's Cube or Sudoku," she said on Laurent Ruquier's afternoon radio programme, On va s'gêner.

"It's like a phantom company right now - 440 square metres with nothing to do," she added.

There has been no sign of life from their boss, apart from a couple of emails informing them of the closure and instructing them to tie up loose ends with customers.

And in spite of repeated attempts to reach him, he's no longer answering his mobile 'phone.

The big question of course is why the five women haven't been fired. And it's one to which Girard says she has no answer.

They've contacted union representatives to find out where they stand legally and have have been told that if they look for and accept jobs elsewhere they'll be considered to have resigned from their current positions, thereby losing eligibility to any redundancy packages that might be coming their way - eventually.

Girard admits the situation could be worse, realising that there probably aren't that many bosses around who would continue to pay salaries to employees for sitting around doing nothing.

All the same she and the other four woman find themselves in employment limbo, knowing that they have no future with the company but just wishing that their employer would take the necessary steps so that they can all move on.

"Sometimes we do a tour of the building just to talk to employees at another company," she says.

"We feel useless and as though we don't really deserves our salaries."