The top 10 topics of French conversation

We may all be one European village nowadays, but it's interesting to note how people in each country are often preoccupied by completely different events.

Take the case of Madeleine McCann. A French TV show* has asked me on to explain the British media's fascination for what has seemed -- until this week's developments -- to be a sad but banal case of child abduction.

The story has intrigued France because of the way that, seen from this side of the Channel, the British have gone out of their minds. How, they are wondering, can one sad fait divers -- random news item -- drive such a tidal wave of media cover ? I won't court trouble here with my own view, but it's worth noting how news for one country is sometimes meaningless for another. Look at the affair of Janet Jackson's nipple in the USA -- or France's obsession in the early 1990s with the case of le Petit Gregory, the drowning of a village boy whose killer was never identified.

To illustrate the point, here is the list of the top 10 topics that the French are talking about. The Ifop polling company keeps tabs on this for Paris Match, asking the question: Which subjects have you talked about most this week with those around you at home and in the work place?"

1 -- The Rugby World Cup
2 -- The death of Luciano Pavarotti
3 -- The closure of 11,200 jobs at the Education Ministry

4-   Plans for raising the retirement age
5 -- President Sarkozy's new scheme for tackling Alzheimer's disease
6 -- The utilities merger between Gaz de France and Suez
7 -- The possible introduction of a four-day school week
8 -- Cecilia Sarkozy's refusal to appear before a parliamentary inquiry on her mission to Libya
9 -- Gang fights at the Paris Gare du Nord rail terminus.
10 - Government plans to raise value added tax to pay for social security.

Final note: A campaign is under way to have the French media stage a Sarko-free day next month.

* The TV show is Un cafe, l'addition, Pascale Clark's talk show on Canal + at 13h55 on Saturday. 

Comments

[raindrop]

how about the tenth?

hard to believe that french football team was not ranked.

[Frank Schnittger]

We had a similar discussion on the topic of the 50 most admired French people - few of whom were well known abroad.

7 of the 9 (not 10) topics listed are domestic French issues, another is based in France (The Rugby World Cup), and only Luciano Pavarotti stands out as a non French topic. All the other topics effect French more or less directly - tax, health, law and order, politics and the economy...

I suspect a similar poll carried out in other countries would have a similar domestic bias, although I do think smaller countries (like Ireland) do take a bigger interest in issues outside our own borders because we are effected by them more.

Come on Charles, get off the fence on Madeleine McCann! - you're the only person paid to commentate here! Give us a sneak preview of what you will be saying on the program.

For what its worth, my view is as follows: The Madeleine McCann case has had a big impact in Ireland because losing a child - especially in a strange country - is everybody's worst nightmare, and we are a very family orientated society.

It has all the elements that strike a cord - parental responsibility, guilt at taking some time out for yourself, media intrusion, the horrendous possibility of paedophile sex ring involvement, the strange ways of different police forces, and now, perhaps, also the alleged possibility of direct parental involvement.

It is a human story all can identify with, and therefore one which the media - and especially Sky - have played up for all its worth.

I was horrified by the initial wall to wall coverage especially when there was no hard news to report. Whole news shows were devoted to reporters interviewing each other about some random or chance remarks or possibilities that some of them had dreamed up.

There was also an undercurrent of scepticism, not to say racism, directed at the competency of the Portuguese Authorities - concerns which may indeed now be justified by what seems to have been a very incompetent investigation process.

A child was lost, a crime was committed. We need closure, a scapegoat must be found. The very absence of hard evidence creates a vacuum which the media are only too happy to fill with speculation.

They have a product to sell, and what better way to sell something than by hooking into the basic parental desire to provide security for their children.

[Dominique]

We have had better than the Mc Cann case here!

A french mother living in Korea was visited by the Korean police who found 3 dead babies in her freezer. She was arrested with her husband in Korea.

Of course, all french medias were all shocked and blamed the stupid Korean police for not being able to do DNA testing properly. All medias started a campaign to start saving the "poor french couple" that was so unfairly questionned by the "so uncapable" korean police.

How could the Korean even imagine that a mother could kill her babies?? A Korean maybe, but not a french one!!

Pfff. Of course, they came back to France, thanks probably to political pressure from our government, and then, they started talking in the medias to tell their "horrible" history in Korea.

All DNA were made again by "proper" french labs and.....it turned out that ...it was true. The three babies were actually hers and were kept in the freezer for years. The mother never forgot them every time she was mooving... Of course, no journalist did ever question what happened in the press (Responsibility for what you tell? what is that about? freedom! freedom blablabla...)

An other mother has been doing the very same thing and was discoverd this very summer this time in France. Specialists are now talking of some kind of a "pregnancy denial" that may leed to terrible things. Mother keeping the dead babies because they don't quite get what happende and they keep what belongs to them.

The british medias should be very carefull. Parents sometimes do terrible things. Even British ones...

[Robert Marchenoir]

About the campaign for a Sarkozy-free day, here is an interesting dicussion on the French blog Koztoujours about where it came from and how it is being marketed.

Some interesting insight on how lots of frivolous pseudo-research in sociology is publicly funded here.

(In French.)

http://www.koztoujours.fr/?p=462

[isobel]

Although Madeleine McCann may not feature in the top 10 topics of conversation in France , Paris Match certainly thinks the story has legs as its cover this week is a picture of the McCanns.Apparently the article written by their correspondent in Portugal discusses the latest developments in the story.I also noticed that the daily newspaper The Parisien either today or yesterday had a picture of the McCanns on the front page.So either these 2 publications don't know their readership very well or there is more interest in the story than the survey suggests.

[No. As I mentioned in the post, the story did not figure in France until this week and the accusation against the parents. The French media have latched on in the past couple of days and Paris Match reflects that. CB]

[azloon]

if the mccann story hews to the Jon Benet Ramsey model in the u.s., you have years of this stuff ahead of you. the talking heads of celebrity news went 'ape shit' over this story, and you could barely turn on the tv without seeing poor little Jon Benet, wearing bright red lipstick and rouge in her drum majorette outfit. the 'coupe de grace' came earlier this year when some gay teacher in Bangkok confessed to the crime (he had a crush on her) only to have the whole admission discredited when his story didn't check out. this did though seem to dampen general interest in the story. and then her mother died, so pretty soon everyone will be dead and there will be no story to gush over, people to blame/suspect. these stories have a way of becoming an disgusting orgy of everyone's worst impulses.

[Actu75]

Dominique
Since you mention the Courjault story, imagine what would have been the british medias reaction had the Courjault been english...
I took attention to this case last august. I do not remember that the medias supported the couple as blindly as you mention. But confronted to the distance, the lack of direct and usual sources with south koreans authorities, they gave a large echo to the only version available: the family's. Just -but much less- like UK medias have been doing with the Mac Canns.
Yet quite quickly (and before the couple went back home) they underlined the reputation of forensic police and labs in South Korea. But the medias as the public knew nothing about the "pregnancy denial" that partly explains the Courjault case or the other affair in Albertville. Therefore if the family and the husband had seen nothing of the pregnancy it was unthinkable for the medias that these pregnancies had actully happenend. Until the DNA tests were confirmed they kept open the family's version.
On the pregnancy denial I recommend this excellent book (the only one in France actually)http://www.amazon.fr/Je-suis-pas-enceinte-grossesse/dp/2234060184

Concerning the Mac Cann's case; it seems to me that british medias have sometimes recently been involved in the same kind of questionings that the french medias have been, years after the affair of "Le Petit Gregory".
You hear or read "we should not talk about it if we know nothing new"... Yet they just can't stick to it.

[jopo]

Why did you have to even mention Madeleine McCann ? As soon as you do, look what happens ? The story is everywhere. It is one "fait divers", that's all.

[John Gregory Flinn]

Missing children seem to get the attention of the French public when they occur. Especially when they are found to have been murdered as is alleged in the 'freezer-babies' case.

What has probably caused the biggest stir in Britain about Madeline McCann's disappearance, (and possibly prompted its inclusion in Paris Match), is the apparent 'volte face' in the circumstances of the case.
This has somewhat confounded a previous British media view that the Portuguese authorities were incompetent - even negligent - in their investigations and conduct of the case.
The possibilty of guilt has suddenly shifted to the parents, and left the media feeling vaguely manipulated (for a change) by the McCanns, and a fickle public shouting abuse at the mother (when she appeared for questioning in Portugal).
DOMINIQUE's post is very relevant here - the McCann's have made similar complaints about Portugal's juducial system.

The widespread speculation continues and is surely reprehensible, it may induce some jobsworth in Brussels to propose a EU-wide 'sub judice' rule in cases such as this.

[Daniel Strohl]

Azloon,

'coupe de grace" - you meant probably "coup de grâce"

"Coupe de glace" exists also = you may order one in a restaurant ...

[azloon]

Just curious about a couple of these current topics:

4- "Plans for raising the retirement age:" (to what from what? many believe the entire country is already semi-retired, so would this be a move from semi-retirement to full retirement? maybe we need a new french word, to denote the difference between being de facto retired but sitting at a desk, from actually being paid to stay away. it might just be simpler to keep raising the number of vacation days until there ARE no more work days. i have been told that in france, supervisors use small breath mirrors to determine if employees have died while still sitting at their desks (breathing being the only difference in performance).

7 -- "The possible introduction of a four-day school week;" france might consider as a first move instituting a school day of reasonable length so that students aren't leaving in the dark and coming home in the dark. is this part of an attempt to prepare the student for the abrupt change in expectations when they move from the world of school to the world of work?

just trying to help.

:)

[azloon]

i think i'll take a coupe de ville (old american luxury car) or a coupe de glace.

coup de grace, coup de grace, coup de grace, coup de grace..............how many times do i have to write this? 1000 times?..will i be home in time for dinner?

:)

[Tara_Lane]

And lamentably, here in America, you can't turn on the television without hearing of Britney's flop at the MTV video awards show...

For the record, here in America, the McCann story is being deconstructed as an example of how we're less likely to blame "beautiful people" for horrible crimes, and how biased we all are for thinking those same people are above harming their children.

[alan morgan]

Sometimes Charles you are the story. A bit zen I realise but with your readership an important point to bear in mind. Sorry to be a bit negative

[Dominique]

Tara,

don't jump to conclusions! No one knows if the Mc Cans did actually killed their daughter...

Actu75 : i agree with you. I did not mean that the french press did back the Courjeault "on purpose". I just meant that they wer too lazy for trying to find a translation of the koran police version and just did what was easy : ask the only version in french they had : the familly one.

This is usually the case in countries where the press expects the others to speak their language.

Did the british press try to read the file in portuguese?

[Dominique]

By the way,

the big story of the day in France is the death of Jacques Martin, former TV star, brilliant humorist, former husband of Cecilia Sarkozy and father of two of the "sarkozy's daughter". He was 74 years old.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Martin_%28animateur%29

Without even noticing, this man was so much part of my own youth that i felt sad just like if thirty years had just suddenly disapeared.

[Daniel Strohl]

Azloon,

"coupe de ville".

The word "coupé" is still used in Europe - but without "de ville" - you are old fashioned in the USA ...

"Coup de grâce" 4 times is quite ok for a brainy Arizonan like you !

[Blendi Progri]

I totally agree with Mr. Schnittger who has accurately pinpointed
this phenomena: The very absence of hard evidence creates a vacuum which the media are only too happy to fill with speculation- he says.

And now after UK media feels a bit peeved and manipulated by the family, just a little, they are trying to make up for the lost time.

Whatever the reason, a neighbouring country will sooner or later zoom in the story. Either `cos it is a missing child involved, or just to be amused by over the top coverage of the case with such little info, in UK. As its true that different nationalities have a different perspective in an event occurring somewhere else, I saw this in my recent holiday but thought that maybe France could have its own opinion about M. McCan`s case- not yet it turns out.

This story degenerated into a circus while the journalists from every TV, radio, newspaper a magazine from UK went and set up camp in Portugal.

While there were no new developments every little piece of gossip was presented as a Real Breakthrough. The media enlarged everything that the Mc Can`s said or did, and if Gerry talked 2 minutes he was given 10 minutes space (with analysis) and if The Family (Mc Cans are a healthily large one - truth be told- and not one of them is shy to give his/her own personal opinion in an animated and loud manner; and despite having a Professional Spokesperson (?!) they daily pop up to say this or that, their brilliant media minders –so praised early on- could let them know that they are just a tad irritating) wrote 3 paragraphs, a day later the news spread was up to 8 pages.

It has little parallel in modern times, so much for so little.
So the speculation is rife, and on it goes.

Some people have been hurt too, as a some days back M. Parris wrote a whole article about R. Murat, someone that was totally vilified with no clear evidence against him.

And as CB gently floats above this all, he is right when he says that only in the last two days there`s something about the case in Fr., and he`ll pass on this one, for now. I`m curious to know what will CB say in his interview for the French TV show, and even borrow some of my lines.

Today I found in - France Soir - an article about this case:

Titled :
MADDIE Le journal intime de Kate McCann a été saisi par les enquêteurs

By Guilhem Battut, http://www.francesoir.fr

The parents are accused of giving the kids sleeping tables, Madleine is presented as a hyperactive child and hard to control, and Kate as an aggressive mother.

This guy has written about Princess Diana`s death, Jean-Louis Trintignant daughter Nadine, etc and is an investigative journalist. Given that it is F. Soir, I`m not sure if he`s a really serious I.J. or in the mould of Mazher Mahmmod from the News Of the World in UK.
----------------.

It is very hard to be distanced from the case, from the most basic elements of it:

A child is missing!
Dead or Abducted and still alive?
Are the parents involved, or totally innocent?
Who did this people known to the family and the child or total strangers?

The possibilities are endless, but one fact remains- A child has gone, where… what has really happened, and as B.McIntyre points out in today`s The Times – there but for the grace of god go I.

Everyone, deep down, thinks that this can happen to me, to my child, and Then…what will I do?

Would I be able at the very least, to keep myself sane? Responses to something like this can`t be predicted, they range from a parent committing suicide, to hysterical and screaming ones, to those who need to be sedated to go through the day; to some that are so shocked that they can barely believe what has happened; to others that are more calm and collected. Whatever it is, it shouldn’t be an indication of guilt.

We have seen the mother in USA crying her heart out in TV after she drowned both her boys, the other who killed her kids sleeping etc, and more, and it turned out they were guilty of murder, manipulation too.

Once a child is involved somehow the story becomes more emotional, has more pathos and it is elevated from the status of a –mere crime.

The first reason is – and thank god for this- that because kids are rarely killed people who know them, and even less by strangers (the 1-st is more likely, statistically) that the murder of a child is a real anomaly.
The society is not yet immune towards the murder of a child. Would the media have sustained the interest, day in and out if a child wasn’t involved? No.

The case of Petter Falconio, although much reporting was done and the mystery revolving around it made it more “ intriguing”, it didn’t have this intensity of coverage.

Whenever the death of a child is involved, adding the other factors too, that makes for a very powerful story.

In Australia a nation was divided in the Chamberlain case, the mother protested her innocence, but was perceived as cold, not very emotional and was judged by media and the public to be guilty. She was imprisoned and later released- when new evidence was presented- having her conviction overturned. The agony the family suffered was exceptional, at times shouted, spat and pointed out in the streets, even refused service in the shops, most thought the dingo didn’t take the child and Lindy did it. To this day she insist that wasn’t the case. The courts think that too.

I remember reading a book from David Yallop years ago, about a murder in N.Z. Where a couple was found dead in a rural farm in Auckland, another farmer, Arthur Allan Thomas was found guilty, but later pardoned, thanks in no small part to the book the investigative journalist D. Yallop wrote. He stayed a year in the country studying the case, etc and wrote a book - dissecting the story and its discrepancies and irregularities in the police investigation- and an open later to the Prime Minister of N. Zeland, putting a strong case for reasonable doubt. Later it was revealed that police had planted evidence. Still, one of the most fascinating facet of this story was a Child. Parents were killed but the child was left alive. The whole country talked, who fed her who changed her etc. Children even when left alive hold our interest, as we think –amongst others- what could she/he have seen? The terror, its effects etc.

P. Police are a bit guilty of not preserving items that very important, and generally being a bit relaxed about formal criminal procedures, forensics and the like.

Some parallels can be drawn with the Schiedam Park Murder case in Holland, When the innocent served around 4 years in prison before the real murderer of a 10 year old girl was caught, only because the police to ignore and misinterpret scientific evidence.
----------------.

France will sooner or later start to think about the case once few of leading newspapers publish their stories, all it takes is for someone to start the ball rolling.

The same happened in England with -Affaire d'Outreau where thirteen persons were finally proven innocent of child molestation after having served four years in prison, and 1 died in prison, as I recall. At the beginning there were very sporadic news reports about how an investigating magistrate had issued many warrants, how France was in shock etc, how pedophile parties were held exchanging each-others children, then the reporting become more detailed and frequent.

Also with the case of young girls in Belgium, it was slow to take in UK, Marc Doutroux was first presented as a serial killer, a dumb loner, a child abductor selling children for sex, and that was all for a while the case wasn’t mentioned often, till it started with an hour by hour coverage when Doutrous escaped, a fast retrospective of all of his crimes, the impact it had on government, interviews with parents, showing the huge demonstrations, church services etc.

All Causes Celebres involving children will be more interesting than other crimes and reporting on them will always be a priority.

At times though an over excited media can be harmful, as what ever Gerry and Kate are, may have done or not, they don’t deserve this kind of trial by media – despite themselves courting the attention a bit- there` s no chance that they can or will have a fair trial wherever that maybe.

It is beyond comprehension, if they are totally innocent and having to face these kind of accusations, what they must be going through.
It must be a nightmare, losing a daughter and being accused of murder.

The P. Authorities could have handled it differently and I sincerely feel that despite what laws they have in place during investigations they have folded when faced with a huge media pressure and such a huge thirst for information, I doubt it that they may have a precedent in Portugal for a situation of this kind before, also inexperience played a big part on this case from the beginning, at so many different levels, if only they could had kept their nerve a bit longer, asked for help sooner (there` s no shame involved on that, larger- more sophisticated police forces often ask for help from their colleagues around the world), and been a bit more methodical in their approach.

This case will have many more twists and turns, some more irrelevant than others ( after all it started like this ) and I sincerely doubt that after all of this brouhaha it will ever be solved.

Maybe it will remain an unsolved mystery despite the verdicts and trials by courts or by media.
===============

And just to be in the same frequence with the OP, I suspect that within the next 2 weeks this topic will be in France`s top 10.

[Daniel Strohl]

"Final note: A campaign is under way to have the French media stage a Sarko-free day next month".(CB)

They should also or instead stage a month free of writing or speaking "n'importe quoi" - hereafter two examples which already date a few years back, but which struck me at that time :

-"le préfet Erignac, bien que protestant, avait l'esprit très ouvert" - "the préfet Erignac, although he was protestant, was very open minded" (a "préfet" is a high level civil servant - Mr.Erignac had been cowardly murdered in Corsica for "political" reasons) - one may infer from the above journalistic statement that an open minded person should not have been murdered ...

- "une vieille femme de 60 ans a ..." - an old woman aged 60 has ...
This was too much for me - I sent a very angry letter to the radio station where I had heard this statement. I didn't get an answer. However, I presume that they got many similar letters and that the message was passed to the various redactions, since the formulations since that time are more diplomatic (une dame âgée d'une soixantaine d'années, une sexagénaire etc.). But I keep watch ...

[Pierre]

Good for you Daniel.

There was a picture up of Madeleine at my tube station Dupleix this summer, asking if anyone had seen her. English newspapers have a broad circulation in Paris so it was possible to notice the story by passing newstands and seeing the front page of the Daily Mail. Their reach extends to Malta, where I spent a week in August. Worth a visit, by the way. The views of La Valette are spectacular. And the capital was largely founded by the French knights of the Order of Saint John, so we won't stray too far from topic if we talk about the siege of 1565.

[richard jones]

Sad to hear Jacques Martin had passed on. He ran Sunday afternoon entertainment on A2?? for years but I never got the feeling they gave him much support after his stroke? I crossed with him but once in an operetta production (Offenbach or Strauss - cannot remember), a charming gentleman.

[Jason Vicinanza]

Charles, Just a minor correction to your latest blog entry re French topics of conversation.

I think you will find that the Le Petit Gregory case is from October 1984.

See: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affaire_Gr%C3%A9gory

Also from a personal note I wouldn't necessary agree that the topics stated are completely update date. For example many French schools are already only open for business 4 days a week and the fights at the Gare Du Nord is old news.

Regards,

Jason Vicinanza
Paris, 18

[Thanks Jason. On Gregory, yes you're right the murder was in 1984 but the media frenzy came later. When I worked in Paris in the early 90s it was in full flood still.

On the Match topics, those were the ones listed by Paris Match on the day that I picked them up. As I said, they came from the week of Match's pubilcation. There is obviously a lag. But the four-day school week was reaction to a proposal to extend it to all of France, beyond the pilot scheme you mention. CB]