A Paris Christmas Thank You

This is the main Sunday when France breaks its working-time rules and the stores are packed with last minute Christmas shoppers. I could hardly get to the office door on the Place de l'Opéra.

[Picture:Galeries Lafayette department store around the corner from here]

It's also the start of the Trêve des Confiseurs, the "confectioners' truce", or seasonal break when the politicians head for the sunshine or ski slopes. After a visit to French troops in Afghanistan yesterday, President Sarkozy is off to cruise the Nile with Ms Bruni in tow, at least according to the rumours.

So it's a good moment to wish everyone here a Joyeux Noel and to say a big thank you for the contributions to this blog over the past year.

The comments are much more than that. Their flow turns posts into conversation and debate. I don't want to overdo it, but after two years, the blog has become quite a little community.

Sometimes we get a little over-heated and perhaps we slug it out too often around the old axes of left-versus-right, state-versus-market and the French-versus-Anglo-Saxon.  But there are few other forums [Language policeman: I'll stick with that plural], on blogs or elsewhere, that cross the cultural divide in such a lively way and with such a varied crowd as we have here. People tell me that they are impressed by the thought and knowledge that goes into some of the discussion. I won't cite names of the regulars in case I miss people out, but you include Britons, French, Americans reaching from New Jersey to California, Australians, Germans and many others young and old. You work in, or have retired from, business, education, the law, politics, engineering, computing, farming, journalism and so on. The common bond is an interest in France, the fascinating, maddening, topic that it is my lucky job to cover.

Je voulais aussi ajouter un merci aux français et francophones qui fréquentent ce club plutôt Anglo-saxon et qui supportent les jugements sans doute agaçants d'un étranger qui présume de commenter leur pays. Le journalisme, c'est souvent l'art de faire vite sans trop entrer dans le fond et je suis le premier coupable. Je compte beaucoup sur la présence des francophones ici pour l'équilibre qu'ils apportent. Les commentaires en français sont toujours les bienvenus et merci à ceux qui se risquent dans la langue de Shakespeare -- souvent sans la moindre faute (comme DS).

I'm always grateful for suggestions for topics or new ideas. I got round to posting on the supposed death of French culture after being prompted by several regulars to react to the Time magazine polémique. And as a correction to any intellectual pretentions that I may harbour, I should report that the most widely-read post of the past year was not about culture or politics but one last April on Melissa Theuriau, the sexy news reader. Thousands of American men clicked on it, which shows that Franco-American relations are not so bad.

To close back on topic, it's been a fun 12 months,  starting with the Royal-Sarkozy electoral duel and then turning into year one of the extraordinary reign of King Sarko I. He is good medicine for France but I sense a growing feeling that it could end in tears. The vanity and exhibitionism that seemed amusing a few months ago is turning sour. His flaunting of Carla Bruni and this week's spread in Paris Match of the monarch in the privacy of his home are signs that Sarkozy may be just a little unhinged. The parallels with the megalomania of Louis XIV or the Emperor Napoleon III are fascinating. So far he is enjoying the benefit of the doubt. And he has been a godsend for those of us who make a living recounting life at the royal court.

I shall be here this week, so it's too early to say Bonne Année.          

Comments

[Jorg Andersen]

And very happy Christmas to you, Charles. You forgot to mention Austrians who take part here, but I forgive. I enjoy adding my two cents' worth to a site that is open-minded and sharp-witted on the subject of France. There aren't many of them. I'm off for an afternoon on the slopes -- Switzerland, not France.

[Marguerite.]

Joyeux Noel Tcharl's ! C'est toujours un plaisir de lire vos blogs. Votre jugement sur la France est quelquefois enervant pour un Francais mais souvent juste et presque toujours plein d'humour.
J'admire la maitrise que vous avez de notre langue .J'aimerais beaucoup parler la votre aussi bien -et pouvoir mettre mes commentaires en anglais! -.
Juste deux choses qui m'ont fait sourire :
"presumer" veut dire "supposer". Je suppose donc que vous vouliez dire :"qui a l'audace de commenter.." ou "qui a la pretention d'expliquer..."
"entrer dans le fond"...vous voulez dire surement "creuser".
Excusez-moi pour ces remarques de "puriste"!

[Of course, Marguerite. Thank you for the correction, which is well taken. Creuser is what I meant. CB]

[francbroc]

Pas de problème, Charles. Ton blog est très intéressant et permet d'échanger beaucoup d'idées. J'ai toujours autant de plaisir à le lire.
Amicalement, François.

[Valentin]

Thank YOU, Charles !
We don't agree on Sarkozy, but I'm sure the varied themes you proposed helped us all improve our knowledge and build bridges between our different cultures.

[millier marc]

je suis ravie de lire ce blog. Les critiques sont toujours bien venues, même parfois si elles sont un peu agaçantes.
joyeux noel..Merry Christmas.

[Maggie G]

Here’s my Christmas story. I sing in this chorus, and in the past eight days we have had three big Christmas concerts and two small ones, plus all kinds of extra practices. We sing some sacred stuff and then towards the end of each concert we sing popular stuff like Vive le Vent, Le Petit Renne au Nez Rouge, Mon Beau Sapin, and so on, and we all have jingle bells for these songs.

In Vive le Vent we sing two verses plus a double chorus at the end. This year, to make it more interesting, our director decided we should sing the final chorus in English. Since there were only about five people besides me who could sing English, and we were dispersed all over the chorus, she said we should go down to the front so we could be heard better. It’s a pain squishing past everyone to get down to the front, so we weren’t too keen to do it for such a short song, but she insisted.

At our first concert last weekend in the Var, for some reason I was the only one who went down to the front, so I stepped out alone to sing it, while the rest sang from their usual places. It went over very well, and since I’m the only anglophone in the chorus, everyone seemed to think we should continue that way.

So at our concert on Friday night this week, I found myself down there alone again. This was our most important concert -- in the village church with the deputé and the mayor and conseillers etc present in the front row. This time there was a row of microphones, and I was wondering if I was supposed to use a mike. Since it isn’t a very important song, she hadn’t specified, but I decided there would be too much contrast in volume if I didn’t use it, so at the appropriate moment I stepped up to the mike and began to sing.

The trouble was, since I had been wondering about whether or not I was supposed to use the mike, I had lost track of where we were, and we were actually only halfway through the first chorus. So while I was loudly singing “Jingle Bells” at the mike, the rest of the chorus was still singing “Vive le Vent”. To the audience it came across as a sort of comedy routine that had been set up on purpose – a sort of “anything you can do, I can do better”.

I didn’t really understand what was going on until we got to the end, and then the music started up again and I realized I had started too soon. So I had to sing through it again, ringing my bell and trying not to laugh.

Never in all my life have I received such applause for singing a song! Of course I got told off by the director afterwards -- she said it wasn’t up to me to decide “unilaterally” to do a solo act, but it was a genuine accident, and I apologized profusely (I think it’s easier for us “anglos” to admit “une faute”).

She told me the audience had been extremely shocked, and people had told her it was “clown-esque”, and I forget the other word, but the others in the chorus told me not to believe it – they said everyone, including the mayor and the deputé, had been laughing. What she really wanted was for me to acknowledge that she was the boss, and I sincerely apologized , so she was satisfied.

Today, for our final concert, I said to her, “So today I’ll stay in my place.” She said, “Certainly not! You go down to the front and sing it from there!”

In this blog we criticize the French a lot, but I am very proud to be in this chorus. They are all SUPER people. From the very first day I joined, they have made me feel welcome and a part of the gang. Every year since the beginning (ten years now), even with my accent, I have been given solo parts to sing (in the French songs), and sometimes in the street, people I have never seen stop me to say how much they enjoy my singing (because of the accent – that’s what they like – they just can’t get over it. I seem to be the only anglophone around here.)

The French are okay. They’re great people! I’m really lucky to be in this chorus to have so many French friends. We complain about all the practices and the director’s insatiable demands, and having to give up an entire week for concerts at the busiest time of the year, but in the end, we’ve grown closer together, and (since there’s no snow here), at least it makes it seem like Chrismas!

A very Merry Christmas to CB, and to all the bloggers!

[Vincent Sottile]

Bon Jour Charles! It has been a gas reading your column this year. I thoroughly enjoyed it. My wife and I will be retiring in Grasse, France in fifteen months and thanks to your column and your comments on La Vie Francais as well as our frequent visits, I am acquiring an unstanding of it’s people and mysteries. Especially the mystery of vous, tu and that dammed subjunctive. I look forward to continuing to read your columns in the New Year.

[christopher muir]

Happy Christmas, CB. Your efforts that make this blog the most interesting on the internet are greatly appreciated. Fellow bloggers' contributions always make for stimulating reading and produce fruitful exchanges of opinion, so I can hardly wait for your reports on Sarko's next (mandatory) bombshell - my wild guess is that he may cut short the Nile visit to settle a penguin dispute in the Antarctic.

[Ralph Blumenau]

I wish you a happy Christmas, and want to thank you for your blogs which I read regularly. I have often mentioned to friends what a disgraceful lack of coverage there is in even the British quality press of any except the most important (or most trivial) events abroad. Could you possibly encourage The Times correspondents in other countries to follow your example? It must be frustrating for them to see what a small proporion of what they report back to their paper finds its way into print, and they, like you, could build up quite a fan club.

[Thank you Ralph. Yes, the blog is a good channel for reporting more than fits in the newspaper. It works especially well for France because so many people are interested in it. A few of my foreign correspondent colleagues do have blogs, as you know, but others find that the "day job" keeps them sufficiently busy. CB]

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

It raining in London.

[Jean Arles]

And thank you, Charles, for giving us so many delightful reasons to argue. Keep it coming

[fecueux]

Joyeux Noël à Charles et tous nos amis britaniques!
J'adore votre blog car il rends Paris et la France très exotiques et permet d'avoir des informations que les journaux français ne publient pas toujours.
Merry christmas and a happy new year!

sophie

[dot king]

Have a Happy Parisian Christmas Charles.
Mine will be a typical south-western one, with French friends, startng with a Réveillon this evening and then lunch tomorrow. (Exhausted just thinking about it)
BUT :-
You know you're English when, no matter where you live, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" from the Christmas with the Academy CD, reduces you to tears on that last refrain like a thump in the solar plexus. I have to play that to remind myself that I should be full of joy and good will (and patience) when my almond paste won't roll out like in the cookbook picture!
Grr . . . ;}
I prefer to think it's the carol that reduces me to sobs and not the almond paste!
We're under a thick, damp, muffling, fog here, but it's still lovely.
Joyeux Noël à tout le monde!

[Daisy]

Charles,

Wishing you and your family a merry (and Sarko free) christmas!!!

Daisy

[stephen Bull]

Thank you a for a year of stimulation and entertainment.
I am especially grateful for your recommendation of "La Société de Défiance " by Algan and Cahuc. It has done more than anything to explain the background to the many political and economic controversies which have occupied your Blog this year.

[Terry]

"Sometimes we get a little over-heated and perhaps we slug it out too often around the old axes of left-versus-right, state-versus-market and the French-versus-Anglo-Saxon."

My New Year's resolution is to be no different than last year.

My thanks to you for a wonderful blog. I came here because I was very interested in the Sarko-Sego battle. We dont get to see such an open fight between socialism and democracy in the states so it was very interesting. But I have stayed because the subjects you choose are quite interesting and well thought out. And I am rather sure that's why you have the following you do. It was amusing me that Melissa Theuriau was your most widely read article. Apparently, even your blog is subject to the same "forces" that permeate the internet. But she was clothed. (I am one of those Americans who clicked on it. Several times).

Anyway, my thanks to you for writing the blogs. My thanks to the interesting comments written by others. I have learned much from them. Some have disabused me of some (SOME!) of my French prejudices. Reinforced others. (the nitpicking is really true-someone just did it to Charles again). I would say the thing I have learned the most is that France is not as provincial as I thought. I was surprised that France would elect the son of an immigrant as President. That would not be a surprise in the US but I didnt think such was possible in France. And we certainly would never let a foreign journalist moderate a debate. Anyway, well done, Charles.

My best wishes for a Merry Christmas you and your family.

[Thank you Terry. Your input is one of our highlights. CB]

[Dominique]

Merry Christmas to all.

Terry's input seen as an highlight by Charles will make my Chritmas desperate. Sniff, all these efforts for nothing...

Happy Christmas turkey to Terry ;=)

[Gilles]

Merry Christmas Charles, for you and your family. Remarquez que les Français se sont largement exprimés dans leur langue sur votre blog ce soir. Ce qui signifie que vous leur apportez beaucoup même s'ils ne se manifestent pas toupurs... Cordialement.

[Rocket]

Happy Holiday Season to you and yours

[Frank Schnittger]

And A Merry Terry Christmas to you all as well from the Land of the Leprechauns. You keep a sometime traveller wondering whether it's time to pick up the rucksack again and tour the wonders you explain. Whether its Maggie's involuntary solos in G or Charles' Sarkosy Sarcasmagorias you keep the wilfully indolent wondrously entertained even when more productive activities beckon. Here's to a peaceful, prosperous and lower carbon footprint new year!

[Ralph Blumenau]

"A few of my foreign correspondent colleagues do have blogs, as you know"

No, I don't know that. Could you give me details, please, via my email perhaps?

[Adrienhb]

Thank you for this note and your blog. Not only is it interesting to read it, it is a pleasure to read it.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

A.

ps:
By the way, from a french point of view you are right: the pural of forum is indeed forums. ;)

[Peter D]

To Charles and all
A very merry Christmas to you all. It is always a pleasure to read your well considered observations on life in France for us occasional travelers and residents there.
We dance a tangled dance, we Americans and French, our history is complex, often fractious and arguementative. But in all, I could not hope for better conversants: intelligent, disputatious and proud of their respective cultures.
So from our little hamlet in the Hudson Valley far removed from the Galleries Lafayettte and the more soigne quartiers of la belle Paris I wish you all Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Peter

"Art is the stored honey of the human soul,
gathered on wings of misery and travail"
Theodore Dreiser

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

Rain continues to pour down in a silent London, so, time for a story from The Storyteller: The quote from Theodore Dreiser, above, triggers off a memory of Boxing reporter Henry McLemore recounting how H.L. Mencken, Editor of the Baltimore Sun, dealt with the death of Dreiser in December 1945. His ashes had to be sent to California for interment, and Mencken was given the task but was told at the post office counter that it is against the law in the USA to send human remains through the mails. Adjourning to a nearby bar, the bartender said: "You look a bit crestfallen today, Mr. Mencken." When the problem of the parcel containing the ashes was explained, Pat said: "No problem, sir, leave it to me. I will arrange everything."
Reading of the ceremony at the graveside, soon after, Menck went to the bar to buy a drink for Pat, and asked him: "How did you manage it?"
"I packaged a sealed box of cremo cigars and posted that, Mr. Mencken.
"But what about the ashes?"
"Jaysus, I t'rew them in the East River." said Pat.
"And so", said Henry McLemore*** "there in California, lying under the headstone of the great American editor, critic and author, lies a rotting box of Cremo cigars."
***McLemore's drinking pals were H.L. Mencken and W.C. Fields. All three were ordered by their doctors to go on the wagon....but there hangs another tale...

[Steven Goh]

I had never been to Paris before. I really hope can go there. Btw, Merry Christmas to you ;)

[Maggie G]

Terry,

I feel that it is my duty to bring you down a few pegs before all this Terry-glorifying goes to your head.

To think that Mr Bremner should tell you that your input is one of the "highlights" of the blog, and that Frank should wish us all a "Merry Terry Christmas" -- how could they be so reckless and irresponsable!!??

You will become insufferably conceited unless remedial action is taken immediately.

To repeat some advice that you gave to me once, "Don't drink the kool-aid, Terry".

(I'm not actually familiar with this expression, but it sounds appropriate.)

Then it would be helpful to prostrate yourself before someone (preferably me, but perhaps Sandrine could do the job) and repeat the words, "I am unworthy! I am unworthy" as many times as it takes to make the swelling go down.

Then you can come back to the blog and tell us humbly that your New Year's Resolution is to find one good thing to say about socialism before the year is out.

[joelle]

Charles, all the French people to whom I teach English read your blog avidly and your posts are very often the subject of my lessons, a tremendous source of heated debate, vocabulary, etc. They absolutely love your blog, but I don't think any of them would quite yet dare to post a comment in English, even though they do get steamed up about the subjects. Thank you for such a wonderfully interesting and jolly useful blog, merry Christmas and happy New Year to you and your family.

[azloon]

CB --

your talent and france are a very good match.

here's to hoping you don't lose your obvious enthusiasm for making this a highly entertaining 'cyberspot.'

i think sarko will be our ally in your endeavor.

your good will shines through and is much appreciated.

[Seb]

Joyeux Noël Charles et merci de nous ouvrir ici une fenêtre britannique sur l'actualité française. Je ne dois pas être le seul expat' à apprécier.

[Judith]

Bonne Année à tous. Special thanks to you Charles for the light that you throw on French society and politics. Coverage of matters French is not extensive in the Australian press although I do read all the articles you have published in the Australian newspaper. Your comments and those of the bloggers provide me with delightful context when I read my weekly copy of 'Le Point'.

[Terry]

Maggie said:

"Terry,

I feel that it is my duty to bring you down a few pegs before all this Terry-glorifying goes to your head."

What a wonderful sentiment from you, Maggie. Especially, on Christmas no less. Very much in the holiday spirit. Does your husband know that you spend so much time thinking of me?

Frank, Dominique and I are all comrades in arms. We are in opposite trenches but we certainly respect each other. Think of what you see here as that famous informal truce in WWI where enemies came out of their trenches to enjoy a brief respite from the fighting to share a holiday moment together. There were some who were consumed with such hatred and anger that they couldnt abide by such a peaceful display. I can think of one such person right now.

I'll leave to you to say the good things about socialism. I hope Frank, Dominique, Sandrine! and their families and everyone else here also had a very Merry Terry Christmas. I even wish the same to you Maggie and yours regardless of your holiday jeer. (For Joelle's class, that's holiday "jeer" instead of holiday "cheer". Get it?-Who says Americans aren't clever?)

Oh, and here's your Christmas present. "Dont drink the Kool-Aid" is a reference to the mass suicide at Jonestown, when over 1,000 drank cianide laced with Kool-Aid because they were told to by their kooky leader. They saying has become a popular way of saying don't always blindly swallow what people tell you.

Merry Christmas, Maggie!!!!!!!!

[Maggie G]

That was meant purely as a warm-hearted joke, Terry. There was no hated and anger in it at all.

I'm sorry it came across so badly.

[Daniel Strohl]

Joelle,

"Thank you for such a wonderfully interesting and jolly useful blog"

It is an excellent idea to use press articles to teach English and, especially with Charles's blog, to open young minds to the exterior world.

When I left school (many years ago !), I believed that I was speaking English reasonably well. Then when I (tried to) read my first press article, I understood at once that school boy English and real life English are quite different ...

Just for going back to the subject,

The use of Bolloré's private jet by the president Sarkozy for private hollydays in Egypt is a real shame for France! I am sure the US president would be impeached if taken "la main dans le sac" ("hand in the bag") of corruption!

Shame on Sarko!

Terry, your highlights about it?

[thinknoworpaylater]

Thank you Charles for all your insights and perceptive observations about France. Actually I do find the coversations here that often develop beyond the original material stimulating and interesting even when I dont agree with the point of view behind them. Keep it coming!

[Dominique]

Ooops! The anonymous about Sarko's private jet was mine! Sorry.

[azloon]

Dominique --

re l'ffaire 'jet'

i believe american presidents are allowed to use the presidential jet for certain private purposes if paid for, either by the president personally or, more likely, by his reelection campaign.

who says sarko's vacation is private? does any sitting french president really do anything that is truly private?

american presidents often do some small 'official' thing when they want to travel for personal reasons, which obviates the issue of who pays for the trip.

sarko's actually saving the french taxpayers the cost of jet fuel. you ought to be thanking him. oh yeah, i forgot, you don't care about what government costs. :)

good try, Dominique, appealing to supposed superior american ethics. i wish it were true but we don't have them.

[Actu75]

Late for Merry Christmas.
Still early for Happy New Year.
Thanks for the posts providing such a comprehensive and accurate view on french affairs, and the comments proving if necessary that "anglo-saxons" definitely is not a french invention. Let it remain that way.

[Laurent]

Merci pour tout!

[Lily]

Charles, now there is only one day left to wish you a Happy New Year, fun with the hyperactive president in his country and abroad! - Thank you for all your words along the year!

In the past few months, I have been quite busy reading your interesting posts and fellow bloggers’ current and past comments. Both your posts and comments have been very informative; the debating a source of growth and satisfaction.

There are other non-French mother tongue kids’ parents who struggle with the French school system; there are other foreigners who have similar feelings as I do about the country – from passionate love to hesitating and frustrating moments.

Charles, your knowledge about France and its concerns from an international, Paris-based perspective have been most interesting. The impression total ‘outsiders’ get from France will be Paris-biased. It’s good to read reader comments, too that offer a French-French perspective or a view from the remote Province (all Province is remote next to Paris!).

It is wonderful to read others who share their knowledge and wisdom in a way that all others may benefit from. And I am getting even more pathetic when I look at it from the “interest-in-human-behaviour”-perspective.

I have started blogging in 2007 and am still fascinated by how “real” the blogosphere is. Bloggers – at least on some blogs – may remain anonymous and might reveal more of them than they would when they’d meet for real. At moments of heavy, heated debating, I have been dreaming of my fellow bloggers. This is possible (!), without any photographic image.

Here, we communicate across different time zones; we share English and some French for debating whatever our mother tongue may be; we are free to come and leave or stay or come back from time to time; we have ‘favourite’ fellow bloggers and look forward to what they have to say; we prefer one topic over another and gather around your Francophile (in many cases) ‘candle’.

Here, we cross a barrier of space and time and linguistic or other differences; we trick our human limitedness. No one cares too much about our personal ups and downs, whether we feel lonely or unhappy, what our skin colour is, whether we are fat or slim, rich or poor, sick or healthy, whatever. We all add to the diversity of this particular blog, look at topics from all our different perspectives.

Charles, you welcome our diversity – so we all feel welcome, as long as no fellow blogger tells us otherwise. We adhere to unwritten rules of some good taste (most of the time). We may agree to disagree but there is a good degree of tolerance towards those who think differently, although all will try to challenge the ‘alter’-thinker and give him/her a hard time. It’s part of the debate and of the quest for truth that we’re all after. At least, we try.

We don’t earn anything from blogging. We don’t blog because we want to show off (or maybe we do but are too shy outside the blog?) or win anything from it. We do it because we love France, because we love the debate, because we love English, because we love the diversity, because we love to share our knowledge, insight, opinion on different topics, because we are open to change our perspective and learn, etc. All this makes for the debate to be very honest.

Whatever anyone might be (have been) celebrating at this end of year and whatever signs and symbols we might use during these festive days, Charles, you have chosen a politically correct sign – Lafayette’s season’s decoration – light. So, during these dark days, let there be light in whatever way may appeal to each and everyone!

So, I say to my blogging friends: Have a happy and healthy year with many hopes fulfilled!

[Valentin]

Lily:

"At moments of heavy, heated debating, I have been dreaming of my fellow bloggers"

Oh ? Could you elaborate on this please ? :)

Thanks for your post btw, very nicely said.

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

Blogging here brings me closer to France, which I miss, having spent many years there. In a film Maurice Chevalier said; "I will miss the little things of Life - like lunch and dinner." I watch TV programmes about buying houses in France, for the scenery, and miss the little things like the sun in the morning, proper coffee, bread with unsalted butter (a tartine) the wine and the t a s t e of the food, and the local newspaper which (a far cry from the British red tops and scandal sheets) announces that black plastic refuse bags will be delivered on Thursday mornings. Nows that's what I call important news.

[Judith]

Lily
thanks for your lovely post.

[QCD]

Lily, that's a lovely post but you might spare a thought for our antipodean friends who have more than enough light at the moment. Charles being one of them! Here's to darkness Ozzie! Buenas noches, Miguel! Goedenacht, Pieter, lala khale!