The law catches up with Jacques Chirac

When the judge comes calling, French politicians always declare themselves "serene" because they are not guilty of anything. Today it was finally the turn of Jacques Chirac. From his luxury hotel in Morocco, he had his spokesman issue the traditional serene statement as France pondered on the prospect of putting its last president on trial.

The charges that have caught up with Chirac, 76, are a trifle compared with the shenanigans that went on at the city hall during his 18-year-reign as the first Mayor of Paris since the 19th century.  Against the wishes of the prosecutor -- an old friend -- the examining judge wants Chirac to stand trial over a couple of dozen allegedly fraudulent jobs on the city payroll when he was Mayor, from 1977-1995.

Back in his 1980s and early 90s, when Chirac used the baronial city hall as his power base and seat for his Gaullist party,  the mayoral machine was celebrated for this kind of largesse.  Generous to a fault, Chirac commanded a grace and favour system that benefited friends, supporters and their associates. If you had the connections, someone in the Mayor's big private office could help your children with jobs or fix you up with a handsome Paris apartment at council-house prices.  The son of Alain Juppé,  Chirac's first Prime Minister, was among beneficiaries of such cut-price accommodation -- until he was exposed and forced to leave in 1996. Two of the charges facing the former President now involve the provision of chauffeurs on the mayoral payroll to a former prefect and a former trade union leader.

Money was no object for the Chirac family, according to accounts from former insiders and  judicial investigators. When Bertrand Delanoe, a Socialist,  followed Jean Tiberi,  Chirac's successor, as Mayor in 2001, his inspectors found that the city's tax payers had been funding 600 euros a day in food and drink for Jacques, Bernadette and Claude, their daughter. The funds did not even cover entertainment expenses, which were separate.

Until today, the former President has escaped the legal fall-out from a period when the city hall was raking in millions of pounds a year in kickbacks from building contractors and other businesses.  Several of  Chirac's former lieutenants and about four dozen businessmen and former officials have been convicted in recent years for their role in the illicit payments and use of public money for financing the Rassemblement pour la République, the Mayor's party. The most prominent among them was Juppé, who received a suspended sentence and a brief ban on holding elected office in 2004 for corruption while he served as Mayor Chirac's deputy in the 1980s and 1990s. The fall-out from the case forced him to resign a cabinet post from President Sarkozy's first Government but he has bounced back as Mayor of Bordeaux.

It is acknowledged in the political world that Juppé carried the can for his boss, who as president enjoyed immunity from prosecution for 12 years until Sarkozy succeeded him in 2007. But it was not always plain sailing. The cloud of sleaze dogged  Chirac for much of his presidency, as it became ever clearer that the city administration had been a money machine. Until appeal courts confirmed a judicial ruling on his immunity in 2001,  Chirac skirted disaster after the publication of a posthumous video tape made by Jean-Claude Méry,  one of the RPR's clandestine financiers in the 1980s and early 90s.  Méry depicted Chirac as the instigator and controller of  the biggest kickback schemes. He claimed to have regularly collected suitcases of cash from donors and deposited them with the Mayor.

At the same time, investigators found that Chirac, his family and friends, including a woman journalist, had recently made expensive trips to Indian Ocean resorts and the United States, with expenses paid in cash. The President's staff explained -- with difficulty -- that the money came from cash which he had legally accumulated when he had served as Prime Minister under President Mitterrand from 1986-88. Chirac shook off the brewing scandal by deploying his  charm and an obscure word in a celebrated television appearance in September 2001. The sleaze allegations were "abracadabradantesque" -- pure fantasy --  he said.  Nevertheless, the  government of the time, under Lionel Jospin, put an end to the so-called "special funds". These were bundles of cash which were traditionally distributed to cabinet ministers once a month for use at their discretion. The money was supposed to be used to top up staff pay, but no records were kept.

Chirac, who now enjoys his country's affection as its genial elder statesman, has always succeeded in 'passing between the raindrops',  or staying dry, as the handy French expression puts it [passer entre les gouttes]. He has escaped serious scrutiny in other matters, such as persistent reports that he had held secret bank accounts in Japan, and may have had a second family there.  This month,  he was an invisible presence in the court in the so-called Clearstream trial. Dominique de Villepin, his former Prime Minister, was accused of plotting to smear Sarkozy and witnesses said that President Chirac had been involved. But the former President was not asked to testify.

 In yet another case, Charles Pasqua, a former Interior Minister and old Gaullist colleague, claimed this week that Chirac was implicated in bribery over arms sales to Angola in the 1990s.  Pasqua was sentenced to 12 months' prison. The sentence was very stiff by the standards of French political corruption cases. Pasqua may never serve it but it is just possible that Chirac's alleged role will be investigated.  Few people expect that case or yesterday's corruption charges to go far. Even if he is tried and convicted on the new city hall charges, the most Chirac can expect is a fine or suspended sentence.

There is a lot of sympathy for the old man. His presidency achieved little and will probably be remembered by historians as an uneventful 12 years. His chief act in public memory was his opposition to George Bush's Iraq invasion in 2003. But he now enjoys the rank of most popular politician in France, according to polls.  Even old foes think they should just leave him in peace.

 

Comments

[richard jones]

Good

[azloon]

I love the 'suitcases full of cash' bit. It's almost as though any form of political chicanery is palatable, right up the point where suitcases full of stolen cash start being opened in darkened hotel rooms. Sorry someone wasn't wired, with video, for some of this. Makes for compelling TV, political porn at its best..

Otherwise, a big yawn. I grew up in Chicago.

A third family in Japan? That would surely be Chirac's greatest accomplishment.

[Romain]

The prosecution formed an appeal against the examining judge's decision, so "le roi fainéant" is not up to stand trial yet.
It will give more time to his lawyers to adjust their pleas, and maneuver behind the scene.
I bet you his line of defence will be "These accusations are nothing but intellectual constructions".
Incidentally, this case raises again the question of the French penal code reform, which should preclude the suppression of examining judges.
The prosecution is reporting to government, which was clearly pointed out as an anomally by the European Court for Human Rights, in the Medvedyev case. The Court stated that the procecution (le parquet) cannot be considered as an independant judicial authority.
The examining judge proves to be a safeguard against the executive power's intervention in the judicial power.

[Robert Marchenoir]

"If you had the connections, someone in the Mayor's big private office could [...] fix you up with a handsome Paris apartment at council-house prices."

I have it from a reliable source that this was the case, among others, for journalists. My memory is not good enough, so my informer might have been referring to Delanoë's mayorship. However, I doubt practices have changed very much between the so-called Right and the so-called Left.

Regarding suitcases of cash given out to cabinet ministers, I would emphasise that it was a perfectly legal (and not secret) practice. Which goes a long way towards explaining how entrenched corruption is in France.

Once, a minister used part of his cash allocation to pay for new carpeting in his office building. Presumably, he had nothing left in his official budget.

Contrast this with the Gestapo-style suspicion the ordinary citizen has to suffer from the taxman nowadays. Cash is practically outlawed. Your banker will ask you intrusive questions if you want to draw too much of your own money in cash from your account. He has to do it by law.

Next step : sorry mate, we can't let you have your own money. The state needs it, it's broke.

[Daniel Strohl]

Both Le Monde (paper of the French intelligentsia - in France, the intelligentsia is always left leaning not to say leftist :) and Le Figaro ("Sarkozy's house paper" :) made on-line polls to find out whether their readers did approve or disapprove the judge's decision.

In Le Monde, out of a sample of 5768 readers, 76.3 % found it appropriate, 18.9% inappropriate and 4.9 % had no opinion.

In Le Figaro, out of a sample of 35903 readers, 71.31% found it appropriate, 28.69 % not appropriate.

Note: the questions of the two papers were not identical, but the results (I looked at them at 11:45 pm in both papers ) are nevertheless comparable.

[MCG]

My gosh, I was just thinking, sounds like my home town, Chicago--Azloon beat me to it.

[Clemence de Roch]

The sad part is that the corrupt Chirac City Hall was far more efficient than the relatively clean Delanoe Paris administration - and for far fewer taxes.

[Lex Stevens]

There is a good survey piece about the latest in French corruption allegations, charges and convictions in this week's Economist.

Luxury vacations paid for in cash. You would think that they could have come up with a slightly more discreet way to handle that.

[Romain]

Correction on my previous post :
It is not known if the prosecution will appeal against the order of the examining judge. Apologies.

[Romain]

My gosh, I was just thinking, sounds like my home town, Chicago--Azloon beat me to it.
Posted by: MCG

Any idea of what became of Blagojevitch and his fabulous hairdo ? lol

[Francois D]

One must emphasize that this procedure was possible because it was done (with plenty of time linked to Chirac's presidential immunity) because examining judge (juge d'instruction) is (still) an independent judge. It will no longer be with future Sarkozy reform which will place investigation under prosecutor responsibility.
I wonder if Chirac does not pay (apart from objective facts) some judges anger against this NS reform and politicians.
We must listen Eva Joly, a former examining judge, now European MP, who alerts about financial investigations end following this reform.

This Eva Joly interview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EauxI7dR9kY

where she says:

"The stop button about embarrassing investigations is what all (politic) powers in the world dream, and when they have it, they use it" Eva Joly

[Francois D]

One must emphasize that this procedure was possible because it was done (with plenty of time linked to Chirac's presidential immunity) because examining judge (juge d'instruction) is (still) an independent judge. It will no longer be with future Sarkozy reform which will place investigation under prosecutor responsibility.
I wonder if Chirac does not pay (apart from objective facts) some judges anger against this NS reform and politicians.
We must listen Eva Joly, a former examining judge, now European MP, who alerts about financial investigations end following this reform.

This Eva Joly interview:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EauxI7dR9kY

where she says:

"The stop button about embarrassing investigations is what all (politic) powers in the world dream, and when they have it, they use it" Eva Joly

[paul]

The spin machine is in full action to save soldier Chirac,like Mitterrand and Jean Sarkozy before them, and not forgetting soldier Pasqua.
Not withstanding bleatings about France and its universal values (national identity debate), middle class France is wheeling and dealing and avoiding the law.
I would call it the Berlusconi factor.
Chirac has cheated and lied throughout his career and his subordinates too (infamous Tiberi couple). Some of this goes back to the General De Gaulle a political madman in later life who blotted his copy book by using people like Pasqua, another crony, to set up his 1958 coup in France,
Perhaps 'diamonds' Giscard was less corrupt...
Any sentiment of humanity must be kept for the workers at the companies that went bust because of the sidekicks, the voters who were cheated in Paris, trade unionists unaware that some of their boss's expenses were paid for by a rightwing party and lastly the taxpayers who were paying for the whole circus. Upper middle class matrons will fret : poor old Bernadette de Chodron, how dreadful for her and the grandchildren. But the great Henry Fielding would have spotted the hypocrisy of self-victimisation immediately, perpetrator turned into victim
The fact is in a democracy the law must step in to punish autocratic behaviour. The decent working class young and old may well feel justified in voting communist or F National, the natural protest vote. It is a truly Florentine moment in the history of the French republic when Pasqua the most discredited interior minister starts naming names. The law is not an ass.

[susan durst]

I've just read the comments to the Chirac story from UK readers on the main pages of The Times. Many think there is plenty of scope in Britain for similar trials to be held but hold out little hope of it happening. What a comfort to know France is not a "république bananière" after all ...

After all the outraged cries of nepotism in the Jean Sarkozy affair, why has the press barely mentioned the sentence given to Jean-Christophe Mitterrand in the Angolagate trial ? At the time these virtuous journalists didn't bat an eyelash when JCM landed influential positions with fat salaries purely because he was the President's son. Not to mention the millions he pocketed through illegal arms deals in Angola. But oops, I forgot ... nepotism and corruption don't exist "à gauche" ! And it's a well-known fact (except on this blog) that the French press is mainly left-wing.

[Rick]

RICHARD JONES comments ‘Good’ in unwontedly lapidary style. Does this mean ‘good’ in the sense that the errant president is being taken to task, or ‘good’ in the sense that, in CHARLES’ words, ‘[e]ven old foes think they should just leave him in peace’?

Putting Jacques back in the Box back after such a full-frontal ‘outing’ is an option for those alone who have no concern for ‘Republican values’... step forward ‘Ségoène, ‘flaky’ as dandruff! Contrariwise, locking the bounder up makes an unconvincing martyr out of Jacques the Lad and accessories of everyone else. No, it serves the beggar right if humble pie is served up. He needs to be made to feel very ashamed... about lots of things.

Far from his betrayal of the Western alliance being an isolated point in his favour, we might well view it as being completely in accordance with his many other base acts. He’s the sort of chap who used to get ‘black-balled’ from his club, in my no doubt minority opinion.

[Alan Hart]

When I first arrived in Paris in 1991, I knew a student who was waiting for his council flat in Paris to be renovated. Waiting lists were and are years long for council flats. I was quite surprised that he had managed not only to secure a flat but also to have it renovated to his taste at the council's expense. He later dropped into conversation that his mother was a secretary in the Mayor's office, but that he also had a family relationship to a Socialist PM.

[Tansy]

When I lived in Paris in the 80s, I worked for a language school. The head of a language school rented an HLM (habitation a loyer modere) of about 100 m2 for a minimal rent in the 16th arrondissment with her banker husband! Heaven knows who they knew.....A journalist friend regularly had her traffic tickets cancelled by a friendly face at the local mairie. The "systeme D" was in full flight. I was amazed at the open nature of casual corruption and how proud people were to be a part of it and did not question it. You were thought to be a bit stupid if you didn't know someone who could give you a helping hand.

[Daisy]

Sarko must be glad to hear this. At least it gets his 250k shower and Sarko fils out of the headlines.

[Romain]

Far from his betrayal of the Western alliance being an isolated point in his favour, we might well view it as being completely in accordance with his many other base acts. He’s the sort of chap who used to get ‘black-balled’ from his club, in my no doubt minority opinion.(Rick)

That is very far fetched: not willing to follow Bush's non-sensical war on Irak was neither an act of betrayal nor an act of heroism, just common sense.
"Black balled", this is typical of free mason vernacular, as you most certainly know.

[Daniel Strohl]

SUSAN,

"And it's a well-known fact (except on this blog) that the French press is mainly left-wing"

Sorry, Susan! On this blog, I made already a few strong "allusions" in the past to this well-known fact :). Too bad - probably nobody noticed...

"At the time these virtuous journalists didn't bat an eyelash when JCM landed influential positions ..."

More generally, journalists were much more afraid of Mitterrand at the time than they are afraid now of Sarkozy, the "dictator à la Poutine". As an example (among others :), it was a "secret de Polichinelle" in the journalistic milieu that Mitterrand had a second family lodged in a state's mansion - nobody dared to mention this small anomaly almost up to the very end :). Therefore, their "leçons de morale républicaine - ils peuvent s'asseoir dessus" :).

"What a comfort to know France is not a "république bananière" after all ..."

LOL - this is a strong statement :) - I am afraid it will not be looked at as being PC by one or the other of our British posters...

[Dominique II]

"Far from his betrayal of the Western alliance being an isolated point in his favour, we might well view it as being completely in accordance with his many other base acts."

RICK is perfectly right in this, even if the Western Alliance needed being "betrayed" (ie, its self-appointed "leaders" exposed for the murderous liars they were). I perfectly remember how, up to the very last days before the invasion started, the French Army had its marching orders, not a button was missing from its leggings, and the Guignols, in full expectation of a reenactment of the 1st Gulf War, heartedly mocked Jacquou's eagerness to outdo Mitterrand in Mid-eastern military valour.

His epiphany did not come from a realization of the war's inanity - he had the good sense to know it from the start - but from his realization of its impopularity. (every Frenchman, it seems, was a Total shareholder, a Saddam chum and a weapons merchant in these times). He also was in deep need of popularity, having miserably failed in the polls. So he started mouthing signals against the coming invasion.

When he realized the incredible thrust to his domestic popularity, he went on afterburner and rode the wave. It did not hurt that he was basically right and the Allies shot themselves in the foot again and again with obnoxious lies... but he was no white knight, rather a demagogue with a stroke of badly needed luck.

[Don]

Everyone I know assumed that Chirac was guilty of corruption while Paris mayor. What is amazing is that it caught up with him.

What the French need, to get their socialism to work – which necessarily requires more and more power in the hands of politicians - is wise and virtuous Philosopher Kings as described by Plato in “The Republic”. Instead, they get Sarkozy and Chirac. LOL.
(Even if they had Philosopher Kings they wouldn’t get socialism to work because it violates basic economic laws, but that is another story.)

Politicians around the world need to have their power severely circumscribed. Any society which gives its politicians too much power has not read history. Instead, Sarkozy only advocates reforms for business people (e.g. banker’s compensation), while political reforms are nowhere on his agenda! The political class all too often protects their own.

(Obama comes from Chicago’s political cesspool. Someone should investigate his ability to buy part of a lot next to his house for well below market prices from a person who is currently in jail for corruption. They should investigate the doubling of his wife’s salary at a hospital where she worked after Obama directed state funds to the hospital as a State of Illinois Senator. The list goes on. )

[Dominique II]

"Luxury vacations paid for in cash. You would think that they could have come up with a slightly more discreet way to handle that."

That's the whole point, LEX. Chirac was acting like any Gaullist apparatchik of his time. He felt no need to hide anything.

("Gaullist" is, alas, the only way to keep track of the numerous name changes the reigning party underwent as it changed skins like a reptile or a Media Player app. There was nothing resembling de Gaulle about it, though.)

[rocket]

Tansy

"I was amazed at the open nature of casual corruption and how proud people were to be a part of it and did not question it. You were thought to be a bit stupid if you didn't know someone who could give you a helping hand."

That's right. La sens civique à la française.

[Don]

Everyone I know assumed that Chirac was guilty of corruption while Paris mayor. What is amazing is that it caught up with him.

What the French need, to get their socialism to work – which necessarily requires more and more power in the hands of politicians - is wise and virtuous Philosopher Kings as described by Plato in “The Republic”. Instead, they get Sarkozy and Chirac. LOL.
(Even if they had Philosopher Kings they wouldn’t get socialism to work because it violates basic economic laws, but that is another story.)

Politicians around the world need to have their power severely circumscribed. Any society which gives its politicians too much power has not read history. Instead, Sarkozy only advocates reforms for business people (e.g. banker’s compensation), while political reforms are nowhere on his agenda! The political class all too often protects their own.

(Obama comes from Chicago’s political cesspool. Someone should investigate his ability to buy part of a lot next to his house for well below market prices from a person who is currently in jail for corruption. They should investigate the doubling of his wife’s salary at a hospital where she worked after Obama directed state funds to the hospital as a State of Illinois Senator. The list goes on. )

[Don]

[His chief act in public memory was his opposition to George Bush's Iraq invasion in 2003. But he now enjoys the rank of most popular politician in France, according to polls. CB]

Too bad his opposition to the Iraq invasion was also completely fraudulent as he based his analysis on the idea that such an invasion had to be approved by the U.N. Security Council to be legitimate – and the vast majority of the French concurred with his position. A mere four years before the Iraq invasion, France wanted the U.S. to bomb, under Clinton, in Kosovo to stop the ethnic cleansing and again in 1995 in Bosnia to end the Sarajevo conflict (which resulted in the Dayton Accords (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayton_accords) – all of which was done WITHOUT U.N. Security Council approval (the Russians and Chinese would have vetoed what the French wanted the United States to do militarily.)

The Americans are continually being accused of having short memories by the Europeans, but the French could not remember 4 years previously that they had begged the Americans to come into Bosnia militarily without U.N. Security Council approval – as this was a conflict that was in the backyard of Europe (where they allowed 200,000 civilians to be killed during years of completely failed negotiations with Milosevic) and the U.S. had no stake in it. The hypocrisy of Chirac could fill a coliseum!

[richard jones]

TO RICK,

The headline chamfers my lapidation.

[Dominique II]

DON French insistence on the UN backing armed invasion of Iraq was not based on some universal premise. In many instances, such as self-defence, UN approval is not a prerequisite for legitimate action.

In Iraq's case, a mandate had been given to the UN, of finding out about the WMD threat. Its inspectors were carrying out the job. France only said they had to be given the time they needed. Instead you rushed in and got a big nothing. Wipe the egg on your face before thumping your chest.

[azloon]

Romain

Blagojevich is awaiting trial, and is scheduled to star in a TV show called 'Celebrity Apprentice' sometime early next year. His autobiography was just published. He will end up in jail like many of his former Illinois governors (a least four that I can remember).

I have to hand it to Sarko and Chirac: they appear to kept their corruption within their own ranks. Rather than sell the EPAD post to the highest bidder, as Blogojevich was preparing to do with Obama's abandoned sentate seat, Sarko opted for vanity over cash or some other grand concession. He kept in in the family. Chicac, likewise, seemed also to be corrupt within acceptable limits.

Blago would have been forgiven if all he did was appoint political cronies to important positions, give jobs to friends and family, with an occasional suitcase full of money for good measure. But putting an important congressional position 'up for the highest bid' was a little bit too much, even for cynical Chicagoans.

His hairdo is another matter entirely. Evidence of 'narcissistic personality disorder,' according to a recent piece by a prominent psychologist. Wouldn't that include all politicians?

[Dominique II]

"But putting an important congressional position 'up for the highest bid' was a little bit too much"

Well, Azloon, after this ultimate freemarket exploit, at least Blagojevich will not be called a Socialist by Don. A rare achievement.

[dot king]

Poor CHARLES - all you wanted was a quiet bit of a break among the chestnuts and champignons of the Cévennes - did you have to race back to Paris to keep up with all the after and foremath of all this?

[No, I just wrote a quick post on the chaise longue in the sunshine of the Cévennes and managed to transmit it via phone modem. I'm back in Paris tonight. CB]

[dot king]

Who's Blago??

[Rick]

By ‘blackballing’ I meant ostracism; and by ‘club’ I meant gentleman’s ‘haven and home from home’, ROMAIN. I’m afraid you’ve out-esotericed me with your – what was it? – ‘this is typical of free mason vernacular, as you most certainly know’. I didn’t. As for RICHARD’s ‘[t]he headline chamfers my lapidation’, you nicked me good and proper, Sir. ‘Touché!’... and all power to your quaffing elbow. As for DOMINIQUE II’s remarks – I see you’ve lost none of your clear-sightedness, and sadly can’t find a damn thing to quibble over.

[Romain]

Azloon,

Blago as an apprentice ? I don't think so, he is a seasoned crook, although very entertaining. I have never set foot in Chicago, however so many songs about "my kinda town" and "sweet home Chicago" are eloquent.
Your analysis is generally correct, but Sarko was never caught up in a graft/corruption affair; I believe he is enormously narcissic, but not corrupt.
By the way the Giscard diamond affair was a fake, it was so gross that he made the mistake of disregarding it, narcissism again.
Even the notorious Seguela publicly apologised for having created posters of Giscard with diamond eyes.

[Maggie]

"But putting an important congressional position 'up for the highest bid' was a little bit too much"

"Well, Azloon, after this ultimate freemarket exploit, at least Blagojevich will not be called a Socialist by Don. A rare achievement." (Dominique II)

Wow! How I would love to have the ability to toss off delightful lines like this!

[Daniel Strohl]

DON,

"Any society which gives its politicians too much power has not read history"

Hum - since the free markets philosophy didn't work too well (this is a litotes :) in the recent past years in the US, the culprits are now of course not the free market principles and their apostles, but the politicians (who nevertheless got elected on the virtue of these holy free market principles they preached...).

PS: Don, I know, I know! - Fanny Mae, Freddy Mae, Clinton...

[azloon]

[Well, Azloon, after this ultimate freemarket exploit, at least Blagojevich will not be called a Socialist by Don.]

Actually, Dominique, our whole political system is 'up for the highest bid' if you consider our political campaign financing apparatus, and the extent to which lobbying controls the outcome of most vital legislation.

So when money rules, simple-minded peasants like Blago imagine that it's only fair that he, son of Serbian immigrants, should be able to join in the 'free market' orgy, somehow convincing himself that profiting from his power of appointment is actually quite American, and fully in the spirit of free enterprise. Blago a socialist? Hardly.

Interesting note: the FBI concluded its investigation of Blago prematurely, without obtaining actual evidence of money changing hands (as no doubt it would have) because the agency was afraid he would make an appointment based on a bribe, potentially causing thorny procedural problems within the Senate if the bogus appointee were allowed to vote in legislative matters.

But it's the hair, isn't it? We always come back to the hair.

[Romain]

Daniel,

Guess who is on the bench : our national Markeu Blondel. He had already been condemned by the prudhommes for overexploiting the same chauffeur lended by Chirac.

[Daniel Strohl]

ROMAIN,

Y manquait plus que c'lui-là avec sa tronche de faux-témoin fumeur de cigares (cubains, of course :).
Quelle purge !

PS:

Les cégétistes de service aux prudhommes ont dû se défouler. Pour une fois, je suis d'accord avec eux :).

[susan durst]

@ DANIEL : Sorry Daniel, I forgot about your sterling efforts on this blog ... Why don't we launch a coalition movement ? For instance, La Ligue contre les Donneurs de Leçons Républicaines ? Come to think of it, we could even drop the Républicaines bit so as to include the A/S donneurs de leçons too !

[Romain]

Daniel,

A notorious unionist, who loves Havana cigars and old Armagnac, can't be entirely evil. LOL

[Daniel Strohl]

SUSAN,

Ok, c'est parti pour la Ligue contre les Donneurs de Leçons :). Nous risquons cependant d'être full busy...

[azloon]

Romain

I wanted to know a little more about the Giscard' diamond stuff so consulted Wiki which lead me to understand that there were two diamond issues: his profiting from a smuggling operation during his presidency, and his acceptance of what he described as merely 'industrial grade' diamonds from Bokassa after granting him political asylum. Did Seguela become a political opponent sometime after that?

Wiki also says Giscard is directly descended from Charlemagne (maybe half of France is as well - I wouldn't know). Charlemage lost a little of his luster with me when I read recently that he was illiterate, suggesting that the Dark Ages really were quite dark with great figures not excepted. (And then the Irish saved the world, but that's a subject for another time).

I also noticed that he was the son of King Pippin the Short which made me wonder if any French wags had anointed Le President as King Sarko the Short. And Charlemagne's son was Pippin the Hunchback. They certainly did have a way of getting to the nub of the matter when naming their royalty. No dodging the obvious.

[Don]

[ DON,
"Any society which gives its politicians too much power has not read history"

Hum - since the free markets philosophy didn't work too well (this is a litotes :) in the recent past years in the US, the culprits are now of course not the free market principles and their apostles, but the politicians (who nevertheless got elected on the virtue of these holy free market principles they preached...).

PS: Don, I know, I know! - Fanny Mae, Freddy Mae, Clinton...
Posted by: Daniel Strohl ]

Any person who can view those video URLs showing first hand what actually happened to cause the financial crisis in the U.S. that I posted previously:

[ www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM from “How we helped Sarkozy’s banana moment” – Oct. 23, 2009 ]

and still write: “the free markets philosophy didn't work too well” – as if what those videos show is the “FREE MARKET” at work !! - then all I can do is quote myself from that posting above (Oct. 23, 2009):

“ If you continue to write such things, then I can only attribute it to willful ignorance. “

[Dominique II]

Blondel was also on the CIA payroll, as were all non-Communist unions during the Cold War. Easy with the friendly fire.

[Romain]

his acceptance of what he described as merely 'industrial grade' diamonds from Bokassa. Azloon

Yes, that's that, a worthless present. It costed him a few tenth of percent in the very tight 1981 presidential race, what killed him was Chirac pulling the rug. As a result we had 14 damned years of Mitterand, and a budget deficit we were never able to reduce since.
Seguela is a past glory of advertising, he was the spin doctor of Mitterand, and now Sarko's matrimonial consultant.
Giscard has no aristocratic credential, his family purchased the title together with a property, same for the pretentious Villepin from a meaningless nouveau-riche Napoleonian "aristocracy".
Sarkozy as Pépin le Bref is quite amusing, lets hope he is up to it. lol

[Rick]

To the outsider, the prospect of an examining magistrate overruling the state prosecutor is not without a certain undeniable piquancy. It’s easy to see that the legal system would work much more smoothly without that grit in the machinery called the (un)humble examining magistrate. Would it be going too far to describe him/her as the Republican companion-in-arms of the (un)humble village schoolteacher? Or the ‘ancien combattant’? Perhaps the nation’s soul is to be found with the Awkward Squad.

[do-re-mi]

C'est pas un coup bas du nain?

[Daniel Strohl]

DO-RE-MI,

"C'est pas un coup bas du nain?"

:)) Ce n'est guère probable, puisque la décision d'envoyer Chirac devant une cour a été prise par une juge indépendante de par son statut (et pas par un procureur à la botte de Sarkozy :) qui travaille sur le dossier depuis dix (!) ans.

Les juges sont généralement de gauche, dont impartiaux par essence :). Aucun d'eux ne se laisserait dicter une décision par le président de la république - c'est absolument impensable...

[dot king]

Les juges sont généralement de gauche, dont impartiaux par essence :).

DANIEL

Comment pouvez-vous affirmer une telle chose? Le moment que quelqu'un est contre, ou même indépendant de, votre précieux Sarkozy, ils son forcément de gauche?
Désolée, Daniel, c'est de plus en plus difficile à prendre au sérieux cette facilité d'analyse qui s'applique à tout, selon vous.
Ce n'est que votre avis, il faut être clair.

[Romain]

According to his lawyer, Chirac does not wish the prosecution lodged an appeal against the examining judge's order.
It would have a desastrous effect on public opinion anyway.
A "non sequitur" order would suggest "something is rotten in the state of Denmark".

[do-re-mi]

Cher Daniel,

Les juges sont généralement de gauche"

Je dis ca avec tout le respect que je vous doit - même si je ne suis pas toujours (jamais) de votre avis et que j'aime faire rire les Eminences mais c'est mon imagination ou vous vous voyez beaucoup plus de rouges que d'habitude?
Peut-être que les attaques sur Sarkosi vous tapent sur les nerfs. ( tout a fait normal). I accept that you were not Mitterrand's N.1 fan.
Et j'ai pas appelle Dot King, nous ne sommes pas concerte a écrire en Français, donc ne croyez pas que ceci est une cabale, donc pas de " courage fuyons" :-)) 2 femmes après
vous c'est pas dramatique.

La gauche est dans les choux, et comme je suis du genre parano, je vois que le plus grand danger pour Sarkosi c'est les siens ( la droite) pas la gauche. Que Chirac soit menace maintenant me semble un peu bizarre.
Le right memo, 10 years in a safe, can lend on a judge's desk you know, by chance. Or not.

J'arrive pas a trouver le truc des accents.

[Mauvezin]

@ Romain
Un titre n'est pas noblesse.
Il n'est de noblesse que feudataire.
____________________________________
@ Dot
On aura du mal à me faire penser que la décision de supprimer le juge d'instruction n'est pas pour qqchose dans la décision du juge X Simeoni.
Ceci dit J Chirac est un gredin qui n'a pas volé le couteau qu'il a ,lui, si souvent planté.

[dot king]

Et j'ai pas appelle Dot King, nous ne sommes pas concerte a écrire en Français,

DO RE MI

Je confirme. Pour ma part, j'ai répondu en Français à ce qui était écrit en Français.

[Daniel Strohl]

DO-RE-MI, DOT

Ca y est, je me suis encore bêtement attiré les foudres de ces dames ! :). Je sais bien qu'elles ne se sont pas concerté :).

"Ce n'est que votre avis, il faut être clair" (DOT)

Je confirme - c'est MON avis et j'en prends bien sûr la responsabilité!

"c'est de plus en plus difficile à prendre au sérieux cette facilité d'analyse qui s'applique à tout, selon vous" (DOT)

C'est encore plus difficile de prendre au sérieux une (très grosse partie :) de la gauche qui ne sait et ne fait que critiquer. Comme aurait dit Goethe : der Geist, der stets verneint !

[azloon]

Entirely too much French in this string. You'd think this was a blog about France, for god's sake. :)

Google Translate does a really crappy job of French-English translation of anything but the simplest thought. Most of the translation is unintelligible sauscisson which is barely beyond the vaguest inkling of the writer's intent.

So Google allows us to peer into each other's backyards (I actually saw quite clearly the home and swimming pool of a fellow blogger here who'd given me his address in France) but isn't ready to help us understand each others language.

[Mathaf Hacker]

Most of the translation is unintelligible sauscisson (azloon)

Wow, you are making a lot of progress. lol !

Our friend Daniel believes the judges are not independant because most of them are lefties. I don't share his opinion. In the present instance, Chirac has let others be tried and condemned in his stead. Alain Juppé for example, has paid a high price to cover Chirac, it was a great loss for the right wing.
It's about time the godfather faced the music.
Chirac has just published his promised mémoires, I am sure Charles will find a lot of matter for future topics.

[Including the dubious pseudonym here. I'll let it through this time but please use something more delicate if you need disguise. ... CB]

[Daniel Strohl]

"Our friend Daniel believes the judges are not independant because most of them are lefties" (Mathaf Hacker :)

Let us say that their syndicat(s) majoritaire(s) are left leaning, not to say leftist. However, generally speaking, the proportion of (slightly :) intellectually dishonest people on the right is the same as on the left...

Ce qui m'énerve, ce sont les donneurs de leçons, d'un côté comme de l'autre. Il se trouve que la propension à poser en donneur de leçons est généralement plus forte à gauche qu'à droite :).

Regarding the specific case of Chirac, I believe that he got indicted (I am not sure if this word is adequate - I am not a jurist) in this relatively minor but very ancient case of 21 "emplois fictifs" because nobody in the judiciary milieu was able to find sufficient evidence to substantiate a more serious case (corruption and other peccadilloes ). A défaut de grives, on mange des merles! - je ne pense pas que cette formule fasse très professionnel dans le milieu judiciaire :).

Le mataf

[Romain]

For those who hear French, here is Canal Plus special edition unveiling Chirac's book, enjoy:

http://www.canalplus.fr/tous-les-programmes/les-emissions/pid2244-c-p-edition-speciale.html?parent_id=1760&nav=1

[do-re-mi]

Azloon,

I was respectfully asking Daniel ( despite the fact that I almost never agree with him ) if it's my imagination or he is seeing more pinkos ( everywhere) than usual.

I understand attacks on Sarkosi gets on his nerves. I didn't call Dot and plan an attack on him. Having 2 women fighting him is not that bad, so he doesn't need to run.
The French left is lost in space. I am a bit paranoid by nature , I see danger for Sarkosi lurking within his political side not the left.

[Lex Stevens]

I've been mulling this over: should past transgressions of the law -- the less deleterious kind -- be forgotten because so much time has passed? I think not. Doing so only reinforces the idea that such self-centered boldness is acceptable. Maybe the idea that ghosts can come back to haunt will give some people pause.

[Romain]

[Including the dubious pseudonym here. I'll let it through this time but please use something more delicate if you need disguise. ... CB]

Charles,

I am red faced, I was distracted by a joke from a friend under that pseudo, and replicated it unintentionnally.

[Thanks Romain. I had to read it twice to get the joke. CB]

[Romain]

Daniel,

The charges are more serious than generally alledged :

http://www.lexpress.fr/actualites/2/le-parquet-accepterait-finalement-que-jacques-chirac-soit-juge_825911.html

Now it's the turn of his good friend Gaston Flosse, whose immunity has just been lifted by the Senate.
Seems to be open season for politicians, I can't say it displeases me.

[PMWT]

"The fall-out from the case forced him [Juppé] to resign a cabinet post from President Sarkozy's first Government but he has bounced back as Mayor of Bordeaux."

Charles, I believe the reason why Juppé was forced to resign in 2007 was because he lost the "élections législatives. Fillon had publicly stated that any minister who lost a public election would be forced to resign (an idea surely backed by Sarkozy as well).

Paul

[Daniel Strohl]

ROMAIN,

"The charges are more serious than generally alledged"

Yes, it looks so. Up to now i.e. the article you quoted, I was not aware of the huge number of "chargés de mission".

The article does not define the function of a chargé de mission. Did they have temporary "missions" (and temporary salaries) or were they in "missions permanentes" :) with permanent (of course comfortable) salaries?

If the latter is the case, then Chirac will have problems :).

"Seems to be open season for politicians, I can't say it displeases me"

"Bien mal acquis ne profite jamais", dit le proverbe. Mais souvent, le bien (au sens large du terme) profite quand même pendant un certain temps, qui peut être très long dans le cas de certains politiciens, si l'on se réfère à des exemples connus :)

[azloon]

[Most of the translation is unintelligible sauscisson (azloon)

Wow, you are making a lot of progress. lol !] Romain

I am re-examining my own frequent use of colloquial 'American' because it seems my problem with Google Translate is it's dealing with even mildly colloquial French.

My thought about using colloquial American english has been that it might actually be interesting to some of those non-natives with fairly good English fluency to discover interesting usages/constructions.

But when I run into a string of posts in French, containing a fair amount of French vernacular, even moderately casual French, I am lost when trying to get some help from Google or any other translation program.

I am being punished, I'm certain. :)

[Jay sorin]

Pdt Chirac has the guts to disagree with Bush on a war that everyone knows it was a wrong on all accounts and unlike the US pone Tony The Blare!

[Romain]

Azloon,

My favourite dictionnary is this one :

http://www.lexilogos.com/etymologie.htm

Imagine UE 27 countries with crosstranslation between Serbian and Dutch.
Keep trying.

[Romain]

Daniel,

This is the measured opinion of our general prosecutor, Philippe Bilger :

http://www.marianne2.fr/Affaires-Chirac-reste-digne,-Pasqua-moins_a182639.html

Btw, he believes we could operate a gambit between the examining judge institution and the independance of the prosecution. A trifle candid in my humble view.

[do-re-mi]

Romain,

Gaston Flosse should have be hang and quartered long time ago. Obviously the old Chirac guard is being taken out, about fracking time
but too late.

Something has always been rotten in the State of French Polynesia, that even Monoi couldn't covered.

Some still subscribed to the old colonial view that the " restless natives" need a strong hand as they are too lazy to do anything decent.

Why the frack would you want to do anything when Mum and Pop nuke your backyard, wreck your atoll, divide and conquer, own the wealth and force you to serve rich people in 5 star hotels giving the RME to keep you quiet about it.

[dot king]

Let us say that their syndicat(s) majoritaire(s) are left leaning, not to say leftist.

Ce qui m'énerve, ce sont les donneurs de leçons, d'un côté comme de l'autre. Il se trouve que la propension à poser en donneur de leçons est généralement plus forte à gauche qu'à droite :).

DANIEL

Mais vous voilà reparti - toujours la même analyse - je n'entends pas beaucoup d'honnêteté, ni intellectuelle ni politique, dans la bouche collective et monotone de l'entourage de Sarkozy ces temps-ci.
Je dirai plutôt qu'ils prennent les Français votants pour des c-ns!
Un peu d'objectivité de temps à autre SVP DANIEL.

[dot king]

But when I run into a string of posts in French, containing a fair amount of French vernacular, even moderately casual French,

AZLOON

But those who write in French here, write in ordinary accessible French. Only occasionally is there an expression which might need explanation. I, for example, can post in decent French, but don't have the stock of colloquialisms - those I pick up and store thanks to French mother-tongue posters.
No translating machine can really translate - they work on words not expressions.

[Romain]

Do-Re-MI,

Gaston Flosse may be the most appalling case in French politics. I don't really care if it is left or right, justice has to start somewhere. I was going to explain you can't force a native Polynesian to do something he does not feel like doing, but it would take us at lengths.

[Daniel Strohl]

DOT,

"Un peu d'objectivité de temps à autre SVP DANIEL"

Objectivité - un grand mot :). Disons que chacun pense sincèrement être objectif. "Chacun" voulant dire les personnes de bonne foi qui réfléchissent et essayent de comprendre, et qui ne passent pas leur temps et leur énergie à essayer de démolir systématiquement les adversaires politiques ou même les anciens ennemis héréditaires :).

C'est votre droit de penser que vous êtes objective lorsque vous donner votre avis sur un sujet politique. C'est mon droit de penser la même chose à propos de mon avis - souvent, nos deux "objectivités" respectives sont opposées :).

Je sais que j'exagère quelquefois (merci de me l'avoir rappelé :) - mais c'est pour faire passer le message qui doit être reçu, malgré le brouillage, sans distorsion (probablement un reliquat de déformation professionnelle d'ancien radio :).

Cependant, je me suis toujours abstenu d'attaques concernant le physique de mes "adversaires". Par contre, certains posters - emportés par leurs convictions viscérales :) - ont parlé entre autres de nabot, de nain, de femme légère :), de couards etc. Ca ne fait pas avancer la discussion et c'est déplaisant. Le blog de CHARLES ne mérite pas ça.

Quand CHARLES parle de "pint-sized", ça me fait rire, parce que c'est drôle. Par contre, nabot et nain ne me font pas rire - il y a peut-être des personnes de petite taille qui lisent le blog et qui sont blessées.

Amen :)

AZLOON,

An approximate translation of "pint-sized" is "haut comme trois pommes" (as high as three apples :).

"Haut comme trois pommes" is translated by Google as "high to a grasshopper". Up to now, I never heard this expression. Therefore, I had a look in an on-line dictionary - it states "knee-high to a grasshopper".

This means that Google makes efforts to improve translation mechanisms (at the beginning, as DOT says, machines worked on words, not on expressions). Improvements may be achieved through inclusion of expressions. Another parent approach is to include whole texts translated by professionals. On the paper, the idea seems to be simple. However, the implementation of the algorithms is probably not as simple :).

[do-re-mi]

Romain,

At 78
Justice took her time.
It's not just a native Polynesian you can't force to do something he does not feel like doing is it?

[Daniel Strohl]

ROMAIN,

First of all, many thanks for your link to www. lexilogos! I didn't know lexilogos up to now - c'est une véritable mine !

Moins sérieusement :) - on y trouve même la traduction en alsacien des deux premières lignes de la déclaration des droits de l'homme...

Ceci me ramène tout naturellement à l'article de Mr. Bilger :). But let us proceed in English, otherwise AZLOON may have problems with the output of his favourite sausage machine :)

The article of Mr. Bilger is highly interesting and written in an absolutely perfect French (this is rather an exception than the rule nowadays!). Furthermore, Mr. Bilger is obviously not "un amateur de la langue de
bois" :).

[Lex Stevens]

Knee-high to a grasshopper. That is very old fashioned. The kind of thing that my grandparents would have said.

I haven't tried Google Translator; I still use Babel Fish out of laziness, I suppose. I don't know much about such things, but one would think that they could have improved these translation devices a little more by now. There probably isn't any money in it.

My favorite new toy is the OED online. (I also have the iPhone version.) I subscribe and I use it all the time. So much easier than hauling the books out.

[Romain]

Daniel,

I discovered Lexilogos chatting with a Brazilian friend, she's fluent in English and her French his approximate. But we like to chat in each others language.

Bilger is not a leftie as you can see, he is fiercely against individualisation of sentence, one of the pilars of the penal code. I like his straight talking, few magistrates accept to open their mouth.

btw, half-pint, there is an old expression : quart de bock.

[azloon]

Romain

i've booked marked "Lexilogos.' Mais ce que je veux le plus, c'est une machine a saucisses, qui fonctionne vraiment. :)

Daniel --Google translates 'un amateur de al langue de bois' as 'a lover of language wood.' lol -- so what does it mean?

btw, 'On paper,' not 'on the paper.'

'knee-high to a grasshopper' is an expression I heard often fifty years ago, and haven't heard in the past twenty-five years.

[Romain]

Azloon,

I dont know any effective machine à saucisse for whole sentences. If you try langue de bois in google translation you get "double talk", it's not wrong.
Langue de bois, litterally "wooden tongue" i.e. politically correct speach you would give with a stiff upper lip. Very frequently used in politics.

[Romain]

Azloon,

I tried this translator in Lexilogos with a whole paragraph in French :

Seule une Europe qui sait d'où elle vient peut parler d'une voix forte", a déclaré la ministre régionale des Affaires européennes de la Bavière Emilia Müller pour justifier son rejet de la sentence de Strasbourg qui selon elle, "fait du tort à l'idée des droits de l'homme

Only Europe which knows where from it comes can speak about a" strong voice, declared the regional minister of the European Business of Bavaria Emilia Müller to justify her rejection of the sentence of Strasbourg which according to her, "harmed at the idea of human rights

That's pretty good for an online translator. Slight mistake "parler d"une vois forte" is "speak with a strong voice" It is called Promt. Search for translation français-anglais and pick that translator.

http://www.lexilogos.com/anglais_traduction.htm#

[Daniel Strohl]

AZLOON, ROMAIN

Azloon, people (mostly politicians) using "la langue de bois" do NOT use straight talking (Romain), but its contrary, i.e. exclusively PC formulations, "enriched" with pompous logorrhea (no, not gonorrhea :), high flying bla bla bla and so on. Their aim is to "noyer le poisson" (i.e. to drown the fish :) when they are embarrassed by a direct and simple question which calls for a straightforward and simple answer.

I had a look at Google, which found an excellent article about "langue de bois". The article says that the expression comes from pre-revolution Russia, where it was used to qualify the tsarist bureaucracy (oak tongue - langue de chêne).

http://www.toupie.org/Textes/Langue_de_bois_1.htm

Since we are in Russia: a synonym of "censurer" is "caviarder" (the Russian censors used ink to cover up unwanted sentences or words in newspaper articles).

Of course, the article is in (good) French. I am afraid your sausage machine will "se casser les dents" - break one's teeth - trying to make a good translation of it :)

PS:

In the Alsatian dialect, one says of a person who speaks frankly and directly (i.e. who says what he/she really thinks without unnecessary litotes, euphemisms or lies) that he/she "does not put a plank in front of his/her mouth".
Mr. Bilger probably knows the expression :).

LEX,

An excellent English on-line dictionary is http://dictionary.reference.com

In fact, when one looks for a definition, most of the time three or more dictionaries are automatically called by the site. Most of them state the definitions with examples in sentences. The pronunciation is also given most of the time.

[Romain]

Azloon and Daniel,

"Mr Brown seems to believe, with Panglossian naivety..." (Times leading article)

I like that one, another brand of langue de bois, from Dr.Pangloss, in Voltaire's Candide. lol

[Romain]

At 78
Justice took her time.
It's not just a native Polynesian you can't force to do something he does not feel like doing is it?
Posted by: do-re-mi

No, he took advantage of the recent status of autonomy of the French Polynesian Territory to fill his pockets.
The family of Jean-Pascal Couraud, who was thrown overboard as shark bait, is still seeking justice.

[dot king]

"C'est votre droit de penser que vous êtes objective lorsque vous donner votre avis sur un sujet politique."

DANIEL

Mais ce n'est pas cela dont je parle. Nous ne partageons pas les mêmes avis politiques (ça au moins doit être évident :)) mais je ne diabolise pas tout le monde qui est à droite en disant "la droite" de la même manière que vous dites "la gauche" ou en Anglais "lefties" "left" ou "leftish".

Quelqu'un proteste le comportement de Sarkozy et pour vous il semble s'agir immédiatement et incontestablement être de "gauche".

Il n'est pas approprié de tout analyser de cette manière.
C'est aussi quelquechose qui affaiblit vos arguments que vous présentez comme étant "la voix de la raison" - :).

Après un moment ça sonne comme l'homme qui dit toujours: "Oh, les femmes, vous savez . . ." ou la femme qui dit: "Oh, les hommes, vous savez . . .", ou certains qui disent "oh les Juifs, vous savez . . .", ou bien, "Oh les Musulmans, vous savez . . ."

Autrement dit, ce n'est pas une façon d'argumenter qui vous ressemble comme nous vous connaissons. Votre place n'est pas dans ce panier-là.

I mean it kindly, Possum :)

[dot king]

"Quand CHARLES parle de "pint-sized", ça me fait rire, parce que c'est drôle. Par contre, nabot et nain ne me font pas rire - il y a peut-être des personnes de petite taille qui lisent le blog et qui sont blessées."

DANIEL

Et "Shorthouse"?
Ce n'est pas du tout le fait que Sarkozy soit un "Shorthouse" qui est drôle, c'est le fait que sa taille lui importe qui est drôle. Et c'est drôle contre lui, pas pour toutes les personnes de petite taille.
Et - Ô - DANIEL - vous ne pensez pas combien vous pouvez blesser des lecteurs et bloguers de gauche avec vos propos outrageux ?? ;D

[dot king]

"a stiff upper lip"

This is a class thing more than a PC thing - just try speaking English without moving your upper lip, you will sound (or "soynd" is how it would come out) like the Queen or Prince Charles and you will wake up chasing a fox on horseback. Or on the Tory Front Bench as it used to be (my sister once said it looked like the Monty Python Village Idiot competition).

Langue de bois, the practice of (though not wishing to teach Romain to suck eggs :)) I have always thought of as giving meaningless, unsatisfactory answers, or even avoiding giving anything recognisable as an answer . . .

[Daniel Strohl]

DO-RE-MI,

"J'arrive pas a trouver le truc des accents"

Ci-après quelques caractères espagnols : ñ ¿ Ñ ó qui bien sûr ne figurent pas sur mon clavier AZERTY ni probablement sur votre clavier QWERTY (si vous utilisez un QWERTY). Je les ai "fabriqués" d'une manière très simple et intuitive grâce au site www.lexilogos.com cité par ROMAIN.

Si vous voulez écrire en espagnol avec les caractères spéciaux, il suffit d'aller sur :

http://www.lexilogos.com/clavier/espanol.htm

Vous y trouverez un cadre (que l'on peut agrandir en tapant sur "Grand Cadre") dans lequel vous pouvez taper votre texte; pour introduire un caractère spécial dans un mot, il suffit de cliquer sur la touche virtuelle correspondante en-dessous du cadre.
Lorsque le texte est terminé avec tous les accents voulus au bon endroit, if suffit de faire un Copier/Coller (CTRL C/CTRL V) vers par exemple le blog de CHARLES.

Si vous voulez faire la même chose en français, il faut aller sur :

http://www.lexilogos.com/clavier/francais.htm

Cerise sur le gâteau : on bénéficie d'un correcteur d'orthographe. Il n'est peut-être pas parfait (il détecte les fautes dans le mot "ortografe", mais se trompe si on tape "d'ortografe" :), mais c'est quand même un outil très utile.

PS:

J'ai fait les essais avec mon clavier AZERTY, mais ça devrait fonctionner aussi bien avec un clavier QWERTY - encore que, avec l'informatique, on ne sait jamais. C'est très simple quand ça marche :).

AZLOON,

The above is a very simple method to generate accentuated characters in many languages (not only in French or Spanish, but for instance in Vietnamese - I don't speak this language, but I had a very good Vietnamese friend in the merchant navy :).

If you are interested, let me know. I will post you a translation of the above. If I had used my brains in due time, I would have typed the above right away in
English :).

[Thanks for the tip, Daniel. I'll try the site. I bascule/toggle between qwerty and azerty by using the alt+shift in my qwerty PC keyboard. All you have to remember is that, on the qwerty board, 2 is é, 7 is è, 9 is ç, [ is ^ and 0 is à, plus one or two others. It sounds complicated but quite quick to remember. And it works on the blog comments text of course. The toggle doesn't work on Macs. But I've noticed that my new iPhone (i surrendered) can recognise which language you're in and changes its keyboard by magic from qwerty to azerty if it's set up for the two languages. CB]

[Daniel Strohl]

CB,

There is also another relatively simple method to generate diacritic characters (I remember having used this method years ago to generate the German character ß; the Germans had meanwhile the good idea to replace ß by ss in the new German spelling rules. BTW, I didn't bother to learn the latter :).

To produce a diacritic character, one has to type on ALT and keep the ALT key pressed, meanwhile typing the four digit code number pertaining to the wanted character.

A few examples:

ALT0224 = à
ALT0226 = â
ALT0231 = ç
ALT0232 = è
ALT0233 = é
ALT0234 = ê and so on (more details on):

http://www.lexilogos.com/clavier/francais.htm

Anybody interested in this coding stuff may have a look at the following link (MAC systems are also mentioned):

http://www.starr.net/is/type/kbh.html

[Ah, very useful, especially for the Mac. Thank you Daniel. CB]

[do-re-mi]

Daniel Strohl

Lexilogos.

Thanks for that. I got Vista on my laptop at work and I hate it already.

Romain

It’s very sad about Jean-Pascal Couraud.
He can't be the only one either.

[Daniel Strohl]

DOT,

Je n'ai pas trouvé "shorthouse" dans les dictionnaires américains on-line . Je suppose que c'est un anglicisme.

Un mot drôle à consonance anglaise pour désigner quelqu'un de (très :) petit : un tom-pouce.

PS :

Je n'ai pas cherché à blesser les personnes de gauche sur le site. Je respecte leurs opinions, bien sûr. Mais après tout ce qui a été dit ici sur Sarkozy et sur les intentions qui lui ont été prêtées, je n'allais pas non plus donner dans la dentelle :).

DO-RE-MI,

Lexilogos : j'utilise Windows XP qui suffit largement à mes besoins. J'attends que mon PC tombe en panne (il a plus de cinq ans :) pour passer à Windows 7, qui est paraît-il bien mieux que Vista.

[azloon]

[I got Vista on my laptop at work and I hate it already.]

Q: Why are divorces so expensive?

A: Because they're worth it.

Ditto, Macs.

There are certain things in our 'brief sojourn' you should 'pay up' for: professional moving services, a nice vacation, good wine, a reliable vehicle, and a computer that doesn't add to life's many aggravations.

Just so.

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{...... the new German spelling rules. BTW, I didn't bother to learn the latter :).] DStrohl

I wondered why I was having so much trouble reading your German posts. :)

Is written French, absent 'diacritic' notation, anything more than curious to the French eye?

Diacritic, I like this new word (for me). It's a good one for 'word dropping' in boring conversations. But obviously it's not worth trying to produce these symbols on the computer judging from all your complex instructions (I don't think they apply to my qwerty keyboard anyway, and I won't bother to confirm this).

It's interesting that english evolved with no diacritic notation, simply requiring speakers to remember any unorthodox pronunciations not indicated by the spelling.

Eminence, I am sure you can tell me why it happened this way.

Or Richard Jones if he's still hiding out there.

[do-re-mi]

Daniel,

Anything is better than Vista.

[Daniel Strohl]

AZLOON,

"any unorthodox pronunciations"

Azloon, the problem is that for a Frenchman, ALL English words have unorthodox pronunciations :). For instance, I am unable to keep in memory the orthodox English pronunciation of "choir". Fortunately, most of the on-line dictionaries are now fitted with sound facilities.

The English didn't bother to add diacritic notation to their language, since they were persuaded from the beginning that English would turn into the sole universal language, i.e. it was mandatory for everybody to learn it, unorthodox pronunciations included of course :). The French were (somewhat :) more courteous, through addition of diacritic pronunciation aids for foreigners...

[azloon]

[The French were (somewhat :) more courteous, through addition of diacritic pronunciation aids for foreigners... ] Daniel

lol.

et peut-etre pour la derniere fois.

[dot king]

Je n'ai pas cherché à blesser les personnes de gauche sur le site. Je respecte leurs opinions, bien sûr.

DANIEL!

AHA! hoist by his own petard! On another thread (or maybe this who knows who cares?) you refer to J-M Aphatie as "chiantissime" - what respect does that show for his opinions? Hmmm?? He had only said a book was "chiantissime" - you said he was. AHA!
(Maintenant je vous lâche les baskets avec ça :))

BTW you will not find "shorthouse" in a dictionary - like "bollicks" it is a polite way of saying "short ar-e" (put in your own "s") or someone whose bum is close to the ground. Wghich may or may not apply to a French president who has occasionally been referred to as "small".
On another level, Shorthouse (with a capital letter) is a perfectly respectable family name - like Strohl, only Shorthouse :)

"Tom Pouce" is just the French translation of Tom Thumb a character in a children's story of that name, so named because of his shorthouse stature. ;D

[dot king]

the orthodox English pronunciation of "choir".

DANIEL

Stéphane Bern had terrible trouble with that the other day when hosting the Soweto Gospel Choir on Le Fou du Roi - it was hilarious - but the choir was knock-your-socks-off great!

[Daniel Strohl]

DOT,

Of course, I know the word "choir" since a long time. However, I heard it pronounced the first time perhaps two years ago at TV by André Rieu, the Dutch chef d'orchestre and entertainer. By pure coincidence, Rieu was on TF1 today in "Reportages". He seems to be very popular with ladies, if one believes "Reportages" :). Blague à part, he is an excellent musician as well as an excellent entrepreneur and his orchestra is great. Chapeau!

"He had only said a book was "chiantissime" - you said he was. AHA".

Hadn't he used this word à propos Chirac's book, it would not have crossed my mind to call him "chiantissime" too. Cependant, il a attrapé la grosse tête, ce qui le rend emm.....t. Cet adjectif suffit pour le qualifier :).

[suedoise]

Chirac you honeychild

[Adrienhb]

Paul's right, Juppé had to leave the government because he lost the elections. But he didn't actually resign, the whole governement did.
The Chirac's affairs had nothing to do with it.