France

Saturday

Alex Massie

The Fall of France? (Again?)

So, unsurprisingly, Time Magazine's cover story (international edition) on The Death of French Culture is making waves on the eastern side of the Atlantic (once upon a time, Time might have devoted space to French culture in its US edition: that it wouldn't dream of doing so now tells us as much about the United States as it does about France). Given that all countries enjoy introspection - what's the subject of any attempt at writing the fabled Great American Novel, if not America herself? - it's not shocking that Le Figaro should devote three pages to responding to Don Morrison's silly, exaggerated article. Silly and exaggerrated and irritating, I mean.

Friday

Alex Massie

The frog in Sarko’s bread-and-milk

The always-excellent Arthur Goldhammer on Nicolas Sarkozy's latest appearance: Sarkozy had another one of his marathon chats with les tribunes du peuple, or what passes for such in the media age: telejournalists. It was an odd performance. The Élysée doesn't really suit its current incumbent. Its rococo excess makes a strange contrast with his blunt language. He cannot bring himself to sit up straight, despite chairs that would seem to require it. He slouches and squirms, and one keeps expecting to hear the voice of an admonishing parent: "Sit up straight, Nicolas!

Thursday

Sunday

Alex Massie

Midgets need not apply?

Via Arthur Goldhammer - curator of the excellent French Politics blog which has become an invaluable resource for keeping up to speed with Sarko et al - comes this splendid illustration of the benefits of a Harvard education. As Mr Goldhammer says, "Note the translation of Hautes Etudes": Mr Goldhammer also draws one's attention to a 60 Minutes profile of Sarkozy this evening in which Sarko decides he's can't be bothered answering CBS's questions and abruptly storms out of the interview. Should be fun! UPDATE:  Mr Goldhammer observes that Lesley Stahl does not seem to know very much about France. Fancy that!

Saturday

Alex Massie

Serge Toujours

Sweet, sweet piece on the great Serge Gainsbourg in Vanity Fair. Jane Birkin describes their daily routine in the 1970s as follows: they woke up at three in the afternoon; she picked up the children at school and took them to the park, brought them home for a children's dinner, the au pair would give them a bath, and when the children went to bed she and Serge would kiss them good night and go out on the town. They'd come back "with the dustman," wait until the children woke up at 7:30, then go to sleep. Their alcohol-fueled nights would often turn, as Jane puts it, "barmy." Once, at Castel's nightclub, on the Rue Princesse on the Left Bank, Serge turned over the basket that she carried as a handbag, emptying its contents onto the floor.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Marie Antoinette: Under-Rated!

Foreign Policy's Blake Hounshell deplores knee-jerk contrarianism and lists 10 Contrarian Arguments He Never Wants to Hear. Among them: Let Them Eat Cake: How a Delicious Dessert Could Save the World's Poor. This seems unfair. Marie Antoinette's famous advice was, if memory serves, given out of compassion and understanding, not aristocratic contempt for the urban poor. As I say, if my recollection is correct  -perhaps readers can help? - it was occasioned by protests over the shortage - and hence increasing price - of bread in Paris. That being so, she said, perhaps the people might consider changing their diet until the price of bread returned to a more comfortable level. Perfectly sensible stuff, really.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Dishonesty and ignorance at any cost

Daniel Larison as already done yeoman work dismantling elements of David Gelernter's appalling piece in The Weekly Standard. But more needs to be done and, that being the case, let's have at it in this and a number of posts to follow. Gelertner's piece, cheerily headlined "Defeat at Any Price" makes the case, natch, that Democrats and liberals in the United States want to see America defeated in Iraq. Of course, they're devilishly clever and never actually come out and say this (Gelertner declines to buttress his case with any quotations from Messrs Clinton, Obama, Edwards et al that would support his claim that they believe "America would be better off if it lost"). Nonetheless, being in thrall to "Appeasement, pacifism and globalism" Democrats want to see America laid low.

Thursday

Wednesday

Alex Massie

The Tyranny of Hope

Two questions: oh god, will it never end? And, how can winning be more fraught with terror than losing? I write, as you will have guessed, of Scottish football. Today's remarkable, nay logic-defying, triumph in Paris - our first on French soil in, oh, 57 years - was unbearable stuff. I can cope with despair; it's hope I can't stand. Here's the thing then. With three games left in our murderous Euro 2008 qualifying group, Scotland are - astonishingly - top of the table, ahead of France and Italy (last year's World Cup finalists) and Ukraine (who reached the last eight in Germany). This is not the way the world is supposed to work. Find me the man who predicted the Scots would defeat the French home and away and I'll show you the papers committing him to an asylum.

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Why can’t we have a better cable service?

Woo hoo! The Rugby World Cup is almost upon us. Once upon a time - ie, during the inaugural tournament in 1987 - this would have meant that those of us exiled in the United States had almost no chance of following the tournament live. So, three cheers for the internets and satellite television and all the other accoutrements of the global telecommunications revolution. The world is a smaller, better place. So why-oh-why-oh-why - and in the name of the wee man - are Versus showing games with a 24-48 hour delay? Seriously. The tournament kicks off with France vs Argentina on Friday, but it will be shown on Versus on Sunday. Have these people not heard of globalisation? That sort of tape delay* is close to being worse than not showing the games at all.

Friday

Alex Massie

How Sarko seduced France

I'm rather looking forward to reading Yasmina Reza's account of her year on the campaign trail with Nicolas Sarkozy, Dawn, Evening or Night. It looks as though it could be the political book of the year. If Elaine Sciolino's article is at all accurate, Sarko comes across as a man who, above all, is alive (a welcome change after the stagnant corruption of the Chirac years. There's wit too: Even before his victory, Sarkozy is drunk with bravado. Emerging from lunch in London with then-Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, Sarkozy announces to his aides: "Tony and I have just made a decision. We're going to conquer Europe.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Pour encourager les autres? Oui, monsieur…

Of course I agree with Megan that dog-fighting is a bad, even wicked thing. Still, I was struck by her (cutting) question: did Michael Vick and his pals think that by - allegedly! - executing and torturing dogs that had lost fights this would be a case of pour encourager les autres? Voltaire's famous quip is one of my favourites. "In this country" he remarked, speaking of Britain, "it is thought good to kill an admiral from time to time, to give courage to the others". When it's trotted out these days it's generally accompanied by an arched eyebrow as though the very idea of this was absurd. But Voltaire was more right than he knew...

Saturday