It turns out that François Hollande has a country house just down the road from some friends who hosted us for supper last Saturday night; the gendarmes are posted in front of it and we were advised by our friends to take an alternative route. It's in the middle of nowhere on a rough dirt road; I felt like we were driving through rural Vermont. Another neighbour is a Breton nationalist who is also running for office; it's a regular political hotbed.
I forgot to post this one: this is how they make picnic tables in Brittany:
only dimly do i recall that there were breton nationalists. Would they want to instate gaelic as the official language ?
it seems like a lost cause. One might as well vote for Astérix le gaulois.
oui c'est la table d'ObélixOriginally Posted by brad
I think it's more the far-flung province syndrome, feeling they've been culturally oppressed by France and want the right to self-rule although they don't generally want to be a separate sovereign nation. There are Diwan schools where kids can go to school entirely in the Breton language, but while Breton certainly isn't dead yet it's far less ingrained in the culture than, for example Irish is in Ireland. Breton was forbidden for many years, especially during and after the German Occupation -- unfortunately the Breton word for yes is "Ya" and sounds just like the same word in German; people didn't want to be branded as German sympathizers so they avoided using the language.
French has been spoken longer in Québec than it has in most of France outside of the region around Paris; it's really only since the Revolution that French has displaced all the regional languages and dialects as the official language across the country. In Brittany there are several dialects of Breton and there's also Gallo, which is a dialect of French spoken mostly in the Haute Bretagne region (roughly the northeast and east).
That might work, as he at least has the potion magique.
trivia:
i hadn't thought much about the french presidential election, but now as i look at monsieur flanby's pudding face in pix i find myself thinking that the presidential runoff must have been more about getting rid of sarkozy & almost nothing about electing françois hollande.
wasn't it Ségo his ex-partner who, after the breakup, famously asked an audience of voters what they thought hollande had ever accomplished during his 25 years in politics ...
Ségolène Royal may be a better politician than flanby can ever be. She ran as socialist candidate for the presidency of france in 2007, but sarkozy won. Ségo eventually agreed to support hollande's 2012 campaign for the same job, but i read that the deal was, if elected, he would name her president of the National Assembly. And for that, Ségo has to be elected deputy from la rochelle in the first place.
no one ever expected valérie the rottweiler girlfriend to suddenly burst out of backstage, renege on hollande's deal & tweet enthusiastic support for Ségo's opponent in the La Rochelle race this sunday. It's a critical moment in Ségolène's career & many french seem to be sorry it's been jeopardized.
totally useless embarassing trivia:
the rottweiler has, very obviously, had a facelift. Quite a drastic one.
ooh là là
le ménage à trois
.
I think I might have broken a sweat on my morning ride today.
Supposed to be a high of 35 today with a humidex of infinity...
Mike Holman
Money Smarts Blog Investing and Personal Finance
I started out riding, got halfway to work, realized I had forgotten something critical (GAH), cycled home, and then drove to the office.
My morning ride didn't go so well: I was on my favourite straightaway, picking up speed, lost in a "biker's high," and somehow failed to notice a filled fire hose stretched across the road. I hit it at a good clip, the bike went airborne, I landed on my shoulder and hip, and slid for a few meters, shredding my shirt and getting a pretty impressive case of road rash on my right shoulder, hip, and knee. The bike suffered only minor damage, and I was able to ride the 5 km back home from the accident, but wow am I feeling it now!
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
