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Not lost in translation

France.com — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 20:11:00 +0000

After all, it may be that Jean-Luc Godard is not Korean. Lucky Koreans : if he had been, they would enjoy and understand him less.

This is the doom of French-speaking viewers, as they listen to Godard dialogues : because the words sound familiar, they think they can make sense of the sentences ; they fail and the more they fail, the more frustrated they grow.

In Korea and the whole non-French-speaking world, spectators run no such risk : as they listen to Godard, they hear the foreign language it is.

They do not try to grasp the words ; to their ears, this is music and how Godard should be appreciated.

Godard’s dialogues are like saloon talk in a Western film : their literal meaning could not matter less.

Do you speak Godard ? Nobody truly does, but Jean-Luc himself. Even his favourite actors speak his prose with a hint of a foreign accent, as if it were French.

Only Jean-Luc does full justice to his words, the articulation of their sounds, the return of their alliterations, their rhythmic slowness.

Only he can intone them to hypnotic effect, like the oracle and zen master, if not God, he truly is, as his voice over comments his experimental films and his « Histoire du cinéma ».

If Godard is not Korean, maybe one need be, or Japanese, to enjoy his aphorisms fully, meditate them for years and be rewarded with sudden illumination.

Stravinsky said that music did not express anything beyond itself. Then, Godard is true music ; his language cannot be lost in translation, because it cannot be translated.

Pierre Marmiesse’s blog lets you hone your French cinema skills and find more reasons to visit France.

Read more about French cinema on his blog:

15 ways to become a French film director

Corsica

France.com — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 16:47:00 +0000

Corsica is one of the 26 régions of France, although strictly speaking Corsica is called a “territorial collectivity” (collectivité territoriale) by law. As a territorial collectivity, it enjoys powers slightly more important than other French régions, but for the most part its status is quite similar to the status of the other French régions. Corsica is referred to as a “région” in common speech, and is almost always listed among the other régions of France. Although the island is separated from the continental mainland by the Ligurian Sea, politically Corsica is considered part of Metropolitan France.

Corsica is famed as the birthplace of Napoléon Bonaparte.

Ecology

The island has a Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. The natural vegetation was Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and shrub. The coastal lowlands are part of the Tyrrhenian-Adriatic sclerophyllous and mixed forests ecoregion, in which forests and woodlands of evergreen sclerophyll oaks predominate, chiefly Holm Oak (Quercus ilex) and Cork Oak (Quercus suber). The mountains are cooler and wetter, and home to the Corsican montane broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion, which support diverse forests of oak, pine, and broadleaf deciduous trees, with vegetation more typical of northern Europe on the slopes of the highest peaks.

Much of the coastal lowlands has been cleared for agriculture, and grazing and logging have reduced the mountain forests considerably.

The island has a natural park (Parc Naturel Régional de Corse), which protects thousands of rare animal and plant species. The park was created in 1972 and includes the Golfe de Porto, the Réserve Naturelle de Scandola (a UNESCO World Heritage Site), and some of the highest mountains on the island. This park is protected and cannot be reached on foot, but sumptuous sails are available in order to discover unique landscapes. Two endangered subspecies of hoofed mammals, the mouflon (Ovis aries musimon) and Corsican red deer (Cervus elaphus corsicanus) inhabit the island; the Corsican red deer is endemic.

History

Because of the strategic position it occupies in the Mediterranean, Corsica has long been considered significant as a platform for military operations, particularly during the several centuries of violent conflict between Italy and France. During those times, possible unification with the neighbouring island of Sardinia was seen as a dangerous eventuality by many European states, because it would have given the ruler of the islands a dominant position in the Mediterranean Sea.

The city state of Genoa held sway over the island for centuries before ceding Corsica to France in 1768 to help pay off a debt. An important figure in Corsican history is Pasquale Paoli (1725-1807), the Corsican general and patriot who struggled for Corsican independence, first against Genoa, then against France. It was essentially with him that the Moor’s head (“Testa Maura”) became Corsica’s emblem in 1760, hearking back to the period when Corsica had been controlled by Moors (850 to 1034).

Corsica is also the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was born in Ajaccio, into minor Corsican nobility. Corsica was under French control at the time, and Corsican nobles were offered the ability to gain French titles if they could prove their genealogy sufficiently. In an attempt to do so, Napoleon’s parents travelled to court in France, and, like many other Corsican nobles, sent their son to school there.

Economy

Tourism plays a major role in the Corsican economy. The island’s pleasant climate, beautiful mountains and breathtaking coastlines make it a popular destination among the French and other Western Europeans. However, the island has not had the same level of intensive development as other parts of the Mediterranean and is thus relatively unspoiled. Tourism is particularly concentrated in the area around Porto Vecchio and Bonifacio in the south of the island and Calvi in the northwest.

Politics

Corsica is currently governed almost as any other région of France, as explained in the introduction. There are several movements on the island calling for some degree of Corsican autonomy from France, or even full independence. Generally speaking, autonomist proposals focus on the promotion of the Corsican language, more power for local governments, and some exemptions from national taxes in addition to those already applying to Corsica.

The French government is opposed to full independence, as it would threaten France’s unity, but has at times shown support for some level of autonomy. There is support on the island for proposals of greater autonomy, but polls show that a large majority of Corsican are opposed to full independence.

Some groups who claim to support Corsican independence have carried out a violent campaign since the 1970s that includes bombings and a few assassination attempts, usually targeting pieds-noirs and other non-Corsicans, or buildings and officials representing the French government. The peaceful occupation of a pied-noir vineyard in Aléria in 1975 marked a turning point when the French government responded with overwhelming force, generating sympathy for the independence groups among the Corsican population. However, events such as the murder of préfet Claude Érignac on February 6, 1998 (for which Yvan Colonna was arrested five years later) have only served to convince many in Corsica, as well as in the French government and the general French public, that Corsican nationalists cannot be trusted with more autonomy. Recent attacks on Muslims have reinforced this opinion.

Some of the independence groups are known to practice extortion and other intimidatory tactics, not dissimilar from mafia activity in Sicily and southern Italy. Non-Corsican homeowners may be threatened with the destruction of their home, able to be avoided only through paying a ransom. Journalists writing articles critical of the armed groups have sometimes been threatened. Prosecutions are made difficult by a pervasive “law of silence”. It is sometimes suggested that such behavior could be directly related to longstanding cultural traditions of banditry in the rugged interior of the island.

In 2000, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin agreed to grant increased autonomy to Corsica in exchange for an end to violence. The proposed autonomy for Corsica would have included greater protection for the Corsican language (Corsu), the island’s traditional language (which is also considered to be a dialect of Italian), whose practice and teaching, like other regional or minority languages in France, had in the past been discouraged. According to the UNESCO classification, the Corsican language is currently in danger of becoming extinct. However, the plans for increased autonomy were opposed by the Gaullist opposition in the French National Assembly, who feared that they would lead to calls for autonomy from other régions (such as Brittany or Alsace), eventually threatening France’s unity as a country.

In a referendum on July 6, 2003, a narrow majority of Corsican voters opposed a project from the government of Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy that would have suppressed the two départements of the island and granted greater autonomy to the territorial collectivity of Corsica. an style="font-weight: bold;">

'Tis time to be merry: Here comes the Beaujolais nouveau!

France.com — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 14:51:00 +0000

Beaujolais nouveau is a wine of the Gamay variety produced in the Beaujolais (AOC) region of France that is authorized for immediate sale after fermentation. It is the most popular vin de primeur, a wine harvested in fall and sold before spring (much sooner than it could be produced through normal fermentation).

Beaujolais nouveau is produced by carbonic maceration followed by Pasteurization. A process that bypass malolactic fermentation. The wine is ready to be drunk a scant six weeks after the harvest. On the third Thursday of November each year the new Beaujolais is officially released and just after midnight a race begins to ship the wine out all around the world as quickly as possible. For a vintner the economic advantages of selling one’s wine before the end of the year are substantial, although the wine itself varies dramatically in quality.

Beaujolais nouveau is not a wine to keep; it must be rapidly consumed within a few months of its production.

Young, Beaujolais should be served chilled, at approximately 55F (13C), to encourage its fruity complexion. The fuller Beaujolais, on the other hand, are best at about 60-65F (17C).

Around 450,000 hectolitres of Beaujolais nouveau is produced each year, making up about a third of the region’s total wine production. About half of this is exported, some of it as far as Asia. By far the largest production comes from the négociant Georges Duboeuf, who makes the well-known “flower labels”.

The commercial success of Beaujolais nouveau has lead to the development of similar primeur wines, first in other regions of France and later in other wine producing countries such as Italy (vino novello).

GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia

Invalides

France.com — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 08:55:00 +0000

Les Invalides in Paris, France consists of a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement, now containing museums and monuments, all relating to France’s military history, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans, the building’s original purpose. It is also the burial site for some of France’s war heroes.

King Louis XIV initiated the project by an order dated November 24, 1670, as a home and hospital for aged and unwell soldiers: the name is a shortened form of hôpital des invalides, the hospital for invalids. The architect of Les Invalides was Liberal Bruant. The selected site was suburban in the 17th century. By the time the enlarged project was completed in 1676, the river front measured 196 meters and the complex had fifteen courtyards, the largest being the cour d’honneur (“court of honor”) for military parades.

Then it was felt that the veterans required a chapel, in which Jules Hardouin Mansart assisted the aged Bruant, and finished it in 1679 to Bruant’s designs after the elder architect’s death. Compulsory daily attendance was required.

Shortly after the veterans’ chapel was completed, Louis XIV had Mansart construct a separate private royal chapel, the church of St. Louis des Invalides, often referred to as the Dôme des Invalides from its most striking feature. Inspired by St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome (left) the original for all Baroque domes, it’s one of the triumphs of French Baroque architecture. Mansart raises his drum with an attic storey over its main cornice, and employs the paired columns motif in his more complicated rhythmic theme of || u ||. The general program is sculptural but tightly integrated, rich but balanced, consistently carried through capping its vertical thrust firmly with a less emphatically ribbed and hemispherical dome. The domed chapel is centrally placed to dominate the court of honor. It was finished in 1708.

The interior of the dome was painted by Le Brun’s disciple Charles de La Fosse (1636 – 1716) with a Baroque illusion of space seen from below (sotto in su perspective, the Italians were calling it). The painting was completed in 1705.

The most notable tomb at Les Invalides is that of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) in the crypt under Mansart’s dome. Napoleon was initially interred on Saint Helena, but King Louis-Philippe arranged for his remains to be brought to St Jerome’s Chapel in Paris in 1840. A renovation of Les Invalides took many years, but in 1861 Napoleon was moved to the most prominent location under the dome at Les Invalides.

A popular tourist site today, Les Invalides is also the burial site for some of Napoleon’s family, for several military officers who served under him, and other French military heroes such as:

Joseph Bonaparte (1768 – 1845) — Napoleon’s eldest brother;
Jerome Bonaparte (1785 – 1851) — Napoleon’s youngest brother;
Napoleon II of France (1812 – 1833) — son of Napoleon;
Geraud Duroc (1774 – 1814) – Officer who fought with Napoleon;
Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle (1760 – 1836) Army captain, he is the author of France’s national anthem, La Marseillaise;
Ferdinand Foch (1851 – 1929) – French Marshall during the First World War;
Henri de la Tour d’Auvergne (1611- 1675), better known as the Viscount de Turenne, he was Marshal of France under King Louis XIV and is one of France’s greatest military leaders.
the heart of Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban – the designer of Louis XIV’s military fortifications

On the north front of Les Invalides (illustration, left) Hardouin-Mansart’s chapel dome is large enough to dominate the long facade yet harmonizes with Libéral Bruant’s door under an arched pediment. To the north the courtyard (cour d’honneur), is extended by a wide public esplanade (Esplanade des Invalides) where the embassies of Austria and Finland are neighbors of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, all forming one of the grand open spaces in the heart of Paris. At its far end, the Pont des Invalides links this grand urbanistic axis with the Petit Palais and the Grand Palais.

The Hôpital des Invalides spurred William III of England to emulation, in the military Greenwich Hospital of 1694.

The buildings still comprise the Institution Nationale des Invalides (official site), a national institution for disabled war veterans. The institution comprises:

a retirement home
a medical and surgical center
a center for external medical consultations.

GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia

Arc de Triomphe

France.com — Sun, 27 Feb 2005 09:05:00 +0000

The Arc de Triomphe is a monument in Paris that stands in the centre of the Place de l’Étoile, at the western end of the Champs-Élysées. It is the linch-pin of the historic axis (L’Axe historique) leading from the courtyard of the Louvre Palace, a sequence of monuments and grand thoroughfares on a route leading out of Paris. Its iconographic program pitted heroically nude French youths against bearded Germanic warriors in chain-mail and set the tone for public monuments with triumphant nationalistic messages until World War I.

The monument stands over 50 metres (165 feet) in height and is 45 metres wide. It is the second largest triumphal arch in existence (North Korea built a slightly larger Arch of Triumph in 1982 for the 70th birthday of Kim Il-Sung); the Arc de Triomphe is so colossal that an early dare-devil flew his plane through it.

It was commissioned in 1806 after the victory at Austerlitz by Napoleon Bonaparte at the peak of his fortunes and finally completed— after a long pause during the Restauration— in the reign of King Louis-Philippe, in 1833 – 36. The sculpture representing Peace was now interpreted as commemorating the Peace of 1815— not the original intention.

The astylar design is by Jean Chalgrin (1739-1811), in the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture. Major academic sculptors of France are repesented in the sculpture of the Arc de Triomphe: Cortot, Rude, Etex, Pradier and Lemaire. The main sculptures are not integral friezes but are treated as independent trophies applied to the vast ashlar masonry masses, not unlike the gilt-bronze appliqués on Empire furniture. The four sculptural groups at the base of the Arc are The Triumph of 1810 (Jean-Pierre Cortot), Resistance and Peace (both by Antoine Etex) and the most renowned of them all, Departure of the Volunteers of ’92 commonly called La Marseillaise (Francois Rude). The face of the allegorical representation of France calling forth her people on this last was used as the belt buckle for the seven-star rank of Marshal of France.

In the attic above the richly sculptured frieze of soldiers are 30 shields engraved with the names of major Revolutionary and Napoleonic military victories. The inside walls of the monument list the names of 558 French generals. The names of those who died in battle are underlined (illustration, right).

The Place de l’Étoile was extensively redesigned by Baron Haussmann, who increased the number of avenues radiating from this star to twelve. In the 1860s he ran a circular road (rue de Tilsitt-Presbourg) round the outside of the houses fronting the Étoile, a planning feature intended to free the Place itself from the crush of carriages that might be expected where so many stylish tenants lived so closely together. Haussmann imposed a uniform design on the house fronts with small gardens at the back giving on to this circular road. Haussmann’s memoirs publicly noted that the official façade design, from Hittorff in his own office, was so poor that he had to mask the fronts with trees. But the uniformity complements the Arc’s monumental presence. The traffic problem was not resolved, however.

The sword carried by the Republic in the Marseillaise relief broke off, on the day, it is said, that the Battle of Verdun began in 1916. The relief was immediately hidden by tarpaulins to conceal the accident and avoid any undesired ominous interpretations. Famous victory marches past the Arc included the Germans in 1871, the French in 1918, the Germans in 1940, and the French and Allies in 1944 and 1945. Charles de Gaulle survived an atttack upon him at the Arc during a parade.

Beneath the Arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from the First World War, interred here on Armistice Day 1920, has the first eternal flame lit since the Vestal Virgins’ fire was extinguished in the year 391. It burns in memory of the dead who were never identified, now in both World Wars. France took the example of the United Kingdom’s tomb of The Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey. A ceremony is held there every November 11 on the anniversary of the armistice signed between France and Germany in 1918. The unknown soldier’s remains were originally decided in November 12, 1919 to be buried in the Panthéon, but a public letter-writing campaign led to the decision to bury him beneath the Arc. The coffin was put in the chapel on the first floor of the Arc on November 10, 1920, and put in its final resting place on January 28, 1921. The slab on top carries the inscription ICI REPOSE UN SOLDAT FRANÇAIS MORT POUR LA PATRIE 1914-1918 (“Here lies a French soldier who died for his country 1914-1918″).

The Tour de France race culminates here every year.

Pedestrian access to the Arc de Triomphe is via an underpass. Metro access: Charles-de-Gaulle-Étoile. From the top there is an excellent view of all of Paris, of the thirteen major avenues leading to the Arc and of the exceptionally busy roundabout in which the Arc lies.

Hotels near the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs-Elysées:

Recommended hotels

The Arc de Triomphe has been a feature of American films shot in Paris including the teaser trailer of Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds, Team America: World Police, Rugrats in Paris.

GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia

Avignon

France.com — Sun, 13 Feb 2005 19:06:00 +0000

Avignon is situated on the left bank of the Rhône, in the Vaucluse département, about 400 miles south-south-east of Paris, and 50 miles north-north-west of Marseille. Its coordinates are 43°57N 4°50E.

Early history

The site of Avignon was settled very early on; the rocky outcrop (le Rocher les Doms) at the north end of the town, overlooking the Rhône, may have been the site of a Celtic oppidum or hill fort. During the Roman Empire the city was a major center of Gallia Narbonensis, but very little from this period remains (a few fragments of the forum near Rue Molière). It was badly damaged by the barbarian invasions of the 5th century and was destroyed in 737 by the Franks under Charles Martel, after it had sided with the Arabs against him. Avignon passed successively to the kingdom of the Burgundians and the Kingdom of Arles. At the end of the 12th century, its commune declared itself an independent republic, but independence was crushed in 1226 when Avignon was taken and dismantled by forces of Louis VIII and its fortification demolished as punishment for its support of the Cathars. Avignon was given to the counts of Provence and then the counts of Toulouse.

The town had significant religious status from ancient times. It was the seat of a bishop as early as the year 70 AD, and became an archbishopric in 1476. Several synods of minor importance were held there, and its university, founded by Pope Boniface VIII in 1303 and famed as a seat of legal studies, flourished until the French Revolution.

In 1309 the city was chosen by Pope Clement V as his residence, and from that time till 1377 was the seat of the Papacy, in the “Babylonian Captivity.” In 1348 the city was sold by its owner, Joanna, countess of Provence, to Pope Clement VI and, though it was later the seat of more than one antipope Avignon belonged to the Papacy until the French Revolution.

Avignon under the Popes

Avignon became the residence of the Pope in 1309, at which time the town and the surrounding Comtat Venaissin was under the rule of the kings of Sicily (the house of Anjou). In 1348 Pope Clement VI bought it from Queen Joanna I of Sicily for 80,000 gold gulden, and it remained a papal possession until 1791, when, during the disorder of the French Revolution, it was incorporated with France.

Seven popes resided there:

Pope Clement V
Pope John XXII
Pope Benedict XII
Pope Clement VI
Pope Innocent VI
Pope Urban V
Pope Gregory XI

This period from 1309-1377 was also called the Babylonian Captivity, in reference to the Israelites’ enslavement in biblical times. The analogy fitted Avignon in another sense – the venality of the papal court caused the city to become infamously corrupt, much as Babylon had been accused of being. The poet Petrarch condemned the city’s corruption, contributing to the papacy’s return to Rome out of sheer embarrassment as much as anything else.

The return to Rome prompted the Great Schism, during which the antipopes Clement VII and Benedict XIII continued to reside at Avignon. The former lived there during his entire pontificate (1378-1394), the latter until 1408, when he fled to Aragon.

The walls built by the popes in the years immediately succeeding the acquisition of Avignon as papal territory are well preserved. They were not, however, particularly strong fortifications; the Popes relied instead on the immensely strong fortifications of their palace, the “Palais des Papes”. This lofty Gothic building, with walls 17-18 feet thick, was built 1335-1364 on a natural spur of rock, rendering it all but impregnable to attack. After being expropriated following the French Revolution, it was used as a barracks for many years but is now a museum.

After the departure of the popes, Avignon continued to be ruled by legates as papal territory. Its existence was, however, somewhat precarious, as the French crown maintained a large standing garrison at Villeneuve-les-Avignon just across the river. In 1663 and 1688 the French King Louis XIV occupied the surrounding Comtat Venaissin. The papacy finally lost the town and the Comtat in 1791, when it was incorporated into France after the French Revolution.

Sights

Notre Dame des Doms
Palais des Papes
Pont d’Avignon (Pont St-Bénezet)
Miscellaneous
A famous theater festival is held annually in Avignon. Founded in 1947, the Avignon Festival comprises both traditional theatrical events and other art forms such as dance, music and cinema, making good use of the town’s historical monuments.

Avignon is commemorated by the French children’s song, “Sur le pont d’Avignon” (“On the bridge of Avignon”), which describes folk dancing. The bridge of the song is the Saint Bénezet bridge, over the Rhone River, of which only four arches (out of the initial 22) starting from Avignon side remain. In fact people would have danced beneath the bridge (sous le pont) where it crossed an island (l’Ile de Barthelasse) on its way to Villeneuve-lès-Avignon. The bridge was initially built between 1171 and 1185, with an original length of some 900 m (2950 ft), but it suffered frequent collapses during floods and had to be reconstructed several times. Several arches were already missing (and spanned by wooden sections) before the remainder was damaged beyond repair in 1660.

Famous residents include: (born in Avignon)

Jean Alesi, race car driver
Pierre Boulle, author of The Bridge on the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes
Alexandre de Rhodes (1591-1660), Jesuit missionary
Mireille Mathieu, singer
Bernard Kouchner, politician
Henri Bosco, writer
Joseph Vernet, painter

Hotels in Avignon:

Recommended hotels

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia .

Tour de France

France.com — Wed, 16 Jun 2004 13:35:00 +0000

History and general description

The race was founded as a publicity event for the newspaper L’Auto (ancestor of the present l’Équipe) by its editor, Henri Desgrange, to rival the Paris-Brest et retour (PBP) ride sponsored by Le Petit Journal and Bordeaux-Paris sponsored by Le Vélo. In the early days of the race, it was a near-continuous endurance event. Racers slept by the side of the road and were required to avoid all assistance, but several competitors in the second Tour de France were disqualified for taking a train part of the way. These days, the tour is a “stage race”, divided into a number of stages, each stage being a race held over one day. There are service vehicles (motorcycles and cars) that provide information, food, water, and access to mechanics. Some of the vehicles are “neutral” for all the racers and some are team vehicles. Most stages take place in France though it is very common to have a few stages in nearby countries, such as Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany, but also non-neighbouring countries such as Ireland, England and the Netherlands. The three weeks usually includes two resting days, which are sometimes used to transport the riders long distances between stages. In recent years, the first stage is preceded by a short individual time trial (1 to 15 km), called the prologue. The traditional finish is in Paris on the Champs-Elysées. In between, various stages occur, including a number of mountain stages, individual time trials and a team time trial. The remaining stages are held over relatively flat terrain. With the variety of stages, sprinters may win stages, but the overall winner is almost always a master of the mountain stages and time trials.Many places and – especially – mountains occur frequently (sometimes almost annually) in the parcours (the course taken by the stage or race), and have gained fame on their own. The most famous mountains are those in the hors-categorie (peaks where the difficulty in climbing is beyond categorization), including the Col du Tourmalet, Mont Ventoux, Col du Galibier, the Hautacam and Alpe d’Huez.

Other major stage races include the Giro d’Italia (Tour of Italy) and the Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain). The Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and World Cycling Championship comprise the Triple Crown of Cycling.

Pernod Fils

France.com — Sun, 23 May 2004 08:53:00 +0000

Pernod Fils (pronounced: Perno-Fee) was the most popular brand of absinthe during the period before prohibition of absinthe throughout most of Europe (1915). Like most absinthe, the herbs wormwood, fennel, hyssop, anise, and star anise, among others, were first macerated, and then placed in a larger still where they were then distilled, to produce a transparent liquor. It was then distilled again with more green-colored herbs, such as wormwood and petite wormwood, to produce a more green colored liquor. This was mostly to enhance it’s visual appeal, but also to add to it’s alcohol content. The final product was roughly 68% alcohol. The predominant flavor in Pernod Fils, like most absinthe, was anise, which has a pronounced liquorice taste.

The absinthe brand’s roots can be traced all of the way back to 1792, which makes it the oldest of all of the brands of liqueurs we call absinthe today. The recipe was written by a Dr. Pierre Ordinaire in Switzerland at the time. The recipe then came into the hands of Henri Louis Pernod through the ways of a business deal around 1797.

Pernod opened his first distillery to exploit his recipe in 1797, and later built another one in Pontarlier, France in 1805. This then set the tone that caused Pontarlier to forever be one of Europe’s most famous absinthe towns. Soon after the plant’s opening in Pontarlier, a string of knock-off absinthe brands appeared, including Pernot, Armand Guy, Oxygenee, and Terminus, among others. In 1901, a fire broke out at the factory, destroying the original distillery. A new, bigger distillery was built in its place. In its prime, the absinthe distillery was producing as much as 30,000 liters of absinthe per day.

With the new temperance movement growing around the world, many prominent French politicians and scientists turned their interest to France’s new, most popular alcoholic beverage: absinthe.

By the late 1800s, France’s rate of absinthe consumption had topped 130,000 hectoliters of absinthe per year. Scientists conducted studies involving absinthe using rodents and brands that contained high levels of the herb wormwood, which of course contains the psychoactive compound thujone. They found it to be a mild convulsant at high levels, and pushed for the popular drink’s ban across Europe. By 1915, absinthe was completely illegal throughout much of Europe, including France. All of the absinthe distilleries in Pontarlier and all over France had to then close their doors. This meant the demise of Pernod Fils in France.

However, Pernod, unlike many other absinthe companies, did not quite bite the dust. They opened new distilleries in Spain, where absinthe had never been formally banned. However, the drink never quite caught on as much as it did in Northern Europe, and by the late 1950s Pernod closed their spanish factories. They also, along with many other former absinthe producers in France, produced what is known as pastis, which is an absinthe-like liquor, sans the wormwood which was said to be poisonous. They did this with moderate success, leaving us with the modern French Pernod-Ricard company. However, the pastis drink never fully caught on to the same success that absinthe once enjoyed. It was drank the same way as absinthe, using a tall, goblet-style glass, a pitcher of ice water or a fountain, a sugar cube, and a slotted spoon, on which the sugar cube is placed and disintegrated into the water (modern usage simply dilutes the pastis with cold water). Most French found their distaste with the drink to be that it was simply too sweet, lacking the bitterness element that the wormwood herbs once placed in it. The sugar used to serve the drink only added to this sweetness.

Today, with the legalization of thujone and wormwood in alcoholic beverages in the European Union, Pernod-Ricard has attempted to recreate what they thought would be the new Pernod-Fils absinthe. However, taste trials with the drink reveal it to be more akin to it’s cousin, the pastis, than the actual pre-1915 French absinthe. However, with absinthe appearing in a range of movies including From Hell and Moulin Rouge, gaining some commercial stardom, the new Pernod absinthe has had some moderate success throughout France and other countries in the E.U. Other modern brands have also appeared with varying success rates, notably the French Un Emile Pernot and Francois Guy, both of which are based on pre-1915 brands. Absinthe was made illegal in United States around the same time it was in Europe and has yet to be again legalized. However, this has not prevented some hardcore connoisseurs and experimenters from slipping the modern Pernod Fils beverage and other brands through customs and into the privacy of enjoying it in their own homes.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia .

The Eiffel Tower

France.com — Thu, 23 Oct 2003 19:46:00 +0000

The Eiffel Tower is the most recognizable landmark in Paris and is known worldwide as a symbol of France. Named after its designer, Gustave Eiffel, it is a premier tourist destination, with over 5.5 million visitors per year. The tower received its 200,000,000th guest on November 28, 2002.

The structure was built from 1887-1889 as the entrance arch for the Exposition Universelle (1889), a World’s fair at the centennial celebration of the French revolution. It was inaugurated on March 31, 1889, and opened on May 6. 300 steel workers joined together 18,038 pieces of steel, using two and a half million rivets. Considering the safety standards in place at the time, it is remarkable that only one worker died in the construction of the tower, during the installation of the lifts (elevators).

The tower is 300 metres tall, (986 feet), not including the television antenna on top, which adds another 20 meters, and weighs over 10,000 tonnes (over 21,000,000 pounds). When it was built it was the highest structure in the World. Maintenance on the tower includes 50 tons of dark brown paint every 7 years. Depending on the ambient temperature, the Eiffel Tower will change height by several centimetres because of contraction and expansion of the metal.

Perhaps predictably, the tower met with resistance from the public when it was first built, many thought it would be an eyesore. Today it is widely considered to be one of the most striking pieces of architectural art in the world.

One of the great Hollywood movie clichés is that the view from a Parisian window always includes the Eiffel Tower.

Originally, Eiffel had a permit to leave the tower standing for 20 years, but as it proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to stay after the end of the permit.

See the Eiffel Tower from above, here

Events

On January 12, 1908, the first long-distance radio message was sent from the tower.
Father Theodor Wulf in 1910 took observations of radiation at the top and bottom of the Eiffel Tower, discovering more than was expected at the top, and thereby detecting what are today known as cosmic rays.
In 1925, the con artist Victor Lustig twice “sold” the Eiffel Tower for scrap.
In 1929, the Tower lost the title of the World’s tallest structure when the Chrysler Building was completed in New York.
When Adolf Hitler visited Paris in World War II, the lifts were put out of action by the French so that he would have to climb the 1792 steps to the summit – the part to repair them was allegedly impossible to obtain because of the war, though it was working again within hours of the departure of the Nazis. He chose to stay on the ground.
On January 3, 1956 a fire damaged the top of the tower.
In 1959 the present radio antenna was added to the top.

Bastille Day

France.com — Fri, 21 Feb 2003 21:01:00 +0000

This month, like every year on the 14th of July, the French will celebrate their Fête Nationale or Bastille Day, as it is known in English-speaking countries. It commemorates the storming of a Paris royal fortress––the Bastille––on July 14, 1789, a date of great historical significance as it marks the transition from an absolute monarchy to a republican regime.

Today, the festivities include a traditional military parade down the Champs-Elysées Avenue in Paris, a meticulously planned event attended by the French President, the Premier and his Cabinet, members of the armed forces and foreign dignitaries. A different twist has been given to celebrations by President Chirac, who since his election has invited young people from all over France to attend the post-parade reception in the garden of the Elysée Palace. In the evening, dancing and fireworks displays are held in every town and village throughout the land. The day is also celebrated in French embassies and consulates all over the world with receptions and garden parties.

The Storming of the Bastille, A Watershed in French History

During the first 6 months of 1789, the people of France, faced with an overbearing regime, crushing taxes and successive poor harvests, were dreading food shortages and bankruptcies. Aware of the dangerous mood of the country, on July 11, King Louis XVI decided to hear the citizen's complaints and convened the Etats Généraux, a council composed only of the King’s vassals. The legislative body was immediately transformed into the Assemblée Nationale to include representatives of the people. To calm the unrest, the King dismissed his extremely unpopular Finance Minister, Jacques Necker (only to call him back to service five days later). However, Paris remained in a state of high agitation. On July 14, a crowd led by a certain Pierre Hulin, who was in charge of Queen Marie-Antoinette’s laundry, seized 28,000 guns and 20 canons from a royal armory and marched towards the Bastille, a gargantuan fortress erected in 1369 which was serving as jail. Rumors of an attack had been spreading since the previous week and that day 100 Bastille guards had left their duties out of fear. The mob thus easily marched into the fortress and, after a four-hour round of firing, captured and killed its Governor and soldiers. Casualties among the attackers were estimated at 100 men. The seven prisoners jailed at the time (four forgers, two mental patients and one aristocrat convicted of incest) were liberated and the besiegers marched towards City Hall, rioting and looting along the way.

In the months that followed, General de La Fayette (of American Revolutionary War fame) ordered the Bastille’s demolition and the building was razed to the ground. Today, stones from its foundation can still be seen in the subway station beneath the Place de la Bastille, while a model of the Bastille and a painting showing its demolition are part of the collection of the Musée Carnavalet, the museum of the history of Paris (www.paris-org/musees/carnavalet).

It is most interesting that two keys to the fortress made their way to Alexandria, VA. In March 1790, La Fayette presented the key to the west portal to George Washington, under whom he had served in the American Revolutionary War. The accompanying note explained: “Let me……present you with the main key of the fortress of despotism. It is a tribute which I owe, as a son to my adoptive father, as an aide-de-camp to my General, as a missionary of liberty to its patriarch.” After being displayed in the Presidential Mansion, the key now hangs in the hall of Mount Vernon. A smaller key is on display at the nearby George Washington Masonic National Memorial, also a present of La Fayette, an honorary member of that lodge.

A year later, the first anniversary of the insurrection was celebrated with great pomp but the commemoration was abandoned in subsequent years. In July 1880, the Parliament passed a law naming July 14 as the national holiday of the French Republic. From the outset, emphasis has been on the patriotic and military character of the event, a fact that was especially noticeable on Bastille Day in 1919 and again in 1945 when great victory celebrations and civic rejoicing were in order.

In 1989, the bicentennial of this pivotal event was marked by a gala nighttime parade attended by numerous foreign heads of state. A new opera house known as the Opéra Bastille was also inaugurated in the Bastille district of Paris. Its opening proved to be the springboard for a vibrant redevelopment of the area, which is now one of the trendiest sections of the French capital (www.paris-touristoffice.com).

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen

The fall of the Bastille definitely signaled the dawn of a new era and the launch of new aspirations and values that were outlined by 18th-century philosophers and authors such Locke, Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau. A month after the event, these principles were incorporated into a document that was voted into existence as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, the founding text of the French Republic. The document includes a preamble and 17 articles that chart principles held to be inherent to the individual and the Nation. It spells out such “natural and indefeasible” rights as liberty, ownership, safety and the right to resist oppression. It also recognizes equality before the law and asserts the principle of the separation of powers.

Inspired by the American Declaration of Independence of 1776, the text is still at the very roots of French institutions and was explicitly referred to in the Constitutions of 1852, 1946 and 1958. During the 19th century, it influenced similar documents in several European and Latin American countries and, more recently, the European Convention on Human Rights signed in Rome in 1950.

The Marseillaise, A National Anthem Rife with Controversy

Contrary to its name, the French national anthem was not created in Marseilles but in Strasbourg. In 1792, the Mayor of that Alsatian city wanted a battle march for the soldier
s leaving for the front following the French declaration of war on Austria. Composed in one night, it is the work of Claude Rouget de Lisle, a 32-year old captain in the corps of engineers and an amateur musician. Named the “Battle Song of the Army of the Rhine”, it was immediately hailed as a triumph. From Strasbourg the hymn traveled south and was played at a patriotic banquet in Marseilles, where printed copies were given to the volunteers that were leaving to join the revolutionary forces in Paris. When the people of Paris witnessed the arrival of the southern fighters marching to its beat, they dubbed it “la Marseillaise”. The composition's fortunes rose and fell with the tempestuous events in France at the time: it quickly gained acceptance and was declared a national anthem on July 14, 1795. Ironically, Rouget de Lisle, himself a royalist, refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new Constitution and so was imprisoned and barely escaped the guillotine. His hometown of Lons-le-Saunier, in Eastern France(www.franche-comte.org) honored him with a statue designed by Bartholdi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, and the opening of his birthplace as a museum. A few years later the anthem fell out of favor with Napoléon and King Louis XVIII, who banned it because of its revolutionary association. It was authorized again during the Revolution of 1830, when Hector Berlioz provided a new orchestration. Outlawed again by Napoléon III, it was reinstated in 1879 by the Third Republic, whose Ministry of War approved the “official version”, following the recommendations of a specially appointed commission.

In fact, the Marseillaise continues to provoke controversy. There has been considerable confusion on the authorship of the music since early editions were published anonymously. Today, only three of the seven original verses are sung, and even then, some people are offended by a text that demands citizens to “drench our fields with tainted blood” or labels the enemy as “ferocious soldiers… who slaughter our sons and wives”. In an era of political correctness, some French citizens want to soften the national anthem. In the wake of the opening ceremony of the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, when a very young girl in local dress sang a soaring Marseillaise a capella, committees were formed and alternate terms were proposed to muffle the glorification of bloodshed. But most of the French oppose any change, a fact that President Giscard d’Estaing had already found out in the 1970s when he ordered a slower tempo Marseillaise. In 1979, the late singer and composer Serge Gainsbourg released “Aux Armes Etcetera”, which parodied the Marseillaise’s jingoistic overtones to a reggae beat. The outcry that followed included calling Gainsbourg a “walking pollution” and he was forced to sing it without musicians. In 1981, when the original manuscript came to auction, Gainsbourg made the highest bid to purchase the anthem.

The French National Flag, Three Colors that Unite

It might be said that the flag of France began life as an advertising statement: in the early days of the Revolution, militias adopted a two-color rallying cockade of blue and red, the traditional colors of Paris. In July 1789, La Fayette ordered the addition of the white, the color of the French royalty, thus giving birth to the “tricolor” flag, which King Louis XVI was ordered to fly three days after the fall of the Bastille. A February 1794 law established it as the national flag, with the stipulation that the blue should be positioned nearest to the mast.

Except during the Restoration era when Louis XVIII briefly regained the throne, it has been the emblem of France ever since. The Constitutions of 1946 an 1958 (Article II) confirm the “blue, white and red” as the French national flag.

Versailles, Capital of France for Over a Century

First erected as a hunting lodge by King Louis XIII, the Palace of Versailles and its magnificent gardens were built by his son, King Louis XIV. Architects Le Vau and then Mansart built the château, using Lebrun for the paintings and decorations and Le Nôtre for the gardens in the 2,500-acre park. In fact, Le Nôtre did not stop at designing the gardens and fountains; he also drew up plans for the surrounding town, located 15 miles from Paris.

In 1682, the Court settled in Versailles, making it the seat of government and the capital of France.

It was in Versailles that King Louis XVI, upon learning of the fall of the Bastille, was reported to have asked an aide: ”Is this a revolt?” The reply: “No, Sire, it is a revolution”, forecast the revolutionaries' next move: they marched to Versailles and took the royal family with them back to Paris. Most of the palace’s furnishings were auctioned off during the Revolution, and the royal city was briefly renamed “Berceau de la Liberté” (Cradle of Liberty).

In 1837, to save the buildings from falling into a state of disrepair, Versailles was made into a history museum “to all the Glories of France." In the 20th century, considerable efforts have been made to restore it to its former grandeur, thanks in part to the generosity of American patrons such as the Rockefeller family and Barbara Hutton. In 1979, Versailles’ buildings and gardens were included in the newly created Register of Historic Monuments.

The city has given its name to two important treaties. In September 1783, the U.S., Great Britain, France and Spain signed the document that ended the American War of Independence. Over a century later, President Woodrow Wilson negotiated the conditions of “The Treaty of Peace between the Allied Powers and Germany” to end WW1. The ceremonial signing of the treaty took place in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace in June 1919.

Today, with 500 rooms open to the public (out of the original 1,300), the Versailles Palace is the third most visited site in France, after the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum. (www.chateauversailles.fr/en/)

(Reported by Fanny leJemtel Hostie, a writer specializing in tourism and economic development issues in France and the United States.)