What is the media reporting on France lately? Every week I tour the news of France for you. Here is what caught my attention this week:
- What Not To Wear — by French Law! The French parliament passed a law Tuesday prohibiting wearing a full-face veil in public.
- French prostest of the week: Two groups – Versailles Mon Amour and the Coordination for the Defence of Versailles – have organized a resistance to the opening on Tuesday of the exhibition of works by Japanese Pop artist Takashi Murakami at the venerable Chateau of Versailles. They argue that mangas of big-bosomed French maids or Pepsi-guzzling monsters have no place in the Sun King’s Palace… Perhaps. But check out this picture gallery! Both Versailles and Murakami’s mangas are over the top works of arts and the contrast between the fun and colorful modernity of the Japanese artist’s work and the ornate yet traditional grandiosity of Versailles is what makes this exhibition worth seeing!
- Sarkozy is fighting with everyone over his government’s policies of dismanteling illegal Roma camps. This week, he clashed with top EU officials including a “very lively” and “very harsh” argument with José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission as well as with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
- Meanwhile his wife is trying NOT to get into a fight with her American counterpart. A new biography of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy claims that Michelle Obama and her talked about their lives as First Ladies, with Carla complaining that she dislikes the atmosphere and constraints of life at the Elysée Palace and Michelle suggesting that she feels the same way about her role at the White House, going as fgar as saying: “Don’t ask, it’s hell, I can’t stand it.” So far, everyone from the White House to the French Governement is denying the comments. Everyone except the author bien sur.
- All this news does not seem to trouble the Brits, and France’s popularity is soaring across the channel. At least for Brits looking to become overseas property owner. Cocorico!
Any newsworthy French story you think should I have the cut?
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