France Travel News 10/12/2010

Courtesy of the state, French women seem to have it all: multiple children, a job and, often, a figure to die for. What they don’t have is equality: France ranks 46th in the World Economic Forum’s 2010 gender equality report, trailing the United States, most of Europe, but also Kazakhstan and Jamaica. Eighty-two percent of French women aged 25-49 work, many of them full-time, but 82 percent of parliamentary seats are occupied by men. French women earn 26 percent less than men but spend twice as much time on domestic tasks. They have the most babies in Europe, but are also the biggest consumers of anti-depressants.

Marcel Lapierre, a Beaujolais grower and producer who played a leading role in rejuvenating the diminished reputation of the region’s wines, died Sunday in Lyon, France. He was 60.

Kristin Scott Thomas: Avoids typecasting.

Kristin Scott Thomas: Avoids typecasting.
Photograph by: Adrian Vaczan, Reuters, Reuters

Just after turning 50, Kristin Scott Thomas sometimes feels ignored, even though on screen she has managed to avoid the pitfalls of an aging female actor unable to nab complex roles. The British actor largely credits French cinema and society as embracing women as they age, as seen in in her new French film, Leaving, which has just opened in some U.S. theatres. In it, she portrays a repressed married woman who embarks on an all-consuming affair.

THE manager of cyclist Bernhard Kohl – who shared the Tour de France winners podium with Cadel Evans in 2008 – has been jailed over blood doping offences. Stefan Matschiner, 35, was sentenced to 15 months in prison – 14 of which are conditional – over offences concerning the retired Austrian cyclist Kohl to for blood doping and selling doping products.

Less than four years after the creation of the news channel, which broadcasts in French, English and Arabic, FRANCE 24 is the first French TV network to provide a 24/7 news service entirely in Arabic. The Arabic service began in April 2007, broadcasting for four hours a day, which was increased to 10 hours a day in April 2009. Although the service is aimed primarily at viewers in the Middle East and North Africa, the Arabic service is available throughout France on of all the main cable service providers from Tuesday.

France’s ambassador to Cambodia, Jean-François Desmazières, has told Prime Minister Hun Sen that he supports an Air France plan to resume direct flights to the Kingdom. This will end a 35-year hiatus on the connection.

The confrontation between the French government and unions over plans to reform the pension system intensified on Tuesday as transport and energy workers, teachers and civil servants went on strike across the country.

The Ambassador of France to the United States, Pierre Vimont, will visit North Carolina to meet with elected officials and business leaders to explore new opportunities of cooperation with France. Vimont first meet with Gov. Perdue in Raleigh and then travel tomorrow to Charlotte to give a talk on trade relations between France and the United States. The talk is being sponsored by the French-American Chamber of Commerce of North Carolina and the Alliance Française of Charlotte.

Verane Brissaud, marketing communications manager at Air France KLM in the UK and Ireland, said: "Air France wanted to reaffirm our position as the most stylish and convenient way to travel, and encourage consumers to rediscover the brand and product. "We are expanding our marketing activity to encompass a premium tie-up with the UK’s most powerful hairdressing brand. Toni & Guy salons provide us with access to more than 500,000 style-conscious ABC1 females – a primary target audience for Air France."

Apparently, in France you can't algorithmically link a convicted sex offender with the term rape, until all of his appeals have been exhausted.
The Telegraph reports that a French man who has been convicted of the "corruption of a minor" found that when he typed his name into the search engine, suggested terms such as "rape", "rapist", and "satanist" automatically popped up as well.
But since he is currently appealing his conviction–and French law declares individuals innocent until all appeals are exhausted–the Superior Court of Paris found Google guilty of publicly slandering the man.

French politician Rachida Dati has apologized for saying in a radio interview yesterday, that overseas investment funds are, "looking for returns of 20 or 25%, at a time when fellatio is almost non-existent." In French "fellatio" and "inflation" sound similar. D'OH!