The French have a lot of specific customs when it comes to preparing and eating their food. As it is a very important part of their day, they put a lot of effort into it. Many of them await their whole families to start their meals, some even have the elder members of the family, such as grandparents over most nights, to spend time as a family.

Christmas Eve we ate Oysters Rockefeller, foie gras (a gift from my husband’s parents), and salmon with a balsamic and bacon sauce. Christmas day was prime rib with traditional sides of green beans and carrots, spruced up and fancified. Surprise of the holiday: my dad tried the oysters. Then said he liked them. Then took a second helping, so I actually believed him. My family stayed away from the foie gras. My daughter, true to her French roots, took several servings of that.

California banned foie gras in 2012. Huge bummer for the French and Francophiles here. I fell in love with it during a trip to France in 2003, before I knew what it was. I was at a fancy wedding outside of Paris and a French friend tried to explain to me what it was, pointing at his abdomen and telling me it was “from right here, from a really big bird.” “An ostrich?” I asked, saying the first really big bird that came to mind. Not considering the likelihood of a traditional French delicacy coming from an African bird. “Yes, yes, this bird.” I found out later, between guffaws of ridiculing French laughter, that is was not an ostrich but a goose, and it was fatty liver. I also discovered how it is produced. Force feeding a goose with a funnel and a tool to pack the grain tightly and allow for more to be ingested. Horrible, awful, I know. But I’d already fallen in love with the dish. It’s so embarrassingly So Cal of me: “What? This lovely little rectangle of protein delicately topped with a port reduction sauce was once part of a living breathing being? That’s terrible, why do people do such things! Oh, the humanity!” pronounced between savoring bites. Like that scene in The New Normal (LOVING this show) where Bryan and Shania go to a turkey farm to get their turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, and when the farmer tells them to pick out their live turkey, Bryan says – no, no, I want one of those prepackaged ones in the back. You know, the one where I can’t tell it’s an animal.

Yes, I enjoy my meat with a dash of hypocrisy. I have so many vegetarian and vegan friends here in southern California that I’ve become self-conscious of my love for meat. One of the great things about having French dinner guests: I’ve never met a French vegetarian (though I hear they exist) and they are way less picky than my American friends. I have American friends with texture issues, color issues, vegetarian, vegan, on the caveman diet, on a fat free diet, avoiding anything white on weekdays, gluten intolerant (this one I empathize with: no pasta? No bread? Depressing)…. My French friends will eat most anything. Well, not crap like Cheetos or Twinkies. These horrify them. Me too, honestly.

Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas dinner turned out great, I think. Though I ended up spending way more time in the kitchen than I’d planned to. I love to cook, but I missed out on visiting with family and playing with the kids and their new toys (I like creating miniature villages for the choo choo train to pass through). It’s inevitable; the host will be in the kitchen when a meal must be served. I was trying new recipes so it was hard to figure out where people could help me. Plus, there’s, maybe, perhaps, the possibility that I’m a…  control freak in the kitchen. I like to think I’m closer to Martha Stewart organized and precise than kitchenzilla, but I don’t like to subject anyone to my brand of crazy, so when it’s a new recipe, I tend to go it alone. Next year I’m thinking a fancy Christmas Eve dinner, because I like fancy, then cheese fondue on Christmas. I picture a cold afternoon of sledding and hot chocolate, and then home for a hearty meal of bread, potatoes, and smoked meats smothered in Swiss cheeses. It’s an easy, quick, social meal. And really freaking delicious.

Snow, you ask? In Southern California?

That’s a question for another time.

Open-mindedness is the top reason why French people leave France and its narrow-minded froggies looking down at you in the tube, in the street or even at the supermarket. If you go to London, you will notice that despite an attempt to cook French food, the result is vain. If we can’t teach our neighbors how to cook, there is one thing they teach us : to be polite and the respect the rules.

Most French guys in their 20s want to live the British Dream, that is to say to get the perks from the UK labour market, much more flexible than France’s to find a job in one’s field, to have a beer after a harassing day of work with your pals and to go shopping on Sundays.

‘Sacrebleu’ (where did the Brits learn that so old and no-longer used expression that is a swear?) is one of the French words widely used by the British and they don’t even know the meaning of it. As a French, you will probably laugh when hearing this word from their mouth. Though, they perfectly know what they are telling you with the question ‘Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir?’ the first night you both meet at the pub. If a French guy would have asked you this you would have been so angry and thinking he is so rude but if it is said by one of Her Majesty’s, you will be seduced by their British accent at the minute they speak French, or at least trying to speak the language of Molière, and even more when you will catch ‘mon petit chou’ in the middle of a conversation.

There’s no need to worry about being a bad French speaker. Frenchies, even though they can speak English using more than two or three words are not to make an effort to lose their accent but are proud to exhibit it and to show they are French, this is what they call ‘French Pride’. We can’t help it if we are pride of where we are coming from and everyone should be. We have the best cheeses and wines ever, what’s the point denying it? It also can’t be denied that London is the best place to have a good time and to feel like belonging to its community after only a couple of weeks. Integration is not challenging since London is a dynamic and multicultural city where ’34 per cent of London’s resident population was born overseas’ according to the government.

1. Musée du Louvre

2. Musée d’Orsay

3. Eiffel Tower

4. Notre-Dame

5. Sacré-Coeur

6. Arc de Triomphe

7. Centre Georges Pompidou

8. Pantéon

9. Sainte-Chapelle

10. Hôtel des Invalides.

While this is a really good start and I do plan to visit all of those places, they’re very touristy. I also want to see a lot of the hidden places that are only known to locals.

The book also offers a few day plans in different areas of the city and lists of 10 major things to do/places to go in each quarter. It is overall a very handy guidebook.

After reading, I realized how hungry I was. For breakfast I went out half a block from my apartment to the bakery to buy some bread. I got a baguette just because it’s the Parisian thing to do. It was delicious! The man who works at the bakery was very friendly. When I paid for my baguette, he gladly exchanged my bills to coins which I will need to purchase packs of 10 metro tickets. I think he and I will become good friends in the next few months. Again, I’m happy that the stereotype of mean and arrogant French people is not always true.

 A few things I will still need to do:

1. find the least expensive way to pay for public transport (carte NAVIGO?)

2. purchase an unlocked phone and sign up for a phone plan with FREE

3. open a French bank account

4. get my student ID card

5. get groceries and some other things for the apartment

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The Red King’s 2013 Oscar Predictions

BEST PICTURE

Amour: Always good to toss in a Foreign Film in the best picture category just for show. Not a chance in hell.

Argo: An unexpected surprise like Bigelow and Hurt Locker 2009, but without an ounce of controversy. Enough powerhouse movies in the mix to diminish each other to the point where will probably sneak in Best Picture.

Beasts of the Southern Wild: Some films just get nominated for Best Picture just to show that Hollywood is not completely a cold a cruel bitch, and still retains some elements which are warm, fuzzy, and cuddly.

Django Unchained: Too Controversial. Polar Opposite of the Help. Everything that helped the Help win Oscars is going to hurt this film’s chance for Best Picture.

Les Miserables:

Life of Pi: Same as Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Lincoln: Spielberg and Daniel Day Lewis combo? Too predictable. Predictable is another word for boring.

Silver Linings Playbook: Lots of Nominations, maybe one or two wins, definitely not Best Picture.

Zero Dark Thirty: Whatever. Even with Osama Bin Laden’s being the focus of this movie Kathryn Bigelow should be severely chastised for jumping into such a similar project to her Oscar winning film Hurt Locker. No matter how you cut it, her trying to recapture Oscar gold with a similar project smacks of the amateurish.

BEST ACTOR

Bradley Cooper, “Silver Linings Playbook”   BwahhaHA!

Daniel Day-Lewis, “Lincoln”  Too Many Oscars Syndrome.

Denzel Washington, “Flight”  Suffers from the much rarer African American version of the same thing which knocks Daniel Day Lewis out of the running for Best Actor.

Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables” Last Man Standing wins Best Actor<-–Anne Hathaway won Oscar means Hugh Jackman won’t win

 

Joaquin Phoenix, “The Master” Don’t mess with Scientology. Especially if you want to win an Oscar.

BEST ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain, “Zero Dark Thirty” Not Jessica’s fault Kathryn Bigelow has amateurish tendencies when it comes to picking film projects. Giving her this award says good film without directly rewarding Bigelow.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Alan Arkin, “Argo” Hollywood loves rewarding actors playing funny and lovable Hollywood.

Christoph Waltz, “Django Unchained” Nope. Lightning seldom strikes twice in such a similar way. That would be boring.  Not to mention Christoph, do you really want evil looks from Samuel L. Jackson for the rest of your life?  The man has practically made a career of shooting people evil looks. WINNER!

Somebody pan the camera at Samuel L. Jackson:

Philip Seymour Hoffman, “The Master” Don’t mess with Scientology. Especially if you want to win an Oscar.

Robert De Niro, “Silver Linings Playbook” Afflicted with the lesser Nominated for Too Many Oscars Syndrome.

Tommy Lee Jones, “Lincoln” Afflicted with the lesser Nominated for Too Many Oscars Syndrome

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Anne Hathaway, “Les Miserables” Maybe if Hugh Jackman wasn’t picked…WINNER!

Sally Field, “Lincoln” Too many Oscars, too many Nominations. Maybe if Daniel Day Lewis wasn’t nominated.

Helen Hunt, “The Sessions”

Jacki Weaver, “Silver Linings Playbook” We have a winner based on the Last Man Standing Principle.

Amy Adams, “The Master” Don’t mess with Scientology.  Especially if you want to win an Oscar.

BEST DIRECTOR

Steven Spielberg, “Lincoln” Sometimes the Oscar is given to exactly who you would expect it to go to.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

“Django Unchained” Tarantino has got to win something, otherwise the Oscars suddenly lose their hip and cool to have status

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

“Argo” or“Silver Linings Playbook” 

Best Animated Film

Brave Winner!

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

“Amour” Nominated for Best Picture, nothing else needs to be said.WINNER!

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

“Life of Pi” Winner!

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

“Les Miserables” Winner!

“Anna Karenina” Winner

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” Winner!

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

“Life of Pi” Winner!

One really feels for the French people. Their Socialist government is driving the wealthy and entrepreneurs out of France by instituting crazy policies that make it far too expensive to remain French tax payers.

Now a senior minister blames the media for reporting on what is actually happening as a result of the tax regime he has helped introduce.

Pierre Moscovici, France’s economy minister, also hit out in November at “Le French bashing” after media warnings that his government’s policies were sending the country’s highest earners fleeing abroad.

Taking particular umbrage to the Economist describing France as “the time bomb at the heart of Europe,” he told business leaders in Paris: “I lament attacks on the government’s economic policies that are in vogue in France and abroad. All this French-bashing is terrible.”

If you tax excessively within Europe, where people and capital flow freely across boarders, those excessively taxed will leave. M Moscovici should understand this is reality, not some anti-French plot.

This film has been top of my list for about the same length of time, followed closely by City of God, which effectively changed my life (maybe I’ll write about that at a later date if there’s any interest. I doubt there will be). It was criminally underrated at the time of release, and although it seems to have a decent following now, including a whopping 8.5/10 on IMDB, the lack of distinguished awards is a real disappointment.

I think I can make out Charles Darwin in this cloud.

The film? Amélie, or if we’re being pedantic, Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain, which, as I’m an expert linguist, translates roughly as Amélie of the Jungle 2: Judgement Day: Die Hardest.

Plot Synopsis: In essence the story is about a beautiful young French girl (yes that is a thing that exists apparently… yeah I know…) with an even more beautiful mind (no, I’m not taking the piss now) who goes on an adventure to create exciting new adventures for others to improve their lives. In turn, the narrative ends up as a wonderful weaving story which affects nearly every character in the film. Finally, she finds her own adventure inside a photo booth in the train station and is determined to solve the mystery.

Best Moment: Literally impossible to pick. The scene where Amélie leads the blind man through the marketplace, narrating the journey the entire way is one of my favourite scenes of all time in any film, but there are so many great moments that it’s incredibly difficult to pick out just one. The comeuppance of Collingnon, who’s a vile person to his assistant on the stall, the intrigue behind the photos at the station, the homage to the French New Wave in the cinema scene and at the same time an insight into the character – “But I hate it in old movies when drivers don’t watch the road.” and, of course, the perfectly-fitting soundtrack throughout the film which sets the scene to a level I’ve not seen replicated.

“I hate it when people don’t shut the fuck up in the cinema”

Worst Moment: The crushing moment near the end when it feels like all of Amélie’s complete and utter devotion to the mystery have been in vain.

So, how many Walrus points do you give it? As many as the scale dictates, and as it’s my own Walrusometer, I’m capping that at 10,000. It gets 10,000. The lowest rating will be -8446, because this system is now going to be an internationally recognised film critic ratings system (the Walrus has spoken).

If you haven’t seen this film, I can’t recommend it enough and if you’re one of those people who “doesn’t want to read a film” – fuck off. Just fuck off. Go back to watching your Michael Bay films and get off of my blog. No big shiny explosions here except maybe in my alliterated animals section.

The reason this film is so amazing from a personal perspective is the character development. The characters don’t just have an arc and motivation each, they have their own personalities which build so incredibly quickly to the point where you feel like you almost know them. The characters all change for the positive having met Amélie, and considering how short the film is, it’s quite an incredible achievement. I know many entire TV series that haven’t been able to hit the nail on the head like this. It’s something that Jeunet has always been good at, but never replicated to that degree in any of his other films. Speaking of his other films, avoid A Very Long Engagement, it’s the equivalent of a 2 hour train ride to Luton in the pouring rain. At night. In the winter. With someone staring at you for the entire journey. You know it’s going somewhere, but you haven’t got a clue where you are until you get there, and then you’re massively disappointed.

Now that I’ve made myself want to watch Amélie again 10 times in a row, I best move on.

Fun fact of the day: Vanilla is a flavouring derived from the orchids of the genus Vanilla. Well sure, we all knew that already… but did you know that the word is taken from the Spanish word vaina, which means “sheath” or “pod”? It literally translates as ‘little pod’, which doesn’t really make sense when you have vanilla ice cream. Something worth thinking about I guess.

Finally, the animal of the day was chosen by me, as I don’t yet have enough of a following to have recommendations sent to me. Today’s animal is the Executive Eagle:

I’m quite enjoying this, so I might make it more often than once a day. I don’t even care if anyone’s reading anymore, it’s good to write/create art.

Hope everyone has a great day, spend it watching Amélie.

The Walrus has spoken.

It’s 2013!  Where oh where did last year go?  As I mentioned in my last post, I celebrated New Years Eve in Dubai and what a celebration it was!  Here you can see two of the photos I took from the night.  Burj Khalifa was lit like a giant christmas tree as we were stunned with a crazy firework display that left us utterly speechless.  Being slightly far away from the action however meant that we couldn’t hear the countdown and I have to say that this has created somewhat of an internal confusion for me.  How can you get closure on the year before and start a new year without a countdown?  It turns out the innocent 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1… is a powerful symbol and a marker of time that has more significance that i ever imagined. And so I have felt like i am floating in limbo ever since, lost between the worlds of 2012 and 2013 like a nomad walking through one big hazy blur.  It’s a strange feeling because it doesn’t feel like a new year and I am struggling to cope with this emotion.

Nonetheless, it IS 2013 and with that comes a new responsibility towards new resolutions and boy do I have some big ones for 2013.  In no particular order, I want to:

1. Discover at least 10 new places this year (last year it was 2.  i have had to up the stakes here considerably given i want to take full advantage of being in Europe!)
2. Follow the Paleo Diet strictly for at least 3 months.  (i am going back to my caveman roots with this modern nutritional plan based on foods consumed during the Paleolithic era.  No grains.  No sugar.  No dairy.  No preservatives.  GULP)
3. Get back on the exercise wagon with the aim of getting to minimum body fat by Dec 2013 (its been 2 years of nothing, im toast)
4. Improve my French with the goal of watching a French movie without subtitles by July 2013 (am i being too ambitious?)
5. Do something BIG for someone i dont know (not sure who or what but i’ll figure it out along the way)

So there you have it.  I am leaving it at just 5 because i think this is an extremely ambitious list if very short.  As always, fitness and diet make a big presence.  Number 2 will be a particular challenge while living in Paris.  I am surrounded by temptation every day but I’ve decided this is something i WANT to do.  My body is in need of a major detox and I am going to see this through starting January 14th… for some weight loss but mainly to feel healthy, light, more energetic, less tired and fit.

Why January 14th…well dear readers, although I returned to Paris only yesterday, today I am embarking on another new adventure which will in fact allow me to tackle points 1 and 4 above.  This afternoon I head down to Pau, a city in the Southwest of France.  It is 100 km from the Atlantic Ocean and 50 km from the Pyrenees. Spain is just 50 km away in a straight line.  Apparently it is topographically beautiful, especially in the summertime and is well known for its nearby ski resorts in the winter.  More importantly, it is in Basque Country so it is even more famous for its food.  I have been instructed by several people to fully indulge.  I’m not sure about “fully”, but ive decided that food is part of any cultural discovery and so the reigns will be tightened once I’m back.

Why Pau you may be wondering…well, my company is sending me there to live with a French family I have never seen or met before in an effort to fully “immerse” me in the French language and culture.  Talk about pressure!  I am a little anxious but mostly very excited about what’s to come.  I will be in Pau until next Sunday so I will do my best to keep you posted on my adventures!  Until then, wish me luck!  As of this evening, I will not be allowed to speak anything but French so it will be a very interesting week to say the least!  How I will share my adventures with you is yet to be determined…maybe I can sneak in some English for my readers! ( ;  Stay tuned…

This morning, unlike yesterday, I went outside. The streets were empty because it was New Years Day. There was a bottle of Veuve Cliquot left on someone’s windowsill, I assume from the festivities last night. It was empty.

The sun came out for about five seconds, which made me happy. ^Swings for kids, part of Christmas decorations in the center of Niort. Swings were happy too.

The cafe where I was going to write, shown above, was closed, so I continued on a walk which kept me from my work for at least five more hours. Not counting the hours I was lost.

^I went into the big market for the first time. I didn’t buy anything, but I said Bonjour to two people. My New Years resolution of talking to strangers more seems to be coming along nicely.

As I left the market. ^

^Two colors I love together.

^I found this Museum very dramatic, and tried for a superfluity of drama with these fine drippy branches.

^Trees that love buildings that love trees.

^I didn’t plan on searching out Notre Dame de Niort, but was lead to it by the strange hollow singing, which will get me into any church. I loitered and almost went in, but got scared. I even opened the door and saw someone doing something with incense which greatly interested me, but I felt shy, and even more like a heathen than I normally do. So I stayed outside and watched the very old people walk out. I hadn’t seen very old people in a long time, and I was glad to see that they were still around.

^The blue sky picked up a little speed here, as noted by the puddles, but it didn’t last for long. I think the puddles were pretty broken up about it.

^I got more lost.  It’s okay. Getting lost is the only thing that makes me brave enough to talk to French people.

^Still lost, I found the old market building. It dates back to practically forever. Funny how they keep these things around.

^Decided to follow the river. It seemed to like the attention.

^ A view of part of Niort.

^I took the secret way home.

So [Jew Jean-Marc] Krief was dismayed to learn that government officials in southern France were stripping the Marseille branch of the Jewish sports association of longstanding state subsidies because of its “religious affiliations,” as one official put it.

Krief, who met his wife 10 years ago on a hiking trip organized by Maccabi Marseille, says the association’s local branch used to receive about $3,000 annually from the regional government. After several inquiries, he was told that to preserve its funding, the organization would have to include non-Jews on its board. [...]

French Jewish organizations have long relied on public assistance to finance their core operations.

via In southern France, Jews paying a price for the government’s effort to curb extremism.

Related articles

• Jewish “conservatives” urge Obama to open the borders

Via The Telegraph: My snarkiness in RED ITALICS

France’s prime minister has slammed wealthy citizens fleeing the country’s punitive tax on high incomes as greedy profiteers seeking to “become even richer”. (Quelle horreur!)

Jean-Marc Ayrault‘s outburst came after France’s best-known actor, Gerard Dépardieu, took up legal residence in a small village just over the border in Belgium, alongside hundreds of other wealthy French nationals seeking lower taxes. (They are stinking, greedy pig-dogs!!)

“Those who are seeking exile abroad are not those who are scared of becoming poor,” the prime minister declared after unveiling sweeping anti-poverty measures to help those hit by the economic crisis.

These individuals are leaving “because they want to get even richer,” he said. “We cannot fight poverty if those with the most, and sometimes with a lot, do not show solidarity and a bit of generosity,” he added. (If we can’t take their money, how will we redistribute? Cut spending? Quelle horreur!)

Not a whole lot to say.

What they expected was that those who had gone along with sacrificing the well-being of others all along, in a Leftist effort to build a more “egalitarian” society would submit willingly when their turn came up.

In America, Democrat Party Boss Barry Obama & his cronies operate the same way and call it, “Economic Patriotism”. We should be so brave as Dépardieu. Oh wait, we have the Tea Party. We don’t need to leave to some other country, we just need to take OUR COUNTRY BACK.

UPDATE: As of Wednesday, 12/19/12, Gerard Dépardieu has renounced his French Citizenship. He has arrived at the conclusion of many of the protagonists in Ayn Rand‘s “Atlas Shrugged” that being a willing sacrifice for an abhorrent cause is no virtue.

Obama, Reid, Pelosi and the Democrat Party are trying to replicate the French experiment, bleeding the rich dry as much as they can, compounding it with it a populace that is horrifyingly addicted to entitlements and as dependent as the Greeks.

The outcome can only be disastrous.

Making the Rich Flee

Sheesh! Successful people in France are getting a lot of grief lately.

As it goes, socialist French President François Hollande has raised the tax rate on those earning more than $1.3 million to 75 percent.

Daryl Cagle / Cagle Cartoons

Hollande has decided that $1.3 million is enough for the rich to be rich and they only need to keep 25 percent of their earnings beyond that.

The rich, however, are telling Hollande to pound salt. According to many reports, French actor Gerard Depardieu has put his home in France on the market and set up residence in a small village in neighboring Belgium.

Belgium’s tax rate for those as rich as Depardieu is still high at 50 percent, but even an English major like me knows that rate is 25 percent less than the rate France is demanding.

Besides, says the U.K. newspaper The Telegraph, Belgium doesn’t impose wealth taxes on citizens or capital gains taxes on private fortunes, as France does — thus, 2,800 well-to-do French people have chose to reside there.

Hollande’s high taxes are producing tremendous economic activity, however — in French real estate. Listings of the homes of the well-to-do, which hardly ever go on the market, have soared — and the value of those homes has dropped.

Hollande has a real mess on his hands. According to The Economist, France is the next ticking time bomb. Its government is spending far more than it is taking in — France’s debt has grown from 22 percent to 90 percent of GDP in the last 20 years. Its economy is stalled. Business investment is way down.

“French firms are burdened by overly rigid labor- and product-market regulation, exceptionally high taxes and the euro zone’s heaviest social charges on payrolls,” says The Economist. “Over 10 percent of the workforce, and over 25 percent of the young, are jobless. The external current-account deficit has swung from a small surplus in 1999 into one of the euro zone’s biggest deficits. In short, too many of France’s firms are uncompetitive and the country’s bloated government is living beyond its means.”

Who do the French think they are? Americans?

Because much like the United States, France is out to “get” its most successful citizens — even though doing so will do very little to balance the books, but will happily contribute to further hobbling the economy.

Hollande’s 75-percent tax rate is expected to bring in 200 million euros, about $261 million — a drop in the bucket — and that assumes any of the rich stick around to pay it.

Many of the rich are voting with their feet. They are moving to lower-tax regions and countries. This has really upset French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, who said such moves are pathetic and unpatriotic.

Au contraire, Jean-Marc! What is unpatriotic is to divide your people — to pit rich against poor. What is unpatriotic is to assume that you, through the levers of government power, have the right to take the lion’s share of what one person has earned and give it to many others who haven’t, so those others will vote for you in the next election.

Who do you think you are? President Barack Obama?

But c’est la vie! It is an old story of political and government avarice.

Sooner or later, you can no longer borrow or take enough of other people’s money and the entire government apparatus falls under its own weight.

We have yet to learn this lesson in America, which is why so many fools keep voting for more spending.

Now America is fast headed the way of France. How long will it be before taxes on the rich are increased to 75 percent here?

 Cagle Post – Political Cartoons & Commentary – » Making the Rich Flee.

Related articles

• Gerard Depardieu Goes John Galt (cato.org)
• Depardieu wants to surrender French passport (metronews.ca)
• Asterix, Obelix Leave France Amid Hollande’s Taxes on Wealthy – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
• Gerard Depardieu branded ‘pathetic’ by French PM for moving to Belgium to avoid wealth tax (independent.ie)
• France, The Wealthy & Taxes – “When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.” (worldviewtonight.com)
• French Industrial Output Declines Unexpectedly (sweetness-light.com)
• French Prime Minister Launches Tirade At Wealthy Fleeing Country Over High Taxes (patdollard.com)
• Gerard Depardieu leaves Hollande’s tax hikes behind as he moves to Belgium (telegraph.co.uk)
• France prime minister slams wealthy citizens fleeing country over taxes… (telegraph.co.uk)
• France Taxes Gerard Depardieu out of the Country (gilescadman.vg)

The new French socialist regime has done its best to introduce policies that drive the wealthy and the high income earners out of the country. Gerard Depardieu is one of the few to have been publicly attacked by the socialists who’s crazy policies have forced talented people to leave France.

Gérard Depardieu has said he is handing back his French passport and social security card, lambasting the French government for punishing “success, creation, talent” in his homeland.

A popular and colourful figure in France, the 63-year-old actor is the latest wealthy Frenchman to seek shelter outside his native country by buying a house just over the border in Belgium in response to tax increases by the Socialist president, François Hollande.

The prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, described Depardieu’s behaviour as pathetic and unpatriotic at a time when the French are being asked to pay higher taxes to reduce a bloated national debt.

“Pathetic, you said pathetic? How pathetic is that?” Depardieu said in a letter to the weekly newspaper le Journal du Dimanche.

“I am leaving because you believe that success, creation, talent, anything different must be sanctioned,” he said.

The publicity around M Depardieu cannot be good for M Hollande’s government. Examples of high profile Frenchmen leaving due to the socialists tax regime will not go down well with many in France. When the results of the punitive tax regime show a fall in tax revenue, M Hollande will have a lot of explaining to do.

Watching: Cupcake Wars. This show is amazing. All the cupcakes are so pretty and dang complicated! I’m seriously in awe of these women right now. There is no way in hell that I would be able to do anything close to what they’ve created, not if I had all the time in the world. They had seventy-five minutes to create three different types of cupcakes and have them looking amazing. As far as I can tell, everyone has done pretty damn well but what can I say? I’m just a little girl from New Zealand and all cupcakes look good to me. Give me a good blueberry cupcake and I would probably be your best friend for life. That’s a big commitment people ;]

Working on: My Christmas shopping! I have nine days to get all of it done. I have lists and budgets and ideas everywhere. On word documents. On scraps of paper. On my laptop’s desktop. On my phone’s notepad. Evidence on receipts scattered throughout my car. Tomorrow I’m going into town before my orthodontist appointment to get more of it done. I’m shopping for stuff I won’t be tempted to consume, like giant wine glasses and jewelry. Exciting stuff, yes? :]

Thinking about: See above ^^^ Christmas is really taking over my brain lately. I don’t know if I’m more excited about the food, the champagne, giving the gifts or the absolute sense of family I have during this time.

Listening to: ‘Upside Down‘ by Paloma Faith. The French people introduced me to this song and I have fallen in love with it. This song has been playing over and over. Just ask my sister, she knows ;]

Eating: The birthday pancakes! I wasn’t in the mood to make pancakes from scratch this morning so I drove down to the store {lazy, I know} and I got all the things that you need to make awesome pancakes…Like the pre-made pancake mix. Just add water to the bottle and shake for a minute {or three} until the lumps have disappeared. Lies. I shook the shit out of that bottle and there were still lumps when I poured it into the pan. Well, that’s the last time I’m using that mix >.< At least the pancakes tasted good.

Anticipating: Going back to the beach! I know I’ve told people “I won’t miss the beach when I’m gone” but I actually do. So much. How crazy is that? The closer and closer my moving date comes, the less and less I want to leave. I don’t know if it’s because of the people staying at my house or because I’ve become accustomed to the beach but whatever it is, I don’t really want to leave it. Not yet. Good thing I have the whole summer to bask in the beautiful glow of the beach and it’s people. It’s officially nine days until Christmas, ten days until the amazing sales hit the stores and fifteen days until New Years Eve! I cannot wait!

Wishing: I had an ice-cold beer to drink, preferably a Waikato. I’ve been craving one so bad, ever since I got to this tiny town. Alas, I couldn’t have one because I was so crazy-busy with catering buuuuuuuuuuuut that shit is over now so hooray! Bring on the beer drinking! It’s summer-time. I’m allowed. I could drink all day if I wanted to and no one would think twice about it. Is it unhealthy? Yes, of course. Is it unacceptable in summer? No, of course not. Bring on the beer.

Many girls register at the dating websites hoping to meet someone to marry. In their dreams they see the wealthy Eastern man as Aladdin from a fairy tale who is handsome, caring and always ready to make her every single wish come true. The reality is far less sweet than it may seem. The Western girls are often amazed by their eastern boyfriends as the last search for their beloved attention in a very beautiful way. But the girls are commonly unaware that such actions f their new boyfriends are the result of their traditional views. According to Muslim tradition a man should literally pile his girlfriend up with expensive presents such as golden rings with diamonds, cars, gorgeous garments and crocodile leather bags. But as soon as the young couple gets married the girl gets disappointed with the sudden changes of her husband’s behavior. She supposes that her husband has deceived her as his words were completely different during their dating period. Finally she found herself in a total slavery which is accepted as the normal and even happy life by the Eastern women.

The European woman who traveled to Japan as she was a young girl was terrified by the methods of children upbringing in that country. The Japanese girls are supposed to be the finest and the most expensive… decoration of their husbands’ houses. Since the earliest childhood the Japanese girls are to endure excruciating pains, hunger and depression. If a little girls cries because the hair pins hurt while she is sleeping or the hunger pains make her belly shrink she is told that there is always the way out. The little child is allowed to commit a suicide. Committing a suicide is supposed to be a great honor and an act of bravery in Japan. But the most embarrassing thing that astonished the European woman was the fact that the Japanese wives have to flush their toilet endlessly in order not to be heard while urinating. Of course that social demands seen barbaric to the modern European emancipated women but the Japanese women suppose them to be quite OK.

The European men who are eager to marry a Russian or Ukrainian woman as they suppose the last to be modest and non-demanding. But the reality doesn’t meet their expectations. The Frenchman who married a Russian woman was surprised when he saw her dressing up tasteless and tacky. She refused to learn French or at least English though she promised her husband to entertain his colleagues with a nice small talk. The modest nice Russian Cinderella turned out to be much more like one of her sisters.

 I’ve had wonderful response to these sketches, so I’ve looked at doing a print series. Prints now available.  Merci beaucoup.

Double page sketch spread

French Living Magazine

The Summer issue is out. It’s not snowing here in Australia, but might be in France – which is the whole focus of this gorgeous mag – for Australians.

It’s quite new so I’m keen to support the publishers. It’s like shopping at your local stores where it’s a nicer more neighbourly experience.

I feel like that here in French Living. I see many people I know, writing articles or advertising like me – feels like a neighbourhood already.

Check out the property section if you’d like to purchase in France and there’s a lovely article about a couple who have and are loving it. Do look for my ad and tell me what you think.

©ErinHill2012

I couldn’t contain myself. Laughter overtook me before I really knew what was happening and I know it’s not the first time that’s happened. One night my sister called the campground complaining because the baby peed on her bedroom floor. Boy oh boy, I am glad that I don’t live in that house anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I love coming to stay but I always find a little comfort in knowing that I can leave whenever I want to.

I’m only staying for one night though because I have a week of {almost} back-to-back catering work to do. Tomorrow {Wednesday} I am prepping for a breakfast and dinner. Thursday I am catering for said breakfast and dinner, in the same day. Shit’s gonna get crazy. Friday I will be frantically washing dishes and prepping for a Christmas dinner at a hospital. Friday night I will be catering at the hospital. Saturday I will be cleaning and prepping for another catering job. Saturday night I will be working in a farm shed {woohoo, my life} and then I’ll be dropped back at my little sister’s house. Sunday is my sister’s birthday {she’s turning seventeen} so we’re having a day off to rest and celebrate! :]

At the moment I haven’t managed to get her a birthday present {I know, I’m awful} because I’ve been so busy and trapped at the campground that I couldn’t leave. I’ve had to look after the shop, run the campground, cook for six people and somehow keep the house clean and running throughout the day. Any single parent that can do this definitely has my respect. Cooking and cleaning up after five other people {three of whom can’t speak fluent English} is very, very hard. Every day is like a game of charades. Every night is accompanied by alcohol, secret cuddles and sex.

Life has been pretty damn good. It has been fun and games. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall the way ;]

This post is basically a little update of what I’ve been up to {cooking, cleaning, cooking, drinking, cleaning} lately and what I’m going to be doing for the next week or so. Hopefully sometime during the week I’ll be able to buy my sister’s present. It’s basically just going to be a box of her favorite food stuff: Lift, Iced Animal biscuits, feijoa candy, red licorice and maybe a colorful nail polish or a six-pack of alcoholic shots. Just something small{ish} for her birthday. For Christmas I’m buying her a Unicorn Pillow Pet and some other stuff. A unicorn may sound odd but ever since she was four or five years old she has wanted a unicorn so I’m finally getting her one!

For the next week or so I’m not really going to have complete access to the internet. Yes, I’ll be staying at my grandparent’s house but I can’t sit on their computer into all hours of the night, tapping away on the keyboard. Plus, I really don’t think I’m going to have the energy with all the {mass} cooking and cleaning I’m going to be doing. So, sorry for the sporadic blog posts I’ve been writing but I’ve been having a lot of fun. Almost too much ;]

Because, in a sense they have a point. I mean, I find the French colder than Americans, but they do have a good point in that we engage in that very superficial kind of greeting very often.

But here’s a secret about me: Even if I just wave and say hello to my friends. I would hardly hesitate to do anything for them. It doesn’t matter what they need, what they have done, or even how they have treated me. I might be individual in that. But I actually do believe in love. In honesty. In helping other people. In forgiveness. And maybe that causes me pain sometimes, but that is when I turn to friends who will do the same for me. For those I count my friends, and they are many, I will say that I will always love them and listen to them.

But distant. No. Perhaps in the sense that we are far, that we don’t just engage in familiar conversation. But when I say “hello, how are you?” It’s an invitation. And that’s where us Americans get the completely opposite stereotype of being welcoming as well. Because, well. We are.

Zee quickest way to get us up zee mountain is to tell us zee Germans are at the bottom!

I do know one thing though: British peeps are hilarious! Nothing is as wonderful as British sense of humor and this book had some good examples. I love dry wit and they’re masters when it comes to it. I’m truly hoping that I meet some Limey’s on my journey. I’d love to climb to the top with a few. I’m of the belief that one can never have enough British friends; although, if I am perfectly honest, I really only have one. Even the one I have isn’t a “real” friend. His name is Martin and he is a Facebook friend. I’m not even sure how I got him, really. One day we just realized we were on one another’s FB list but couldn’t figure out how. The common link is music: We both love the same bands so my theory is that the New Wave gods somehow put us together. Anyway, the point is, I’d love to have some British friends that I’ve actually met in person. Conversely, my nightmare is getting linked up with a group of French people or worse yet, French Canadians. Not sure I can handle 8 days of contemptuous, chain smoking, jack wagons who have a collective disdain for deodorant. I’d rather die of altitude sickness. ;

These!

Not These!

In other news, my gaiters came in the mail! They seem nice. I’ve yet to try them on to see if they fit. I will say that, after going to REI and seeing a pair of Gore-tex gaiters, I’m a little disappointed I opted for a cheaper version. That’s just the gear geek in me though. The truth is, aside from Dolly Sods (where the boggy terrain is perfect for gaiters), I probably won’t use them much after I return from Kili. I bought Outdoor Research Verglas, which were highly rated, and I am confident they will be all that I need (and then some). I’m hoping we get snow soon and I can try them out! I will keep everyone (haha..I said “everyone” as if ANYONE is ACTUALLY reading this) posted on them. The one person who IS reading this is undoubtedly perched on the edge of their seat to hear my gear updates!

Bubba better not shoot my pup!

My Dragon’s Tooth climb for this weekend is cancelled. Ross has other plans. I’ll find something else to do. I’m pondering Tinker Mountain on Saturday. It’s a good leg stretcher but the problem with the woods right now are the hunters! I don’t worry about myself but I do worry some stupid redneck will mistake my pup for a deer and shoot. I’d hate to miss my climb because I’m in prison for avenging my doggie!