June 2010

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For those of us who are old and fuddy-duddy, education stopped in the 1970's. France 2's evening News revealed a particularly unpleasant aspect of the advent of trendy ideas in schools. In France, no effort is made - according to this article - to encourage school children to love French literature. Instead it is taught as a sterile science. Now that shocks me. I hope it shocks you.

When I listened to this documentary on Toute l'histoire, I thought it was a straightforward level-2. Not so. When I came to transcribe it many sections gave me a lot of trouble. Good piece on the end of French colonisation, though.

And here's another quite difficult extract - predictably because these grand old people who joined De Gaulle in London in 1940 speak as old people do. I found this programme on Les Français libres fascinating and moving. As often, in documentaries which praise the English during the second war, the picture painted of us is a little too rosy. These young French officers were looked after by upper-middle class families, and the girls were delighted to spend time with dashing young Frenchman. When they returned to France, the contrast must have been striking. But there was pettiness, and cheating over here too, at that time

Good ol' Comment c'est fait, introduces us to the world of artificial leather-making. Not the most riveting of subjects, but as always, some new vocabulary.

TF1 evening news had a go at the thorny question (in France) of the Muslim burqa - the complete veil. The French want to ban it. The piece continues with a piece on the problem of religious observance at work. Interesting but inconclusive...

Antigone.TV5 Monde FBS screened Antigone by Jean Anouilh. A great classic, but not many laughs, frankly. Here is the Introduction which is spoken as clearly as one could wish.

When a kind student sent me this clip from M6's domestic science programme I thought it would be another Comment c'est fait. Not at all. This is modern, trendy, popular - so hard. Also very interesting...

It is the 70th anniversary of the broadcast of the General De Gaulle from London, and French Television has done the occasion proud. I am a little amused by the unstinting praise given to the English - very uncharacteristic of French television to be so nice to us, and not entirely deserved either. But here is a very nicely done little program insert from, I think France 5

I take no pleasure in the disappointing performance of the French team in the World Cup - football doesn't interest me. However, the tone of this piece from France 2 evening news was fascinating. It avoided self-pity  and substituted irony. But the underlying anger is very real. Perhaps the French will exile Raymond Domenech  to  Robbens Island...

Question Maison on France 5, is a series where horribly chic Parisians show the camera and an entranced interviewer round the old cinema/livery stable/garage/abattoir that they have converted into a vomit-inducing apartment. I wouldn't normally inflict it on you. But I can't resist this piece about the Chesterfield sofa, which, according to the expert, is vastly popular this side of the Channel, and found in all the best pubs.

We're having a run of quite difficult extracts at the moment. Here is the usual 'enquiry' from TF1 evening news, on memory loss and the remedies. It's also a fascinating listening exercise

I found this documentary on the young French girls who also responded to L'appel du 18 juin both charming and very moving. They were les Résistantes de la première heure. A  very nice piece.

Final piece on the Second War. France 5's series Les Détectives de l'histoire is a programme which seeks to popularise history by enquiring into controversy surrounding certain events - in this case, who was to blame for the French defeat in only six weeks in 1940

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