brume du matin

So it's 6:30 on another dreary, dismal morning in Strasbourg, with what can only be described as a horrid twiglet smell emanating from somewhere nearby. I have an 8 o clock lecture on droit extrapatrimonial de la famille. These 8 o clock starts (of which I have four per week) are proof (not that we needed any) that the French have, in fact, no social life whatsoever. They really do need to get their timetabling sorted out. Not only do they insist on getting up at such an ungodly hour, but they have cruelly lengthy classes. I mean, who can possibly concentrate for three hours straight? Either their administration needs attention, or they are complete and utter masochists. Or perhaps they have nothing else to do with their lives other than listening to whom they consider to be some sort of French demi-God of a lecturer rambling on about "les quasi contrats" or "la gestion des services publics". French university lecturers seem to enjoy such a reputation. They aren't exactly the most approachable characters in the world, and look down on the student population with a typically French arrogant air. It is, I might add, a reputation UNdeserved, as I could give better lectures myself compared to some of them, one in particular, whose French grammar is even more appalling than my own.

The 50 men who really understand women

"Women are women, and hooray for that".

No Galliano, you've got it wrong!

I was reading the Observer Woman Magazine, and was quite frankly, disappointed with their list of supposed "new-age" men who get how women work. On the whole, it portrays a very simple version of women - that our only interests in this world are things like sex, clothes, shoes and celebrities. While these may be our common outlets from work and stress (I confess I have, on occasion, been guilty of peeking through the pages of Heat magazine, though have actually never bought a copy), we do enjoy a much wider range of interests. I was particularly annoyed because the list was voted by women themselves. I would appeal to those women to think again about what image they are giving the female sex. My wonderful, and truely "new-age" boyfriend also pointed out that the article seems to list men who tend to give a very male impression of how women should be. It even includes Alastair Carruthers, the inventor of Botox!! "Botox will reset the position of the eyebrows, so that you can have a more positive look" - yeah, by making you look permanently startled more like! Perhaps the most disappointing of all is the fact that the article cites women as the most avid readers of that racist rubbish we call the Daily Mail. Please! Tell me it isn't so!!!

the life of a Strasbourgeois tram

"From time to time a strange vehicle drew near to the place where they stood - such a vehicle as the lady at the window, in spite of a considerable acquaintance with human inventions, had never seen before: a huge, low, omnibus, painted in brilliant colours, and decorated apparently with jingling bells, attached to a species of groove in the pavement, through which it was dragged, with a great deal of rumbling, bouncing, and scratching, by a couple of remarkably small horses". ("The Europeans", by Henry James)

Upon arrival in Strasbourg, one cannot help but notice the addition made to the everyday traffic by the trams. At first it seems cute, clean, and friendly, a welcome break from the stuffy London Underground. But after spending some time here, I have come to view the tram system as a complete waste of time, money and space. Firstly, Strasbourg isn't all that big, one can easily walk/cycle/rollerblade anywhere. Secondly, if they must insist upon creating a more international, cosmopolitan vibe by the insertion of the tramways, surely it isn't entirely necessary to have the tram stops spaced a mere stone's throw away from each other. Recently, my boyfriend and I took the tram, and when it pulled away with only me onboard, he was able to run to the next stop, only metres down the road, to catch it. This is meant, of course, to be a compromise between speed and frequency of stops, but in my experience the tram drivers are often careless and drive at a dangerously high speed. It is surprising that the French, keen cyclists as they are, have opted for the tram which is responsable for most of the cycling accidents in the city. These British-built trams may have broken with the previously held archaic conceptual image of Strasbourg, but to my mind they are only another example of unnecessary public transport killing the environment.

Thomas Paine

I was reading about the French Revolution for my class in droit constitutionnel, and came across a list of those granted honorary French citizenship for being champions of the cause, so to speak. My boyfriend's hero Thomas Paine (a hero because, he has, inter alia, the "Norfolk connection") was one of them. Paine was in fact elected to the National Convention, and was allowed to vote, despite his inability to speak French. His support for the Revolution did, just like the Brunswick Manifesto, backfire terribly. He ended up in prison under allegations of sympathising with the Girondins, and narrowly escaped being executed. It was only because his prison cell door happened to be open when the guard drew the condemning white chalk mark, allowing him to close it with the mark was facing the wall. What luck!

Proof that the French cannot be trusted.

The dangers of Facebook

Those of you with a Facebook profile will appreciate this:


http://break.com/index/i_can_be_your_facebook_stalker.html

un café au lait, s'il vous plait

P.J. O'Rourke once said: "The French are a smallish, monkey-looking bunch and not dressed any better, on average, than the citizens of Baltimore. True, you can sit outside in Paris and drink little cups of coffee, but why this is more stylish than sitting inside and drinking large glasses of whiskey I don't know".

Now he may have been a hippie, and been prone to the odd damascene conversion, (and perhaps a bit of an alocholic if this comment is anything to go by), but I would have to agree with him. The French pride themselves on their coffee-drinking. They have cafés, coffee machines, expresso bars, coffee beans and George Clooney advertising Nespresso everywhere you look. That sickly coffee aroma is always in the air. In fact, all they ever do is drink the stuff (usually accompanied by a never-ending packet of cigarettes - I cannot believe the smoking ban is due to come in soon!). I confess that even I, who thought I had succeeded in putting myself off the bean for life after what seemed like one long essay after another of a first term at university, have succombed to the very French drug.

In fact, might pop off to make myself a cup now...