Paris Quick Takes
Paris Kiosque - March 1997 - Volume 4, Number 3
Copyright (c) 1997 Harriet Welty-Rochefort - Used with permission.
When you read all the gloom and doom news
coming out of France (on unemployment, the
tightening up of immigration laws and the
sagging spirits of the French), you almost
wonder if anything funny, good or heartwarming ever goes on.
Sure there is. Here goes:
Item: A self-styled National Front for
the Liberation of Plastic Elves in Backyards
(Front National de Libiration des Nains de
Jardin, for those of you who speak French)
is going around the suburbs of Paris swiping
decorative eleves (just elves - no reindeers,
pink flamingos, etc.) which they carry off to
the nearest forest. Once there, the Front, whose
members are appropriately camouflaged with hoods,
hold a little ceremony before rendering the elves
to nature which, after all, is where all good
elves belong. It's all good fun and as one owner
of a stolen elf told a reporter: "I take it all
in stride - but I think it' s gone far enough and
I really would like my elf back".
Item: A copycat group has decided to "liberate"
all those big grinning statues of Ronald McDonald,
literally sawing Ronald off his pedestal. So far
it's all good fun. (Glad I don't have any plastic
statues anyone would want to "liberate".)
Item: The owner of a standby airplane ticket firm
got a bright idea and decided to apply the standby
principle to top French restaurants. You can now get
on the Minitel - and soon the Internet - to find out
where seats are available in 20 of France's most
prestigious starred temples of gastronomy. If you're
lucky, you'll end up tucking into a splendid repast in
glorious surroundings for about half the à la carte price.
Item: A woman in Poitier was caught shoplifting
steak and fish. She readily pleaded guilty, explaining
to the judge that she didn't have enough money for her
kids to eat anything other than noodles and she couldn't
bear the thought of them never having protein. The court
found her not guilty, invoking a French legal tradition
which states that a person stealing out of necessity is
not guilty of theft if the means are not
disproportionate to the end.
And to end this all, I quote from a French reader
of the International Herald Tribune responding to
articles on the French "crisis" (see my first
paragraph) which would believe one to believe
this place is going down the tubes: "France survived
several plagues, including those of the Moors, the
English, the Nazis and 14 years of François Mitterrand.
We will survive the Internet and the global market.
Even if our situation today is not good, we still
enjoy a way of life that a lot of people would like
to share, as well as a social security system that,
though troubled, is still able to take care of people."
I just walked down the rue de Poncelet, one of the most
wonderful market streets in Paris, and bought our
dinner - tarama, tournedos, broccoli, a Brie and a
chévre, and a tarte aux pommes. We washed it down with a
good Bordeaux and every single member of my family licked
his or her lips and concurred that the dinner had been a
good one indeed. Food is one of the everlasting ever-present
all important good things in a country where savoir-vivre is
still alive and well so I say... Vive la France!
Harriet Welty-Rochefort, a bona fide Midwesterner from
Iowa, visited Paris for the first time while in
college. She became so completely enamored of
France that she stayed - and has been there ever since.
Married to a Frenchman and the mother of two
Franco-American boys, Harriet Welty-Rochefort writes
on business, lifestyle and travel for major U.S.
publications. Her forthcoming book -
French Toast - is a lighthearted look at
French manners and mores.
It is also possible place pre-publication
orders for signed
limited edition copies.
She can be contacted at
101676.467@compuserve.com.
