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If you plan to visit France from America, make sure to get the right outfit so you mix well with the locals. Amazon sells the Sexy Platinum Blonde Stylish and Elegant Marie Antoinette Wig for just $34.95, and the French Aristocrat (Brown) Wig for $16.99. (And I agree with you, the guy on the right could at least pretend he likes his hairdo.)

Found on Giggle Sugar, but don’t ask me where you can buy them. Time for a caption contest?

Probably inspired by the famous vertical gardens created by Patrick Blanc, French company Flowall introduces a system that lets you grow a vertical garden on any wall inside a building. Simply fix the modular panels and fill them with plants. The built-in irrigation system reduces watering to once every two weeks. The company claims that the plants regenerate and purify the air by recycling carbon dioxide into oxygen. The site is brand new, and online ordering is still “under construction”.

This Belgian site lets you pick a politician and punch him in the face. Nick Sarkozy is one of the willing victims. Enjoy! (Warning: slow Flash) Via Growabrain

Links for 12 May 2008:

French minister wants exit breathalyser tests in cafes, bars (AFP)
Fly on the Wall (about Yasmina Reza and Nicolas Sarkozy, The New Yorker)
Paris, May 1968: The revolution that never was (International Herald Tribune)
The year that shook Cannes (AFP)
Alexandre Dumas from beyond the grave (Telegraph)
Ex-Python uncovers French plot to invade via Wales (icWales)
French Property market shrugs off “credit crunch” (VEF)
France: A New Movement Forms (Brussels Journal)
Impact of weight on IQ: the “Homer Simpson effect” (Medindia)

If you want to fight this guy, you have to come up with something better than a gun or a molotov cocktail.

French riot police (all 13,000 of them) will now be equipped with a battle dress that protects them against high-caliber bullets, and can’t catch fire. To fight back they’re equipped with the latest-spec Taser guns, and rifles that fire rubber bullets at high accuracy across forty meters.

The new gear was developed after 82 officers got injured (many with bullet wounds) in just 24 hours during the urban fights in Paris last November. Similar riots in 2005 sent 200 policemen to hospital. That’s still a far cry from the student revolt in 1968, which injured 1900 officers in just one month.

Personally, I like the old uniform better:

Source (in French)

They’re feeling the squeeze: 51% of the French intend to reduce their summer holiday budget this year, and only 16% are going to spend more.

Since this is France, the poll also looks at the political side of the situation: 57% of leftists will reduce their budget, 39% of right-wingers will do so, and 44% of centrist are tightening the belt.

Finally, the age divide: 30% of people under 30 years go against the flow, and will spend more.

Will it make any difference? Don’t think so. The roads will be mayhem, the beaches will be hell. Stay at home if you can!

Source (in French)

Move over Batman, Superman, Iron Man, Spiderman: here is Vendome, France’s own superhero:

Note: the original video on YouTube seems to have been removed. Hopefully the one above from DailyMotion stays alive for a while…

Read more in the Telegraph

Links for 11 May 2008:

You’re on your own among France’s elite (SMH)
Citroën C5: Press a button and pray it’s the right one (Times)
French left accuses Sarkozy of intimidating media (Reuters)
Founder of one of France’s oldest three-star restaurants dies (AFP)
To blame? Moi? Sarkozy tells the French it’s all their fault (Independent)
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt rub French the wrong way (Courier-Mail)
Property in France: Nice gets back on track (Telegraph)
Abolition of French slavery celebrated (Press TV)
Islam in Europe: Power wars spell dead-end for French Muslim council (AFP)
Auriol launches new trans-Saharan race (Reuters)

Click for bigger picture

After toy giant Mattel had launched a Spanish Barbie doll, and the Iranian government had banned Barbie, claming that “the long-legged big-breasted Western blond doll is destructive for Iranian culture“, Photoshoppers were asked to create their own version of the famous doll. Shown above is a Barbie version of Josephine Baker (or Joséphine Bakèr as they say in France).

Josephine Baker (wiki) | Original photo

Benjamin Deroche is a young cynical photographer from the West of France. These pictures are part of a series named Tribute to Araki, and are an attempt to reproduce with a dead chicken the pictures of bondage of the Japanese master. But Araki is not one of his favorite photographers. Actually Benjamin Deroche really wanted to play with the corpse of the beast.

Via Zoum Zoum (in French) | Full series on Benjamin Deroche website
Some Araki bondage photos (NSFW): here and here

You have to give the French credit for inventing innovative products: YESforLOV

YESforLOV is a range of cosmetics that “invites you to love”. From love vitamins to post-pleasure relief, from intimate honey gel to sensitive derriere beauty cream.

But the prize for the most original products goes to Sexy Body Messages (”Tattoo each other with secret messages, surprise him: draw arrows pointing the way. Then rub it all off in the shower together“) and Intimate Hide-And-Seek Kit (”Take a brush with invisible ink and a black light under the sheets… and let him break the code that is written on your skin.“)

If you fancy this stuff, it’s currently only available via the Sephora shops (who also do mail orders).

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Mont Saint-Michel is, after Paris, France’s most popular tourist destination. In the next two seasons it’s likely to be even busier. Starting this May (and for a period of 18 months), the rocky tidal island in Normandy is celebrating its 1300th anniversary.

After centuries of silting, the rock is hardly recognizable as an island these days. That’s about to change. The government has kicked off a 150 million euro plan to make it an island once again, by 2012. The large parking area you can see on the Google Map above will be eliminated, and a bridge will link the island with the mainland.

Click the following links to find out more.

Mont Saint-Michel (Wikipedia) | Saving Mont Saint Michel (Expatica)

Chrisophe Huet is a professional photo retoucher best known for his freaky, exaggerated depictions of superhuman, surreal images. The former photo lab technician realized that he preferred drawing to shooting and developing photographs, and that’s how he got into the retouching business. Now he’s one of the best at his trade in the whole world. Find more here.

Links for 10 May 2008:

Vive la différence: dispelling French myths (Telegraph)
French industrial output falls sharply, analysts say gloom deepens (TTC)
Boyhood dreams inspire real-life French Spiderman (Daily Times Pakistan)
Sarkozy revises the last war (Times)
Translating Taser into French (KJZZ 91.5 FM)
French make first firm offer for UK nuclear generator (Guardian)
40 Years Later, an Uprising in Paris Is Still a Puzzle (New York Times)
Vendôme, first French superhero, takes on Hollywood (Telegraph)
Google takes Street View snaps in Paris; lawsuits may follow (Industry Standard)
Savvy Traveller: the value of France (Telegraph)
Cannes: The decline of the world’s leading film festival (Independent)
French take pole in the race for British Energy (Telegraph)
France ‘loves Canada very much,’ Sarkozy says (Canada.com)
Uma Thurman sues French firm Lancôme over ad (Guardian)