Personal contacts with France ?

[Moiraine]

Since that most of you people in here are, from a French viewpoint, foreign , I am curious about what personal contacts you have had with French stuff : books, movies, music, foodstuff, language, travelling to France, meeting French people, ... anything ! Tell me ! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Masklinn, you do not qualify for replying here ! But I do have a special question for you : do you think that the "Asterix and Cléopâtre" movie really can be translated, by subtiles or dubbing ? I laughed my ass off at Jamel's pharaoh joke, but I can't see how the fun of it can be passed, as many of the other so very French humour in the movie. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[skywalker]

I spent a week in Paris last Fall.

The people there were friendly...seems like only some of the tourists were obnoxious. The people of Paris were helpful and warm. I'd say if you treat people with warmth and kindness, you get it back.

The food was excellent..the bread, the ice cream and the meals we had (me and my wife) were great.

The city was clean and the sites were fun and it was the best vacation we ever spent.

Before I went, I have to admit, I did not care much for France and Paris would have been the last place on Earth I would go. I think it stems from growing up with a best friend who would continuously praise being France and everything French (though he was born in the USA) and put me down because I am Portuguese and less than the French. He was kidding, of course, but it still bugged me.

We went to Paris because my wife has a friend working at IBM there and had the chance to visit. I'm so glad we went, the trip has changed my attitude and made me think beyond the borders. The stereotypes that some feel about the French are ill-conceived and I wish anyone who felt poorly about them could go and see for themselves.

Thanx,Moiraine for the thread and my chance to speak my piece on this!

Mark

[Davros]

Hi Claude,

Well you know that most of my time in France has been spent at your place last year - and that was fantastique [img]smile.gif[/img] .

I also visited on a quick tour in 1997 - 2 nights in Paris, a night in Bordeux, and 3 nights in Nice. I got stuck on the Eiffel Tower, walked for miles around Paris, found this great Irish pub in Bordeux, skinny dipped at midnight in Nice (man, some people will do anything if they are drunk enough ) [img]smile.gif[/img] . I lived on "Une jambon et fromage baguette si vous plait". It was sometimes hard to get a good savoury breakfast [img]smile.gif[/img] , and vegemite is scarce, but the people and the food are great.

[The Hierophant]

I'll be there (Paris) in a couple of weeks

[johnny]

To me France is just a gateway to sunny Spain.

Just kidding. I've been a couple of times to Paris, and i think it's the most beautiful city i've ever seen. It's history is great, so i tried to visit as many historical places as possible.
The nightlife in Paris is also something else. I recommend everyone who ever visits Paris to go see the show in the Moulin Rouge. It's expensive, but worth it.

I've also spent some time in the south, a little place called Cap D'agde. I was only a kid back then, but i still remember it well, because it was a nudist resort. My mom never told me we were going to a nudist resort, cause i probably wouldn't have come with em. Strangely enough i was the first one running around naked. It was fun, but weird.

Also, imo France has the greatest cartoonists in the world. Not just Asterix, but also comics like Lucky Luke, Blueberry, Redbeard, etc. I think heir publishers are Dupuis, Oberon, and Dargaux. They are the best.

And of course the French kitchen, it's exellent. I love escargots, although eating them can cause some trouble now and then, when you have a hard time pulling them out of the shells.
And wine ? Well... i'm not an expert, but it's alcohol, and when t comes to alcohol, i'm not picky. You name it, i drink it.

Edit: forgot about French movies. I'm not too crazy about those, although there are quite a few good actors coming from France. But there was noone like Louis de funes, he cracked me up. I would cancel any appointments i have for one of his movies. And whenever Sophie Marceau is in a movie, i'll be watching. Not that i think she's such a great actress.

[ 03-06-2003, 09:12 AM: Message edited by: johnny ]

[Epona]

Originally posted by Davros: "Une jambon et fromage baguette si vous plait".

Is there a hand signal for that Davros? [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

I've been to France a few times - in 1992 I spent a week in Paris, which was fantastic. Before I went, someone stupid told me that Parisians were generally rude, fortunately I am not one to believe stereotypes or I might have been put off (anyway, Londoners are quite possibly the rudest people in existence, what did I have to fear?) But the people I met were great, I tried out my little bit of badly pronounced French and people were appreciative of the fact that I tried - I think the English have a bad reputation for not bothering when they're overseas! Did all the usual tourist stuff - visited the Louvre, the Museé D'Orsay, the Orangerie, the Eiffel Tower, and ate a lot of food. I surprised a waiter in a nice restaurant by ordering snails, he tried to tell me not to try them because 'the English don't enjoy food' but he was pleasantly surprised that I'd actually had them before and liked them.

My second visit was on my way to/from Romania by car in 2000. Just a flying visit really on the way through, but we stopped in Reims, and on the way back stayed overnight in Laon.

And my most recent visit was to Moiraine and her wonderful family last summer! Wonderful hospitality.

As far as French culture goes, being neighbours we get to see a fair bit I suppose. There is some animosity from some people here towards France - we've been at war a few times over the last 1000 years and so there is a little bit of deep ingrained cultural tension - at least for some people, not most though. French wine and beer is readily available, and many people visit France regularly to buy cheaper alcohol and cigarettes, and French cheese. French impressionist art is well known and loved here. Personally I have an interest in 1950s/1960s French cinema, one of my favourite films of all time is Jean Luc Goddard's 'Á Bout de Souffle' - also like 'Charlotte et son Jules', 'Jules et Jim', 'La Jeteé' (which was the inspiration for 12 Monkeys ), and am a big fan of Jacques Tati. More recent films I've enjoyed include 'La Cité des Enfants Perdus', and 'Delicatessen' (both directed by Marc Caro/Jean-Pierre Jeunet), 'Jean de Florette', Manon des Sources (1986 remake, haven't seen the original alas), La Commune (2001 6 hour long docudrama), La Reine Margot (1994 version), La Haine, ..... there are loads of others I've seen and enjoyed, these were just off the top of my head.

Oooh and I nearly forgot, my favourite modernist composer, Erik Satie, was of course French - part of the surrealist/dadaist movement and friend of Picasso during his time spent in France.

Alas I've never tried out French literature - my French is appalling and would not be able to cope with it.

[ 03-06-2003, 09:31 AM: Message edited by: Epona ]

[Bungleau]

I've been to Paris perhaps a dozen times, and it is my favorite city. I also speak French rather well, which makes it a bit easier for me too.

And Paris is different from Grovers Corners, USA. That shocks and surprises a number of Americans, I believe; I've seen it. Those who can accept that it's different seem to enjoy it, while those who don't seem to talk about how unfriendly the French are.

As for dubbing or subtitling films, humor is by far the hardest thing to move between languages. Situational humor (slipping on a banana peel) is fine, but contextual humor -- like my Grovers Corners comment above -- only works if you know the context. My old French professor from University (a French-raised Hungarian) enjoyed the Robin Williams film Birdcage; some of the jokes didn't make sense to him, such as (while looking at books in the living room) "Oh, look, a full set of Nancy Drew" -- Nancy Drew is a low-level mystery series aimed at youths and young teenagers, and not something that adults would typically put in their living rooms.

And plays on words -- they just don't translate well. Usually that's because they also require some contextual humor to make it work, and you can end up spending five minutes explaining a ten-second punchline.

After getting out of university, I used to translate during business meetings. Nothing more exciting than half the room laughing uproariously while the other half suddenly stares at you and expects you to let them know what was so funny. Doesn't help if you're laughing, either...

Hehe well Claude you know 2 of my visits were to your place and like Davros I've had a great time both times [img]smile.gif[/img]

Also though I have visited France 3 other times too. Once was for half an hour to an airfield in Calais to drink a coca cola! A family friend had just acquired his pilots certificate so wanted to show of his little plane so he took us to France LOL, yes he is very rich

Another time I went to visit the WW1 battlefields with my school we actually stayed in Belgium but crossed the border for some of the time. The other time was in 1994, I toured Normandy, to see some of the D-Day museums, seemed a good time to visit as it was of course the 50th anniversary.

Of course I had some exposure to French books / papers etc through my 5 years of French at school [img]smile.gif[/img]

Just jumping in on Masklinn's question, Not sure about Asterix, not having seen it, but I didn't think "Bottom" went well into French, some of the funniest jokes were lost because cultural references. I guess the answer is they just change the jokes, look at the Asterix names for proof. In english the Dog is Dogmatix..not funny in French..but then Idefix isn't in English (the words mean the same btw )

[the new JR Jansen]

Being from one of France's neighbouring countries, i have been over there a lot. Mostly to play a tournament, though and as such i encounter them sometimes in other countries aswell. Some of them i consider my friends. We have a good relationship on the sports level with CSINI Paris and ASAAV Poitiers. That means that you don't have much time to go sightseeing. Allthough, i've been on vacation to the normal tourist spots aswell.

[Davros]

Originally posted by Epona: Quote: Originally posted by Davros: "Une jambon et fromage baguette si vous plait".

Is there a hand signal for that Davros? [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

[/QUOTE]Nope - no hand signal for that - not needed because my French she is ow you say immaculate . Now if I was wanting to order a Coca Cola ......... [img]smile.gif[/img]