30 mai 2007
Ah la bonne fondue !
Que ça fait plaisir de pouvoir s'assoir autour d'une fondue savoyarde (Cheese fondue) à Leeds !
Sans oublier la petite bouteille de blanc qui va avec. Niveau prix c'est correct, 19£ pour 2.
L'adresse : The Waterhole, on great Georges Street, close to the Royal Infirmary and the law courts.
If you think it's got a French feel with its wooden floors and bistro menu you'd be right !
28 mai 2007
Don't be too familiar, French told ou "tutoiement-vouvoiement c koi donc ?"
Here is one of those stories that are difficult to convey to people who
speak only English. President Sarkozy's government has annoyed the
"progressive" sections of the teaching establishment with an order that
school pupils must address their teachers with the formal vous rather than the familiar second person singular tu. Teachers are advised to use the respectful vous to Lycée teenagers in their classes.
he orders are part of Sarko's campaign to
reimpose respect and civility across French society. Since the 1960s
generation threw off formality, some teachers have let pupils tutoie them and most tutoie their younger pupils. Xavier Darcos, the new Education Minister, said on Tuesday: "It is indispensable that children vouvoient their teachers and preferable that teachers do not use 'tu'
with lycée pupils, so that everyone is in their right place." Sarkozy
has also ordered police to stop insulting youths on the troubled
immigrant housing estates by using the over-familiar "tu". Teachers hit back today, accusing Darcos of exaggeration, saying that very few allowed pupils to address them as 'tu' .
The fuss illustrates the confusion over the when to tutoie, with its feeling of instant formality, and when to use vous, with its sense of distance and respect. The matter remains a minefield for foreigners and even muddles the French. Asking On se tutoie? (shall we use tu) is often a tricky moment with a new acquaintance.
Sarkozy, who has brought a cool touch to the Elysée Palace, committed a gaffe of his own when he visited the German Chancellor in Berlin on his first day of office last week.
Angela Merkel dropped German formality enough to call him "Lieber (Dear) Nicolas" but stuck to the formal "sie" not the familiar "du". Sarkozy's matey reply jarred on old-fashioned ears. "Chère Angela... J'ai confiance en toi." (In older English I trust thee not you). Libération joked that Franco-German harmony was still lacking. "They are going to have to start by agreeing whether they use tu or vous," it said.
Blair and Sarkozy, who consider themselves friends, tutoie one-another. Gordon Brown's lack of French -- and Sarkozy's poor English -- will remove the problem because they will use interpreters when Brown succeeds Blair. President Chirac used vous with Blair in public. Blair, who picked up his French working as a Paris barman in the mid 1970s, tutoied Chirac, who is 20 years his senior. Officials put his over-familiarity down to ignorance.
The French spread of le tutoiement is relatively modest compared with some neighbours such as Spain where the singular is almost automatic among people of similar age or social class. Some French couples in high bourgeois and aristocratic families still even vouvoie one-another and their children. For anyone much over teenage years, vous is sexier than tu when flirting.
The French adoption of tu, which is the norm in some businesses, has not been universally welcomed. The conservative Figaro complained on Monday that le vouvoiement had been "laid low by rampant tutoiement spreading from the business world's imitation of les Anglo-Saxons and now invading private life."
There is a contradiction in Sarkozy's preference for using 'tu' with everyone around him (including journalists) but ordering vous
in the schools. The rightwing reformer won office with a
back-to-tradition campaign that blamed the 1968 student revolt for
breaking down French society. "I will liquidate the legacy of May 1968,
with its abandonment of moral codes," he promised in the campaign.
Resistance to le tutoiement used to come from the upper classes. The French Revolution tried to ban vous in 1793, under threat of imprisonment. The late François Mitterrand, whose Socialist colleagues use the comradely tu, was famous for insisting on vous when he became president. An old friend asked if he could still tutoie him and Mitterrand put him down by replying: Si vous voulez. Mitterrand always called his prime ministers Monsieur le Premier Ministre, François Fillon, the new Prime Minister, says that he and Sarkozy tutoie one-another.
The trades unions and other sectors say that the systematic tu -- laid down by some firms in company rules -- is a scurrilous plot against the workers. By insisting that everyone is on intimate "tu" terms, the bosses are robbing unions of their dignity and authority, they say. "It is difficult to call each other 'tu' when you are negotiating pay-rises or defending staff who have been sacked," an official with the powerful CGT union told Tribune newspaper this week.
There has been a backlash against the forced jollity of using tu with strangers. Staff at Club Med and other resort companies have given up their post-60s practice of using an egalitarian tu with their vacationing adults. Now they go half way, using first names but sticking to vous.
So you see, there are no clear rules but if in doubt say vous.
23 mai 2007
Tony Blair S'adresse Aux Français
Tony Blair S'adresse Aux Français
Vidéo envoyée par SARKOZlSTE
Le Premier Ministre Britannique, Tony Blair, adresse un message à tous les français et se félicite de l'élection du 23ème Président de la République Française, Nicolas Sarkozy, depuis le 10 Downing Street à Londres. Version Française.
To see the English Version:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1x3ns_tony-blair-speaks-to-the-french
08 mai 2007
The froggies à Leeds
Voilà déjà deux mois que nous sommes installés à Leeds, dans le quartier de Beeston à 20 min à pied au sud du centre ville. 
Nous partageons une maison à Longroyd Street, avec Dominik et Paulus, 2 jeunes Lithuaniens
Nous disposons d'un salon avec cheminée (au gaz), 2 canapés cuir, et une moquette (" fucking carpet" pour les intimes), une cuisine digne d'un mobilhome, tout ça au niveau 0. Au 1er: salle de bain et chambre de Paulus. 2ème étage, chambre de Dominik.
Et nous, on squate le niveau -1, la pièce est lumineuse malgré tout, et en plus on a un frigo que pour nous deux !
Sinon le quartier est pluto sympa, on est juste à coté de Dewsbury road, donc pas de souci pour trouver des pizzerias, indiens, chinois, 24H/24...
Nouvelles photos
Vous pouvez consulter nos nouveaux albums photos de nos sorties dans la countryside anglaise.
Au programme : la ville de York, Blackpool, le Roudhay park à Leeds, Nottingham ( la ville de Robin des Bois "Robinhood") et enfin le Yorkshire dales national park.