Things I *LIKE* about the damned French

Cafe Society
1

It’s open season on the French these days, and God do they ever make it easy. Still, before we start talking about dropping nukes on the place, let’s make a list of things that make France somewhat excusable:

–The Triplets of Belleville
–Audrey Tautou
–Ugly old guys with hot young mistresses

See? The place isn’t a total wash yet! Anybody else?

(I’m putting this in Cafe Society because most items on the list are likely to be movies or babe-a-licious French model/actresses, and also because “cafe” is a French word.)

2

A few of the top of my head, grouped by genre:

Philosophers: Voltaire, Rousseau, Sartre…

Artists: Ingres, Corot, Moreau, Redon, Monet…

Football (soccer) players: Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Patrick Vieira… (oh, hell, the entire Arsenal squad!)

3

They were the first country in modern times to focus and premote good prenatal care.

Also, the Louvre.

4

Isabelle Adjani, Oliver Martinez, Jean-Hughes Anglade, Gerard Depardieu, Tintin, Asterix le Gaulois, Quebec, crepes, croissants, cafe au lait, eclairs, Albert Camus, Emile Zola, Alexandre Dumas pere et fils, Emmanuelle Beart.

Just off the top of my head. :slight_smile:

5

cheese

wine

pate

most beautiful villages ever

cheese

We were two and a half weeks there last summer and everyone was very kind, helpful, humorous

cheese

6

-Metric system

-They gave us a cool statue

-Helped us handle the Brits during the American revolution

-Amilie

-Cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys provide a good counter balance to the burger-scarfing-conquer-clowns across the ocean.

7

Champagne, Bordeaux, over 400 variations of cheese, the Cordon Bleu, Cannes, Notre Dame, Provence, the Arc de Triomphe. For starters.

8

I’d agree about Audrey Tautou, but the other two, yechhh.

French food is fantastic.

9

François Rabelais, Maurice Ravel, Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Boulez, Georges Bizet, Camille Saint-Saëns, Jacques Brel, Brigitte Bardot, Ange, Malicorne, Art Zoyd…

Already been mentioned but worth repeating: Audrey Tautou. Rrrowf! Rrrrrowf!!!

10

The Paris Commune of 1871.

11

The Lumiere Bros, Georges Melies, Jacques Tati, Francois Truffaut, Georges Franju, Jean-Luc Godard, Henri-Georges Cluzot, Jean Cocteau, Jean-Pierre Melville, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Demy, Jacques Rivette, Jean Renoir, Eric Rohmer, Jean-Jacques Beinieux, Luc Besson (seriously), Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

Definitely not Catherine Breillat (except maybe for Romance).

Yeah, I kinda like French cinema.

12

I like how they don’t cowtow to the United States, and aren’t afraid to tell us when they think we’re assholes.
Also french kissing and french bread. And french dressing.

13

Descarte

the power of their nation for the past thousand years

The Eiffel Tower

Burgundy

14

French taunters are the best!

15

The Statue of Liberty.

American independence.

The French language.

And what Hugh Jass said about not being afraid to tell us when we’re about to screw up. Only a real friend does that for you.

16

Two massively useful turns of phrase especially spring to mind:

  1. deja vu

    • je ne sais quoi*

The first gives a good, solid name to a feeling that everybody experiences but that the English somehow never thought to ever come up with a word for.

The second enables you to admit that you don’t know what you’re talking about, and still come across as sounding vaguely intellectual and superior.

France rocks.

17

I like the way people with French accents say “peesed off.”

18

I agree with all of the good French things mentioned in this thread and will add:

Marcel Pagnol, author

I only recently discovered Jean de Florette - Manon des Sources, and I like almost as well My Father’s Glory - My Mother’s Castle. I rate that first-mentioned pair of books right up there with the top five I have ever read. And to top it off, the guy wrote and directed movies, too!

19

Pastry. French pastry is unbelievable!

Recently while in Japan, I stumbled across a small patisserie in the hotel I was staying at (The Kyoto Royal). I don’t care much for sweets but these were incredible. When I stated that I never knew the Japanese were so skilled at making pastries I was quickly corrected and informed that the Japanese are in fact big fans of French pastry and often send chefs to study in France of just import a French baker.

Ever since then I’ve always made it a point to look for French bakeries wherever I go.

Appropriately enough, the only place in my area I’ve found to get really good French pastry is a nearby Japanese market.

20

And French toast, French horns, and French fries.

(Although, to be fair, the French horn is an Austrian instrument. Plus, what we call a French kiss, the French call an “English kiss,” so it’s likely neither of us invented it.)