# Those wacky French... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 20, 2007, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-wacky-french/419873 "2007-09-20T16:09:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PharmBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@PharmBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PharmBoy)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-wacky-french/419873/1 "2007-09-20T16:09:46Z")
Check this [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297420,00.html](http://http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297420,00.html) Hey, Pierre, what’s wrong with chicken? ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-wacky-french/419873/2 "2007-09-20T16:18:23Z")
[Fixed link](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,297420,00.html). Though not as weird as China (or most the Eastern region, for that matter) the French have always been a bit odd when it comes to their cuisine. Besides the well known (and still questionable, if you ask me) practice of eating snails, I recall years ago some posh French restaurant selling chocolate cake topped with a thin layer of real gold leaf for some ridiculously exorbitant amount. Never mind the goose that laid the golden egg… ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-wacky-french/419873/3 "2007-09-20T16:18:36Z")
The link doesn’t work, but I’m usually pretty skeptical about anything the FreedomFry News Network says about the French. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-wacky-french/419873/4 "2007-09-20T16:32:48Z")
[How brazen!](http://www.ortolanrestaurant.com/homepage.php) ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-wacky-french/419873/5 "2007-09-20T16:46:19Z")
[QUOTE=saoirse] The link doesn’t work, but I’m usually pretty skeptical about anything the FreedomFry News Network says about the French. [/QUOTE] No, I’ve heard of this long before. To summarize, the government is being pressured to better enforce a ban on hunting ortolan, a tiny songbird that is regarded as a delicacy but is now a threatened species. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-wacky-french/419873/6 "2007-09-20T18:43:40Z")
Wow, trying to protect an endangered species? Those wacky French. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![PharmBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@PharmBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PharmBoy)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-wacky-french/419873/7 "2007-09-20T19:46:14Z")
[QUOTE=Kythereia] Wow, trying to protect an endangered species? Those wacky French. :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] They’re not protecting them, genius, that’s the issue. :smack: They’re wiping out a species for the sake of 2 oz of meat. There are laws but they are not being enforced ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-wacky-french/419873/8 "2007-09-20T20:19:56Z")
[QUOTE=PharmBoy] They’re not protecting them, genius, that’s the issue. :smack: They’re wiping out a species for the sake of 2 oz of meat. There are laws but they are not being enforced [/QUOTE] They don’t hunt ortolans and the French don’t use mistnets for small birds. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-wacky-french/419873/9 "2007-09-20T20:20:36Z")
[QUOTE=Mindfield] Though not as weird as China (or most the Eastern region, for that matter) the French have always been a bit odd when it comes to their cuisine. [/QUOTE] It would never occur to me to ever, no matter what weirdnesses I read about, say anything bad about French cuisine. That’s like saying that Mozart’s “songs” were kind of weird. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-wacky-french/419873/10 "2007-09-20T20:29:41Z")
The practice of eating ortolans is bizarre. It has been illegal for decades; centuries, even. So people who eat it (whole) do so while concealing their identity. By putting a napkin over their head. Jeremy Clarkson did a great [documentary](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y4MS7mSzX8) on it, during which he ate the bird in the traditional attire. Anyone interested should watch that, as you can see the whole thing from start to finish. And he’s rude about the French… Weird, and dreadful to threaten a species with extinction, but I don’t think either the Brits or the Americans are in a position to complain about cuisine. (And escargot are really only shellfish, without the fish bit. And they’re delicious.) ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2007, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-wacky-french/419873/11 "2007-09-20T22:02:42Z")
[This SDMB thread from 2002](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=146341&highlight=ortolan) discusses the eating of ortolans (from post #20 onward) with some interesting background from **clairobscur**. The thread culminates in a riveting [description](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=2644124&postcount=24) by a Doper of his ortolanophagic experience in Lyon nine years previously.