Des news

Yes, "news" is also acceptable in French :-) Today, a selection of links to what matters in France these days.

On Monday, the country was paralyzed by (surprise) a grève (strike, pronounced gray - veh). This time, the complaint was the government's suppression of a bank holiday last month to finance better healthcare for the ederly. The interesting part is that the vast majority of French people agreed with the proposition a couple of years ago, after a tragic heatwave caused more than 15,000 death, especially among the elderly. Now that no one is dying, the weather is a lot nicer, and everyone had to work an extra day last month, I guess it's the perfect time to take a day off and "protest".

Next week-end, France will vote to say OUI ("yes", as a reminder) or NON to the UN constitution. For a long time, and contrary to the usual pro-european tendency in France, NON was leading in the polls. The race seems to be a lot tighter now. It's been a little challenging for me to follow the debate, but I was indeed surprised by the overwhelming support for NON and the litany of reasons why the constitution would spell the end of the French identity.

And, in unrelated news (or are they?), it seems some clichés about the French are more vivid than ever...