And certainly not one as intelligent and independant as Carla Bruni, President Sarkozy’s wife and heiress to the fortune created by the Italian tyre manufacturing company CEAT. Before she married Sarkozy in...
opinion by Fripouille | 36 wks ago | updated 36 wks ago 1121 views | 61 recommendations | 19 comments
You have to hand it to them. When the French decide to ally elegance and ergonomics the results are often impressive to say the least. First, here are a couple of figures. The rail network in France is extremely...
opinion by Fripouille | 37 wks ago | updated 37 wks ago 737 views | 41 recommendations | 23 comments
Mexico is dying as I write, and as you read, these words. And the International Community is almost nowhere to be seen. What are the United States and Europe doing about it? Why is the rest of South America...
opinion by Fripouille | 37 wks ago | updated 37 wks ago 734 views | 106 recommendations | 28 comments
Why pay to get into an art gallery when art is everywhere? On the pavement and electrical substations, on trucks and houses, all over the place. This is a collection of ten photos. They represent what can be seen in...
created by Fripouille | 37 wks ago | updated 37 wks ago 348 views | 52 recommendations | 17 comments
France is well-known for its wonderful achievements in many fields of human endeavour, and one of its most outstanding “successes” must surely be its capacity to churn out enormous quantities of...
opinion by Fripouille | 38 wks ago | updated 38 wks ago 141 views | 34 recommendations | 3 comments
People hide in them, escape into them, enter them to be alone, they make love in them, pee in them, read a book in them, and also, for some...live in them.Houses? Nope. Old trains in a siding? Nah. Abandoned...
opinion by Fripouille | 38 wks ago | updated 38 wks ago 1178 views | 36 recommendations | 15 comments
I knew an old man who lived in the same apartment building as me, here in Lyon. He had no money and he had no friends and he had no family,and he had no food.He was polite and discreet.Every night he would go down...
I was brought up to be polite. So I do my best to be. I hold doors open for people, I hold elevator doors open, I walk on the outer side of the path to protect women from tyre-splashes, I look you in the eye when I...
opinion by Fripouille | 38 wks ago | updated 35 wks ago 401 views | 93 recommendations | 33 comments
Air pollution in large cities represents a major health risk, and much of it is caused by cars. At the same time, and I don’t think I’m playing Cassandra here, we probably shall run out of usable oil in the...
opinion by Fripouille | 39 wks ago | updated 38 wks ago 599 views | 20 recommendations | 11 comments
The Halde is an independant French Administrative Authority whose job it is to study and bring to light all forms of discrimination as defined by French law and applicable International law and conventions. Its...
opinion by Fripouille | 39 wks ago | updated 39 wks ago 641 views | 45 recommendations | 13 comments
Around 5% of French students try to commit suicide each year, and hundreds of them succeed. I was on a bus a short while ago. A sad looking young woman got on and sat down next to me. After a few moments she asked...
opinion by Fripouille | 39 wks ago | updated 39 wks ago 4524 views | 84 recommendations | 37 comments
This is what Lyon looks like every year during its annual Light Festival. It's an amazing and unforgettable spectacle, believe me. These nine photos are breathtaking, and you’d have a hard time believing that...
created by Fripouille | 39 wks ago | updated 39 wks ago 680 views | 26 recommendations | 11 comments
Practical. You knew he was at home when it was all piled up like that, because he would be under it. And it was all flat and sad when he went elsewhere. But he has gone, and so has his home. It disappeared a short...
opinion by Fripouille | 40 wks ago | updated 39 wks ago 1109 views | 106 recommendations | 56 comments
No, this is not a spam article designed to get my grubby little hands on your hard-earned dollars or euros by getting you to buy phony bio products (of which there are more and more, unfortunately), but a quick way...
opinion by Fripouille | 40 wks ago | updated 40 wks ago 460 views | 24 recommendations | 9 comments
I don’t have the answer to that I’m afraid, so that’s why I thought I’d ask the question, in the form of two personal experiences.The first one happened when I was still with my last girlfriend. She invited...