Aujourd’hui on est allé visiter le musée d’Orsay. C’était la deuxième fois d’y aller. Cette fois on est allé voir l’éxposition «La fôret de Fontainbleau» car on a l’intentio d’y aller bientôt (pas ce weekend, mais peut-être le weekend prochain).
Archive for April, 2007
明太子パスタ！
今夜妻はいないんです。ベビシターをしているのだ。それから僕は一人でご飯を食べることになった。
久しぶりに明太子パスタを食べた。明太子パスタやタラコスパゲティがけっこ好きだ。去年妻の親が日本から持ってきてくれたの。
僕はパリにそれを見たことはないんだ。やはり普通のスーパにない。妻の話によると京子という日本スーパに二個入りのやつは４ユーロぐらいそうだ。円に計算すると６５０円くらい。超高い〜！買う訳はない。
日本に帰るまでに後一個しかない。
慣用句
びっくりしたことだ。
「水も滴るいい男」って言う文句は意味が格好よくて素敵な男でしょう。という訳で、いったい意味がどこから来たんでしょう？心象が強すぎてたまらない。。。自由的なアメリカの英語さえこのような慣用句はないと思います（考えられる程）。 逆に保守的な日本人の想像力は意外に活発だ。。。
Election results bientôt!
We’re watching the election coverage on France 2 television station. In the upper left corner of the screen is a clock displaying the time to the second, in effect marking time until the first election returns can be reported at 20h. The excitement builds. Given the large number of people still undecided the outcome is still up in the air. However, the estimated turnout is likely to reach an all-time high, already having reached 74% at 17h.
The news coverage is bouncing back and forth between the various candidate headquarters. I suppose it’s a bit like election coverage in the states, only without the exit-polling.
…19:57:17…
Update: Wow. At exactly 8 pm the TV news announced the estimated results from the first round. No surprises this time, though supporters of Ségolène Royal breathe a collective sigh of relief as she make it through to the second round with Nicolas Sarkozy. This sets up the expected second round election with major implications for the future of France.
29.6 % Sarkozy
25.1 % Royal
18.7 % Bayrou
11.0 % Le Pen
Update: Sarkozy is now addressing his supporters in Salle Gaveau. He calls for dignity, respect, and a debate of ideas in the campaign in the second round. The rest of his speech is a populist, feel-good message of uniting the French people and making sure that everyone has the power to achieve their aspirations. He is a good speaker and delivers his speech quite smoothly. Though the rhetoric sounds like the vague pleasantries of what all the candidates say.
Now there is a round table of various party leaders giving their opinions about the election and what the results mean so far. One person is saying that Royal is poised to win because she received a higher percentage than Mitterand. Another person is saying that means nothing and that the real statistic is the high percentage of Sarkozy, which gives him a psychological advantage over Royal. And oh-la-la, they are speaking way too fast for me to follow anything else. It doesn’t help that they are talking over one another.
Update II: Now Bayrou is speaking. He is pleased by the historic turnout and the number of people voting for what he claims as “the center”, noting that for the first time the candidate of the center (him) received more votes than the extreme right candidate. He claims this is already a sign of change in France. He sounds optimistic about doing well in the legislative elections coming up after the end of the presidential elections.
When is Royal up?
Update III: After much waiting, Royal is finally making her speech. It seems to be the same generic politician speech (i.e. impossible to argue against), except she says she will fight against economic liberalism. However, she’s speaking very slowly, now hesitantly, now mechanically. Her speech is unfortunately delivered without much heart and thus not very inspiring. Sarkozy is a much more animated and thus inspiring speaker (regardless of his positions).
Update IV: Most of the remaining left candidates have already or are calling on their supporters to vote for Royal in the second round. José Bové (the guy well known for dismantling a McDonald’s in the 90’s) calls for his supporters to “battre contre Sarkozy”, though not supporting Royal explicitly.
Update V: End of coverage. Sarkozy’s 30% showing in the first round means nothing except possibly that supporters of the extreme right candidate abandoned Le Pen, who did worse than expected, for Sarkozy. However he made a clever political move by speaking early and giving a feel-good speech. Many people on the fence might stay away from him because of his over-the-top negative rhetoric as interior minister (in charge of the national police) against immigrants and “delinquents”. However, he came out early and gave a speech full of passion about reuniting the French people and giving everyone the opportunity to achieve their aspirations. He also extends a nice warm-hearted call to Royal for a respectful campaign and debate of ideas. This is quite the opposite of the image of how he is usually (and rightfully so) portrayed. Since he was one of the first to speak shortly after the first official estimates were given, the largest number of people were likely to be watching, having just turned in to see the results. Sarkozy possibly won points by his clever political move with people hesitant about supporting him. However, I’m not sure about this since all the candidates sound alike in this aspect. Perhaps French votes see through it?
On the other hand, Royal seems to have given her speech without much passion. But she gave it quite late in the evening, so perhaps not many people were watching at that time. However, almost all the left-wing candidates either threw their support to her or call for their supporters to not let Sarkozy win.
As one of the candidates mentioned, the second round may turn out to be a anti-Sarkozy referendum, especially if the high turnout rate is repeated. I guess there will be a big struggle for the Bayrou supporters. However, it’s hard to say where his supporters will fall. On the one hand, he comes from a right-wing party but claims the center. On the other hand, he was much more critical of Sarkozy and the right than Royal and the left.
In summary, though Sarkozy leads Royal in second round polls, the election is still quite up in the air.
…Oh, we didn’t get to see what Le Pen said about his poorer than expected performance. Oh well.
Une autre fuite!
More water leaking!? Not again! This morning we had a call from the gardienne. There was water leaking from her ceiling in her kitchen, which is directly below ours. It was unlikely that it was coming directly from us as we hadn’t yet used any water in the kitchen. A check of all the pipes and walls in our kitchen confirmed this; everything was dry.
But it’s Sunday, so nobody is working today (plus it is election day…). So there’s nothing one can do about it except wait until Monday to call a plumber.
So, even in this relatively modern (70’s) apartment building there are problems with water leaks. New or old, it seems to be a fact of life in Paris. That’s why it is important to have insurance.
Fortunately it is not into our apartment this time, as we’ve already had our fair share of water problems in Paris. However, if it is coming from somewhere above us that doesn’t rule out the possibility that it might start leak into our apartment at some time…
J-1
It’s the day before the presedential elections in France. Hence the J-1, read as “jour moins un”, i.e. “day minus one”.
The election will take place tomorrow, on a Sunday. In France, everyone actually gets to vote on the weekend, as opposed to having to vote on a workday. Can you believe it??
C’était cassé
La serrure de mon bureau c’était cassé ce matin par “la femme de ménage”. On peut tourner la clé dans la serrure mais il ne marche pas. En plus, quelqu’un a été appelé mais il ne peut pas la faire marcher. Il tourne vidé. C’est tant pis! Heuresement, je peux me mettre dans le bureau en face et le réseau wifi marche.
Pendant ce temps on attend pour un autre personne de réparer la porte.
Update: Deux autres personnes sont arrivés. Ils ne l’ont pas réparé. Par contre, ils ont cassé completement la serrure. Il reste un trou dans le porte òu la serrure était.
Make French people laugh
The French presidential elections are coming up soon. At lunch I asked my French colleagues where the polling stations are usually for elections. The answer, quite logically, are schools and other public facilities. Then I asked, jokingly, “on ne va pas aux églises pour voter?”. That brought a hearty round of laughs and a “Je crois que c’est que dans les Etats-Unis qu’on vote dans l’église”. Yes, only in the U.S. do you vote for candidates for public office in church.
Peanut butter in a can!?!?
One thing I miss from the States is peanut butter. The real kind, not the partially hydrogenated vegetable oil kind loaded with sugar.
Perhaps it’s only me, however.
It seems that only Americans consume peanut butter. In Japan, one can only find a whipped peanut butter cream type spread or expensive imported brands, which aren’t very good. It’s not easy to find real peanut butter.
In France it’s a bit easier to find non-import (at least not from outside the EU) brands of peanut butter. Still, it’s not so common.
Anyways, look at what my wife found. Peanut butter in a can!
The picture of the grinning kid, helping himself to some, on the outside tells us that it is GOOD.
I wouldn’t have imagined that such a thing existed.
Update: I opened up the can and transferred the contents to a glass jar. Interestingly enough, the peanut butter at the top surface, in contact with the air, changed color from a light to a dark brown, shortly after opening. I wasn’t long before the entire volume changed color. It seems that the peanut butter must have oxidized after being exposed to the air. Interesting. However, after being exposed to the air and changing color, it developed a slightly metallic taste. Not so interesting.
kamikazes
Recent suicide bombings in Algeria and Iraq have been on the TV new here in France. Here they refer to them as “kamikaze”, though I haven’t quite yet figured out if that is referring to the bomber or the act.
最近のアルジェリアやイラクの自爆テロについてフランスのテレビニュースを見ていた。自爆テロリスト（それか自爆テロの行為）はフランスで「kamikaze」（神風）と呼ばれているんです。
