How to Read the French Press LETTERS (And a Letter of Au Revoir)

JBN-20 EUROPE/RUSSIA

Jean Benoît Nadeau is a Fellow of the Institute studying “the resistance of the French to the trend ICWA of economic and cultural globalization.” How to Read the French Press LETTERS (and A Letter of Au Revoir)

By Jean Benoît Nadeau Since 1925 the Institute of Current World Affairs (the Crane- PARIS, France MAY 2001 Rogers Foundation) has provided long-term fellowships to enable As I prepare to leave France outstanding young professionals and return to Canada, I’m go- to live outside the United States ing through two filing cabinets and write about international of clippings that have accumu- areas and issues. An exempt lated over the last two years and operating foundation endowed by half. Yesterday night, to my the late Charles R. Crane, the great surprise, I came across one Institute is also supported by clipping dating from the year contributions from like-minded 1974. This means I had clipped individuals and foundations. a newspaper dealing with France at the age of nine. Given that I was not much interested TRUSTEES in the topic back then, it proves Carole Beaulieu I was already compulsive about Mary Lynne Bird clipping. Steven Butler William F. Foote Boy, do I ever clip! I clip for Pramila Jayapal the newsletters I write, wrote, Peter Bird Martin will write, should write, and Ann Mische won’t write. I clip for books un- Dorothy S. Patterson derway, books projected and Paul A. Rahe books I’ll never write. I clip for Carol Rose my personal files. I clip for my Every other year, I get swamped in clippings and Chandler Rosenberger wife Julie. I clip for friends. I clip I have to do a general cleanup. John Spencer for my parents. I clip all the Edmund Sutton time. I’d be like a squirrel if squirrels clipped. I gather nuts of information. I Dirk J. Vandewalle bury them in files and files of documentation under the most absurd categories: Sally Wriggins prehistory, homosexuality, Algeria, Judaism, aviation, World War I. Every two years or so, I go through every single file and article, reclassify them and throw HONORARY TRUSTEES out about half of them. Don’t ask me how that 1974 article got through 27 years David Elliot of reclassification! David Hapgood Pat M. Holt Why clip nowadays, when we have the fantastic resources in electronic da- Edwin S. Munger tabases and the extraordinary power of the computer? Because it’s not the same Richard H. Nolte thing. When I find an article interesting, I want to keep it. It’s much more effi- Albert Ravenholt cient than trying to find it five years later. Besides, it’s pretty hard to find this or Phillips Talbot that great article when you can’t quite recall it, or don’t remember exactly where it appeared. As a matter of fact, clipping is part of my thinking process. It’s accumulative. Institute of Current World Affairs The Crane-Rogers Foundation The gem of two years of clipping the French press has been two versions of Four West Wheelock Street the same story. They appeared in the April 15 edition of The International Herald Hanover, New Hampshire 03755 U.S.A. Tribune and in the April 13 edition of Libération. The English headline and sub- head say it all: “VERSAILLES STRIPPED OF TREES AGAIN — Gift of U.S. Seed- regular source have been two dailies, three weeklies and one monthly. Compared to other Fel- lows of the Institute, I admit that I’ve had it easy: opinion has been running freely in France for a long time. Three thousand six hundred twenty-six French periodicals make an abundant source to clip. And clip I did.

The problem with French information is that it’s so French. How many times have I heard Canadian and Ameri- can friends bitch and whine about the French press! Where are the facts? Where’s the context? Why are they so intellec- That’s what was left of George Washington’s tulip poplar at Versailles, after the great tual? Can’t they maintain some windstorm of December 26, 1999. Direct all applications for replacement to: King Louie, distance? Where’s the perspec- Château, 78000 Versailles. tive? Why are they so French? lings Sent Back for Violating EU Regulations.” Before I came, I held a different, less heated opinion: some publications seemed less bad than others. The International Herald Tribune’s story follows all the canons of the short feature. It starts with the context: at It didn’t take me long to realize that French papers the end of 1999, two powerful windstorms toppled mil- do very different things and read differently from those lions of trees in France, including 10,000 in Versailles in North America mostly because they’re made for the alone, among which were two tulip poplars given by French, who have special needs of their own. Since I’m a George Washington. In the aftermath, as the story goes, journalist, I thought you might want to hear my take on the students of Fayette Middle School, of Fayetteville, what I see in the press. Georgia, took it personally and convinced the U.S. For- estry Association to give 5,000 trees to France and have * * * them sent as a donation. Unfortunately, the French returned 3,000 seedlings because they failed to meet Euro- My love affair with Libération dates back to when I pean Union regulations. According to the rules of the was a rookie journalist at Voir, a nascent cultural weekly genre, the journalist leaves you to conclude that EU regu- in Montreal. Libération was our model for editorial policy, lations can be nasty to well-meaning American kids. tone and general layout, and I read it religiously for about a year in order to assimilate the form. To speak in “Jour- Naturally, Libération’s version gives another picture. nalese,” Libération is a hybrid: It’s a daily paper with a The title has an obvious undertone of glee: “3,200 AMERI- strong weekly feel, producing more feature than hard CAN TREES TURNED BACK AT THE FRONTIER” (my news. Its editors indulge in irreverent headlines and translation). The article then explains what was wrong: word play, and they use very creative, not to say daring, The 3,200 trees were evergreens, which can carry parasites that photography. Founded in 1973, Libé definitely leaned to- are unknown in Europe. EU regulations exist in order to avoid ward the left, with strong sympathies for the anarchistic a repetition of history, namely when French nurserymen in- and libertarian. Nowadays, you would say it’s clearly Bo- troduced a New-World grape vine parasite called phyllox- Bo (bourgeois bohemian). era in 1863. Ten years later, phylloxera had destroyed 100 percent of the European wine industry. Obviously, the Why Libé and not another? Over the years, Libération feelings of Georgia kids matter little in the equation, has evolved towards a more centrist attitude, but it re- which isn’t nice to say and it takes a Frenchman to say it. mains much less conservative than Le Figaro, the boring paper par excellence. Le Parisien is not bad, but too Pari- The first moral of the story is: don’t bother reading sian. France-Soir is all trash and murder, which is fun for dailies if you’re not ready to read two. The second moral relaxing at lunchtime but no more than that. As for Le is: never trust journalists. You can take a journalist’s word Monde, I’ve never been able to read that paper: it irks me. for that! Besides, Le Monde has no illustrations, or hardly any; it has only recently discovered the camera. Many of my previous newsletters have made it clear that my friends from the hiking club turned out to be a The International Herald Tribune is my Voice of great source of information on France. But in truth, my most America. I need this because, although I write for U.S. 2 JBN-20 Americans, I don’t know them all that well. Daily read- vive A Bear Attack; or Man Cements Himself To Floor of ing of the Herald has helped me assimilate some of the Home. You know, fun trivia — boy, do I miss that! What intellectual and cultural reflexes of Americans, which is this says is not that the French are impermeable to trivia important if I want to be read and understood. In the — they love it in conversation. They just have a different weekly category, Le Journal du Dimanche (a Sunday pa- idea of what the press should do. per) is the closest thing in France conforming to Anglo- American paper tradition: It doesn’t mind the anecdotal, Foreign news is one thing the French cover well, es- and gives straight reporting. Le Nouvel Observateur is the pecially Libération. France lost its colonial empire and su- weekly equivalent of Libé. Other weeklies have better cov- perpower status two generations ago, but it has kept erage of public affairs and economics, in my opinion, but many ties with former colonies. I’ve never read more they are weaker in culture. Le Nouvel Obs also publishes about Africa than since coming to France. Libé dedicates articles that are quite long, sometimes up to the length of at least four pages out of 40 to foreign news and features one of my newsletters. As to Courrier International, it’s a — and no wire-service snippets. It’s generally of good French weekly digest of all that’s been written in the for- quality: six months before the presidential elections, Libé eign press that its editors deem of interest to the French was already pointing out that American presidents are — be it about France, or the world. (I find it more useful elected by an electoral college — a commentary that was than the Economist, which has great story titles, but whose premonitory, to say the least. It also indulges in articles ideological bent makes it predictable — like Le Monde.) I that are completely beside the news. A year ago, Libé pub- also subscribe to a monthly called Historia, which gives lished Salman Rushdie’s journal of his trip to India. As historical insights into current events, often in relation to for Nouvel Obs, I remember an eight-page special on Saint pop culture and cinema. Fun. Augustine, a fifth-century Christian philosopher. From a compulsive clipper’s point of view, this is heaven. * * * French papers are often criticized for not putting facts Like most North Americans, I used to be irked by into context, but I beg to differ. French papers are meant the French press. It doesn’t give you context. Articles are for the French, primarily, and they provide facts and con- written any old how. They’re thin on facts, etc. But ap- text that suit the French. I used to think that American pearances are deceptive. and Canadian papers were far superior regarding context until I returned to North America last June for two Admittedly, most French dailies give relatively little weeks. After a year and a half in France, I knew next to space to factual information like interest rates, currency nothing about Canadian news. And guess what: I didn’t markets or the stock exchange — objective stuff. Expatri- know what most of what I read in Canadian papers was ates in serious need of hard news read the business dai- about. They were full of jargon. In that regard, The Inter- lies — Les Échos, La Tribune, Le Figaro. But even there, national Herald Tribune is in a class of its own, very much they’ll find the papers rather short on miscellany, like: apart from the French or North American press, because Man Butchers Wife, Stabs Her 246 Times; or How To Sur- it addresses readers of all horizons living in all sorts of societies. So they have to explain. When the French explain, they are pretty good at it: a newswire service like Agence France-Presse (AFP) ranks number three worldwide after Reuters and Associated Press, and its 2,000 employees do a good job at supplying solid news in more than one language. But French readers obviously seek something else.

No matter how much context an article provides, if it’s doesn’t match your interest, you won’t even see it. Five years ago, a group of very good Canadian friends offered me Le Petit Robert des Noms Propres (Robert’s Dictionary of Places and Names). In theory, a dictionary is all context. Robert’s is a very com- pete dictionary, but French: at least half the time it didn’t have the places and names I was looking for. But when I got to France, it answered all I needed to These are my daily readings, which I do at the know. In the second year of my fellow- hour of my daily bread and my daily yogurt. ship I even realized that the odd, five- Institute of Current World Affairs 3 digit numbers next to French town names were simply the zip code!

The best source for French context is named Quid. This 2,000-page book, updated every year, provides subtext for your dictionary. It’s a sort of intellectual almanac: Anything you want to know from Astronomy to Zionism is in there, sometimes in great detail. For example, Quid is where I got the information that AFP is the third biggest newswire service worldwide and em- ploys 2,000 people. This book is absolutely extraordinary, and if you’re at all interested on the French perspective, this is the reference. In my shelf of reference books, this one is now closest to me.

Naturally, there’s a vocabulary problem, and French If you only have the money for a single book, this is the one: context can be difficult reading for even a French-speak- le Quid, a 2000-page reference book on anything French. ing Canadian. Political reporters, for instance, tend to cre- ate words to make articles shorter. For instance, la rally. Sympathizers are dubbed Gaullien! No doubt there’s Chiraquie stands for Paris-under-the-reign-of-mayor- a lot of intellectual posturing in all this word-making, but Jacques-Chirac-before-he-became-President. And Prime you have to be French to cut through it, and, no, you won’t Minister Lionel Jospin’s government is labeled la Jospinie. find any of this in a dictionary — except for Gaullisme, Instead of saying “Chirac’s thinking...”, they will just say Gaulliste and Gaullien. le Chiraquisme. And, naturally, le Jospinisme. Their argu- mentation becomes chiraquienne or jospinienne. * * *

The ability of the French to come up with adjectives French newspapers are notoriously short on facts — is absolutely striking. Anything in relationship to Presi- according to American and Canadian readers. dent Georges Pompidou (1969-74) is dubbed pompidolien. President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing (1974-1981) was Two years of reading the American and French press giscardien, naturally. Adjectives like rocardien, barriste, daily have taught me a thing or two about facts. The con- maurien and juppéen refer to the governments of Prime trast I made earlier between Libération’s and The Interna- Ministers Michel Rocard, Raymond Barre, Pierre Maurois tional Herald Tribune’s version of the same story shows and Alain Juppé. Even some ministers are granted spe- plainly how facts and quotes can be used to hide biases. cial adjectival status, like fabiusien, chevènementiste, pascuaien, The International Herald Tribune’s version, by extensively magdalenien for Ministers Fabius, Chevènement, Pasqua quoting kids, teachers, school directors and public-rela- and Madelin. I cannot help bringing one ultimate adjec- tions officers, organizes facts to make it clear that EU regu- tive to you: bourdivin, relating to philosopher Pierre lations are nasty toward well-meaning kids — without Bourdieu. Divine! ever saying so. The IHT article omits a key fact: those regulations were set primarily to prevent the spread of Naturally, this tendency to raise any kind of differ- tree diseases. The well-meaning kids could have created ence to the level of a school of thought brings on the most an arboreal foot-and-mouth-style disaster had it not been horrific spells of hair splitting. De Gaulle, for instance, for the regulations. generated Gaullisme, which is straightforward. A politician belonging to his party is said to be Gaulliste, natu- I don’t blame the reporter for this omission. Her editor could have edited out the key information. But it’s odd that they didn’t see how important it was. The Libération article was published two days before. Besides, there was so much factual detail about other things in the IHT version. Did you know that “Scotts Co., maker of Miracle-Gro plant food, contributed 106 mature trees, including a direct descendant of one of Washington’s tulip poplar”? The point is clear: facts are not objective.

The French have a different attitude toward facts. Be- cause they are more up-front about opinion, reporters will state their own views clearly, without attempting to hide the fact that they’re doing it. This doesn’t mean that French articles are devoid of “facts” — some are quite Two essential tools for my breakfast. full of them indeed — but opinions and impressions are 4 JBN-20 also regarded as fact, strange as it may seem. The reason ceeds from a different spirit. for this is that, culturally, they have no time for under- statement and have no illusions about objectivity. But if My former editor-in-chief at Montreal’s L’actualité, you come from an American tradition that values fact Jean Paré, used to say in his customary syncretic fashion: over opinion, then you understate your own judgment “Don’t express yourself, communicate!” This is a funda- and let the facts “speak” for themselves.” When French mental notion in journalism and this distinction is at the journalist consider the “Anglo-Saxon” emphasis on fact, root of the difference between French papers and Anglo- they call it manipulative. American ones.

One thing the French are never factual about, in any Communication is a mental exercise by which the sense of the word, is privacy, especially that of politicians writer interrogates himself on three levels: What do I have — but not only politicians. They don’t think it’s interest- to say? What’s the best way to say it? How will it be re- ing to know about the intimate relations of presidents, ceived? It’s not by chance that the same word, communi- and what they do with cigars. The political class is so cations, is applied to broadcasting. A radio station can tightly knit in Paris that you don’t start asking too many transmit whatever it wants, but there’s no communica- personal questions because you might anger just about tion if there’s no receiver tuned in at the other end. You everyone who matters. Besides, privacy laws are ex- read me? tremely stringent in France, and journalists clearly self- censor themselves for fear of libel. In the case of an ac- Expression is something else. With transmission, notion for defamation, the reporter must not only prove that body cares whether receivers are on or not, or whether his facts are straight but that he had no intention of harm- the transmission is appropriate. Most good articles blend ing the plaintiff. communication and expression, to a degree. And sometimes, in bad writing, it’s clear that the writer has been For the French, words are facts too, and the way a figuring out what he meant as he wrote and, if he suc- thing is said is part of the fact. Naturally, there’s some ceeded, was too lazy to edit himself. Pure communica- decoding to do, and learning of terms and catch phrases, tion and pure expression are boring. The difference be- but that’s the whole point of doing a fellowship. There’s tween the French and the Anglo-American is mainly one no dictionary for that. of emphasis.

The French love rhetoric. It’s their secret art. They Communication is the main aim of the Anglo-Ameri- love debate. They expect their Presidents to be authors can press. Strangely, it’s analogous to the principle of com- of books and to read poetry before G-7 conferences. They munication in advertising, where the message must be cover politics as a function of who had une petite phrase (a received, otherwise consumer won’t buy the soap. The clever little sentence, meaning a jab). For instance, last relationship between the two is not innocent because the fall, a former assistant to President Jacques Chirac had US and Canadian press are literally littered — if you al- recorded a testimony on videotape before his death. He was accusing Chirac of having organized a net- work of corruption that collected 100 million dol- lars, and of having been witness to at least one exchange of a briefcase that contained one million dol- lars. Naturally, the press went berserk. A few days later, Chirac qualified the allegations as abracadabrantesque (a neologism I translate loosely into “preposterifying”). The press liked the term so much (a borrowing from Dumas) that they talked about the word and what there was in it and behind it and beneath it for two days.

Another example is the ritual of the President’s or the Prime Minister’s New Year Greetings on TV. What did the president mean in his vows? Was it a dig at the Prime Minister? Is he sending a message on the budget? In 2000, the press expounded on this for two weeks until yet another oil tanker had the decency to sink off the coast of Brittany. This is a very silly habit in the French press: no indentation. It makes all writing look like a single mass of words, where ideas * * * have no beginning or end. Libération, Le Nouvel Obserateur and Historia are subject to this particular phobia, but Le Journal The French press is no less French than the du Dimanche and L’Histoire are converted to good sense. But French themselves, and the very way they write pro- hey, what matters is to express yourself, right? Institute of Current World Affairs 5 low me this alliteration — with advertizement of all types. tion to their expertise. There are experts in the French press, but also a lot of intellectuals — and since intellec- Many attribute the worldwide penetration of English- tual readers keep a close watch on papers, papers tend to language culture to some innate quality in the language conform to their taste. itself. In my opinion, it’s rather the spirit of communication that is behind the penetration of American media — There are advantages and disadvantages connected although lurking military and fantastic growth might also to the strong status of intellectuals. A definite plus is that help.. writers and editors do not necessarily aim at the lowest common denominator. So writers tend to express them- French dailies (Parisian ones, anyway) are almost selves more precisely — even financial analysts — and completely devoid of advertizement. The definite impres- sometimes with affectation. They will not write exit les sion that comes out of it is that reporters are hired to ex- politiciens, but exunt les politiciens. However, overdone af- press themselves. Some are better communicators than fectation can lead to very bad writing. You should see others, but it’s not a principle they adhere to uniformly. the sentences I read. Unbelievable. With inversion of subject, object and verb, including commas, colons and semi- Consequently, confusion of genres in the French press colons, five or six layers of subjunctive clauses, the whole is extreme. There are five basic genres. News is straight reporting. Reportage is more im- pressionistic reporting. Analysis is meant to explain the news. A Column is a privilege of self-expression given to deserving journalists. Editorial is the voice of authority. In the Anglo-American tradition, papers label each article by genre and expect writers to stick to the format. This is perfectly logical in a world of communication, where clarity and readability are paramount.

In the French press, genre limits are fuzzier. In very bad cases, reporters try to do news, reportage, analysis and columnizing all at once. Most of the time, reporting is interspersed with commentary, and impressions. This makes the writing difficult to decode by a North American reader attuned to the rules of square communication — square in all senses of the word, the French would say. Meet my pet peeve, Jean-Paul Sartre himself. In spite of the fact that he had many contradictors, the general say in the intellectual milieu was, “better It took me a good year to figure out be wrong with Sartre than right with anyone else.” It just goes to show what French journalists were trying to do you what sort of spirit French journalists have to overcome. amid all this confusion. They were simply trying to develop a thesis with two or three points, and gamut. It reads like German translated literally. Because sub-points. This is plain chivalric prowess: ordinary re- of the strong French emphasis on expression, editors don’t porting is difficult, but it’s even harder to do reporting necessarily attempt to make sure that the rules of good with a thesis. French readers appreciate the attempt. Un- communication are respected. fortunately, not all reporters have the brio to do such a thing, so it can lead — it does lead — to confusion. When One sad consequence of this aspect of French writ- you find yourself in a situation where you have to wait ing, in journalism and books, is that it leads people to for the fifth or seventh paragraph to understand what conclude that the French language is a much less effec- the thesis of the article is all about, it’s just bad writing. tive instrument of communication than, say, English. I disagree with this, at least in the case of classic French This strong emphasis on self-expression and thesis writing, and I have an example that proves the contrary. development comes, in my opinion, from the place of the Back when I lived in Montreal, I had three encyclope- intellectual in French society. Intellectuals are people who dias: one Larousse 1898, one Britannica 1960 and one can express forcefully or brilliantly any idea, because they Universalis 1984. About 10 years ago, after reading a few have studied it thoroughly or because they feel strongly pages of a novel by Honoré de Balzac, I thought it advis- about it. They are not experts — a big plus in the Anglo- able to read the article on Balzac in my 1984 Universalis. American press, which holds intellectuals in disregard. I thought: “They’re French, he’s French; they’ll say some- Experts are expected to express themselves only in rela- thing intelligent.” In fact, it was so intelligent I couldn’t 6 JBN-20 get through the 20-page article, which addressed the liarity: everybody is French from France. Maybe here and metaphysical meaning of Balzac and his white suit. So I there you’ll find the odd Swiss or Belgian reporter, but turned to my 1960 Britannica. It told in six pages the life there certainly are no Quebeckers — not a single one. of Balzac, his work and the meaning of his work. Cut The only one I know at Radio France International is there and dry. As to the 1898 Larousse, they achieved this in because he speaks about half a dozen languages, includ- two thirds of a page. That’s writing. ing beautiful English. But in the print press, nobody. Which is odd, because in the Anglo-American press, cir- Something happened to French writing about 50 culation between countries is important. The fact that years ago that made it clumsy and hermetic. I’ve spoken Rupert Murdoch and Conrad Black are Australian and to many people about this and there are many explana- Canadian is not an obstacle to being media tycoons in tions that all point in the same direction. In the post-war the US and Great Britain. And I won’t even bother to name years, Communism took a very dominant position among the number of Canadians in the US press, including an- intellectuals and artists and it imposed not only a type of chormen. Trans-national circulation in the movie busi- discourse but an aesthetic of denseness very close to the ness is even more important. style of Marx. One person I spoke to insisted that they were trying to use German structure with French words. This sort of external input is unthinkable in France. Then the Nouveau Roman imposed the total Why? Because most top journalists come from the top deconstruction of traditional structures. Somehow it got écoles. Foreigners, who most certainly didn’t attend those into the heads of writers that you had to be original, even schools, don’t belong to the right circles. They don’t un- at the cost of intelligibility, and that sticking to formulas derstand how to question a French politician or business- and tested forms was old fashioned, conservative and man, because they have peculiar rules of politeness and out of it. It trickled down to the way they wrote books conduct. French-speaking Quebeckers, who haven’t gone (just try to read Foucault), screenplays and journalism, through this acculturation, are flawed by “writing like naturally. In such a tightly-knit society where much of Anglo-Saxons,” which irks the French. taste is decided in salons and among precious groups of intellectuals close to political circles, it contaminated ev- I won’t probe too deeply into the problems of per- erything. But really: this is not the way the French lan- spective because, to be frank, most journalists, be they guage is. Just read Zola or Camus to convince yourself. French or Anglo-American, are condemned to write very short articles of 500 words or less (this one is 6,000). If It is easy to believe that what’s written in the press is they do have perspective, they must drop most of it in true, and therefore a good mirror of reality — be it con- order to fit the space they have. And if they don’t have tent or form. The entire self-justifying discourse of the 6,000 words to say, they can’t have much perspective. press is based on this. Supposing that all is 100 percent true, it cannot be a complete (or a good) mirror of reality, Lack of perspective leads to what I call the weather- in my opinion. So you can imagine what happens when forecast syndrome. Lately, there has never been more re- the facts are not true, or partial. To determine what’s reportage on nature going wrong (floods, storms, hurri- ality, journalists and editors rely mainly on what other canes, landslides). All this is very exhilarating, but I don’t journalists have written and what other editors have ed- believe for a minute that nature is angrier nowadays than ited. Reality tends to become what they’ve read about it ever was. Measurements do not date more than 125 what they cover. It’s pretty much like a bunch of intellec- years — how then can we believe that this month is the tual sheep: Nothing happens, nobody moves, then one worst ever? And what does it prove if this is the worst goes, a few follow and then the entire herd rushes, until flood in 125 years? What has changed is the number of there’s nowhere to go and nothing happens again. This media that report these weather disasters (in particular applies no only to the news, but also to context, and to the hundreds of new TV chains hungry for good, spec- form and even to taste. tacular footage). The difference: there are more weather- reporting sheep in the flock. And naturally, the weather- * * * men also have the incentive of economic pressure. How so? Well, think of all the public and private institu- Lack of perspective is another issue often raised about tions that monitor the weather and that depend on the French press. When I read a Paris paper, I never for- funding in order to exist. They get more funds if ev- get that it’s a Paris perspective, not a French one. The eryone is convinced that it’s the end of the world and circulation of Libération is a mere 170,000 copies. Figaro that the weathermen can tell you when the sky will fall. sells twice as many. Le Monde: about the same, at 390,000. This leads everyone to exaggerate. I don’t debate the ob- This is half the circulation of a regional daily like Ouest jectivity of storms: I just say that coverage is very inter- France, whose market is Brittany and some of Normandy. pretative. Truth is, few Paris papers are sold outside of Paris. They are regional, and they cater to their local elite, which hap- Whenever the French start talking about a titillating pens to be the one elite running the rest of the country. issue — abuse, rape, poverty, policy on preventive de- tention, use of torture in questioning, and so on — I al- The sociology of the French press has another pecu- ways question the article itself in order to find the agenda Institute of Current World Affairs 7 between the lines. Why now? What’s new about this? turning fascist? How long before France collapsed into a Often, it boils down to a form of journalistic intoxication totalitarian regime? In my opinion, there was no big deal. with sensation, and I know the topic is something else. It’s difficult to believe that there aren’t 15 percent of rac- That saves time. And it helps if I’m asking the right question. ists in the US or in Canada too, but can they cast their Result: I am not at all convinced that there’s a greater propor- votes so distinctively? I am not trying to downplay the tion abuse, rape and pedophilia among populations now than, gravity of the Extreme Right. I’m just saying that nobody say, 50, 150, 250 or 850 years ago, whatever they say. So, the asked the right question: How do the French manage to real question is, why the awareness now? “affirm” racism in a single party, and the others not? This is a much more interesting question but one that is rarely Five years ago, the French Extreme Right captured asked. 15 percent of the vote in Regional elections. The press — French and foreign — expanded on this for about five Anyway, if you ever find an article on this, please years, asking what was wrong with the French? Were they send me the clipping: I have a place for it. ❏

Paris — May 3, 2001

If you’ve come this far in your reading, I simply wish to thank you for the attention. I know this sounds corny, but you’ve occupied most of my thoughts for two years. I simply cannot leave without acknowledging my debt to you, to the Institute and to Peter, especially. By the time you read this newsletter, I’ll probably have left France and pronounced my returning-fellow’s speech. There are many topics I wish I had had the time and chance to write about — privacy, schooling, family, labor relations, self-employment, anti-Americanism, Germany and Europe. At the risk of sounding predictable, I wish I had had two more years. But enough self-pitying. This is embarrassing. I’m glad to say that much of what I had not time to write will find a place in the two books that were assigned to me this year and that should appear sometimes in 2002 (or 2003, you know how publishers are). All winter, I’ve been working on a book for French publisher Payot. It’s a humorous travelogue that shows impressions, people and anecdotes as they occur. Directed primarily to a French-speaking public, the book for Payot contains a lot of material that didn’t appear in the newsletters for lack of space and time. Regarding an English version, the decision is out of my hands, but rest assured I’m doing my best to make it an obvious decision. The other book, for US publisher Sourcebooks, is closer to the newsletters, although it’s to be signed jointly with my wife Julie Barlow. It analyzes the French character, with a focus on values and their conception of the State, and attempts to answer why the French (don’t) resist globalization although they seem to. I also have plans for three more books and many magazine articles. This should keep me busy for a while. So, to paraphrase Bogart and Hemingway, I will always have Paris, for Paris is a moveable feast. Now, to the moving feast! Jean Benoît Nadeau INDEX

A Bédé 18.1 Chateaubriand, François René de 9.3 being Canadian 1.4 Chaudenson, Robert 6.7 Ablutions 3.3 Békés (an Ibo term for white) 15.3 Chauvet, Jean-Marie 8.10 abolition of slavery 15.3 Bellifontaine 13.8 cheese 9.8 Abolitionists 15.4 belote 18.6 Chevreuse valley 13.7 aborigine 13.9 Bélouga 9.12 child labor 5.6 abracadabrantesque 20.5 Bergerac 13.3 Chirac, Jacques 10.2, 10.9, 16.3, 16.9, 17.11, 20.4 Abus de confiance (Breach of Trust) 10.1 Besançon 11.1, 11.2, 11.5 Christian Bichet 4.7 abusive pricing 5.4 Bichet, Christian 4.7 Christian X 10.7 Académie (school board) 16.9 Black Forest 14.10 cimetière des Saints-Innocents 8.7 Académie française 6.9, 10.9 blitzkrieg 10.3, 11.7 cinema 18.3 Académie of Strasbourg 19.2 Blue Line 14.10 cinéphiles (cinema lovers) 18.3 accent 1.5 Blum, Léon 7.8 circulation 20.7 accents 6.9 Bo-Bo (bourgeois bohemian) 20.2 Cités 16.6 Ader, Clément 12.9 Bois-le-Roi 13.4 Civil Code 2.5 administrative law 17.10 bond ratings 7.6 civil servants 17.8 Adventures of Astérix the Gaul 18.1 “Bonjour!” 1.1 Clandestine Poems 10.2 advertising 20.5 borders 14.1, 14.2 Clavet, Bernard 18.4 Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique (The botte 19.6 Clavier, Guy 15.5 Agency for Technical and Cultural Cooperation) Bourdel, Pierre 10.8 cliques 19.2 6.5 Bourdieu, Pierre 20.4 Clovis 17.3 Agence France-Presse (AFP) 20.3 Boutros Boutros-Ghali 6.1, 6.6 Club Med 7.8 Agence nationale pour les chèques-vacances 7.8 Bouveresse, Paul 11.3 Club-Alpin Français 14.8 Agriculture Department 15.8 Boxing Day 12.1 CNES (Centre national d’études spatiales) 7.4 agrobusiness 4.2 Bressand, Jean-Marie 11.1, 11.7 CNRS (Centre National pour la Airbus 9.12 Bressand, Virgile 11.8 la Recherche Scientifique) 19.2 Alapage 12.8 Bretagne (Brittany) 9.11 coffee 15.7 Albigesians 9.12 Bretagne, Anne de 9.11 collaboration 11.1 Alcatel 9.11 Briançon 14.4 colonization 6.3 Algeria 6.4 Britannica 20.6 Commissariat général aux question juives (Ministry of Alliance Française 19.10 British Post Office 12.3 Jewish Affairs) 10.8, 11.1 Almanach du Facteur (The Mailman’s Almanac) 17.1 Brossard, H.L. 9.6 commissions of conciliation 2.7 alpine clubs 14.6 Bulgaria 6.6 Common Market 7.5 Alsace 9.9 Bureau Français du Livre (French Book Bureau) 6.10 communes (French for municipalities) 16.4 Amazon.com 12.3 Busch, André 11.9 communication 20.5 America on Line 12.6 business class 5.9, 5.10 Compiègne 11.5 Amiral-de-Coligny Street 16.3 business ineptitude 5.2 Compuserve 12.6 Andorra 17.3 buy French 5.9, 7.4 concours (competitive examination) 19.1, 19.4 andouillette de Troyes (pork tripe, stuffed veal and pork Confédération National du Logement (National stomach) 4.5 C Conferation for Housing) 2.8 Angoulême 5.4 Conforma 5.5 anti-Dreyfusards 10.7 cabales 18.5 Conseil Constitutionnel 17.10 anti-economic mentality 5.3 Cabinet Théabati 2.2 Conseil d’État (State Council) 15.11, 17.10 anti-Semitism 10.1, 11.1 caddie 18.7 conversation 9.4, 13.4 AOC (Appelation d’Origine Controlée) 4.7, 7.4 calendrier de la Poste (the postal calendar) 13.5 Coordination des enfants juifs survivants de la Shoah AOP (Appelation d’Origine Protégée) 4.8 Camargue 13.9 (Committee of the Jewish Children Aoûtien 7.7, 7.8 camp of Compiègne 10.3 Survivors of the Holocaust) 10.10 apartment rental 2.1 Canada 6.3 Copé, Jean-François 16.9 Aragon, Louis 10.2 Canadians 10.6 coq à l’âne (literally, going from rooster to Ariane space project 5.7 Canard enchaîné 10.9 donkey) 9.5, 13.4 arrêté (decree) 16.4 Canaris, Wilhelm 11.3 Corsica 15.11, 17.12 arrondissements 1.5 Capet, Hugues 17.1 Courrier International 20.3 artillery school of Fontainebleau 11.2 car rental service 5.4, 7.11 Cousteau, Jacques-Yves 9.6, 10.9 arts 1.6 carabiner 8.4 Cousteau, Pierre-Antoine 10.9 asperges vinaigrette 9.8 card games 18.6 credit cards 5.7 Assemblée Nationale 17.10 Caribbean 15.1 Crédit Lyonnais 7.5 Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie 6.9 Carrefour 5.2 Cro-Magnon man 13.9 Astérix against Caesar 18.4 carte de séjour 1.5 crottes-bin 16.2 ATTAC, Association pour la taxation des transactions Casabianca submarine 11.5 cuisine 4.1, 14.8 financières pour l’aide aux citoyens (Association Casino 11.2, 11.3 Cultural Center for Breton Language 9.11 for the Taxation of Financial Transaction 7.2 “Casino" 11.1 cultures 14.9 attentistes (ones who wait) 11.6 caste 5.9 Curien, Philippe 9.10 Audencia 19.4 Castelpapals 13.8 curtain calls 18.4 AUPELF-UREF 6.5 Castorama 18.8 Auschwitz 10.3 Castro, Jean-Luc 19.4 D Austria 10.6 Castrogontériens 13.8 avalanche 14.5 Cathars 9.12 Dans les abîmes de la terre 8.2 Aymé, Marcel 11.6 Catholic bishops 10.9 de Château-Thierry, Antoine Le Bout 19.4 Catholic Church 17.3, 17.7 de Gaulle, Charles 6.4, 10.2, 10.9, 11.1, 11.6, 16.10, B Céline, Louis-Ferdinand 10.9 17.7, 18.1 cellular phones 5.7 De Mangeon, Bernadette 13.2 Baccalauréat 19.2 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (National de Thury, Héricart 8.7 bad Jews 10.7 Center for Scientific Research) 4.3 debate 20.5 Badinter, Robert 10.8 certificate of employment 2.2 Débattre du sexe des anges (arguing over the sex of Balnocataranchais 13.8 Césaire, Aimé 15.5 angels) 5.10 banana 15.3 Chabert, Jacques 8.1, 8.5, 8.10 deconstruction 20.7 banana culture 15.7 Chabins (mulatto) 15.3 decree of 12 Messidor An VIII 16.4 banana plantations 15.7 Chambre des propriétaires de Paris 2.8 décret d’application 17.10 Banque Nationale de Paris 5.7 Champlain, Samuel de 9.2 defamation 20.5 Barre, Raymond 20.4 Champs Élysées harbor 13.2 Delacruz, Jean-Paul 8.5 Basse-Terre (Leeward Land) 15.1 charity 17.4 Delage, Jean-François 7.2, 13.2 Baudouin, Anne-Gaëlle 19.5, 19.6 Charlemagne 17.3 Delannoy, Philippe 7.5 Beaujolais 13.8 Charles de Gaulle 6.4 Delestraint, Charles Antoine 11.4 Beauval 16.6

Entries refer to ICWA Letters (JBN-1, JBN- 2, etc.) and page, with Letter number given before each page entry. Institute of Current World Affairs 9 Denmark 10.7 foundations 5.9 I Depardieu, Gérard 18.4 Fraenkel, Jean-Jacques 10.1, 10.3, Depardieu, Julie 18.4 10.4, 10.5, 10.8, 10.10 ibexes 13.1 Départements (administrative unit) 15.2, Fraenkel, Jeanine 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5 IBM 12.6 15.11, 16.1, 17.3 Fraenkel, Josette 10.5 image d’Épinal 18.2 Départements d’Outremer (DOM) 15.9 Fraenkel, Roger 10.2, 10.3 IMF 7.6 department store 5.2 France Culture channel 10.2 immensity 13.7 deposit 2.2 France Telecom 5.7, 12.3, 12.7 Immigration 1.6 député (Representative in the French Parliament) 16.5 France-Soir 20.2 imports 15.7 Dermouche, Aïssa 19.9 Francel, Aline 10.4 indemnity 10.10 descender 8.4 Franco-German Brigade 4.5 indolence 5.6 Desjuzeur, Bertrand 2.6, 2.8 Franco-German war of 1870-71 8.7 infrastructure 15.6 Desmarest, Thierry 19.8 Francophonie 6.1, 6.2, 6.6, 7.4, 9.6, 18.3 INSEAD, (international school of management) 5.8 d’Estaing, Valéry Giscard 20.4 Free French Forces 11.5 Inspection générale des carrières development planning 16.10 French administration 15.10 (General Inspector of Quarries) 8.7 Deyon, Pierre 19.2 French borders 14.1 Institut de Sciences politiques de Paris 7.4 Digonnet, François 13.1 French Commonwealth 6.4 Institut Européen des Sciences du Goût et des Dion, Céline 6.10 French Constitution 15.9 Comportements Alimentaires (European Dionisîliens 13.8 French Guiana 15.1, 15.11 Institute of Taste Science and Eating Behaviour) Diplôme d’Études Approfondiesdi French Guyana 10.6 4.5 (In-depth studies diploma) 19.10 French press 20.2 Institut National d’Appellation d’Origine (INAO) 4.7 Diplôme d’Études Universitaires Frenchness 1.2 insurance 5.7 Générales (DEUG) 19.10 Fresnes 9.7, 16.9 intelligentsia 5.9 Directe Finance 12.9 Fribourg, Anne-Marie 2.6, 2.8 International Herald Tribune 20.2 Direction générale de Télécommun-ications (telecom Front National 16.7 International Standard Organization (ISO) 6.6 division) of the PTT(Poste, Téléphone et Internet 5.7, 12.2 Télégraphe) 12.3, 12.4 G investigating magistrates 17.11 Direktor von Soldatenkino Iraq 7.4 (Director of the Soldier's cinema) 11.2 Galeries Lafayette 18.8 Islam in France 3.1 Djerba Island 7.7 garde champêtre (rural warden) 16.5 Italian Jews 10.7 DO (Denominacion de Origen) 4.7 Gare de Lyon 13.2 Italy 10.4 dog owners 16.2 Gasparovic, Oscar 11.3 dogs 16.1 GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, now J Dondoux, Jacques 12.4 the World Trade Organization) 6.5 DOP (Denominazione di Orizine Protetta) 4.7 Gaz de France (the gas utility) 2.5 Jacobinism 5.8, 15.10 Dreyfus, Alfred 10.6, 11.8 Gendarmerie (rural equivalent of the National Police) Jandin, Jean-Claude 17.4 Dreyfusards 10.7 16.5 J’annonce (I advertise) 12.5 droit au logement (right to be housed) 2.1, 2.6 génépi 13.7 jazz 1.6 Duchy of Savoy 14.1 genocide 10.2 Je suis partout (I am everywhere) 10.9 Dunkirk 11.7 geography 13.1 Jeep rallies 13.7 German culture 14.10 Jewish bank accounts 10.8 E Germans during the Occupation of the 1940s 8.7 Jewish census of October 1941 10.3 Gestapo 10.4 Jewish quotas 10.3 Eaton 7.4 Gillette 12.4 Jews, Persecution of 10.1 École française de spélélogie 8.9 Girard, François 6.9 Johnston, Thorfinn 18.1 École Nationale d’Administration Globalization 7.1, 7.2 joint tenancy 2.4 (National School for Public Administration, ÉNA) Goldmann, Jean-Jacques 6.10 Joséphine 15.4 19.1, 19.4 good Jews 10.7 Jospin, Lionel 7.5, 17.8, 17.12, 20.4 École Nationale d’administration 5.9, 16.5 Gopnik, Adam 17.7 juge d’instruction (investigating magistrate) 10.11 Economist 20.3 Gore, Al 12.7 Juilletistes 7.7, 7.8 Edict of Nantes 6.3 Gozlan, Charles 2.2 Jura Mountains 13.9 education 15.7, 19.1 Grand Amphi 19.6 Édufrance 19.10 Grand Beau 14.4, 14.5 K Enfants oubliés (Forgotten Children) 10.10 Grand O (Grand Oral examination) 19.4 Enlightenment 6.7 Grande Mosquée de Paris 3.2 Kaiser 11.4 Environment Minister Dominique Voynet 4.1 Grande-Terre (Big Land) 15.2 “Kaiser” 11.2, 11.4 Épinal 18.2 grandes écoles 19.1 Kesler, Jean-François 19.4 equality 17.7 graphology 2.3 Khadafi, Muammar 11.10 État civil (birth, marriage and death registries) 16.4 Gross National Product 7.5 Kleinmann, Louis 11.2 Euro 2000 Cup 18.6 Grotte du Roy (King’s Grotto) 8.3 Kongos 15.3 EuroDisney 3.6 grotto of Massabielle 8.2 Kosovo war 5.9 European Commission 7.5 Guadeloupe 15.1, 15.11, 17.8 Kouchner, Bernard 7.2 European Parliament 17.9 Guillaumot, Axel 8.7 Kramer, Hartmut 19.5 evergreens (parasites) 20.2 Gulf Stream 13.2 “évolués” (evolved) 10.7 L Exception culturelle 6.5 H exports 15.6 la Brie 16.6 expression 20.5 Habitat 5.5 La Comédie Française 1.6 Hachette 12.4 La Fontaine, Jean de 1.6 F Halloween 9.1 La France aux Français (France for the real Hanoi 6.6 Frenchmen) 10.9 Fanon, Frantz 15.5 Hautes-Pyrénnées (Upper Pyrenees) 8.2 la France résistante 11.8 farm subsidies 4.1 HEC (Hautes Études Commerciales) 19.1 La Galette des Rois 9.1 faute professionnelle (professional misdemeanor) 5.6 Henri-IV 19.9 La Plantation Grand Café Béliar 15.7 Fayette Middle School 20.2 hiking 9.3, 13.1 la Région monodépartementale (a one-Département Fédération Française de Belote 18.6 hiking club 20.2 Re 15.11 Fédération française de spéléologie 8.1, 8.9, 9.10 Histoire des Juifs de France La Rochelle 13.8 Félix Kir 11.10 (History of French Jews) 10.8 la Sologne 9.7 Festival international de la bande dessinée (Interna- Historia 20.3 La Soufrière volcano 15.3 tional Comic-Strip Festival) 5.4 holidays 7.8 la Toussaint (All Saints' Day) 9.1, 9.2 fines 16.2 holocaust 10.6 La Tribune 20.3 Fischler, Claude 4.3, 4.7, 4.9 home insurance 2.4 laboratoire d’économie appliquée (applied economics Fitoussi, Jean-Paul 7.4, 7.5 Honoré de Balzac 20.6 laboratory) 15.7 flowstone 8.4 Hôtel de ville (city hall) 16.2 L’actualité 20.5 foie gras 4.3 housing 1.5 Laidet, Louis 7.4 Fontainebleau 13.2, 13.6 Hundred Years War 17.1 language 1.1, 14.8, 14.10 football 18.6 Huppert, Catherine 18.4 Lannion 9.11 Fort Louis-Delgrès 15.3 Largo Winch 18.1 Fort-de-France 15.5 Larousse 20.6

Entries refer to ICWA Letters (JBN-1, JBN- 2, etc.) and page, with Letter number given before each page entry. 10 JBN-20 Latin 6.7 Mathieux, Fernand 11.3 Outcault, Richard 18.2 Laval, Pierre 10.2 Matouba 15.4 L’avenir, Catherine Bertho 12.8 Mattéoli Commission on the Spoliation of Jews P L’avenir, Jean-Claude 12.8 10.8, 10.10 Lavennant, Pierre 9.11 Mattéoli, Jean 10.10 paintings 10.10 lavoir (communal washing place) 13.8 Mattysens, Jean 6.7 Papon, Maurice 10.9 Law for the Exclusion of Jews 10.3 Mauritius 6.6 Paré, Jean 20.5 Law of 1948 2.6 Maurois, Pierre 20.4 Paris 16.1 Law of 28 Pluviôse An VIII 16.4 McCabe, Robert 12.1 Parisianisme 19.10 Law of July 6, 1989 2.6 McCarthyism 18.3 Passe-Muraille 11.6 Law of Quilliot 2.6 McLuhan, Marshall 12.3 Pau 13.5 le Bel, Philippe 17.1 Meaux 16.6 peace 17.11 Le Corbeau et le Renard (the Raven and the Fox) 1.6 Médecins du monde (Doctors for the World) 7.2 pèlerinage de Compostelle le cumul des mandats (the plurality of mandates) 17.11 Médecins Sans Frontières, (Doctors Without Borders (pilgrimage of Campostela) 8.2 Le Dîner de Cons (The Dinner of Idiots) 1.1 7.2 Pellegrin, Jean-Pierre 7.3 Le Figaro 20.2, 20.3 mental protectionism 5.9 permit de séjour (resident's permit) 2.3 le Grand-Bornand. 13.1 merchandising 5.1 pesticide 15.8 Le Guide Bertrand des vacances 7.7 Messier, Jean-Marie 19.8 Pétain, Philippe 10.3, 10.7, 10.9, 11.2, 11.3, 11.6, Le Havre 9.2 metric system 7.4, 7.10 11.7, 11.8 Le Journal du Dimanche 20.3 Métropole 15.3, 15.6, 15.9 Pétanque 18.5 Le journal officiel 8.5 Michelin 7.5 Petit-Canal 15.3 Le Monde 20.2 Microsoft 12.10 Petit Robert des Noms Propres (Robert's Dictionary of Le Monde Bilingue/The Bilingual World 11.1, 11.10 Milou 18.1 Places and Names) 20.3 Le Monde Diplomatique 7.2 minimum wage 15.8 Peyrefitte, Alain 5.10 Le Nouvel Observateur 12.5, 20.3 Ministry of Education 19.3 Pfirsch, Jean-Vincent 4.5, 4.6 Le Parisien 20.2 Ministry of Equipment, Transport and Housing 2.6, 2.8 phylloxera 20.2 Le Parisien Libéré 12.5 Minitel 12.1 Picon-bière 9.10 Le Pen, Jean-Marie 10.9 Minitel rose (pink Minitel) 12.4, 12.5 Pierre-Collinet 16.6 le Préfet 15.9 Mitterrand, François 6.5, 10.9, 17.11 Pigouilles 13.8 le pressing 5.4 mobile phones 12.8 Pilote 18.2 le Tour de France 13.7 Moldavia 6.6 Plains of Abraham 6.3 Le Touring Club 13.2 Monaco 9.6, 17.3 Plougasnou 13.5 le Touring Club 13.1 Monsieur Vautour (Mr. Vulture) 2.6 Pointe-à-Pitre 15.3 le weekend (French for fin de semaine) 8.2 montagnards (highlanders, mountain people) 14.9 Polaroid 12.4 Legendre, Jacques 6.9 Moody’s 7.6 police judiciaire (judiciary police) 16.7 légion d’honneur 10.2 Môquet, Guy 11.5 Police Nationale 16.3, 16.10 Lehmann, Claude 9.9, 10.4, 11.7 Mosque Oma 3.1 political class 5.9 Lehmann, Valérie 9.8 Moulin, Jean 11.4 Poly (École Polytechnique) 19.1 l’épuration 11.8 Mount Pelée 15.5 Pompidou, Georges 20.4 Les Buttes Chaumont 8.7 Mount Thabor 14.4 Pontaillac 10.3 Les Drayères 14.6 Mugnier, Guillaume 2.1 Potier, Gérard 8.6 Les Échos 20.3 Musée océanographique 9.6 Préfet 15.11, 16.8 Les Eyzies 13.9 Museum of Deportation and Resistance 10.8 press clippings 20.1 les Marches aux esclaves (The Slaves’ Stairs) 15.3 mushroom beds 13.6 Prestel 12.3, 12.6 Les Vosges 9.9 Muslim proselytization 3.4 prestige 5.7 les yeux de merlans frits (glazed eyes of a Muslim ritual 3.5 privacy 20.5 fried fish) 5.5 Muslims 1.6 privatization 7.5 l’État des lieux (an inventory of fixtures) 2.4 produce and food products 4.2 Leterre-Robert, Thierry 7.4, 19.8 N protest 17.9 l’exception culturelle 7.4 Protestant and Resistance circles 10.9 Lhérissont, Jean 11.5 Nacht und Niebel (Night and Fog) 11.5 PTT (Poste Téléphone et Télégraphe) 12.3, 12.4 libel 20.5 Nahuatl Indians 8.2 public housing 16.6 Libération 11.1, 15.5, 20.1, 20.2, 20.3 Napoléon 15.4, 17.3 public relations 20.6 Liberation of August 1944 10.9 Narvik 11.7 public safety 16.5 liberty 17.7 Nation-State 17.11 publications 1.6 Ligne Maginot 10.3 National Institute for Economic Study and Statistics 2.6 Puebla, Mexico 8.2 Limousine 13.8 Nationalist movement 15.11 Puech, Michel 12.6 Lips, Bernard 9.10 natural barriers 14.2 Pyrenees 14.1 l’Observatoire des consommations alimentaires 4.10 négritude (the state of being black) 15.5 Loire valley 12.1 Netscape 12.7 Q Lorraine 9.9 Névache Pass 14.2, 18.6 Lortsch, André 11.7 New Brunswick 6.6, 6.10 quarries 8.5 Louis XIV 6.3, 17.1 New Caledonia 15.1, 15.10, 17.12 Quéau, Philippe 6.8, 12.10 Louis-le-Grand 19.9 New France 6.3 Quebec 6.3, 9.6 Lourdes 8.2 New Year Greetings 20.5 Quebec accent 9.6 Louvre 12.10, 16.3 Nice 10.4 Queen Victoria 17.5 Luchini, Fabrice 1.6, 10.9 Niger 6.6 Quid 20.4 Lycées 16.10 Nomad 5.7 Lyon 7.3, 9.10 Normale Sup (École Normale Supérieure) 19.1 R Lyttel, David 12.7 Nouveau Roman 20.7 Radio France International 20.7 M O refuge 13.6 refuge keepers 14.7 Maginot Line 10.3 Occitan 9.12 Régie autonome des transports de Paris-RATP Malraux, André 11.7 occupation (1940-44) 10.2 (Autonomous Transport Board of Paris) 16.3 Mammoth Cave 8.1 occupation government 10.9 Region 16.1 mangrove 15.3 OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Relevé d’Identité Bancaire (Bank ID Statement) 2.3 Manouches (Gypsies) 16.5 Development) 7.3 Rémi, George (a.k.a. Hergé) 18.2 maps 13.6 Office Français des Conjonctures Économiques Remiremont 9.8 Marais Poitevin 13.8 (French Bureau on Economic Climate) 7.4 rent insurance 2.7 Marcel, Étienne 16.3 Olympics 6.6 rental agents 2.1 Mardivirin, Sylvestre 15.6 opinion 1.3, 1.6 rental commission 2.2 Marne La Vallee 3.6 Oradour-sur-Glane 11.8 rental deposit 2.2 Marne River 13.4 Orange Pages 12.3 rental guarantee 2.2 Marsault, Éric 9.7 Oresund Channel 10.7 rental guarantor 2.3 Marsault, Jean-Marie 9.7, 12.1, 16.4 Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie 6.1 rental law 2.2 Marsault, Marie-Madeleine 9.7 orties (nettles) 13.7 rental leases 2.4 Martel, Édouard-Alfred 8.6 ossuaries 8.5 rental leasing tax 2.2 Martinique 15.1, 15.11 Ouest France 20.7 rental service charge 2.2

Entries refer to ICWA Letters (JBN-1, JBN- 2, etc.) and page, with Letter number given before each page entry. Institute of Current World Affairs 11 Republic 17.7 speleologists 8.1 Development) 6.6 République 16.1 Spinassien 13.8 underground quarries 8.5 RER (Réseau Express Régional) 3.6 SS 10.6 une République indivisible (one indivisible Republic) resistance 10.4, 11.2, 11.7 St-Pé-de-Bigorre 8.1, 8.2, 9.7 15.9 retailing 5.2 stalactites 8.3 unemployment 15.3 revendicateurs (simultaneously claiming and protesting) stalagmites 8.3 UNESCO 6.8 15.5 Stéphanois 13.8 Union Générale des Travailleurs Guadeloupéens Revenu Modulé d’Insertion: social welfare 3.6 Story, Jonathan 5.8 (General Union of Guadelupian workers) Revivre (Living again) 10.5 strikes 15.4, 17.9 15.4, 15.11 revolts of May 1968 19.3 student jobs 5.6 Union Nationale de la Propriété Immobilière Richelieu 5.3 Stuka dive bombers 11.7 2.5, 2.6, 2.8 Ricupero, Rubens 6.6 Suez canal 6.6 United Nations 6.5 Rien sur Robert (Nothing about Robert) 18.3 Sugar Islands 15.1 Universal Studios 19.8 right of ownership 2.1 sugar-cane 15.3 Universalis 20.6 Robitaille, Louis-Bernard 5.8 Surcouf, Robert 5.1 University of Pointe-à-Pitre 15.6 Rocard, Michel 20.4 Sweden 10.7 UPLG (Union pour la libération de Guadeloupe) 15.11 Roncin, Louis 12.5, 12.9 syndicats d’initative 5.4 Uruguay Round 6.5 Rossi-Landi, Gino 10.3, 10.5 Rossi-Landi, Marcelle 10.3, 10.5 T V Roy, Isabelle 19.5 rudeness 9.4 tartiflette (a sort of savory Savoy potato stew boiled in vacations 7.7 rugby 18.6 cream and gratinéed with Reblochon cheese) 4.2 Vallat, Jean-Paul 10.11 Rushdie, Salman 20.3 Tcherno 12.6 Vallat, Xavier 10.11, 11.1 rusticity 13.6 technology 5.7 Vallée Étroite (Narrow Valley) 14.2, 14.8 terrien 13.8 Van Hamme, Jean 18.1 S Territoire d’Outremer (TOM) 15.9 Vantard, Charles 13.8 Territoires 15.10 Verlan 1.7 Saint-Laurent, Yves 9.9 terroir (grassroots) 4.4, 13.8 Vichy 11.6 Salon de l’agriculture de Paris (Paris Farm Show) 4.1 TGV trains 5.7 Vichy government 10.2 Samaritaine 18.8 The Wretched of the Earth 15.5 Victoria, BC 10.6 Sarlat 12.8 Théry, Gérard 12.3, 12.4 Vietnam 6.4 Sarreguemine 11.9, 12.1 This, Hervé 4.6 Villeurbanne 9.10 Saulxures 9.10 Thorgal 18.1 violation of domicile 2.7 school 19.1 ti-punchs (wee-punches) 15.2 Virgin Mary 8.2 school holidays 17.1 Tillinac, Denis 6.2 Voir 20.2 Schtroumpfs (original name: Smurfs) 18.1 Tintin 18.1 Voltaire 6.3 Sciences Po Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris 19.8 Tobin, James 7.2 Voyage au bout de la nuit (Journey to the End of Night) scolding 5.6 Tobin Tax 7.2 10.9 Seattle Round 6.6 Tonnellier, Hélène 2.8 voyageurs 13.7 segregation 10.3 Töpffer, Rodolphe 18.2 Seine river 9.2 Total 5.9 W Seven-Year War 15.1 Toulouse 9.12, 13.5 Sèvre Niortaise River 13.8 tourism 15.7 Wanadoo 5.7, 12.8 sex chatlines 12.5 town planning 16.10 war 17.11 Shoah (Holocaust) 10.10 Trabant cars 12.1 Wars of Religions 17.1 shopping 18.7 trade 15.6 Washington, George 20.2 Sicuro, Pietro 6.9 Train à Grande Vitesse (high-speed train 13.6 weather-forecast syndrome 20.7 Sierra Negra 8.2 Trajster, Marcel 10.10 William the Conqueror 9.2 Siffre, Michel 8.2 Travail, Famille, Patrie (work, Family, Nation) 10.8 windstorms 12.1, 20.2 sink 18.8 Travexin 9.9 Wolof 6.5 ski mountaineering 14.3 Trémège, Patrick 16.2 World Bank 7.6 slavery 15.3 Tripard, Jean-François 14.1, 14.2 World Trade Organization 15.8 small shops 5.4 Truglia, Vincent 7.6 Wright, Orville 12.9 smiling 1.4 tulip poplars 20.2 snowmobiling 1.4 TV-cable service 5.7 X soccer 18.6 TV5 6.5 Société Québécoise de Spéléologie 8.1, 8.9 Twin City program 11.10 XIII 18.1 Sorbonne 19.2 Soubirous, Bernadette 8.2 U Z Soundiata Community Home 3.6 Zeppelin 12.9 Spanish Civil War 11.2 U.S. Department of Trade 15.8 Z’indiens 15.3 Spéléo-Club de Paris (Paris Speleological Club) U.S. Forestry Association 20.2 Z’oreilles (Ears) 15.3 8.1, 8.10 Un Antisémitisme ordinaire 10.7, 10.8 spéléologie 8.1 UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and

Author: Nadeau, Jean Benoît ICWA Letters (ISSN 1083-4273) are published by the Insti- Title: ICWA Letters-Europe/Russia tute of Current World Affairs Inc., a 501(c)(3) exempt oper- ISSN: 1083-4273 ating foundation incorporated in New York State with offices Imprint: Institute of Current World Affairs, Hanover, NH located at 4 West Wheelock Street, Hanover, NH 03755. Material Type: Serial The letters are provided free of charge to members of ICWA Language: English and are available to libraries and professional researchers Frequency: Monthly by subscription. Other Regions: Sub-Saharan Africa; East Asia; South Phone: (603) 643-5548 E-Mail: [email protected] Asia, Mideast/North Africa; The Americas Fax: (603) 643-9599 Web Site: www.icwa.org Institute Fellows are chosen on the basis of character, previous experi- Executive Director: Peter Bird Martin ence and promise. They are young professionals funded to spend a Program Assistant: Brent Jacobson minimum of two years carrying out self-designed programs of study Publications Manager: Ellen Kozak and writing outside the United States. The Fellows are required to report their findings and experiences from the field once a month. They © 2001 Institute of Current World Affairs, The Crane-Rog- can write on any subject, as formally or informally as they wish. The ers Foundation. The information contained in this publica- result is a unique form of reporting, analysis and periodic assessment tion may not be reproduced without the writer’s permission. of international events and issues.