The France NSR Thread

[TheOrator]

Paris: n., a well-lighted, fantastically beautiful pay-toilet, with uncharacteristically unappreciative attendants.

The Devil's Dictionary.

[guignol]

ambrose bierce?

americans have been trying to convince themselves for 200 years they hate france, but they still come in droves... funny isn't it ;)

[ilv2]

Schumi drove his last race today :( finished fourth in the brazilian grand prix but by all accounts it was a thrilling race.

Renault clinches the constructor's championship and Alonzo wins the world championship.

[Nanbawan]

Yeeees !!

http://f1.racing-live.com/f1/photos/imgactu/zoom06/podium-interlagos-z-91_221006.jpg

http://eur.news1.yimg.com/eur.yimg.com/ng/sp/afpji/20061022/061022125033.cb5h9vn11b.jpg

Very satisfied with this outcome. Not a fan of Renault as a car making company (I prefer private teams) but in the end I supported them to stop the reds march ! No Marseillaise today but that will do. I cheered for them also because next year is going to be difficult for them, so that was a golden opportunity to fill the cupboard. It will likely be a transition year in 2007 with the use of Bridgestone tyres, Fisichella and Kovalainen as drivers. But who know ?

The big question untill january will be what are their new colours since the sponsorship of the team has completely changed (ING bank and UPS for Mild Seven). Orange, yellow and brown ? :eek:

Brilliant racing by Michael BTW, no title but all eyes were on him as he stole the show before his exit.

[Nanbawan]

BTW, adding to the cocoricos :

Sebastien Bourdais (http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20061022/capt.sge.egq46.221006081345.photo00.photo.default-399x512.jpg) clinched his third consecutive crown in the american ChampCar series today. His eigth place was enough to equal a record dating back to the mid 40's ! The race was won by another Frenchman Nelson Philippe (http://sports.yahoo.com/cart/photo?slug=getty-indy_300-aus-fra-philippe-jubo_3_39_27_am&prov=getty)who got his maiden win on the australian circuit of Surfers Paradise.

http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/sp/getty/e9/full.getty-indy_300-australia-france-bourdais_5_28_07_am.jpg

Yes, Bourdais (from Le Mans) drives for Paul Newman...and for Mac Donald's...

Just waiting for Sebastien Loeb's title in WRC who unfortunately broke his arm during a mountain bike session while having a very healthy margin atop the championship. :(

[Pierre-Henri]

americans have been trying to convince themselves for 200 years they hate france, but they still come in droves... funny isn't it ;)

We're irresistible.

http://www.chronologictiming.com/pepe.jpg

[Nanbawan]

La Route du Rhum.

The classic of transatlantic yacht race starting from France is leaving Sunday at 1pm local time. This race is very famous and is the most prestigious of its kind in the country, it takes place only every four years (the WC years, that makes it easy to remember) and starts from Saint-Malo* and ends at Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe. This year's race features a record number of participants as 74 solo sailors will challenge the Atlantic ocean in the daunting automnal weather conditions. There are several yacht classes but this race is very well known because of its 'sailing F1s', multihull boats we call 'trimarans' like this (http://img.routedurhum.com/ml/images/content/orma/__geant-boat16_640.jpg) one.

I won't fool you, I'm not that much into sailing but this event certainly helps putting the region on the map. 8 years ago, as we were waiting for the traditional exit from the harbour's 'écluses' (locks), we had a steering failure on my friend's motorboat (or rather his fathers one) and we had to handle the engine to avoid collision at night with Laurent Bourgnon iirc ; in front of thousands and the media, would have been bigger memories than they are already...Anyway, contestants made their sortie this Saturday and my friend rather brought his GF to the show...I don't understand why frankly...:confused:

* The race starting line is actually located at la Pointe du Grouin (http://www3.mappy.com/sid0ORs68wKbSDMn21w/CFGMA?csl=m1&fsl=m1&gsl=m1&msl=m1&ids=&xsl=1&posl=poi&recherche=0&show_poi=0&poi_rr=0.5&poi_rx=0.6&poi_ry=0.5&lr=0.5&flash=1&gb=&out=2&wnm1=&wcm1=&nom1=&tnm1=cancale&pcm1=&tcm1=&a10m1=&xm1=&ym1=&csm1=4326&ccm1=250&brand=&gb=) (lovely name) just outside Cancale (the ridge at the N.). *chest thumping*

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y261/nanbawan/photos/route_pointe_sunset.jpg

In a few hours, this place will be black with people.

Website (http://www.routedurhum-labanquepostale.com/en/s01_home/s01p01_home.php) (English)

[YankBastard]

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=436eo2q

[AfrcnHrbMan]

ahh that bitch had it coming :cool:

[AllezParisAllezPSG]

question pour tout le monde... tous les quelques mois, je vais sur ********france.com pour voir les conneries qu'ils racontent (il y a beaucoup moins de monde sur le site depuis la derniere fois - 6 mois - une bonne chose)

donc tout le monde dit qu'une centaine de voiture sont brulees en france chaque jour... c'est vrai?! on voit les reportages des bus, mais pas sur les voitures... je serais interesse d'entendre ce que vous pensez...

[ilv2]

il faut d'abord demander d'ou ils ont tire ces chiffres. les voitures se brulent pas toutes seules, donc cela m'etonnerait que ce bilan soit correct.

edit: et non, c'est bien correct. Mais y a quand meme qqs explications logiques qui n'ont rien a faire avec ce qui se passe actuellement dans les banlieues francaises. Ainsi trouve-t-on la possibilite que ce soit en fait:
Quand on analyse ce chiffre, tout n’est pas, bien sûr, à mettre sur le dos d’éventuelles problèmes dans les banlieues, il peut aussi s’agir de règlements de compte, de suite de vols ou d’arnaques à l’assurance.
http://news.caradisiac.com/Incendies-de-voitures-suite-mais-pas-fin

[guignol]

i'm not sure if it's 100 per day, but it's clear that cars burn all the time for lots of reasons, some of them purely mechanical! if that figure boggles you, consider that over 30,000 vehicles are produced in france every day!

i remember reading last year that the whole horrible thing was practically an invention of the media: not only was there a lot of incitement due to press coverage, but the figures presented as the sign of a coming holocaust were only about 3 times the average week in, week out statistic.

another surprising statistic was that for that month, more cars had burned in the US per capita than in france. :rolleyes:

[ilv2]

oh the media, how you exaggerate so

[guignol]

as a born and bred murrican, i feel i can allow myself to comment that the schadenfreude my compatriots exhibited during last november's disturbances was misplaced.

the average american city is more dangerous on any given weekend than clichy-sous-bois or vaulx-en-velin were during the "riots", term which implies an equivalence with detroit, watts, etc... if there is a clear comparison in terms of social unrest, there can be no common measure in terms of violence.

i had to hold a little seminar for my family when we went to live a period in the states. even in my sleepy little farming hometown, you DO NOT provoke anyone on the street (which can be as simple as looking them in the eyes), and there are areas of town where you simply DO NOT GO. it took some insistance and a few news clippings (never headlines of course, just the police blotter buried in the back of the paper in small print) to convince them that going to a football tournament in the barrio is not at all like going to one in les minguettes.

i don't mean by this that the larger issue of race relations is not a weighty problem for the french republic, and one where the american experience of the 60's and 70's can offer much guidance. the US has made much progress (though much remains to be done), france very little. but before painting a picture of france as a lost nation on the verge of a cataclysm, americans should look in a mirror.

[Anti-footix]

i remember reading last year that the whole horrible thing was practically an invention of the media

seriously, we do not need to read it to know that was not true. we just need to walk the street everyday to know that.
the journalists were like "hey, young men, do want to be on tv tomorrow and show how tough you are ? do you know what sarko told ? let's go burn some cars and have fun ?"
the fact is that the "racailles" have been use by sarko and the medias. sarko needs to create problems everywhere to show how he is good in fixing it and the medias need some good pictures and videos. and cars burning at night, it looks good on tv.

I an not saying there is no problem in france. like in every country, there are issues dealing with racism, some kind of poberty, social exclusion. but riots and waves of car burning are only epiphenomenons or pure political and media fantasies.

[guignol]

so sarko thought it all up?

i accept he's that cynical, but i'm not sure he's that intelligent. :rolleyes:

[YankBastard]

From an email that's going around:

Subject:This is terrible please my friends pray for the JEWS...

Body:
Once again, the real news in France is
conveniently not being reported as it should. To
give you an idea of what's going on in France where
there are now between 5 and 6 million Muslims and
about 600,000 Jews, here is an email that came from
a Jew living in France. Please read! Will the worldsay nothing - again - as it did in Hitler's time?

He writes, "I AM A JEW -- therefore I am
forwarding this to everyone on all my e-mail lists.
I will not sit back and do nothing." Nowhere have
the flames of anti-Semitism burned more furiously
than in France:

In Lyon, a car was rammed into a synagogue and
set on fire. In Montpellier, the Jewish religious
center was firebombed; so were synagogues in
Strasbourg and Marseilles; so was a Jewish school in
Creteil - all recently.

A Jewish sports club in Toulouse was attacked
with Molotov cocktails,and on the statue of Alfred
Dreyfus in Paris , the words "Dirty Jew" were
painted. In Bondy, 15 men beat up members of a
Jewish footbal team with sticks and metal bars. The
bus that takes Jewish children to school in
Aubervilliers has been attacked three times in the
last 14 months.

According to the Police, metropolitan Paris has
seen 10 to 12 anti-Jewish incidents PER DAY in the
past 30 days. Walls in Jewish neighborhoods have
been defaced with slogans proclaiming "Jews to the
gas chambers" and "Death to the Jews."

A gunman opened fire on a kosher butcher's shop
(and, of course, the butcher) in Toulouse, France; a
Jewish couple in their 20s were beaten up by five
men in Villeurbanne, France. The woman was pregnant;
a Jewish school was broken into and vandalized in
Sarcelles, France. This was just in the past week.

So I call on you, whether you are a fellow Jew,
a friend, or merely a person with the capacity and
desire to distinguish decency from depravity, to do,
at least, these three simple things:

First, care enough to stay informed. Don't ever
let yourself become deluded into thinking that this
is not your fight. I remind you of what Pastor
Neimoller said in World War II: "First they came fo
the Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I
wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew. Then
they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up,
because I was a Protestant. Then they came forme,
and by that time there was no one left to speak u
for me".

Second, boycott France and French products. Only
the Arab countries are more toxically anti-Semitic
and, unlike them, France exports more than just oil
and hatred. So boycott their wines and their
perfumes. Boycott their clothes and their
foodstuffs. Boycott their movies. Definitely boycott their shores. If we are
resolved we can exert amazing pressure and, whatever
else we may know about the French, we most
certainly know that they are like a cobweb in a
hurricane in the face of well directed pressure.

Third, send this along to your family, your
friends, and your co-workers. Think of all of the
people of good conscience that you know and let
them know that you and the people that you care
about need their help.
The number one best selling book in France is
"September 11: The Frightening Fraud," which argues
that no plane ever hit the Pentagon.
..................................................................................

So Frenchies, having a little anti-semitism problems over there still?

[Anti-footix]

So Frenchies, having a little anti-semitism problems over there still?
no.
it makes me think about church burnings and cemetary profanations. that happens but don't worry man, France is not full of young satanists...:rolleyes:

and well, wow, what a pall of shit is that email ! :eek:
did you reicived it from your buddies from f***france.com ?! :D

[YankBastard]

no.
it makes me think about church burnings and cemetary profanations. that happens but don't worry man, France is not full of young satanists...:rolleyes:

and well, wow, what a pall of shit is that email ! :eek:
did you reicived it from your buddies from f***france.com ?! :D

Nope, I recieved it from a friend who directly recieved it from that sender. I knew Frenchies favored the Palestinians over the Jews, but ******** man you guys know how to be anti-semites with the best of them.

[Pierre-Henri]

Still connected on KarlRove.com, are you ?

The last point (best selling book) is an outer lie. Such book exists but it was never a best seller, and the writer was only seen on the kind of TV shows where people certify they have been abducted by aliens. I'm sure you can find the same kind of utter stupidity in America too.

On the other hand, the attacks vs the Strasbourg Synagogue are true. Antisemitism exists in France, where it is one of the many problems we are facing. In fact it is linked with the riot & ghetto issue, since the criminals are mostly young thugs from there who seem to believe they are in Palestine. We are far from being a perfect country, you know.

I don't want to euphemize what is happening in France today. However, can a jew (or anyone else for that matter) calmy stroll by night in any quarter of a major American city ? Let's say Detroit, Los Angeles or Washington ? Should we compare french and american homicide rates ?