[guignol]

i've been promising for ages to get taglines for the subforums... i could have gone through a process of nominations but then it would have never got done. the quick way is just to do a poll with existing ideas plus some of my own, but if someone's write-in seems best to you say so in a post. poll has to close monday July 9 because i want to get this done before going on vacation.

[toulousain]

"French touch"
"Tout sauf du foot"

[Ali_reza]

"à la Française ..."

[lefutur]

"actually there's other things that the French do even better...wink, wink"

[Douai]

Originally Posted by guignol

i've been promising for ages to get taglines for the subforums... i could have gone through a process of nominations but then it would have never got done. the quick way is just to do a poll with existing ideas plus some of my own, but if someone's write-in seems best to you say so in a post. poll has to close monday July 9 because i want to get this done before going on vacation.

This one is bad: "it's a surrender party! we've got the cheese, you bring the monkeys! "

[Pierre-Henri]

A few de Gaulle quotes (source : http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_de_Gaulle ) :

- I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.

- All my life I have had a certain idea of France.

- I have understood you !

- France has lost a battle, but France has not lost the war.

- [...] at the end of our sorrow, there is the greatest glory of the world, that of the men who did not give in.

- How can you govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese ?

- Nothing great is done without great men, and they are great because they wanted it.

- Nothing builds authority up like silence, splendor of the strong and shelter of the weak.

- Always go for the highest position, it is generally the least crowded.

- There are three roads to ruin: by gambling, which is the quickest; through women, which is the most pleasurable; and through taking the advice of experts, which is the most certain.

- France cannot be France without greatness.

[guignol]

de gaulle was quite a wit... i like what he said about VGE...
mon ministre de finances a un nom d'emprunt.

anyway, your post reminds me of two of the greatest quotes of all:

- vive le géneral alcazar et les pommes de terre frites!

- santhéodoriens, je vous ai compris!

a while ago you listed some french intellectuals working in the states, including serres and apostolidès... who you know are both eminent tintinologues... and i posit that a country that doesn't understand tintin cannot really be great. even CdG recognized that his only rival was... tintin!

[Pierre-Henri]

"A certain idea of France" would be a sober, historical and uncontroversial tagline. Well, too sober, probably.

You know I don't like the "greatness" thing. We, french, tend to be way too much arrogant. Of course, it's not a reason to rush to the opposite extreme, and fall as low as neo-cons stupid french jokes. I strongly oppose anything around the "french lover" theme too, which I find macho.

Bon goût, sobriety, gentlemanly attitude, cultural background... these are the things we should put forward. I stop here before Nanbawan suggests Mickael Youn stuff again .

[The Bergamister]

Une certaine je ne sais quoi? or maybe Va Va Voom!

[Pierre-Henri]

Still with de Gaulle, there are two stories about him. The first is a dialogue he had with Massu :

- Alors, Massu, toujours aussi con ?
- Toujours gaulliste, mon général !

The other is something he said to his ministers, and is completely untranslatable :

"Ce qu'il y a de grave dans cette affaire, messieurs, c'est qu'elle n'est pas sérieuse."

It was after the coup in Algeria, organized by le quarteron de généraux en retraite. For de Gaulle, disdain was one of the fine arts.