olivier in france

european people think americans speak an english that's hard to understand but personally the hardest english accent i've heard , totally impossible to understand, is the scottish Highlands'.... you wonder how they can find some many "R" in english words...

and there's tons of Bills fan on the W Va campus (at least when i spent a few days there circa 1995)

....like Chirac is planning the 4th world war and the invasion of the US with China !! what's in the water in your town?!! Looks like powerful stuff!

Well, I recently did a research paper on Napoleon III... I chose him because I knew very little about him, and after doing it, I found some scary similarities between his personality and mine. It is amazing to read so many different events of his life, and to realize that. I understand now why he fell into Germany's trap in 1870.. 222998[/snapback] i'm not sure i'd like to find out i have similarities with the nephew! Napoleon III is not really the greatest leader France ever had! (the Mexico story is his chef d'oeuvre of ineptitude!)... He Rabid from today i'll call you Badinguet!! (If you know Napoleon III a little you must know this name...for a reason i have always ignored my father used to call me like that when i was a kid and i had done some stupid things!)

well you can not know, with some luck Napoleon could have found some way to make peace and stabilise his empire (especially if he had not fallen into the Russian trap) and Europe 'd have been unified two centuries before it actually has been the case. The Napoleonian "adventure" is something i'm really interested in... some think it was just a war of conquest and a personnal ambition but it was not, do you know than during the russian campaign less than 25% of the Great Army was made of french soldiers? And all were volunteers! A lot of the peoples of Europe were supporting Napoleon and the new ideas he was bringing...

Napoleon was more fun than the Kings... and his crazy family... Himself wanted to moved to the US when the English caught him at La Rochelle after Waterloo, he wanted to cross the Atlantic and move to the US... and don't forget our last King, the good old Louis Philippe was a Boston french teacher during the Revolution...

few hundred thousand women and children starve to death. 22263while 8[/snapback] are you talking about this people that was starving to death because of an american blocus? there's an other book to write, i have the title in mind yet: "how America made the same mistake twice: The great gift the US made to its worst ennemies, the failures of the Cuba and Iraq blocus"

hoooo it's true the US governement has been very very tough with China those last years.... this post is really funny, in France we have an expression for that "L'hopital se fout de la Charité" something i could translate into something like: "the blind having fun of the deaf"

you'll be welcome!

i don't know much about Iran's partners either... there's probably a book to write about all the common points there is between Chirac and Bush... there 's a lot, what i hear here about Chirac i hear it everyday about Bush ; the two guys are called ignorant, arrogant, stuborn, they are doing very well with the popular classes, are snobed by the elites, both have mixed business and politics, both have been elected using "Security" as their first campaign argument , both are not trusted by their allies, both are hated overseas, they represent very well what the world does not like in France and in America, and people in France and the US like to be disliked by foreigners... it make them feel to be the only ones being right and our two peoples love that.

well you know France is the country of the 500 kinds of cheeses, come visit me one of these days i have always some good ones for friends... and they're much better here than the ones we sent to the US, the FDA ask the producers to pasteurize them before sending them to America, and once pasteurized the cheese can not get better as it gets older like it normally does..

i don' t think there is much for frenchmen to lose in Iran... for the Saddam and french issues i've heard many many rumors but not anything serious... the probes must be hidden in the same closet that the ones about the WMDs... and anyway Chirac has been reelected with everybody knowing he's a crook (with all he did when he was Paris' Mayor or with the crazy finances of his party) and i'm not really sure people care so i don't think he's worried about what can be found in those Iraqis closets... He's more concerned by his old friend Sarkozy who has yet started his campaign to take his place...

your choice VaBIlls (not mine) but if you like those kinds try Basque Ossau-Iraty, or a good old Comté from the french Jura, and if you wanna stay swiss a real (hard to find in the sea of false ones) Gruyère or (even better) an Appenzeller.

well i visit the forums of all my other teams... sonsofsamhorn (RedSox), asse.fr (french soccer), fcgrenoble.com (french rugby), bruleursdeloups.com (french hockey) , centaures-footus.com (french football) and TBD's Sabres forum when there was an american hockey league...

in Paris you can pass two days just visiting graves... at the Invalides for all the military guys (first of all Napoleon's) and at the Panthenon for the civilians ... (Hugo, Jaures...), and if you're in France for a few days go at the cemetary on the Normandy's beaches of course In the US i saw a few famous graves, all the great ones at Arlington (JFK...), i saw General Lee's in Va, and the place that gave me the more thrills :the Gettysburg cemetary, where Lincoln made his famous speech.

that's right i think the real sick persons were the couple watching him! i'm suprised the guy has not counteratacked and sue them! anyway the atmosphere must be nice in that neighborhood! "good Morning Mr Smith, how's you hand doing? "Good Morning Mrs Jackson, i go hiking this week end could i take you binoculars?!"

i don't like kings that much, but the French republic sucks that's sure! but i think we really should solve the problem solving this whole country into Europe. anywat VT fan, be careful with the cookie jar, as you can see the cookies in it may look nice , full of nice cheap oil but the jar likes to bite the hand into it...

"Bad Yanks, Bad. We know better, we'll tell you what to do." I find it better than some english telling you "Good Yanks, you have the worst ideas in the world to fight terrorism so we'll go with you whatever you do!"

try to give us lessons right?!! we 're gonna listen to you , right!! like we are the ones lying to the world about some weapons just to invade a country full of oil...

he Bib, try to call one of my neighbors an half spaniard (or even an half frenchman) for fun... the basques have no humor with that kind of statement, no humor at all... !!!

VaBills i'm gonna be a cultural snob on this: i've lived on the swiss border for 2 years so i know quite a bit about their cheeses... this is some tasteless pasta . if you prefer swiss cheese compared with french cheese you do not really like cheese.

well i can be a cultural snob! especially if my good old JSP from TBD call my country an afterthought! but you know i'm not and you know that deep inside you like cheese, croissants and Jerry lewis too JSP!

he JSP it' s not my ego or the ego of frenchmen in general i'm talking about , it's the fact that politically the french government can not tell french taxpayers: "He guys we told the US not to go but now we gotta go there to help them , well it's gonna cost a few billions but i think you'll understand!"...

Darin i agree we should all hope the US can get out of this and restore order in Iraq but we will not help you (even if we SHOULD) , you went there in spite of our warnings you'll get out of it by yourselves!

sorry to say that but it's much worse than Vietnam, once the US finally decided to stop the Vietnam fiasco they left and Vietnam became a communist country like the others, nothing really dangerous. Today the US can not leave Iraq even if they wanted to do so because Iraq 'd immediatly become the most dangerous place for World peace. (well some think it is yet the case...). The Iraq situation is a Vietnam war you can not stop...