H2g2 Coup de coeur du mois: A rather wonderful edited entry on The French Pyrenees from the prodigious pen of Peer Review stalwart Gnomon, as well as Cyzaki's analysis of The Role of the National Front in the 2002 French Presidential Elections which also made it through PR at the end of 2003. Finally, Jack Naples' fine explanation of French Pronunciation has been recommended for editing and awaits its rightful place in the sun.

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Well, back in November England beat the Quinze Français in the semi-final of the Rugby World Cup². Meanwhile, the main political issue in the last few months of 2003 was the proposed law banning 'overtly religious symbols' in schools. The real problem centres on muslim girls wearing their headscarves in class, which in France is seen, especially in political circles, as undermining the hard-won secular school environment. In contrast, muslim organisations claim that banning muslim students from wearing the scarves infringes their right to freedom of religious expression.
BBC Q+A - Muslim headscarves

Sadly, the other main story in France at the beginning of 2004 was that of the deaths of 148 people, 134 of them French tourists, in the Flash Airlines plane crash over the Red Sea on Saturday, January 3rd. Investigations are underway to discover the cause of the crash, involving sending a robotic submarine search device to recover the 'black box' flight recorders.

And the rest...

Below you will find some links to h2g2 entries, outside links and even the odd conversation thread. French language postings are acceptable but may be moderated if too involved. This depends on the French skills of individual moderators and thus varies from post to post. A good rule of thumb is that most simple phrases pass muster so it is best to avoid vocab much beyond intermediate level. If you want to chat with some other French speakers, there is a conversation going on at The Language Thing French Thread, you can always address any language-related queries to Loup D'Argent's French Language Helpdesk, or perhaps you'd like to resurrect the dead over at the once-thriving Let's Parlez Franglais! thread! Venez nombreux!

The 'Paris - France' in the title is just so that the h2g2 search engine picks it up with all the usual search words. If anyone knows some clever way to do 'keywords' for entries, I'd love to hear about it. Alternatively, some clever, witty title that is not too long, gets all the words in and sounds good... Any offers?

Yes, they do exist in translation in French, and yes, i really have actually bought a copy, from a bookshop in deepest Alsace, which is pretty deeply French. I gave the first book to a friend whose sense of humour seemed to be receptive to DNA's style, and i was not mistaken. Not only did he lap up the first one, he promptly went out and bought the 'restaurant' of his own volition.

This is not all (you will have guessed that by now my friend has read the lot - not checked whether DG is easily available in Frog, but it undoubtedly will be in print). He also passed it on to his 16 year-old daughter who had over-heard him raving about it. Once again, the DNA magic did it's stuff (though from what they tell me the translator must have had to do some pretty spectacular verbal acrobatics to deal with some of the names and word-plays. Of course, Slartibartfast is funny in *any* language! . She too has read the lot and I am proud to say I've done my little bit in bringing a bit of classic British comic literature to our European neighbours.

The edited guide has a sub-category entitled France containing lots of articles relating to... well, i won't say it. There is also an edited guide entry on France, but it's a bit hit and miss, if you ask me. If anyone's interested, perhaps it would be worth preparing an update.

There is a university project about Paris, France's capital city. It includes quite a good variety of articles about places of interest, driving tips, food and drink etc. Well worth a visit if you're planning a trip or just interested in finding out about this wonderful city.

The storming of the Bastille; Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette with her famous 'Let them eat cake!' (why did she say that?); Robespierre, StJust and the terror; or just good ol' 'A Tale of Two Cities'! What do you associate most immediately the French Revolution?

I would welcome anyone who is interested in French history at all to pop over to the universtity project about the French Revolution . It's a fasctinating period and there is no shortage of available subject material, so why not think about contributing something?

Anybody who follows French current affairs in France will be familiar with José Bové. For those who haven't heard of France's favourite anti-globalisation and anti-malbouffe³ campaigner, this piece from PurpleJenny will bring you up to date. A character in the world of French politics not to be missed.

There is an article on the wines of Bordeaux, though it has not been edited yet. This one on the city of Bordeaux has been, though.

This could be handy if you're on a trip to Paree - Ex-pat bars in Paris, all shiny and edited and everything.

Recently on the front page, Whisky's excellent - Ex-pat bars in Lyons, France. Did you know that the French spell it without the S? Whereas Marseille is spelt with it! Or is it the other way round?

Another useful one from Whisky - French Public Holidays.

Other towns that have made it into the edited guide include Toulouse, Briançon, Strasbourg and the neighbouring town of Kehl on the other side of the Rhine and thus in Germany

And an introduction to the Cite des Sciences and de l'Industrie, Paris, France.

Well, this was kind of a spur of the moment page and I don't have anything much else to hand to put up here. I suspect that no links to French language sites will be approved, although perhaps if they have English versions... Any requests?