Word: fran
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...bring public transport in almost 30 major cities - including Paris - to a standstill. The movement will also be backed by other public employees involved in a contested pension reform: limited disruption is expected in schools due to striking teachers, for example, while the Paris Opera and Comédie Français have already canceled their programs for Thursday with virtually all their public sector staff set to walk out. At issue: the government's plan to require most public sector employees currently covered by "special regime" retirement schemes to work as much as 2.5 years before they qualify...
...midst of this bleak news - and as Sarkozy was in the U.S. thrilling observers with a speech to the United Nations on September 25 - French Prime Minister François Fillon described the nation's financial and economic state as "bankrupt", and indicated serious belt-tightening would be required to address the situation. Fillon soon regretted the public concern the term provoked: as Sarkozy returned from New York with assurances that "there are no austerity plans" for France, Fillon found himself obliged to explain his use of "bankrupt" as glib and non-literal. A French public groggy with weeks...
...posturing, but really do believe that time is short before the unwanted military option becomes inevitable for Iran. "The problem is that the Iranian leadership likes to believe the military option isn't open to the U.S. while it's tied up in Iraq with an unpopular war," explains François Heisbourg, special advisor to the Foundation for Strategic Studies in Paris. "Sarkozy and Kouchner are trying to tell them, 'Yes, it is. Believe it and fear it as much we do. Only you can prevent it.'" The French government's alarm directed not towards Tehran alone, but also...
...lonely position on Iraq revealed a characteristic determination to stick to his convictions regardless of the political pressure bearing down on him. "He rattles people's cages," says Holbrooke. "It is what he has always done." And he has paid a price. When Socialist leader François Hollande dismissed Kouchner from the party for joining Sarkozy's Cabinet, Kouchner admits he was hurt. But he's convinced the party needs a drastic overhaul that "will take years." Nearing retirement, he was unwilling to wait that long...
...Admittedly, you might have more fun at The Valet, a deft, daft, totally unbelievable yet somehow totally engaging comedy, in which a rich guy (Daniel Auteuil) tries to fool his wife into believing that his drop-dead, supermodel mistress (Elena Simonsen) is really in love with Fran&ecedil;ois (Gad Elmaleh) a not too smart parking boy at a posh restaurant. It's totally preposterous, but everyone is really rather reasonable, patient and lovable in an idiotic situation. Tales like this used to be known as boulevard comedies and, you have to say, Paris has the boulevards to sustain them...