http://www.lefrancophoney.com All things French as seen by an outsider... Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:54:12 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Compared with the average French woman, I'm a fashion disaster. I do not, at least, get out on the street in twenty-year-old clothes that are faded and out-dated. Nor do I get on the piste in ski gear from the eighties, but plenty of others do. I know, I know: ... http://www.lefrancophoney.com/fashion-advice-part1/ Shops here in the French Alps keep strange hours. For example, the supermarket in La Clusaz is closed from 12.30pm to 4.30pm, and rumour has it that the reason for this is so that tourists have to buy their lunch from the bakeries and restaurants and thus spend more money ... http://www.lefrancophoney.com/shopping-hours-in-the-french-alps/ This picture says it all. The French just take extra care with things. I've seen the painstaking preparation and presentation that can go into even the simplest of dishes served in a restaurant and the way that no roundabout can be left undecorated, but I really wasn't prepared for this. ... http://www.lefrancophoney.com/not-your-average-drain-pipe/ The Winter Olympic Games (les Jeux Olympiques in French) are in full swing, and I've been following the sports on French television. The French athletes have been a bit unlucky so far, and at first the commentators blamed it on badly-made courses. I think they've given up on that angle ... http://www.lefrancophoney.com/french-television-commentators/ St Jean de Sixt isn't a big ski resort: it has one drag lift and one rope tow and nothing else. The five pistes include two greens, two blues and a red. Despite its diminutive size, I discovered that St Jean has its very own snow park, pictured. I found this ... http://www.lefrancophoney.com/st-jean-de-sixt-snowpark/ Months ago, I wrote about the noisy church bells in my friend's village and how annoying they were at 7am on a Sunday morning. You'd think that, just a few months after that experience, I'd be wise to moving near a church, and yet here I am in St Jean ... http://www.lefrancophoney.com/church-bells-2/ So, here at Le Franco Phoney, I provide a written commentary on life in the French Alps, and from an ex-pat's perspective. I've discovered an illustrated version of life in the Alps from a true French person, Caro (that's Madamoiselle Caroline to us), who I had fun skiing with last ... http://www.lefrancophoney.com/illustrated-version-of-life-in-the-alps/ A French friend of mine once told me she had no idea that the rest of the world did not say "Ooh la la" and that she was surprised to discover it was a stereotype of what French people say. I remember in Australia, there was a chain of fashion ... http://www.lefrancophoney.com/ooh-la-la-naturally/ French imagery in advertising, roundabouts and even pizza boxes is something I've discussed many times on this blog, but this image is the most provocative I've seen in a public place. Apologies for the lack of quality: I took the picture temporarily on my phone a few days ago and ... http://www.lefrancophoney.com/something-severely-wrong-with-this-image/ Well well well, January is over. Where did it go? To match the speed of the month, I'm speed writing this entry as I have lots of observations to tell you about. So, first up, the Christmas tree. Not only did I kill it as I mentioned a few days ... http://www.lefrancophoney.com/january-round-up/