Frogsmoke

Dear friends, This is my last post on Frogsmoke. I've decided to stop this blog for a few reasons. In a few weeks time I will be moving to my new home, in the middle of my own forest, in the south of France (pic above). It's a dream come true, living in absolute tranquility, [...]

Most people know Gustave Eiffel as the man who built the Eiffel Tower, but this master engineer created many more wonderful constructions. The Garabit Viaduct is one of them: From the Wonders of the World Databank: In the late 1800s, a mountainous barrier blocked the railways from reaching Southern France. For years, engineers tried to [...]

Christmas is not a happy time for everybody: man fails three times to kill himself in one evening A 65-year old man in the north of France, abandoned by his wife a few days before Christmas, couldn't face being alone, and made three failed attempts to kill himself on Christmas Eve. First, he tried to [...]

According to the Expanded Beard Type Chart, facial hair grow can be categorized in 33 types. Some of them are classics (mutton chops, goatee, Franz Josef), others are more modern (The Zappa and Super Mario), but only two are associated with a country: Old Dutch and French Fork. The French Fork looks like the one [...]

I don't know what's going on in France when Spring starts, but the amount of newborn babies around Christmas is astounding. On 27 December 1925, little actor-to-be Michel Piccoli [wiki] saw the light, which makes him 83 today. On the same date in 1948, Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu [wiki] took his first breath and became [...]

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Jean Ferrat [wiki], one of my favorite French singers, was born December 26, 1930, so he turns 78 today. According to his own website he hasn't done much in the past 15 years, so I have no recent photos of his trademark moustache, but here's a song that must be one of the most beautiful [...]

OK, Eartha Kitt [wiki] wasn't French so officially she doesn't belong here, but one of her most famous songs was French so that's some justification. Here's she is, performing C'est si bon [wiki], with the original French lyrics by André Hornez. [youtube]aQF7C6LxE_s[/youtube] One of the charms of this song is that, like many Anglophones, Kitt [...]

You wouldn't believe it if you walk though a French supermarket, but the French are not the greatest chocolate eaters of the world. As a matter of fact, they're only ninth in Europe, with an average yearly consumption of 6.8kg. Absolute winners are the Swiss, who eat 12.3kg of the stuff — one kg per [...]

Just when I wasn't looking these two ladies got a year older: Singer and actress Vanessa Paradis [wiki] turned 36 on December 22 Prima Donna Carla Bruni [wiki] (who is no longer a man-eater) turned 41 on December 23. Happy smoking girls!

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Yours truly is taking a smoke break until after Christmas. Be happy, stay alive!

Sometimes, the face blur technology in Google Streetview fails. That dog is clearly recognizable. View Larger Map

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On The Catalyst: famous people & their cats. There's only one that looks French to me, from 1956: (Click for bigger)