Frogsmoke

Memory loss or calculated risk? Miss Paris loses her crown (and some clothes) The rules are strict: any girl trying to become Miss France has to be a) single, b) childless, and c) impeccable. Kelly Bochenko, Miss Paris 2010, got only two out of three. A French trash magazine has just revealed a number of [...]

Fondation Brigitte Bardot | Via BoingBoing

Nice marketing blunder by German car manufacturer Audi. Their novel electric E-tron supercar has a name with crappy connotations in France:

The people of Catalonia in Spain have great fun creating their Caganers, figurines of defecating world leaders, to be used in nativity scenes. Of course our Beloved Leader and his Prima Donna take prominent positions in the poopularity rankings: Find more turds in The Telegraph. (Loyal readers of this blog may remember that I featured [...]

Only a few days ago I showed this 61-year old photo of a near traffic-less Place de la Concorde in Paris and hinted that it wouldn't be easy to take such a shot in our days. Wrong! Here's a photo of the same location, in today's Le Figaro:

In 1976, French fizzy water manufacturer Perrier caused a scandal with a suggestive TV advert in which a caressing hand makes a small bottle grow until it pops. The commercial (which was directed by Serge Gainsbourg) was promptly forbidden and never saw the light again. Until now. Perrier has remastered the old film and shows [...]

While the world debates to save the climate: Danes see bomb threat in French cooking oil A French group which advocates the use of cooking oil to run vehicles had its novel fuel confiscated by Danish police on the ground it could be used to make bombs during the Copenhagen climate talks. Members of the [...]

Via Failblog.org

Seen on a car in Paris: (Photo source unknown)

From a French humorist magazine in 1929: Dialogue between the two drinkers (liberally translated): – That black musician is a born talent. He knew his calling when he was just two. – You mean he already played the banjo then? – No, but he was already black! Click pic for bigger (Via Agence Eureka)

Patrice Claybard. Once a poker champ, now a miserable loser. He hates France, shits on it, but can't go back to the country where he made his money. The Americans refuse him a permit because he dared to show on TV the bit of flesh that lives inside his pantalon. Here he is on the [...]

It's unlikely these elderly tourists in the naturist village of Port Leucate knew that the Google Street View car would go past and immortalize their moment of naked astonishment. But thanks to modern technology at least their faces are unrecognizable. (Zoom in for close-up.) Click for bigger Via

Socialist activists in Toulouse stripped to entice locals to vote for the upcoming regional elections, because "without democracy we would all be naked". The billboards urge to register for the carte électorale, without which voting is impossible. As expected in politics there are always people who cheat. The bald guy on the front row wears [...]

Sad news from le Jardin des Plantes in Paris: Kiki is dead (but how old was he really?) Kiki, a male giant tortoise, was brought to France fully grown from Mauritius in 1923. Kiki weighed 250 kilograms (550 pounds) and had to be moved around using a fork-lift machine. He was one of the biggest [...]