Frogsmoke

The year 2009 marked the death of four famous Frogsmokers. From left to right: Claude Berri (actor, writer, producer, and director, died aged 84) Alain Bashung (singer, songwriter and actor, died aged 61) Maurice Druon (novelist and a member of the Académie Française, died aged 90) Claude Lévi-Strauss (anthropologist and ethnologist, died aged 100) May [...]

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 [...]

Meet the nation's handsomest ribcage: Mister France 2010 Anthony Garcia. He is a 23-year old business student and model, and is saving for a razor.

Price comparison and consumerist site LetsBuyIt.com organized an international contest with one major prize: the right to spend 10,000 euros in seven cities within a month, and earn a 5,000 euro salary for making the effort. The winner was 28-year young Parisienne Florence Romuald. It's not quite clear what she had to do to earn [...]

If you have some money to spare you should buy lots of these stamps. At 10,91 € for a set of ten they're a rip-off but one day Johnny Hallyday will really die, and you'll make a fortune. Guaranteed!

French actor Jean Reno (of Leon fame) teamed up with a business that sells premium Hawaiian water to the Far East. Skip to 3:00 to listen how the man justifies this ocean-spanning, fuel-burning, carbon-spitting export activity:

Just when he's about to retire the world finally knows who's behind "the biggest rock star you've never heard of". (And contrary to what some people say on Facebook he's not dead yet.)

On Totally Looks Like: Says one of the many commenters: The parted-lips sexy thing is hard to do. Bardot mastered it – Jagger just looks gormless.

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 [...]

Josh Gosfield built an entire media world of magazine covers, snapshots, advertisements and album covers of a fictitious 1960's singing star, Gigi Gaston. Charting her rise and fall, Josh creates a completely believable alter universe in which Gigi hangs out with the Beatles, is a paperdoll or appears startled by paparazzi flash. A painstakingly thorough [...]

And with this original CV in stop-motion video (and her lovely accent) she deserves it!

Some Japanese could learn a thing or two from Eric Joisel, the French Origami Master: Visit his site (in English)

The annual flesh fest is over: Malika Ménard is Miss France 2010. Just when the country is desperately searching for its identity, the French crowned the girl who was born on Bastille Day, 14 July 1987.

Another amazing performance from La France a un Incroyable Talent. Lazarus Gitu comes out of a box, turns himself into a corkscrew, crawls through a hoop, and makes me wonder why I always have a backache.

What's in a name? A political career. If ever you thought that political dynasties don't exist anymore, think again. We have Jean Sarkozy (son of), Frédéric Mitterard (nephew of), Marie Bové (daughter of) and now Marion Maréchal-Le Pen. Her granddad is Jean-Marie, founder of the rightist Front National, and her auntie is Marine, vice president [...]