After les Bleus and the Smurfs it's Avatar. The movie grossed $19 million in France, making it the second-best first-weekend moneymaker outside the USA (Russia grossed $21 million, the UK $14.2 million). Here's one of the scary scenes from the movie:

Imagine that in 3D!

Seen on a car in Paris:

(Photo source unknown)

How little information do you need to be able to draw a map? This zen-like question provided the basis for a short article in the May 21st, 1971 issue of Nature, intriguingly entitled Construction of Maps from “Odd Bits of Information”.

One of the experiments involved a map of 88 French departments (excluding the Corsican and [...]

Today, November 20, is Universal Children's Day.

Photo: Robert Doisneau
According to the French council for the rights of children, France deals generally well with its under-18 population of 15 million, but not all is rosy:
* One million kids are poor
* 19,000 are abused
* [...]

It's official: France 'most unwelcoming country in Europe' according to British tourists

They are known for their Gallic froideur and now France's reputation as the most unwelcoming country in Europe has been confirmed.
A spokesman for OnePoll, which carried out the research, said: 'A surprising number of people have experienced rudeness from French people. But this could [...]

Forget the stories about those slim Frenchies: one in seven is now officially obese

Today, 14.5% of the French (6.5 million people) are obese and 31.9% overweight. In 1997, the obesity rate was only 8.5%. In those 12 years obesity increased by 70% and each age group grew an average of 3 kilos, according to a [...]

Newborn babies cry with regional 'accents' copied from their mothers, researchers have shown.
An astonishing new study found that the screams of a five-day-old French baby have a distinct Gallic twang, while German babies have a Teutonic quality to their yells.
The discovery suggests that babies are eavesdropping on their parent's conversations while still in the [...]

It's true and it's all Sarkozy's fault: Irish accent beats French as world's sexiest
Men with an Emerald Isle brogue came top in a poll of 5,000 women worldwide, while the French accent only came fourth, just ahead of Australian. Italian was second, Scottish third.
A spokesman for www.OnePoll.com, which carried out the international survey, blamed [...]

In the Daily Mail: Britain is the worst place to live in Europe. But if the stats are right, France comes out on top:

Click for bigger
According to the uSwitch.com European Quality of Life Index, Britain is the worst place in Europe to live despite offering the biggest salaries, a study revealed today. High incomes in [...]

It's illegal in France to do a headcount based on race or religion, so somebody else had to do it.
A report from an American think-tank has estimated 1.57 billion Muslims populate the world – with 60% in Asia. The report, by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, took three years to compile, with [...]

The Crazy Horse nightclub in Paris is starting the winter season with a new show, and according to people who know about these things, it's more spectacular than ever.
French Gala magazine took a look behind the scenes. I picked two of their photos. Find the rest (warning: nipples!) here.

If you're female and fancy a [...]

From the useles statistics department: German men are 'world's worst lovers' and the Spanish are the best
A poll of 15,000 women found that Germans are considered "too smelly". English lovers came second because they are so lazy, while men from Sweden were branded "too quick to finish" and came third.
Spanish men topped the table [...]

New poll: the French think porn is better if you watch it together
Contrary to popular belief, adult movies are not men-only entertainment anymore. Porn is starting to be part of French sex life. "The availability of adult movies on cable TV and the Internet has lead to the democratization and normalization of the genre. The [...]

From the useless statistics department: eight in ten French bicker while on holiday
More than eight in ten French (84%) have arguments with their other half or friends when they're on holiday. For 53% the bickering starts early: 34% argue even before departure, 19% while on their way to the holiday destination.
The reasons for the [...]

The newspaper are full about staff suicides at France Telecom. But is there really a crisis?
The BBC comes with some figures that put the drama in perspective. In 18 months 23 employees at the company committed suicide. That comes down to an average of 15.3 per year.
France Telecom employs 100,000 people. The French national [...]