The Invisible Hand

FranceVive La France!

Good God, just when I think my nascent Francophilia is running out of steam, the Frenchies give me new reasons to admire them.

Of course, most of this has to do with Sarkozy and the way he seems determined to obliterate any ancien regime passivity that stands between him and modernizing French polity. But in his wake come all the charming things about France that I was reluctant to admire during the Chirac years: French style, design, and a more humane approach to daily life.

And by all that I mean French women.

First there was Segolene, an insufferable anarco-syndicalist lunatic in real life, no doubt, but an elegant and enormously attractive woman able to conjugate many hard to pronounce French verbs. (although not so well that she could do without subtitles)



Segolene Royal - Message 2eme Tour
Uploaded by da93


Then there was Cecilia, a bit more cold and austere but confident and poised in ways that are hard to describe without elaborate hand gestures.

And now that Ceclia has traded the drab Elysee Palace for the drab Upper East Side of Manhattan, Sarko introduces us to yet another stunning French woman, Laurence Ferrari, his supposed new girlfriend.

Laurence is a mother of two in her 40s who appears to have many of the qualities one earns over four decades of life. . . humor, balance, serenity and fundamental comfort being in one's own skin. I'm assuming all this because I can't understand a word she's saying and I don't particularly care.

She's hot. I know that sounds sexist, but she's so hot she's making me sexist.



Laurence Ferrari 1 - OK
Uploaded by Amnesia34


Technical note: when was the last time you saw someone on TV wired with two lavalier mics? Is it because they wanted a fail safe sound system . . . or because setting her up with any more lavs would have aroused suspicion, among other things?

Merci, Nicolas!

More Laurence if you're interested:



Laurence Ferrari - Telle est ma télé
Uploaded by sandrinemaziere

UPDATE: Hurray for comments! "Big Al" introduces us to Melissa Theuriau. Thanks Big Al:





UPDATE II: It's getting very hard to keep up with foreign affairs these days. It seems Sarko debuted his new new girlfriend, Carla Bruni, at what appears to be an official motorcade at EuroDisney.

I'm not sure if this is some sort of Gallic Christmas tradition but the French President's annual appearance at Disney was was electrified by the aging supermodel turned chansonist.

CARLA BRUNI
Uploaded by FRANCE_24