Author: THE HOBBLEDEHOY

Michael Stevenson, aka Dai Bando, Johnny Foreigner, Monsieur Pas De Merde, is a blogger of French and British culture. His blogs "Pas De Merde" and "The Hobbledehoy" have been called "marvelous" by some, and "meh" by others.

Watch this exuberant exploration of the French New Wave

A playful, poignant love letter to cinema, Nouvelle Vague reimagines the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless in an exuberant exploration of the youthful rebellion and creative chaos that shaped the French New Wave.

Directed by Richard Linklater, starring Zoey Deutch, Guillaume Marbeck, and Aubry Dullin. Nouvelle Vague, in select theaters October 31 and on Netflix November 14 in the US

Listen to “The French Connection” Ep. 9

This Sunday’s FRENCH CONNECTION on WRIU 90.3 FM may be the last

( This program originally aired on WRIU, Kingston, 90.3 FM on Sunday, August 31, 2025 )

THE FRENCH CONNECTION:: WRIU 90.3 FM :: August 31, 2025:
  • Francis Cabrel “Quin l’esquimau” (Bob Dylan)
  • Jeanne Cherhal “Super 8″
  • Rodolphe Burger “Stephanie Says” (Lou Reed)
  • Jain “Come” (2017)
  • Jain “Makeba” (2017)
  • Liz & Lisa “Fais Do Do”
  • Pomme “Ceux qui Revent
  • Pierre Bensusan “Le Lendemain de la Fete”
  • Léo Ferré “Je t’dore a Legal” (Ferre/Baudelaire)
  • Léo Ferré “Le Vampire” (Ferre/Baudelaire)
  • George Brassens “Puisque Vous Partez en Voyage” (Jean Sablon)
  • Asleep at the Wheel “Friendship First” (Brassens)
  • Francis Cabrel “Je t’amais, Je t’aime, Je t’aimerai”
  • Pierre Bensusan “So Long Michael”
  • Edith Piaf “Je Ne Regrette Rien”

How Paris Tackled Pollution in the River Seine

River Seine clean-up

Following a century-long ban due to pollution, Parisians and tourists can now swim in designated areas of the River Seine.

By Kelly Yu

The iconic River Seine opened its banks to swimmers on July 5, marking the end of a swimming ban that had been in place since 1923 due to severe contamination in its waters.

For decades, the river has been polluted by E.coli, enterococci bacteria and other contaminants, with industrial waste, sewage overflow, and urban runoff making it unsafe for swimming.

Paris’s outdated combined sewer system, dating back to city planner Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann’s 19th-century city planning, allowed untreated wastewater to flow directly into the river during heavy rainfall.

By the 1970s, about 60% of the city’s sewage was being dumped untreated into the river, and fish species had decreased to just three.

The historic reopening followed a €1.4 billion (US$1.6 billion) cleanup operation to make the river swimmable in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics, with open-water swimmers and triathletes competing in its specially treated waters.

Bastien Xu, a Parisian businessman who was among the first to take a dip when the ban was lifted, described it as a symbolic moment for the city: “The Seine River has always been seen as romantic, but now people can actually swim in it instead of just looking at it.”

“I was really excited. I felt lucky that we can swim there now after it wasn’t allowed for 100 years. My older French neighbors were envious because they never got the chance when they were young,” Xu told Earth.Org.

Continue reading “How Paris Tackled Pollution in the River Seine” →

Listen to “The French Connection” Ep. 8

This Sunday’s FRENCH CONNECTION on WRIU 90.3 FM mourns the end of Summer with a theme, “Seasons in the Sun”

By Michael Stevenson

( This program originally aired on WRIU, Kingston, 90.3 FM on Sunday, August 24 )

“Seasons in the Sun” playlist, THE FRENCH CONNECTION :: WRIU 90.3 FM :: August 24, 2025:
  • Gilbert Bécaud “Plein Soleil” (1964)
  • Brigitte Bardot “La Madrague” (1963)
  • Yael Naem “Playground Family / You Have Always Been” (from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Mon Bébé)  2019
  • Jeanne Cherhal “Canicule” (2006)
  • Françoise Hardy “Soleil” (1970)
  • Toots Thielmans “Theme From Summer of ’42” (M. Legrand) rec. 1987 live concert
  • Yves Montand “Les Feuilles Mortes” (m.Jacques Prévert, l.Joseph Kosma) lyrics for “The Autumn Leaves” by Johnny Mercer (recorded 1952)
  • This Is the Kit “Recommencer” (Kate Stables, 2021)
  • Henri Salvador “Jardin d’Hiver” (Henri Salvador, Keren Ann & Benjamin Biolay, 2000)
  • Django Rheinhardt & the Quintet of the Hot Club of France “September Song” (m.Kurt Weil, l.Maxwell Anderson) recorded 1947
  • Blossom Dearie “It Might As Well Be Spring” (Rogers & Hammerstein, recorded 1957)
  • Jack Kerouac “October” (reading)
  • Francis Cabrel “Octobre” (1994)
  • Black Box Recorder “Seasons in the Sun” (Jacques Brel, recorded 1998)
  • Camille Saint-Saëns “Carnival of the Animals” (composed 1886)

I Tell You It Is October!
by Jack Kerouac

There’s something olden and golden and lost
In the strange ancestral light,
There’s something tender and loving and sad
In October’s copper might.

End of something, old, old, old…
Always missing, sad, sad, sad…
Saying something…love, love, love…

Akh! I tell you it is October,
And I defy you now and always
To deny there is not love

Staring foolishly at skies
Whose beauty but God defies.

For in October’s ancient glow
A little after dusk
Love strides through the meadow
Dropping her burnished husk…

“I Tell You It Is October” appears in Jack Kerouac Collected Poems, published by The Library of America in 2012