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.

French MPs want new tax to tackle France’s salt addiction 

French MPs aim to introduce a new tax on salty foods in a bid to reduce the amount consumed in France where the intake of salt exceeds the recommended amount by a whopping 60 percent.

French food might be known for being mouthwatering but all those delicious cheeses, baguettes and saucissons don’t exactly help minimize your salt intake.  In fact, the French consume an average of 8 grams of salt per day while the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends a maximum of 5 grams each day.  That means the French exceed the recommended intake of salt by 60 percent.  But now a group of 20 French MPs — all members of a committee carrying out an inquiry into industrial food production — is hoping to change all that by bringing in a tax on salty foods to encourage manufacturers to decrease the amount they include in their products, according to Le Figaro.

These MPs argue that at the moment consumers are too limited by what’s on the supermarket shelves.  “The consumer has no choice: most of the salt that they eat is found in pre-prepared dishes” with the consumption of these kinds of meals “exploding in recent years”, said the committee’s spokesperson, MP for La Republique en Marche Michele Crouzet.  [ . . . ]

Continue at THE LOCAL: French MPs want new tax to tackle France’s salt addiction – The Local

Agnès Varda, the queen of the meme

Cats, strange vegetables, street art, foraged food, feminism and playful ironic self-reflection: these things are at the heart of Instagram culture, but Agnès Varda, the veteran French-Belgian documentary-maker, was filming them years ago. Although the grande dame of the French New Wave, it’s now at the age of 90, and with the superb Faces Places, that her legacy is being fully rediscovered. A touring cinema programme and a Curzon Home release of some of her early work is bringing her to wider attention.

Varda’s later-life documentaries are personal and playful, an older woman looking back at a life of curiosity amid major social change. The Gleaners and I (2000), in which she riffs on the traditional French idea of those who scavenge after harvests, gets all the attention. For me, it’s The Beaches of Agnès (2008) that’s the magical one.

In it, Varda reflects on her love of seaside locations, and uses the beaches of her youth as a backdrop for restaging memories of love and loss while playing games and pondering creativity. Mixing archive clips, observational material, constructed fantastical sequences and to-camera reminiscences, she roams the country, musing on interesting random encounters.

One moment she’s sailing down the Seine; the next, she’s walking around dressed as a potato in her own art exhibition. It could be twee, this national treasure having fun with her memories. But Varda is sharp and no pushover. She has strong opinions on being an artist, on feminism, on the need for culture-makers to depict the working class with dignity, and on the importance of film-makers and artists being part of social change [ . . . ]

Continue at THE GUARDIAN: Agnès Varda, the queen of the meme | Film | The Guardian

Amorous dolphin forces bathers ashore in Finistère

Mayor of Breton town issues swimming ban as lovey-dovey dolphin causes chaos off coast

An overly amorous dolphin has prompted the mayor of a coastal town in Finistère to ban swimming in the sea.The dolphin, which has been named Zafar, is well-known in the Plougastel-Daoulas area – and has even become something of a mascot to kayakers and other water sports enthusiasts.But as it enters mating season, the animal has moved further down the coast to Landévennec, a small town famous for its abbey – where it has been butting up alongside boats and chasing swimmers. [ . . . ]

Continue at THE CONNEXION: Amorous dolphin forces bathers ashore in Finistère

French wine bounces back after horror 2017

Ministry forecasts 25% year-on-year increase in production

Wine production in France should be 25% higher than in 2017, when late Spring frosts wrecked the grape crop, the Agriculture Ministry has said.

Producers in France expect to create some 46.1million hectolitres of wine in 2018, the Ministry announced – a rise of a quarter on 2017. Winemakers themselves, meanwhile, predicted an output of 44.5million hectolitres this year.

The summer heatwave does not appear to have damaged crops – and, in some cases, it may have saved it from mildew that threatened vines in early summer.

Production is expected to be below the five-year average in Languedoc-Roussillon, Corsica and the south-east, due to mildew, while Merlot grapes in Bordeaux were also affected – but in the latter’s case it is not expected to hit recovery.

Meanwhile, the heatwave actually stopped the spread of mildew in Burgundy, Beaujolais, Alsace and Champagne – leading to what are expected to be bumper harvests.

Source: French wine bounces back after horror 2017

Limiñanas in Rock en Seine: “Our concerts are very fragile numbers”

Real favorite of the first day of Rock in Seine, Limiñanas signed a concert of a beautiful energy with a lot of warmth and commitment. We took the opportunity to meet Lionel and Marie, the leaders of this unique formation. History to understand also how this couple and its musicians have become the French rock band the most seen of the moment.

This concert was a bit of consolation for rock fans frustrated by the programming of the first day of Rock en Seine. In the particular context of a park of St. Cloud half empty –  see our article on the battle of Paris festivals  – those who did not give in to the temptation to go see the phenomenon Die Antwoord at the same time on the big scene, have not regretted it.

Hot riffs, a psychedelic phosphorescent guitar, a trance rhythm, a man of old-fashioned elegance who dances alone in the background, an incandescent recovery of “Gloria”: here are some ingredients of the recipe for a good concert of Limiñanas .

Emmanuelle Seigner even made a surprise appearance at the time of the title “Shadow People” she sings on their last album. The invitations of this kind are at the heart of the project of the group as we explained Lionel and Marie a little earlier in the afternoon.

Your latest album ” Shadow people” offers great collaborations with other musicians (Emmanuelle Seigner, Anton Newcombe, Bertrand Belin, Peter Hook). How important are encounters in your career and how you make music? 
Lionel:Our group comes from a meeting, the one with Pascal Comelade who participated in our first two albums. He had originally invited me to record guitars on a record (“A Freak Serenade”). I was expecting to play with a band but he was alone with the sound engineer. I had found it amazing to record my guitar parts because I came from an ultra-codified garage rock environment, used to playing in a group. It really opened my mind. I thought it was a way to get around the problem of groups breaking their mouths because of one or the other who can not or does not want to play anymore. It’s a way to control the process from A to Z.

You have experienced many musical experiences before the success of Limiñanas. How to explain that this training, based around a couple, worked? 
It is precisely because we have given up the democratic process of the classical group. We decided to make the music that we wanted to really produce, both, as we want, and at our own pace. We are big bosses (laughs). We love to rehearse and spend a lot of time in the studio at home. 

When you are working on your new songs at home near Perpignan, are you the type to tie everything up or do you leave a little freedom for the invited musicians?
There is always a bit of frustration to leave air in the music but we have to do it. When we worked for the first time with Peter Hook (bass player New Order), we made music by mail by sending recorded tracks. Marie had encouraged me to send very simple and sober versions to give her room to intervene. And it worked: he made several bass tracks, lots of choirs, and in the end much more work than originally thought! 



Anton Newcombe’s Brian Jonestown Massacre who produced your latest album came into contact with you through Twitter before working with you. At the beginning, you have been spotted by American labels via MySpace … It’s a must, the social networks, for the success of a group today?
I think what’s really important is first and foremost things. We can then share them. If we can give advice to a young group, it is first that he does not care that it works. You have to make music for yourself first, be proud of what you do and make no concessions. At first we were criticized because we liked both New Wave English and Cramps, which was inconceivable for the purists of the time. You do not have to listen to anyone and first make your own music. Social networks can then become an important ally. But we, we are a little morons in the matter (laughs). The tweet of Anton Newcombe, it is a friend journalist of the World who told us about it, we had not even seen it!

A little “battery” question for Marie: why do not you use a hi-hat or a cymbal on stage? 
Marie : It’s only for sound, to make room for all the little instruments that are there. In our group, the tambourine is very important. If we put cymbals we do not hear anything! Neither the tambourine nor the little pianos. And then it also allows to stay in a sort of tribal trance throughout the set. 

How do you work your texts? Your themes are very broad. You are able to make a song on a fuzz effect pedal for or on a simple cooking recipe …
Lionel: For the cooking recipe, we did not invent anything, it is the recipe of Migas of my Grandma. I advise you to find the 45! If you apply the words to the letter, you will have your lunch. Because it’s not something to eat at night, it’s too heavy (laughs). It’s fried semolina in Spanish sausage fat! Texts are what asks us the most work. The choice to write in French does not make things easier. We can be ridiculous when it is badly written. I sign most of the texts, my older brother Serge also offers them from time to time … And then there is Bertrand Belin, who wrote “Dimanche” on our last album that I really like. He is an author who has a unique way of telling stories.

During this tour, you play in all kinds of venues and big festivals this summer like here in Rock en Seine. How do you adapt to these different atmospheres? 
We worked a lot on the setlist, which we simply adapt according to the duration we are given. Our concerts are very fragile numbers because very electric and we are seven on stage. It’s repetitive music based on riffs played sometimes in loops and if one of us at a galley on stage, it compromises everything! We are really grateful to our friends who have been with us for a very long time. They followed us into our galleys when the group did not interest anyone. It’s really cool for all of us to have this recognition from the public today.

Source: Limiñanas in Rock en Seine: “Our concerts are very fragile numbers”