The Champs Elysees became a huge farm on the last Sunday in May, to focus attention on France’s crisis-hit agriculture. Paris’ most famous avenue was covered with plants, trees and flowers.

The event, called Nature Capital, drew two million people over two days and was organized by the Young Farmers association and the French forest industry.

Over a stretch of almost a mile, from the Arc de Triomphe down halfway to the Place de la Concorde, the Champs were filled with more than 100 type of grain, fruit and vegetables.  By bringing in 8,000 plots of earth and 150,000 plants to the city and installing them, amid sheep and cattle,  struggling farmers are attempting to highlight an aspect of French life which they believe is too often overlooked by Paris. There were also cows, pigs, goats and lambs and the livestock show showcased some of the famous breeds such as the enormously fat black-bottomed Limousin pigs, prized for their meat quality.

French Farmers: Pride and Protest

French farmers are already a diminishing breed but one of the worst crises in decades has further unsettled the sector, fuelled by falling prices and rocketing production costs.  In the ravages of a crisis which has seen production costs soar and product prices fall, representatives of the agricultural sector say farmers are being brought to their knees.

President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government has offered an aid plan for French farmers with some 1.8 billion euros in loans (2.3 billion dollars) and 650 million euros in other support payments.

For the 55,000 members of the young farmers’ union, the stunt has a more serious purpose. Agricultural workers are one of the most alienated sections of Nicolas Sarkozy’s electorate and, as a steep fall in revenues causes anger to grow, farmers have used increasingly eye-catching means to draw attention to their grievances.

In April, hundreds of farmers rode into Paris on their tractors, bringing their worries about the future of farming to the capital of Europe’s agricultural powerhouse. Anxious and angry, thousands of French farmers gathered in Paris to demand emergency aid measures amid tumbling grain prices. Many of them travelled across the country on their tractors, crawling across French highways at 30 kilometres per hour to reach the capital by morning rush-hour.

More than 1,500 giant tractors rolled across the capital’s iconic squares and boulevards, displaying banners that read “Don’t sell out agriculture.”
Cereal producers, along with sunflower and rapeseed farmers, are angry that volatile markets have left them substantially bankrupt in a “black year” for their industry. The farmer’s union FRSEA rallied delegations from 14 different regions across France.

Sarkozy has in past months made several trips to rural France, visiting farms and trying to ease the anger of producers who say they are no longer making ends meet.

For Nature Capital, about 200 trucks rolled onto the Champs Elysees to unload the trees, plants and topsoil and part of the avenue has been closed to traffic.

Nature Capital was designed by Gad Weil, an outdoor events planner who 20 years ago organised a similar happening that turned the Champs Elysees into a giant wheat field.

People in France are eating more fish, but not all fish are created equal, or are equally available. Grocery shoppers may not realize it, but they can make a difference by choosing to eat fish that are harvested in a sustainable manner, rather than others. This is the message of the Mr. Goodfish campaign, which swam into France two months ago. French conservationists are applauding the initiative, which alerts consumers to the “good fish” to eat with a sticker on the packaging or other notification. The conservationists hope that with the proper education and given a choice, French fish-eaters will opt for fish that are sustainable rather than more endangered species.

A good time for Mr. Goodfish

The campaign was already a success in Italy and Spain. The European program, run under the auspices of the World Ocean Network Association, wants to help consumers buy fish that are neither endangered nor out of season. Given the recent disaster off the coast of Louisiana, the move seems eerily prescient. The fishing industry there has been devastated by a massive and growing oil spill that threatens generations of family seafood businesses and fish not only in the gulf waters but also in the inland waterways.

The blue Mr. Goodfish logos will not only appear on fish sold in supermarkets, but also at fishmongers and even on restaurant menus, steering diners toward fish that they may not be familiar with but whose consumption is healthier for the environment.  Experts in France assert that if consumers choose a Mr. Goodfish instead of another fish, even just once a year, it will have a positive impact on 18,000 tons of endangered fish.

Even an iphone app is in development, to help French consumers know which fish are in season when, and see a list of current Mr. Goodfish choices.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that he will push hard for the pushing back of France’s retirement age during the second half of his term. The move was expected to meet fierce resistance from the French public, but so far, the response has been anemic, possible due to the sobering effect of the the news of the economic crisis that is spreading like wildfire across Europe. Last Thursday, workers prepared a day of protest against the core of Sarkozy’s unspoken but implied austerity program. But French trade unions’ protests failed to rally enough street power against the crucial reform of its costly pension system.

Protests lacking in numbers and conviction

Unions across Europe have called for strikes and protests against austerity measures meant to stem the Greek debt crisis from spreading, but many have been puny at best. A Greek rally last week drew only half the crowd that turned out for the protest on May 5 that was punctuated by riots viewed around the world in mass media. Spanish unions also saw a limited turnout  at their last anti-austerity protest. The weak showings seemed to reflect a new state of resignation vis-a-vis the European economic crisis, some media reported. Given the massive coverage of riots in Greece and the plummeting of the euro, even the normally strike-happy unions of France are having a  reality-check. French labor leaders are having a hard time justifying  outrage over belt-tightening measures that all European countries will probably need to adopt in order to avert total calamity.

Government ministers in France indicated the turnout at Thursday’s protests was too weak to block an increase in the formerly  sacred pension age of 60, a trademark reform of the late Socialist President Francois Mitterrand, The ministers said that they would soon present details of the change, though only rumors exist of exactly what age they are planning to propose as the new retirement age in France. Ministers are reportedly not yet sure whether to push it to 62 years, 63 or even higher. However, the French government has made clear any reform would not change the special retirement schemes for transport workers, whose fierce defense of their privilege of retiring as early as 50 or 55 sparked a crippling general transport strike in 1995.

European economic crisis puts writing on the wall for unions

Gripped by the sovereign debt crisis, many of France’s European neighbors have announced massive spending cuts in a bid to curb their mounting deficits and restore stability to the battered euro currency.

While Sarkozy has insisted that his announcement of a three-year spending freeze does not amount to an austerity program, an attack on France’s iconic 60-year retirement age was formerly unthinkable and is now very much on the table. The reduction of the minimum age for workers to receive a full state pension from 65 to 60 was in 1984 one of the key reforms of Socialist president Francois Mitterrand’s government, and remains cherished by the left.

Previous attempts in France in recent years to reform state finances and cut entitlements have been squashed by large-scale protests, but Sarkozy’s supporters insist pension change is essential. Germany has already raised the minimum age for a full state pension to 67 by the year 2029, and many other European countries have begun large-scale budget cuts. France has been slower, putting its faith in a gradual return to growth and a freeze on spending increases.

Statistics show that France will have 18 million retirees by 2030, up from 15.5 million today, and the number will rise to 23 million by mid-century.

France will be the host country of the 2016 European football championship. France squeaked by Turkey by one narrow vote, as well as Italy and Poland for the coveted chance to host one of the world’s biggest and more prestigious sporting events, 18 years after its 1998 hosting — and winning– the World Cup. Poland and esp[ecially Turkey submitted very ambitious plans that included massive infrastructure upgrades, but in the end it was the more sensible and modest bid of France that won the day. France was able to rely on the quality of its existing infrastructure, notably with regard to its public transport system and well-developed security.

New upgrades, new jobs

But the win means more than bragging rights for host country France. A lot of money is involved, with billions pledged to upgrade France’s stadiums, and tens of thousands of new jobs associated with the reconstruction projects across the country. The 2016 event will be the first European championship to include 24 countries, compared to the 16 nations taking part in previous Euro tournaments. In order to properly accommodate the new arrivals to the field, France will need to reexamine some key parts of its winning dossier. Despite their success in winning over the judges, UEFA still criticized the French football authorities on the antiquated state of many French stadiums.

Football event a kick in the pants for an ailing European economy, says Sarkozy

Repairing the structures will allow for the creation of some 15,000 temporary jobs and another 4,000 permanent positions to ensure they are in top shape for 2016. A few minutes before the judges began their deliberations, French President Nicolas Sarkozy was invited to speak at the end of France’s presentation. Sarkozy spoke of the need to make Euro 2016 part of the “solution to the (economic) crisis” plaguing many of the competing countries. In any case, today’s win should give French football clubs the chance to build new sports venues. And the results should be tangible: more spectators, more revenue.

Oscar-winner Sean Penn has bowed out of appearing at the Cannes premiere of his new film “Fair Game” because the actor has been called to testify at a US Senate hearing on the Haiti earthquake. Penn, who helped the relief effort after the Haiti quake in January, has been asked to appear before a US Senate committee later this week to give an account of the devastation he saw in the Caribbean island nation.

In “Fair Game”, which premieres at Cannes on Thursday, May 20, Penn plays the lead male role in Doug Liman’s “Fair Game”, which also stars Naomi Watts as the real-life CIA agent whose identity was illegally revealed in 2003, sparking a crisis for the administration of US president George W. Bush.

Penn is the latest big name to cancel his appearance at the festival after French New Wave film legend Jean-Luc Godard announced at the last minute Monday that he would not attend the premiere here of his “Film Socialism”. The French icon said he was unable to attend “following problems of a Greek type” — whether budgetary or Greek-style tragedy was unclear. References to ancient Greece, including Sophocles, Pericles and Euclid are peppered through “Film Socialism”, which releases this week in theatres and can be downloaded on the Internet Monday and Tuesday.

Ridley Scott, the director of the big-budget movie “Robin Hood” that opened the festival last week, could not attend due to knee surgery. In his absence, Universal dispatched a major delegation to support the movie, including producer Brian Gazer and the major cast, namely Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong, Oscar Isaac and Max Von Sydow.  The film received mixed reviews from Cannes attendees.

Director Aamir Khan will also skip the famed Cannes Fest where his film “Peepli Live” is being showcased, although it is not in competition.

Some luminaries are not attending for political reasons. Italian culture minister Sandro Bondi announced that he would skip Cannes, the world’s most prestigious film festival, because the program included “Draquila: Italy Trembles,” a documentary on the 2009 earthquake in L’Aquila.  The film, he charged, “insults the truth and the entire Italian population.” Mr. Bondi’s absence is again raising questions about Italian Prime Minster Silvio Berlusconi’s ability to crush dissent by controlling the media in Italy.

Pal Sarkozy is the 82-year-old father of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but he is more– a painter, and an outspoken controversial figure in France. Last February, Sarkozy père joined with a German computer artist for a show of joint art creations in the capital of his native Hungary.

“Out of Mind” was the title of the exhibition of more than 80 pictures by Sarkozy senior and his long-time colleague, computer artist Werner Hornung, The show was held in the Abigail art gallery in downtown Budapest and was a big hit, drawing serious art enthusiasts and the curious as well. Five or six pictures were snapped up in the first two days of the exhibition by anonymous buyers. After a two-and-a-half week stint in Budapest, the show went to Szolnok, near Sarkozy ‘s home village of Nagybocs, then to Cairo, Paris and finally Marrakech.

The pieces displayed included original drawings by Sarkozy senior and around 50 “giclee” art prints jointly created by him and Hornung and were selling for prices between 3,000-14,000 euros (4,120-19,220 dollars at the time) apiece. Giclee prints are ink-jet-based digital prints that are nearly indistiguishlable from the original in many cases.

Pal Sarkozy, who worked as a graphic designer until he retired in 1995, provided the original sketches, which Hornung then digitalised and manipulated on his computer. Sarkozy then took back the images and worked on them again using real paint, and the final images were then scanned back into the computer and printed off in a limited edition.

How does Sarkozy senior find his inspiration for his fanciful images? “The most important is to find the idea, then I do a drawing, which goes into the computer. Then we start putting in the colors and adding the backgrounds. After the picture is assembled, I paint on it some more,” Sarkozy said.

The French president’s father has been earning a living as a visual artist his entire adult life. He left Hungary in 1948 and made a living with his drawings, before becoming a graphic designer in an advertising company.

Two pieces in the show were not for sale, however: a portrait of Nicolas Sarkozy which the father presented to the subject, his son, when the latter was elected president; and a portrait of Carla Bruni, which was a wedding gift to the presidential couple. Apparently the Sarkozys of the Elysee Palace loaned these back to the artist, interesting in the light of rumors of a longtstanding  rift between father and son.

After Egypt went so far as to break off ties with France in a battle over the legal ownership of Egyptian relics, the relationship was later restored after France agreed to return the pieces that have been part of the Louvre’s collection for almost 20 years. The breach was significant, as the Louvre’s refusal to return fragments of frescoes from a 3,200-year-old tomb near the ancient temple city of Luxor placed the Paris museum’s future excavations in Egypt. In addition, Christiane Ziegler, the former curator of the Louvre’s Egyptology department, was barred from giving a scheduled lecture in Egypt.she is the person who oversaw the museum’s acquisition of the fragments.

Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s vocal chief archaeologist, has been running an aggressive crusade against leading museums around the world thought to be holding contraband artifacts that are part of Egypt’s cultural and archeological heritage and rightly belong there. Thousands of antiquities were spirited out of Egypt during its colonial period and later, by archaeologists, adventurers and thieves. Hawass’ bureau posited that antiquity grave-robbers chipped the disputed fresco fragments from the walls of the tomb near the Valley of the Kings in the 1980s. Based on these assertions, the office cancelled Ms. Ziegler’s trip to Egypt and also suspended the Louvre’s excavation in the massive necropolis of Saqqara, near Cairo.

In a story worthy of “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, the artifacts were allegedly stolen from Egypt, smuggled out of the country and sold to the Louvre. The French government had said the Louvre acted in good faith when it purchased the treasures from an unnamed source in 2000 and 2003. For years after Egypt cried foul, the dispute raged on, with France insisting that the relics had been legally and legitimately acquired. However, in November 2008, archaeologists rediscovered a 3,200-year-old tomb near the ancient temple city of Luxor that the relics appear to have come from. The question of whether they had been legally removed from Egypt was re-opened. After reviewing the archaeologists’ findings, an independent commission made up of specialists from France’s museum world and other experts that oversees museums in France voted unanimously to return them. Mr. Hawass is not finished with the Louvre yet. He has presented a list of other items he wants back, including the painted ceiling of the Dendera temple showing the Zodiac.

The Louvre is not the only museum that Hawass has a beef with. The Rosetta Stone, a basalt slab with an inscription that was the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics, and is a worldwide symbol of the key to all language, is in the British Museum in London, and a bust of Queen Nefertiti, also in dispute, is held by a museum in Germany. Hawass’ track record is impressive; so far he has recovered 5,000 artifacts for Egypt since becoming antiquities czar in 2002, including hair stolen from the tomb of King Ramses II. He wields a powerful incentive for museums like the Louvre to come clean and return artifacts from Egypt’s past, by withholding access in the future, such as permission for digs and cultural and scholarly exchange.

If you’ve ever visited Paris on a Sunday and lamented that your shopping time was curtailed, you can now whip out your credit card seven days a week.

In France, no shopping on Sundays has been a tradition for centuries, and an official rule since a 1906 law consecrated the day of rest, although bakeries, butchers and other small shops were allowed to open until noontime, so people could buy fresh food and supplies for the traditional Sunday family meal.

Now, following most of the rest of the Western world, France is set to adopt a policy that would allow certain businesses to operate on Sundays. The move is part of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plans to boost the economy in France. The Senate approved the measure 165 to 159 on July 23. The lower house of parliament passed it July 15.

The new law permits shops, department stores, and shopping malls to open on Sundays in 20 zones known as “exceptional commercial” centers — or tourist zones — near three of the country’s largest cities: Paris, Marseilles, and Lille.

Sarkozy had plenty of ammunition to make his point. During the visit of President Obama and his family to Paris in June, special arrangements had to be made for Michelle Obama and her daughters to drop by the Bonpoint shop in Paris’ upscale 6th district on a Sunday afternoon. Before Parliament, Sarkozy posited, “Is it normal that on a Sunday, when Madame Obama wants to go shopping in Paris with her girls, that I have to make phone calls to get them to open? How are we supposed to explain to them that we are the only country where shops are closed on Sunday?”   And more than half of the population prefers having the choice to shop on Sundays, opinion polls conducted in France have shown.

Sarkozy, however, had an uphill battle with the new law. For one thing, any sort of change to long-standing laws in France, however practical, is usually met with stiff opposition simply for the sake of upholding tradition. Then there is the concern for the worker. Leftist groups and unions in France are worried that allowing businesses to open on Sunday will make workers feel compelled to work on a day that should be their day off, and would give employers the green light to force them to do so, on threat of losing their jobs. Those willing to Work Sundays would be given preference over those who were
not.

Then there are the people in France concerned with religion. With church attendance in France down to a trickle already, some worry that Sunday operations will prevent people who are normally churchgoers from observing the traditional day of rest and attending church, and tempt others who might otherwise attend into a more attractive option, trading sermons for shopping.

So Sarkozy had to accept limitations to his original proposal, which would have allowed more types of businesses to open on Sundays in a wider area.

The new law will put an end to the hit-or-miss method of Sunday openings in recent years, in which some stores managed to get around the old law and others could not, and where even stores that could not get a special dispensation made the financial decision to accept fines for breaking the law because the income from Sunday sales more than made up for them.

The economic crisis has caused explosive anger in many quarters all over the world — at everyone from bankers to governments. Now factory workers in a small town in France are threatening to blow up their 62-year-old factory unless they are paid off for their lost jobs to the tune of $42,000 (30,000 euros) each by carmakers Renault and Peugeot, which account for almost all of the factory’s business.

The auto parts maker, New Fabris, recently went into bankruptcy and is forced to lay off its workers, some of whom have been there more than 20 years. But even the newer workers are protesting. In France,  a country where cradle-to-grave employment is considered virtually a right, and firing workers once hired  is next to impossible, the economic crisis is creating an existential one, as well as a wave of outrage and disbelief.  Suddenly finding out that they are losing what they were sure was a secure and well-paid job is driving some workers to extreme measures. “Bossnappings” have been reported across France as managers are held hostage by dsigruntled employees whose jobs are threatened.

The 366 New Fabris workers who are protesting have barricaded themselves in ide the factory, and say that they have gas cannisters that they will blow up if their compensation demands in exchange for their lost wages are not met. Police think that the workers are bluffing and that the canisters are empty, but the workers and their union spokesperson insist that they are dead serious. Emergency services in the small northeastern town of Chatellerault are taking the threat seriously and are on high alert.  The factory is full of expensive equipment worth millions of dollars, some of it owned by Renault, which the workers are holding inside, refusing to let any of it be removed. The workers have set a deadline of July 31 for their demands to be met.

The reason for the closure of the factory goes back to the worldwide economic crisis. French car manufacturers Peugeot and Renault were supplied by the New Fabris plant for decades. and  at the time of the bankruptcy accounted for 90% of the factory’s orders. But now, with car purchases down in France as they are around the world, and carmakers going bankrupt or being bought out by healthier companies with their own supply chain, demand for parts has plummeted. The two French carmakers expressed sympathy for the plight of the workers, and have already given financial support to the company, but said it was not their responsibility to compensate them for their lost jobs. The workers counter that Renault and Peugeot have already set a precedent by previously paying off 200 workers at an aluminum plant in France. The New Fabris workers want a similar deal. Their own employer has offered to pay them only about half what they are demanding, and that only for workers with more than 20 years on the job.

A week before sweeping climate change legislation that will change the way America does business passed in the US House of Representatives, the President of France was demonstrating that he is on the same page. Nicolas Sarkozy, who will be attending the Climate change conference  in Copenhagen, Denmark this December, addressed communication to the head of the UN panel of experts saying that the “challenge of a world agreement on climate change must be met.”

Sarkozy’s messages have become increasingly green in recent months, especially when his turn at the presidency of the EU laid bare the many conflicts among member countries on the issue, especially how to divide the responsibility and the costs for any changes. Back in 2007,  Sarkozy called for a national “carbon tax” on global-warming pollutants and a European tariff on imports from countries outside the Kyoto Protocol.While no specific countries were cited, it was generally understood that the proposal was targeted at imports from the United States and Australia, the only advanced economies outside the Kyoto agreement, the UN’s landmark pact on greenhouse-gas emissions.

France has been one of the world leaders in environmental issues. Always a staunch supporter of the Kyoto Protocol, France gets 84% of its energy  from its nuclear power plants, which, despite its reputation for dangerous meltdowns, is the cleanest form of energy generally available today. France also has an extensive rail system including the high-speed electric TGV trains, that cut down on fossil fuel emissions from automobiles. In a further effort to reduce this pollution, France was among the first countries to offer drivers incentives to buy greener cars as well, and Paris recently installed a system of rental bicycles to give the public another greener alternative for getting around the city.  Sarkozy wishes to continue France’s climate change leadership, especially in the light of the dire predictions of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) which state that without intervention climate change threatens to lead to cataclysmic drought, floods and epidemics before the end of this century. The head of the panel visited France last week to meet with Sarkozy, and was gratified by the French head of state’s response and pledges of cooperation and leadership on global climate change measures.

Sarkozy has even called on President Obama in recent months to follow the leadership of the EU in the climate change arena, and reverse the environmental isolationism of his predecessor. Sarkozy will probably score some political points at home for the climate change legislation that just passed in the US Congress, which calls for utility companies to get 15% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. In any case, the legislation, provided it passes in the Senate, will give a big boost to the December Copenhagen conference. Then the ball will be in the rest of the world’s court. The U.S. measure aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020. Europe has pledged to cut its own emissions by at least 20 percent from 1990 levels by 2020, and 30 percent if other advanced economies agree to do the same.

However, Sarkozy’s critics say he has not been quite consistent in his support for climate change reforms. The President of France recently expressed his preference for Claude Allegre to head his cabinet’s super-ministry of science, industry and innovation. Allegre, a former climate change champion who has recently reversed his opinion and no longer believes that human activity is responsible for any modifications in the earth’s atmosphere, is seen as an enemy to scientists who preach that global warming can be controlled by changes in peoples’ behavior and energy consumption.