then take a nap and then fire ze missiles
this is the reason why the french use the same colors as americans do on their flag: after seeing that the power of revolution by the people worked so well, thirteen years later the french decided that they'd do that too. all while eating cake and beheading marie antoinette.they stand for liberty, equality, and brotherhood: "liberté, egalité, et fraternité" was apparently what the french were shouting when they stormed the bastille. (which, of course, is celebrated today, and hence the francophilic post.)
the french have gotten a bad rap over the past few years. there's been the raging stereotype that they're all hanging out in front of the eiffel tower wearing those black-and-white striped shirts, black berets covering their heads, smoking, wearing suspenders. half the time they're mimes. and that they're smelly, that their women don't bathe, and that their women don't shave (remember that scene from titanic when leonardo dicaprio just says, 'they were french'?).
and then there was, of course, the notorious "freedom fries" incident -- can they really be blamed after all that was proven ex post facto? i still know a certain person whose name rhymes with "mack juno" who still calls them the, uh, "freedoms."
everyone seems to forget that during world war ii, germany made them sign a contract that said they'd pay germany for occupying their country. they forget that at one point in time, france owned a hell of a lot of the world, in due part to napoleon (and his nephew of the same name); they forget that there was the bloodline linked with jesus christ known as the merovingians (sound familiar yet, you matrix fans?); they forget that without france, the english language would be basically defunct (and that they'd be speaking something that sounds like gibberish -- listen to welsh and gaelic for some of the closest approximations of "real" english).
they forget that france is the seat of culture, of art, of love, of things that america so desperately wants and needs but can't because it's got its head burrowed in a freaking ostrich hole of nuclear weapons and right-wing propaganda. (speak up about karl rove already, BUSH!)
the da vinci code would make no sense. wine and champagne? nothing. and let's not even start with cheese. (by the way, this model is laetitia casta, a really hot french supermodel. check her pits. no hair.) and really, can you laugh and be repulsed by this girl being smelly?
yeah, there will always be that simpson episode where lisa ends up going to the wrong school and all the kids laugh at her en français, but that's part of the bit, right? the whole romanticism with europe, how we'll always have paris, and yes, without the french, we never would have won the american revolution.
so shut up about the french. buy yourself some brie and a baguette, drink some beujolais or some moet-chandon, and rent amelie, moulin rouge, and l'auberge espagnole tonight to watch on your dvd player. cuddle up with your cherie and enjoy some absinthe as a nightcap (if you can find it!), and regail in some good old french magic when you re-read harry potter and the goblet of fire with the girls from beauxbatons.
you'll fall in love with france all over again.
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