DO you have a dream of becoming a superhero someday? Well you can right now of course in your own little ways. Have a vacation in France and you can actually help save Europe and the Americas from the brink of recession. The key there is spending and spend and spend. Saving will come later when the economy is already more stable. There are lots of reasons why spending a vacation in France this 2008 is so cool.

First reason is the people of the place of course. France is said to be peopled with the most intellectual and the most romantic people in the planet. I believe this is connected though. People who say that the French are highly intellectual are the visitors in the country themselves. They are not biased because most of the visitors here are not Europeans but are coming from Asia such as the Philippines who are exchange tertiary students in the country and who are interested to learn French because it is one romantic language. They want to pursue disseminating French back home in their respective countries. They perceive that being intellectual means they know how to please their romantic partners thus the French are also considered romantics as well.

The most famous actor in France is without doubt Gerard Depardieu of course. He has starred in dozens and dozens of French movies although he oftentimes crosses into Hollywood with such impressive performances in The Three Musketeers and as Gena Rowland’s opposite in Unhook the Stars although he also starred in the Hollywood bomb My Father the Hero but in fairness to him, the movie made a star out of Katherine Heigl.

Lately though, there are already a number of actors following in Gerard Depardieu’s footsteps such as Jean Reno and Mathieu Amalric. Mathieu who? I’ll deal with that later. I first encountered Jean Reno as the sympathizing pedophile in Leon which also doubles as the launching film for then 12-year-old Natalie Portman. He was one typical actor which didn’t stand out then. In fact, he was also in John Frankenheimer’s last film Ronin. But it was his performance in Flyboys as a World War I patriot which struck me as impressive.

Now let’s talk about Mathieu Amalric. Mathieu Amalric is actually a relative newcomer but he is already making ripples in the French film industry. In fact, he was the one personally handpicked by the director of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly to play the title role of a paraplegic affected with Locked-In Syndrome but who was able to write a book just by dictation using his eyes. The book eventually became The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. It’s actually a true story of Elle editor Jean Dominique Bauby. And because of Mathieu Almaric’s impressive performance in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, he was able to grab the role of the villain in James Bond’s next adventure Quantum of Solace.

FRANCE is indeed a very wonderful party. Do you know that it is not Greece but France which is the oldest country in Europe. It started long before Jesus was born and the tribe which occupied this country was then called Frankish. When the Romans invaded this country, they took the Frankish language with them, merge it with the Germanic language which was the native tongue of another tribe in the European continent (a precursor to modern Germany) and then combine it with the Roman language. When the Roman empire was disintegrated, a lot of languages were developed and were called Romance languages (from the etymology Roman). One of the Romance languages is modern day French. Of course, French is considered the most romantic language in the world so it may not be too late to learn French in 2008. There are a lot of French schools spread around the country whether you’re in Paris or Nice.

A typical French class is divided into three stages with each stage lasting up to a semester long. The three stages are basic, intermediate and advanced. Once you have graduated the advanced stage, you are now eligibile to teach French to students who are learning the tongue as a second language. Or if learning French is not exactly your cup of tea, then just enjoy the beauty of French art. The season of French culture appreciation begins on March 20. Aside from highlighting key festivities, there will also be fora on the state of French culture in major cities across the country.

The economy in France has never been stronger. In fact, Orange has recently sold 70,000 iPhone units. Orange is the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in France. And that’s just for the first month. If the number will be replicated in the next month, Apple would have sold a total of 140,000 units in just two months alone way beyond the 100,000 target.

Meanwhile, Russia’s state-owned Gazprom is eyeing to expand in France or at least make business with French oil companies. In fact, it has recently renewed its supply contract with Gaz de France for another year. In 2007, Gazprom supplied a total of 500 million cubic meters to Gaz de France.

In still another economic development, car sales in France have drastically risen 3.2 percent last year. The country’s car manufacturers hit a total of over 2 million units sold. Renault sold a total of 400,000 units last year while Peugeot Citroen sold 600,000 units.

French influence has reached Japan in an entirely different arena – fertility. The Japanese government has recently reported that they are eyeing to replicate a very successful fertility programin France to be replicated in their country. Surprisingly, it’s not technology that has driven the French to have more babies, it’s simply economics. The larger the number of children a family has, the larger it is given a tax break. Now, is that not lovely?