FRANCE is without doubt the hottest tourist destination in the world come spring break. During this time, almost all colleges and universities in every continent in the world are enjoying one week of vacation to welcome spring season and the blossoming of new flowers. This in essence is the new year of the botanical life. And of course, during their spring break, students will naturally not stay at home but will travel to cool places. And the coolest place to be in the world is in France.
The coolest place in the France is in the French Riviera. Because it is located in the Mediterranean with its nice climate, healthy food and extremely beautiful resorts, this is the hanging out of the rich and famous not just in Europe but the rest of the world. The French Riviera has healthy food because the Mediterranean diet consists of seafood. They have beautiful resorts because each resort engages in a healthy competition among each other to attract more customers. There are actually two kinds of resorts here – the conventional and the nudist one. It’s nice to skinny dip in a nudist resort at night because planktons will illuminate your whole body.
If you are planning to take a vacation in Paris, then it’s another wondrous and romantic spot. I say it is a very romantic city because you will be encountering French guys and the French are said to be the most romantic people on earth. Besides, Paris is a city of lights all year long and you will see all the famous structures such as the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, the Champs Elysees and the Notre Dame Cathedral all spectacularly illuminated at night. If you are dining in a high-rise restaurant overlooking the Eiffel Tower and the River Seine, then that’s another way to be romantic.
On the political front, even the suaveness of the French president has its uses overseas. French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s latest foreign travel is in Chad and he is asking the Chad government to stop the killing of members of the political opposition in the country. Chad is a former colony of France. Sarkozy’s visit is also aimed to boost the morale of French soldiers under the EU mission who are arriving today. Sarkozy and French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy will also hold a meeting with Nobel Peace laureate Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg following the Chadian visit.
NOTHING beats celebrating Valentines in France than watching a French movie. There are lots of hot actors and actresses out there. One of the most spellbinding movies that is currently played even in Hollywood is La Vie en Rose. La Vie en Rose is the moving and heart-wrenching biography of French singing legend Edith Piaf. The movie is not told chronologically and this is what makes French filmmakers a cut above the rest. They hate those old boring Hollywood clichés. They want to tell French stories that are interesting even to foreign viewers who do not understand French at all. By the way, La Vie en Rose is dubbed entirely in French so ya’ll who only understand only English need to strain your eyes and read the subtitles at the same time.
La Vie en Rose takes us to a journey into Edith Piaf’s tragic life and the causes behind those tragedies which ultimately made her succumb to liver cancer at the age of 47. They say that French men are sweet and romantic. But how about the French women? Are they sweet and romantic as well? I’d rather say they are more of the seductress types. Edith Piaf is one. Even the men behind her are spellbound by her seductiveness. There was one guy – he was a middleweight boxer and on the way to fame. He was married but smitten by Edith’s poison ivy and femme fatale persona. Edith made boxer Marcel Cerdan go to Paris to meet her. When he grudgingly obliged, he boarded an ill-fated Air France flight which crashed, killing everyone aboard, including him of course. That is how tragic Edith Piaf can be.
Of course, Edith Piaf’s music is being revived today with the release of the soundtrack of La Vie en Rose. Her haunting voice in the 1930s is now a household name in contemporary France. Equally impressive in her role as Edith Piaf is French newcomer, Marion Cotillard who is 32 years old.
Since I have already told you about a woman French fatale like Edith Piaf, here’s another one. She is the famous St. Joan de Arc, lovingly revered by the French people and regarded as the nation’s Roman Catholic patron saint. St. Joan de Arc stood before the power-that-be in her time and was ultimately condemned to die by being burned at the tender age of 19. Joan of Arc is an epitome of a French woman – resilient even during trying times.
Now let’s take a look at the visionary French film directors which have shaped our view of what is cinema today. Aside from Olivier Dahan who directed La Vie en Rose in all its glory, there’s another director that I like – Julian Schnabel for his work in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. It is the biography of paralyzed Elle editor Jean Dominique Bauby and just like Dahan, Julian Schnabel did not use chronology in putting out this movie.
WHETHER it’s by the Mediterranean side at the French Riviera or at a restaurant rooftop opposite the Eiffel Tower and across the River Seine, a Valentines romantic dinner in France can be very wonderful. Consider this – the French are very romantic because they are intellectual people.
During Valentines here in the country, people in the rural villages would open the windows of their respective houses and greet each other a happy Valentines Day! The same goes true in the suburbian neighborhoods where young gentlemen will greet maidens who are passing by a happy Valentines Day.
Aside from celebrating the Roman Catholic feast of St. Valentine in this predominantly Christian country, Valentines Day is also a secular feast here. The secular version of the celebration originated when ornithologists in the Middle Ages have discovered that there are lots of birds mating during this Valentine period. Then the promotion of Valentines was maximized during the 14th century by French poets and novelists. This was the first time that the French were dubbed as the most romantic people in the world because there were lots of literature dedicated to love that had evolved during this time.
Choosing a date for Valentine also originated in medieval France. Man, those were the years when romance was really as serene as the breeze and everything is so peaceful, so calm. On Valentine’s Eve, young guys and gals gathered together and randomly chose a partner. That will be his or her date in the evening and all throughout Valentines Day. But for some rural villages here, conservative traditions still persist. Because ones Valentine here may last for the whole year. And they can even last a lifetime. That is why it is definitely correct to say that the French are the most affectionate and the most romantic people in the world.
But that was medieval France. Nowadays the most passionate place to celebrate Valentines in the country is in Saint-Valentin at the Loire Valley. It’s just like the Vegas of France as lovers can go to the garden of lovers where they immediately exchange wedding vows. The garden spawns a total of four hectares. In fact, there are resorts established in the garden so that couples can immediately have a very intimate, warm and romantic honeymoon after their wedding. Of course, this practice has no Roman Catholic bearing but it definitely has a civil one. And a lot of people here in France are not that religious anyhow and so they troop into such places as Cap d’Agde which is the largest nudist resort in the world.
In urban areas though, contemporary Western celebrations of Valentines Day are abounding. At a typical five-star hotel in Avignon for example, you and your lover can check in and spend only 360 euros for a very passionate Valentine evening and that’s already inclusive to the dinner, a bottle of champagne and free spa services such as body wrap or body scrub.
