One time or another we have eaten cheese. Cheese is one of the subtle and varied foods in the world. It is buttery, bland, creamy, pungent, sharp, rich, salty, innocuous or lightly delicate. Its aroma, can be overpowering, virtually unnoticeable or delicately aromatic. It can be hard or soft, or milky runny that we need a spoon to eat it. Cheese can be eaten with for snacks inserted in between loaf bread, or a gourmet meal or a superb wine companion.

In France there is what we call Comte cheese or French gryere, Gryere de Comte. Actually gryere is neither French nor Swiss. It has been made since Charlemagne’s time.
This cheese is aged for more than three months.

As with anything French everything is done with style. Everything, cheese included, is made with such flourish that is considered substandard to be not so. I am referring to the eyes or the holes in a French cheese called comte cheese. Comte cheese should have holes sizes like that of a small cherry or pea. And these holes are not achieved if affinage is curtailed or there is too low temperature.

I tasted comte cheese cut into small cubes with a glass of white wine. Perfect! Anyone? It has ivory-colored paste, caramalized and nutty flavor, and holes with sizes like that of hazel nuts. And it was said so that this is best eaten after 30 months it was made.

Comte cheese must pass the specifications of AOC or the Apellation d’origine controlee or controlled term of origin. AOC gives the standards of the comte cheese. Five percent of the cheese produced failed the AOC standard.

AOC state that comte cheese should only be made by milk from Montbeliarde. And individual cows should have the minimum of one hectares of grazing. Imagine that?! And these cows eat only natural, fresh food with no silage. From the milking of the cows, to transportation and to production in the site are under standard time to be followed. These are just a few of the AOC’s regulations.

There is nothing more French than Comte cheese. Tourists who have not tasted comte cheese cheated themselves with this best French delicacy.

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.