Hot air rising...

Outside Franprix on the Rue Lecourbe, Paris 15e, there's a woman selling Itinérant, the magazine sold by the sdf or homeless. She's standing in the doorway, clasping the top copy accross her chest as if to keep herself warm. I can't read the whole headline, but the word, pollution flashes out at me in red.

It's cold. There was ice this morning on the cars along the Boulevard Garibaldi and, this week, the 'luminous' panneaux publicitaires du mairie are telling us to turn our heating down to 19 degrees centigrade, Pour limiter la pollution et lutter contre le dérèglement climatique (in order to limit pollution and fight against climatic deregulation).

Further down the street there are billboards of Carla Sarkozy, the new first lady, touting Lancia cars.

She's advertising 'une beaute spacieuse'.

About a month ago, at the end of a freezing January, the new Mme Sarkozy appeared on the cover of the French edition of Closer magazine wearing a black bikini opposite a photo of Sarkozy's 10 years older ex-wife, Cecilia, who was showing une beaute perhaps une peu pluse spacieuse in a similar swimsuit(inevitably it was somewhat harsh to place the 50-year old Cecilia next to the 39-year old Carla, who still contiues her career as a model).

It's probably the most shockingly <<people>> (ie. celebrity) cover I've seen in France; the French are edging ever closer to the brutal, deregulated Anglo-Saxon world of tabloid journalism.

Though French journalism is Heat-ing up, the country's legal system retains its traditional froideur. When Cecilia sued Closer, the judge awarded a provisional ruling in favour of her 30,000 euro claim, agreeing with her lawyer that it was as though the two women "were comparing goods".

This is no exaggeration for effect. Both women are or were professional models. Describing their bodies as 'goods' cannot be seen as a an insult, or even a metaphor.

Paris markets are in freefall: The worth ofValeurs sûres (sure things/blue-chip companies) might have plummeted recently, but value resides in the most unlikely places. The Société Générale's bodies of accounts might have turned out to be fakes but Carla and Cecilia's assets - whether fake or naturel - are holding value.

But it's not only the appearance of the personnages at the heart of the president bling-bling saga that valent ses pesants d'or (are worth their weight in gold).

The president is himself sueing newspaper Le Nouvel Observateur over their claim, earlier this month, that he texted Cecilia before his remarriage offering to cancel his wedding to Ms Bruni.

In an exclusive first interview in L'express recently the new Mme Sarkozy expressed her surprise at moving into the political world où les mots ont plus de poids (where words weigh more heavily).

Even in an overheating climate, there's a heavy lot of hot air going around.

The Sarkozys, past and present, are fighting the new climat dérèglé (deregulated climate) of French journalism. For the moment, they're winning damages - France remains a country where images and words retain their value - even if only after the scandal is published and the damage has been done.

Meanwhile, back on the hoarding, there's the new Mrs Sarkozy endorsing new cars; global rechauffement: the convenience of private transport at the expense of public pollution levels.

Back at my apartment, the heating is set to 18 degrees centigrade. I move it up a notch to 19.

And the woman outside Franprix shifts her feet, and clutches her fundraising magazine closer to her chest.

Comments

[delphine]

food for thought indeed!
delphine

[badaude]

Nice of you to say to. Though this is one of my few posts that doesn't mention food...

[LDP]

Nice post, and great illustration.

How's Mme Sarkozy's singing?

[badaude]

Shameful to say, I bought her first album... and - erm - rather liked it...
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW-EQmEvSKE

[Alice]

Love the details of your drawings!

And I, too, have her first album, although a bit by default, because my boyfriend received it as a gift and didn't like it -- I used to like it more, but more recently I haven't enjoyed it as much...

[embrouillamini]

I didn't see much of the 15th - in fact I am struggling to locate it on my mental arrondissement map! I feel ashamed!

I loved the fact that chariots are so acceptable (and not all fake Burberry check and associated with the elderley community).

I'm struggling to bring to mind the name of a shop that does nice shiny vinyl ones (they have stores on Blvd. Haussmann and inside the Louvre). I also like their sexy feather dusters.

Oh Paris.

[badaude]

Please tell me and I'll buy one! I have heard a rumour you can get 'Le Bon Marche' sacs a roulettes at La Grande Epicerie, which sounds rather flash. Bit silly to be seen with one in Monop though; rather like those car stickers that say, 'My other car is a Porsche'...

[Emily]

Oh no, it sounds like Paris is becoming more and more like L.A., with the image-obsessed media and the drive to acquire more stuff. Mean-spirited bikini photos? gigantic luxury cars? I live in L.A. and was thinking of moving to France to escape this culture (or lack thereof). Don't tell me it's everywhere...

Nice drawings!

[badaude]

There's no doubt that France is changing, but don't worry: "There is never any ending to Paris" as Ernest Hemingway said in his Paris memoir, A Moveable Feast, Paris is "always Paris and it changed as you changed". And in what other country would the bikini-wearers on the cover be aged 50 and approaching 40?