Creuse is still the safest place to live in France - The Bugle

FEBRUARY 2010 ○ THE BUGLE ○ www.thebugle.eu
8 ♦ NATIONAL NEWS
Stop nagging or I’ll call the police!
Who hasn’t
snapped at
their partner
after ignored
requests to take out the bins
or to move that pile of papers
Who can honestly say that
they have never turned on the
one they love and exclaimed,
“Will you just, please, give
it a rest!” We could all soon
find ourselves in hot water
for incidents like this as
proposed new legislation
could see nagging your
partner become a criminal
offence.
A new bill, presented by
French prime minister,
François Fillon, would
make ‘psychological
violence’ between married or
cohabiting couples a matter
for state intervention and is
In an embarrassing ruling,
a French wine maker has
been accused of trying to
pass its wines off as a New
Zealand brand. A tribunal in
Australia has ruled that Loire
Valley-based firm Lacheteau’s
Sauvignon Blanc, Kiwi Cuvée,
is attempting to cash in on
the popularity of New World
wines.
Kiwi Cuvée is currently
available in shops across
Europe, but raised eyebrows
down under when Lacheteau
tried to register the brand
there. It was a move that was
opposed by the New Zealand
Winegrowers Association, who
saw red when confronted with
the white wine and referred the
issue to a trademark tribunal.
Lacheteau claimed that ‘Kiwi’
was not a colloquialism
and that the label did state
elsewhere that the wine
was French in origin; but
the tribunal agreed that the
branding was misleading
and noted that customers
“could misunderstand the
wine’s name on wine lists in
restaurants and bars.”
Philip Gregan, president of the
expected to cover every kind
of slur from repeated rude
remarks about a partner’s
appearance, false allegations
of infidelity and threats of
physical violence.
The glib nature of the
New Zealand Winegrowers
told The Times: “‘Kiwi’ has a
very strong association with
New Zealand and our view
is that it should be reserved
for New Zealand wines.”
He added that, “the thought
had occurred to us that if the
situation was reversed, the
French would have had no
hesitation in stopping a Kiwi
winemaker from implying its
wine was made in France.”
The bad publicity is all the
more embarrassing given
how fiercely protective
France is of its gastronomic
and wine heritage via its
AOC (appellation d’origine
contrôlée) system. Champagne
opening paragraph should
not hide the serious intent
behind this new bill. Many
women, and indeed men,
are subjected to prolonged
campaigns of psychological
violence and verbal
bullying at home. In 2008,
French guilty of disguising
wine as ‘from New Zealand’
producers aggressively
pursue any and every foreign
sparkling wine producer that
uses the word ‘champagne’ to
describe its product.
Much of the success of
New World wines has been
attributed to their catchy
names and labels. Many
Antipodean wines use
animals or birds in their
branding in what the industry
calls ‘critter labelling’ and
Kiwi Cuvée is a clear example
of this.
French wine sales have fallen
steadily in recent years as wines
from the southern hemisphere
grow in popularity. ■
157 French women and 7
French men were killed by
their spouses or partners,
with hundreds more injured
in outbursts of domestic
violence.
The debate has begun,
however, over whether it
is the state’s responsibility
to police and enforce
morality. Critics say the
bill will waste police time
and that running public
campaigns to stigmatise
verbal bullying at home
would be more effective.
French psychologist,
Anne Giraud, explains:
“Squabbling couples will
allege all kinds of things
about each other, but they
won’t necessarily be true.
The police are likely to
be called out more and
When you’ve finished that, take out the bins!
more when this law comes
into force this year, but
it will often be a case of
one person’s word against
the other. Psychological
violence is a very serious
matter, but punishing it
through the courts is a very
British cookery
shows a hit in France
The French may consider
themselves the best
chefs in the world, but it
seems that they have admitted
that the UK makes the best
cooking programmes. Viewers
have become increasingly tired
of being patronised by haughty
chefs and more and more
British cookery programs are
making the short trip across
the Channel.
In a major shake-up to its
prime-time programming,
private broadcaster TF1 has
announced it has bought the
rights to MasterChef, which
has been running successfully
in several formats on the BBC
for over 20 years. TF1 will
be offering €100,000 to the
winner of the show.
Elsewhere, the popular
Channel 4 show, Come Dine
with Me, is now a regular
on French TV as ‘Un dîner
presque parfait’ and regularly
attracts more than 2 million
viewers.
France also has its very
own pukka version of Jamie
Oliver in the form of chef
Cyril Lignac, who hosts Oui
Chef - its version of Jamie’s
Kitchen - and Vive la Cantine
- a clear take on Jamie’s
School Dinners. “You have
to show the general public
that la grande cuisine is not
just for the rich,” Mr Lignac
has said.
Cyril Lignac - pukka!
Isabelle Grillot, the director of
programmes on Cuisine TV, a
specialist cookery channel has
told newspapers that the shift in
style is a result of the economic
crisis. “The French have fallen
back on friends and family and
they want to rediscover how
to cook for them. There is a
desire for cooking shows to be
entertaining and frankly you
only find that abroad. French
chefs don’t tend to have that
offbeat side to them.” ■
different matter altogether.”
Pierre Bonnet, a sociologist,
went further, adding, “Next
they will be making rudeness
a crime, and the police and
courts will be overrun with
work.” ■
Socialist Party
to give all
expats the vote
Under a new law being drawn
up by the Socialist Party (PS),
expats could be given the vote
in local elections. The Socialist
Party’s leader, Martine Aubry,
raised the issue ahead of
March’s regional elections in
which non-French residents
will not be eligible to vote.
Since 2001, expats from EU
countries have had the right
to vote (and indeed stand) in
municipal elections, but the
changes being proposed by the
PS would extend this right to
all expats. President Sarkozy
has previously said that he is
in favour of the changes in
principle, but his immigration
minister, Eric Besson, claims
that it is too soon to begin the
debate, preferring some time
in the next 10 years.
France warns
against Internet
Explorer
France has followed Germany
in urging web users to find an
alternative to Internet Explorer
for security reasons, following
a series of malicious code
attacks via the popular
browser.
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