Posted on 10/26/2009 4:58:59 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
A family picnic in the meadows, children frolicking in a river, church bells ringing out at noon to mark an eight-course Sunday lunch: welcome to la Douce France — “Sweet France” — a concept and a song that kept French patriotism burning bright during the darkest days of German occupation.
The song, written by Charles Trenet in 1943, was unashamedly nostalgic — and somewhat out of touch even then — yet President Sarkozy’s Government has seized on it now in a fresh bout of nation-building.
Mr Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, believes that the French are not patriotic enough. His Government has launched a campaign to re-instil the values of la Douce France in French souls, to protect the country from encroaching alien influences, such as English words and Muslim garments.
Frédéric Lefebvre, spokesman for the ruling Union for a Popular Movement, called on his countrymen to defend “our cultural model and la Douce France . . . at a time when globalisation, which erases each day a little more of the characteristics of each nation, is so harsh”.
There is clearly no room in the new national image for blazing high-rise suburbs, racially charged urban strife and violent pickets in front of rusting factories. La Douce France, which became an anthem for the French Resistance, is a misty-eyed tribute to France’s rural roots. Critics say that the song is irrelevant to modern France, where three times as many people live in towns and cities as in the EU-subsidised countryside, and where five million people are of Muslim background. The Government says that it will consult French people of every class and colour in its search for those elusive core values. Eric Besson, the Minister for Immigration and the National Identity, will conduct a
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
I’m sure all the Middle Eastern immigrants will join right in and sing. “All together now...”
Over here we sing La Douche Obama.
That title stumped me for a second, I thought I saw a letter that wasn’t really there.
Yeah, got me there for a second too!
Now the Frenchies are going to get patriotic? And they have to have a song do it for them and be compelled to get with it? Like someone just posted here to the effect that good luck with the Muzzies jumping on board with “Viv La France!’’
Good luck, France, I truly hope you succeed with this, but I have my doubts that it’s in time.
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