Posted on 06/14/2003 9:59:39 AM PDT by lilylangtree
CANAL DU MIDI, France--It's high summer in France: bikinis blossom on the beach at St. Tropez and lovers stroll in lingering twilight beneath the Eiffel Tower.
The only things missing from these postcard-perfect scenes are Americans.
Still fuming over French President Jacques Chirac's active opposition to the war in Iraq, Americans are taking out their ire by staying home or vacationing elsewhere.
"I doubt I'll ever set foot in France again," a hawkish friend from Kansas e-mailed me.
Other friends who are veterans echoed the same sentiment.
"France?" You couldn't pay me to go there!" snorted one.
Well, somebody did pay me to go to France, and so here I am, conducting a writing workshop arranged by Americans, for Americans, on a canal barge owned by a woman raised in America. As we cruise between Bordeaux and Provence we practically have the canal to ourselves. Barge trip bookings are off as much as 70 percent and fancy restaurants catering to American tourists are empty. The question on every merchant's lips is no longer "Where are they?" but "Will they ever come back?"
At least one of them did, when the No. 1 Yak recently dropped in for a short visit. President George W. Bush was in Evian for the G-8 summit of industrialized nations, but he landed and slept over the border in Switzerland. His refusal to meet one-on-one with Chirac and their frosty photo op did nothing to diffuse Americans' anger at France for refusing to join U.S., British and other coalition forces in toppling Saddam Hussein.
The fallout from this diplomatic quarrel with our oldest ally is causing economic pain in the country now disdainfully dismissed as part of "Old Europe" by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Economic protest by their best-spending tourists is hurting the pocketbooks of bakers in Normandy, designers in Paris and three-star chefs in Provence.
"All our eggs are in the American basket and now Bush and Chirac have made an omelet out of them," said a French canal pilot.
While I sipped a smooth Bordeaux and ate aged camembert on a fresh baguette, a half-dozen crew members of various European nationalities lamented their lack of work.
"Our bookings are down 70 percent this season," said one barge owner, a British citizen. A marketing expert who works for a Burgundy vintner estimates her company's overseas sales are off by at least 15 percent, and will drop further "because people in America aren't buying French wine." Compounding their tourism woes is the fall of the dollar against the European Union currency.
However, there are bargains gallore in France as hoteliers and tour brokers try to salvage expenses.
Even the government--increasingly feeling the ire of its citizens for Chirac's arrogance and insults toward the Bush administration--is officially encouraging the unthinkable toward visitors. It's urging the French to say "BONJOUR!" with a smile.
Let me tell you why I disagree with you. First, he employed a transparently false justification for seducing the teenager (at most, according to Allen himself, 19 when they started the affair, but quite possibly as young 14, 15 or 16 when it started) by saying, "The heart wants what it wants," implying that one should always follow one's "heart" where sexual desire is concerned. He wanted his listeners to believe that he fell in love with a child, and that lust had nothing to do with it. He is a liar.
But something else has to be taken into account too, something even more damning, in my opinion. Soon-Yi had been in Mia Farrow's home for well over 10 years at the time the scandal erupted. She was closely bonded to the other children in the home and was considered by them as a sibling. In particular, a boy a few years younger than Soon-Yi named Moses looked up her, and thought of her as his sister. Woody Allen was in the process of adopting Moses at the same time he was banging the 14 year old boy's sister.
When Moses found out what his "Dad" had done he was devastated and enraged. I remember reading the NY Post story in which he expressed his anguish, saying "He knew she was my sister!"
That's why Allen is a creep and a slug, and, yes, a man with a "sick" mind. He dropped a nuclear bomb in the middle of that family, and hurt a lot of kids, just to satisfy his own lust for tender flesh.
There has been some payback though. His career never recovered, because even large numbers of people like me, who always liked his movies, have stopped going to them out of deep feelings of ambivalence about his artistic integrity. And he is stuck for the rest of his life with a plain looking woman who many say is something of a dullard, and whom I'm sure he doesn't really love, because to leave her would expose the craveness of his character to a degree that even he is unwilling to tolerate.
I laugh at their pain!
LOL! I fart in their general direction!
But seriously, we should nourish the Freedom-loving people in France. They do exist. It's just that they are losing elections. They are our brothers in liberty and need support.
Interesting thought. I never heard much from, or about those folks, but if they are there they probably can use all the help they can get.
Were it that Germany had one and threatened to vote against the action and done so, we would probably be bashing them as well.
My hope is that he, or other French Freedom lovers, of whom there are many, will join us here and continue the fight for Liberty.
It's not wise to cut off one's nose to spite one's face!
. . .you do not have to convince me of Woody Allen's lack of judgement; lack of fairness; lack of moral perspective in his indiscriminate behavior.
My point was simply that all the things you mention are in fact, symptoms of being an amoral Liberal - New York/Hollywod, or otherwise. . ."the heart wants what it wants" being only one selfish dictum. . .
These people insist on playing by their own rules - and no one, least of all Mia should be surprised, shocked when suddenly, that behavior impinges on their ego or their home turf; these people have only the weakest moral legs to stand on. . .
As for the age; Mia was not much older when she married Frank Sinatra; albeit under different circumstances. . .
At this time, it behooves us to set the entire world free, least we perish. With the advent of modern technological weapons, we no longer have the advantage of distance to protect the Free world.
France is the smegma under civilization's foreskin.
--Boot Hill
Did you read this symposium at FrontPage.com? Not a very optimistic outlook for the future of France.
It already is, the internet does not stop at our borders. Anyone is free to join. It helps if they know english.
I do like the idea of exporting FReedom. Really.
Shared values and ideals? The U.S. and France? -- perhaps back in the 1950's and earlier, but no longer....
By now we would have gone to Quebec at least 4 times this year, shopping and eating out.
Until their government and attitude changes, we will be staying south of the border.
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