If you were Monsieur Average in Averageville, France sitting at the Average Café with your five closest average friends, one of you would be "extreme right". That is, you believe that France's independence is being lost to the European community. You support the death penalty, building more jails and zero tolerance for delinquents. You have a poor view towards immigration (especially "third world immigration") which causes unemployment, insecurity and is poor for the economy. French citizenship should be restricted to those worthy of it, every citizen should have a job, and the family (especially the French Family) should be subsidized. In short, one of the six at the table voted for Jean-Marie La Pen -- all these opinions were taken from his official brochure, mailed to every voter in the country.
Slightly more than one person voted for Jacques Chirac, the current president of the Republic. He's merely "right".
Slightly less than one person voted for Lionel Jospin, the current prime minister of the Republic. Thanks to a quirk in the French political system, for the last few years, France has had a "left" prime minister (Jospin) and a "right" president. In fact, the president nominates the prime minister, who must have the majority support of Parliament.
The French president must have a majority of votes to be elected. This is unlikely to occur in a single round of voting (this year there were 16 candidates), so there is a second round two weeks later between the top two candidates. Everybody expected it to come up to Jospin and Chirac -- left versus right as always. With Jospin out of the running, the French have a choice between "right" and "extreme right".
Where is the left in France now? Nobody really knows, and nobody at your table (or in the café) is admitting to voting "extreme right". Everybody is exclaiming that it is the shame of France that Le Pen got such support, especially the one and a half people at your table that didn't vote this year.
There were riots in Paris when the news came out, at Place de la Concorde. I mentioned at work that I thought it must have been pretty extreme, since they used tear gas. I got a strange look and an explanation that there's ALWAYS tear gas.
Jean-Marie Le Pen has been encouraging supporters to take to the streets on May the First (typically a worker's holiday). I have been personally cautioned that it might not be worth hanging around outside on this day. I don't know where Le Pen stands on me personally, but I'm not inviting him over to my next Mexican fiesta. I'd invite the old prime minister if I could remember his name.
And that's my editorial. The other major event this week was food related -- I went and conquered my fear of paté. Of course you can find this stuff in Canada, but I've never really been sure what is in it (except meat). The answer is meat, fat, spices, mushrooms, this and that -- it can be mysterious in a delicious way, rather than a frightening way. Some other words for paté that you should know include rillette and terrine, made from rabbit, duck, goose, wild boar as well as pork and beef.
I'm currently avoiding foie gras until a special occasion. This is a rich and traditional food (very much loved and quite expensive) that is made from force-feeding geese through a funnel and harvesting their fat-bloated liver. In French, special occasions are sometimes known as jours de foie gras, much as we might say 'salad days'.
Many foods in France (such as paté) have a higher fat content than some Canadians may be used to. Matière Grasse isn't necessarily something to avoid -- it's an ingredient to be used in a dish. It's usually more clearly identified than in Canada (for example, gras of pork or duck).
Some French people find it difficult that salmon is easily available in Canada, but we don't eat it raw (outside of sushi, of course). In Canada, smoked salmon is usually VERY smoked, such that the fish has been preserved, and slightly dehydrated into a very rich and oily delicacy. In France, the smoked salmon is essentially uncooked salmon that has taken the flavour of the smoke. I highly recommend it.
Finally, I saw an advertisement for Quebec the other day, focusing on the key words of the province: été, plaisirs, fête, nature, éspace (Summer Pleasure-Party Nature-Space!). Oddly enough, the poster also had a picture of a canoe with motion blur added. As we all know, there's nothing more action-packed than canoeing!
In lieu of any pictures, I present the following vocabulary -- the tants and the tots:
Political paté?
Posted by The Inaccurate Tourist at April 19, 2002 12:00 PM