December 6, 2009

I went to the Christmas markets this week. During the month of December, shopping stalls are set up all over town. The biggest is on the lower part of the Champs Elysees. Very festive. Lots of exotic stuff that you don't need but really want to buy anyway because you can say "Oh this little trinket? I got this in Paris," and really annoy your friends. It really it is a fun atmosphere. Throngs of people from everywhere and, in addition to stuff, there are plenty of food stalls. Roasted chestnuts (on an open fire!), mulled wine, German beer, sausage, crepes, chocolates, cotton candy (or, as they say in France, "Daddy's beard"), and plenty of Christmas music piped through loudspeakers, including that old holiday classic, Night Fever, by the BeeGees.

The American Embassy is right at the base of the Champs Elysees. It's very heavily guarded, but it's a beautiful building and I asked one of gendarmes if I could take a picture.

"Absolutely not," he said. No smile.

"Okay then, can I take a picture of you?"

"Definitely not," he said. No smile.

"That's too bad," I said. "You could of been famous in America."

"Madame," he said, "I already am." Hint of a smile.




Apropos of nothing, I have been struck by the difference between US and French policies towards the prevention of unwanted pregnancies. In the US, we have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on this issue. We have a National Campaign! We have task forces, initiatives (I love initiatives, don't you?), TV ads, pamphlets, etc. There's even that fun high school program, where at-risk teenagers get to keep a baby (usually fake) for the weekend, so they can get a taste for how drastically their lives will change. And, that old American favorite, abstinence. Some serious intellectual firepower behind that one.


What did the French do? Well, they convened a task force, but they did it over a really nice dinner and disbanded it by the time the cheese course arrived. And while they did put "abstinence" on the menu, er, agenda, this was in deference to the US government, which at that time required all US allies to put abstinence on every agenda, even if the meeting was about global warming (and you thought climate change was caused by carbon dioxide!!).

Throughout the evening, whenever the conversation stalled, someone would say...

"Maybe we should try promoting abstinence."

Everyone else at the table would laugh heartily and then refocus on the problem at hand.

Finally, just as they were finishing their third bottle of Nouveau Beaujolais, one guy at the table said,

"I don't know about the rest of you, but this Beaujolais is really bringing out the Beau Geste in me. I'm going to call my twenty-two year old 'friend' and see if I can't visit her a little later. Are we about done here?"

Two other under-deputy-secretaries looked at each other and broke into toothy French smiles. And the official French policy on unwanted pregnancy prevention was, uh, born.


Today, thanks to this group of brave men, you can find an automatic condom dispenser within spitting distance of most liquor stores in France.


Who says socialism is inefficient???