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What is happening in the land of Moliere? The political situation has convulsed France, sparking daily protest rallies, with hundreds of thousands marching through the streets of France to show their opposition to the ultra-right.

Sunday, May 5, 2002, will forever be etched in the history books - especially those of   France and Europe. While there is no doubt that the center-right French president, Jacques Chirac will win the presidential elections by a landslide, it will not be for his popularity but instead for a rejection of the far right extremist views of his opponent, Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of the Front National, who unexpectedly wiped out the Socialist candidate, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

For the outsider with no knowledge of French presidential elections, the whole affair might be hard to comprehend. In short it takes part in two stages. First there is a vote and if no single candidate gets over 50%, there is a run-off election between the top two contenders.

At this point there is no question that Jacques Chirac will win. The question is, by how much? In the first round of voting, the 69-year-old incumbent received less than 20 percent of the vote, the worst showing of any sitting president. But leaders from the right and left have rallied behind him, saying France must "build a dam" against the far right.

Like the United States, France feels that its values hold a universal message for mankind. It has been quick in recent years to hand out moral lessons to other European nations, like Austria, which have voted heavily for rightist candidates, making its new sense of humiliation all the harder to bear.

Now all eyes will be on the French legislative elections in June.

Jacques Chirac: Who is he?

The only child of a well-to-do businessman, Chirac apparently had a lively youth. He was expelled from school for shooting paper wads at a teacher. He also sold the Communist daily ''L'Humanite'' on the streets for a brief time, and even worked as a soda jerk at a Howard Johnson's restaurant in the United States, where he reportedly earned a certificate of merit for his outstanding banana splits.        But Chirac got more serious after serving in the Algerian war, and enrolled at France's Ecole Nationale d'Administration, the elite training ground for the French political class. He was named prime minister at 41.        A personality clash with President Valery Giscard d'Estaing led Chirac to resign, but he quickly plotted his comeback. He was elected mayor of Paris in 1977 and used the highly visible office as a power base to regroup.        In the 1981 and 1988 presidential elections, Chirac lost to Mitterrand, a Socialist, but his third try for France's top political prize proved the charm, and Chirac became president in 1995.        In a stunning political miscalculation in April 1997, Chirac dissolved his conservative government and called elections, hoping a more manageable parliament would be elected while his support was still strong. The gamble backfired, and the left swept into power, leaving Chirac largely a lame duck, unable to move his political agenda forward. Source--The Associated Press

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DINING IN FRANCE

A Balan  - Inparistoday.com

The reputation of French gastronomy is firmly established: so why not spend a little time in Paris, tasting all the subtleties of a city where every local cuisine is represented ' Which begs the question: where are the best restaurants and cafés located?

In general, one eats well anywhere in Paris, the best restaurants and cafés are usually those visited by Parisians themselves. The left bank offers the highest concentration of restaurants, mostly in such tourist sectors as Saint-Germain-Des-Prés and the Quartier Latin (Latin quarter). Even if you don't find quality everywhere, some outdoor cafés and wine bars are truly excellent (near Odéon, try the Tour de Pierre, in Rue Dauphine, whose warm atmosphere attracts wine lovers, or the trendy café in Place Saint-Germain, Les Deux Magots, and its popular patio). The Quartier Latin, near Place Maubert and Rue des Ecoles, enjoys an abundance of small Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants.

Around the Marais and Bastille, various trendy cafés, tea rooms and ice cream shops, such as La Charlotte de L?Isle, Rue Saint-Louis-en-L?Isle, and Berthillon (the best ice creams and sorbets in Paris) create a special atmosphere. Others are more traditional but all the same successful (Le Loir dans la Théière, Rue des Rosiers).

When it comes to the Champs-Elysées and La Madeleine, the good restaurants and cafés are more expensive, and interspersed with fast-food places. But there are also trendy bars here, from the Buddha Bar in rue Boissy-d?Anglas, to the Montecristo Café on the Champs-Elysées, or the Barfly on Avenue George V.

Many famous cafés from the 20s are located in Boulevard Montparnasse, including Sélect, La Coupole, Le Dôme, and La Rotonde. Recent renovations have restored them to their former glory.

Near Louvre-Rivoli, many charming restaurants and cafés face fierce competition from expensive tourist cafés. Nearby, in Les Halles, fast-food places and mediocre restaurants overshadow famous locations.

Apart from very good Japanese restaurants (Le Café Sushi, 40 Boulevard Haussmann) and excellent brasseries (La Taverne, Boulevard des Italiens, & the Grand Café des Capucines, Boulevard des Capucines), the sector around Opéra is not the best place for a decent meal. By the Bourse, stockbrokers frequent well-known restaurants.

If you head to the north of Paris and Montmartre, you're sure to be tempted by the many attractive restaurants, which are often expensive but worth it. The two most luxurious spots are the Beauvilliers, in the charming Rue Lamarck that leads up to the Sacré C?ur, and the Italian-style Table d?Anvers, in Place d?Anvers.

Restaurants around the Invalides, Eiffel Tower and Palais de Chaillot, are calm by night, and often more pleasant for this than other animated locations in Paris. You may however hear piano playing around one o?clock in Avenue Bosquet: this is the American style Masters Bar, with cheap and chic cocktails and a great choice of whiskies.

The two Asiatic sectors in Paris, south of Place d?Italie and in Belleville, are home to many excellent, exotic and cheap Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants. Belleville is full of North-African restaurants.

Keep Traveling with 29 Year Old Parisian Globe Trotter Anne-Sophie Mauffré As She Treks around the World

Continue a Voyager Avec Anne-Sophie Mauffré, La Jeune Globe-trotteuse de 29 ans tant qu'elle continue son Voyage Autour de Monde

Vous pouvez retrouver les récits d'Anne-Sophie sur son site http://declicautourdumonde.free.fr et si vous ne lisez pas le français vous serez subjugués par la beauté des photos.

If you missed the original story, click here now.

Nightlife:
When the Lights Go Down in the City

There are several thousand different ways to get your groove on in this city, and luckily, a couple of them are legal.  One of the best ways to find out is to buy a Pariscope for three francs at a newsstand, or save a franc and buy an Officiel du Spectacle (the latter does not have the ‘Time Out’ section in the back).  Generally two hundred and a bit pages long, they’ve got just about everything going on anywhere in and around Paris.  Give yourself plenty of time to figure out how to use it and how to find what you want.  There is also a concert listing called Lylo, but you'll have to scout them out.

You're going to hear a lot about clubs and bars here, because it's AUP and it's Paris and you didn't really come all this way to study that much did you?  As for clubs, the glamour and wanna-be crowd will need VIP on the Champs-Elysées (look for the herd of people waiting to get inside and the 120 franc drink prices - the music is great, the old men in suits aren't), Cabaret (rue Pierre Charron, just off the Champs - more of the same, the drinks are cheaper and the men are younger - but notice I didn't say young), and Les Bains in St. Denis (rue du Bourg l'Abbé - the most down to earth of the three, it's still in the upper reaches of the troposphere).  Bars you'll be looking for are Man Ray, Barfly, and Buddha Bar.  If you decide you can't spend enough money at any of these places, head for the nearest restaurant/bar with the word 'Costes' written on it, and they'll be happy to test just how serious you are about your expenditures.  Guys, your best bet is to either go with a regular, reserve a table, or get some good looking female company, else you risk being turned away from just about any establishment around.  Even karaoke bars.  Really.  And sometimes even the good looking company won't help.  A doorman may tell you that the girls can go in but you can't.  Welcome to Paris.

For those seeking the feel of a sweaty night in Manchester, the Long Hop (M° Maubert-Mutualité) or the Oz Bar (M° Châtelet) are for you.  Dark, hot, and cramped, they are the equivalent of the Batcave with liquor and music.  Chesterfields (rue La Boétie) and the Firkin (rue de Berri, both M° Franklin D. Roosevelt), a tad brighter and with less of that humid-like-the-inside-of-one's-mouth feel, may be more accommodating.

For those in between, looking for some casual cool, you are also well served.  Check the Marais (M° St. Paul, rue Vielle du Temple, Trésor, Lizard Lounge), M° Mabillon/St. Michel (Café Mabillon, rue de Buci and surrounds, Café Richard), and the 16th.  Salsa is dished out at Monte Cristo and Latina Café (Champs-Elysées, M° Franklin Roosevelt) and Barrio Latino (M° Bastille).

If you want to hang out with French people, Bastille, République, and rue Oberkampf in the 20th (between M° Parmetier and M° Ménilmontant, Cafés Charbonne and Cithéa) are for you.  The popular places are quite  small and crowded, the bars especially, because they're packed with chairs and tables (and people), but the more quiet places have ample space to move.  The only question is whether you'll want to hang out with the, how shall I say, "charming," regulars.

For any Goths, the scene is just as black, smoky, and rubber clad as it is in any other civilized country.  It's in French too.  But I  can't help you out with this one.  The nature of the beast is: you know where to find it.  Or you don't. 

Source: --The Planet (the AUP Student Newspaper)

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