Rhino75 in the Coffee Table Studio!!

To mark their 100th (count 'em!) episode, those gorgeous gals Katia and KylieMac invited Micke, myself, Francophoney, Tracey and Pierryck along to the by-now-surely-world-famous coffee table studio to take part in a very special (my italics) podcast. We had a brilliant time discussing such diverse topics as Turkish toilets, foie gras, and saying goodbye à la française, and you can listen to the results HERE.
(P.S. these excellent photos are by the Muffin Man. I'm the one with the whiny voice, playing with the cat)

Playing God

WHAT a week it's been, dear reader! First of all, dinner alongside Mia Farrow (that makes her sound like a ship, doesn't it?). Then the rugby - proof, if proof were needed, that sometimes that great English strategy of just "winging it" really is the best option. Grumpy old Chabal, the wild caveman, the supposed (my italics) baby-eater, spent most of his time on the floor, eating the TURF! Pffft. And to cap it all, Ma Rhino was viciously - there is no other adverb - attacked by... errm, a robin, and now has her arm in plaster. As always when emotions are running high, I decided to seek solace in a dark room full of strangers. No, not there - the THEATRE. As luck would have it, my friend Sandrine happens to be playing God at the moment. Literally. The show is called "Si ON n'existait pas" (their caps - for once!). Let me set the scene (ahem, ahem clears throat). ON decides to create a female companion for Adam, her firstborn, mainly to keep him away from the goats. But, unfortunately, Adam and Eve don't fancy each other at all. Enter Lily and .... oh but I'm telling you the plot!!! Go and see it - an original idea, great writing, lots of laughs, and top-notch performances. As a plus, the play also has original music, which you can purchase afterwards. The picture above (by yours truly) is of ON sitting on the bidet, trying to figure out what to do next - if that doesn't speak to us all, I don't know what does. (Click on the photo to see some more of my pics of the show).

Cherchez la femme

Once upon a time, dear reader, way back in the 80s, there was a French TV presenter called Jacques Martin who, somehow, seemed to hog the small screen for most of Sunday. His funeral took place today and, despite a long career as an actor, satirist and comic, he will probably best be remembered as the host of "L'Ecole des Fans," an unimaginably cheesy (my italics) talent show for the under-10s. The format of his interviews of the "contestants" - like that of the rest of the show - never varied. "What does Mummy do?," "What does Daddy do?," "Are they here today?" and, inevitably, "What do you want to do when you grow up?" There were normally a few gags to be squeezed out of this tired old routine, along the lines of "out of the mouths of babes etc." before the little 'uns were allowed to give their - usually excruciating - performance. That said, we watched the whole thing EVERY WEEK, admittedly normally with a hangover. And the show lasted...wait for it...nearly 20 YEARS. But, when Nicolas Sarkozy was elected as France's president in May, Martin was thrust back into the spotlight for another reason. He was the first - and much older - husband of the new First Lady, Cecilia. Not only that but it was actually Sarkozy, then mayor of the Paris suburb of Neuilly, who married them, before embarking on an affair with Cecilia himself. "Ooooh la-la-la-la-la-la, only in France!" I hear you cry. Mind you, C. - a well-preserved 49 who worked at one time as a model - has a bit of a roving eye herself. In 2005, she ditched Sarkozy to start a very high-profile affair with a top ad executive, a liaison that lasted for a year. Fast movers, these French types, you see. Anyway, all this is just by way of explanation for this cartoon on the front of French satirical mag Charlie Hebdo this week. In a tribute to Martin, they depict him asking his stock question, "And what would you like to do when you grow up?" To which the young Sarkozy, for it is he, replies "I want to screw your wife!" You can read a more sober tribute to Martin here (plus a nice anecdote about Martin's reaction when Cecilia left him).