French Friday with Feux d’Artifice

Fiona Uncategorized

(Image Credit: French Today)

C’est le 14 juillet this coming Tuesday, so I thought it would be fun to celebrate the event, even if a bit early, with a French-themed (Frenchified?) Friday evening thread.

It is such a beautiful country:

(Image Credit: Calvados)

(Image Credit: Inter-France)

(Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

with such scrumptious food:

(Image Credit: Biba)

(Image Credit: L’Epicurieux)

(Image Credit: Journal Littéréticulaire de Berlol)

(Image Credit: Le Procrastinateur)

and drink:

(Image Credit: Belgian Experts)

(Image Credit: Canvas Holidays)

(Image Credit: Beverley S. Taylor)

(Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

(Image Credit: Burgundy Discovery)

with this for brunch next day . . .

(Image Credit: Ad-French-Ures)

Then there’s the music – first, from the 18th century:

Then the 19th century:

and last but not least the 20th century:

Finally, to bring the theme full circle:

441 thoughts on “French Friday with Feux d’Artifice”

  1. Andrew Stoner seems to have been in a spot of bother. He resigned as National Party leader and from the Baird ministry in October last year, after his name came up at ICAC a few times. Stoner said he wanted to spend more time with his family and quit politics altogether ahead of this year’s election.

    To make things seem ridgy-didge his wife, Cathy, came up with a revelation about being abused as a teenager, something she had never mentioned before, not ever, not even to her husband, until the very same time ICAC became interested said husband. He, of course, threw away his political career to stay home and comfort her, all their six kids being away at boarding school or uni or married or otherwise not available. How convenient. This revelation, as well as giving Stoner an excuse to cut and run, allowed Cathy to revive her flagging career as an inspirational speaker. She now had her past alleged trauma to talk about and happy-clapper womens’ groups were keen to hear all about it.

    Today we have learn Stoner – surprise, surprise – did not resign and retire because he wanted to comfort his wife and spend time with his family, but because he had been the victim of a blackmail scam. How dumb would you have to be to fall for something like that? Is there much more to this? With Stoner, all you can be sure of is he never tells the truth.

    Former NSW Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner targeted in blackmail scam
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/former-nsw-deputy-premier-andrew-stoner-targeted-in-blackmail-scam-20150713-gibh0n.html

  3. 2gravel:

    Did anyone watch Q&A? My twitter feed are talking about some 10yo asking a question but don’t say what the question was.

    Sorry, I’m boycotting it until they show more balance. Not enough nutbag in it at the moment.

  8. Thanks all, Jason twittered me a link to a story on abc. If I was running radio media, that would have been my first news on all the bulletins. We haven’t watched the show, probably as long ago as when Julia was last on it.

  9. I see that the Guardian website have given prominence to the latest Morgan Poll. Perhaps I have limited and partial attention span on who highlights what polling figures but I can’t remember The Guardian being much interested in Morgan before (although the Government and the Murdoch Muck believe the Guardian, like the ABC, is a rabid Leftist bed of Commies).

  10. It’s becoming a farce the way the MSM reports polls.

    That they ignore polls that go down for Abbott and wet themselves with pleasure with reporting those that go up for the LNP, it’s a wonder that they don’t realize how stupid they look when they report polls are getting better for Abbott every single week since March, and yet he’s still behind.

  12. IMO the guardian’s political reporting was compromised from the start when they recruited seasoned press gallery hacks to write for them.

  13. Agree, Gippy’…Ever since the new editor has taken over..I have not commented there since then!

  14. Those conditions that the Euro Banks want to force on Greece are no more than an “occupation” without warfare!…They say they need to do these things to get back “on course”..on course to what?…more of the same?…bullshit!…Time for a global revolution against the money-people…Time to do a modern day Mycenae…Away with all pests!

  15. i am glad 200,000 cattle are not going to be shipped to Indonesia. It is a pity there still will be 50,000 of them going there.

    And icing on the cake, Barnyard gets sucked in by the National Embarrassment once again.

  16. Our political commentators are trying desperately to put a pro-Abbott spin on the latest polls, but it’s all smoke and mirrors. The headlines scream about Shorten’s approval crashing, but when you read the fine print things are much worse for Abbott. Despite the best efforts of the MSM to paint Shorten in the worst possible light, with the whole pack using words like ‘grilled’ to describe his TURC appearance, Labor is still ahead.

    Essential hasn’t moved, still 52/48 in favour of Labor. The Greens primary vote was up 1, Labor’s down 1, the Coalition unchanged, but the way Crikey is reporting you’d think Abbott had dragged the government up 10 points 2PP.

    Essential says Shorten is still trailing Abbott as preferred PM 37/30, but Abbott’s own approval rating has fallen, again, with only 37% of voters approving of his performance as PM, a drop of 2%, and 53% disapproving, an increase of 3%.

    So where are the ‘Abbott on the nose with voters’ headlines, the ‘Abbott’s support drops again’ blurbs, the front pages filled with ‘Voters have no confidence in Abbott’? No way we will see any of that. From the way the polls are being reported you could be forgiven for thinking Labor was still in government and the MSM was desperate to get rid of them.

    Bastards the lot of them. They are doing the government’s dirty work by campaigning for Labor to change leaders. I’ve seen comments – not in the MSM – that Shorten’s handling of TURC has reinforced his leadership. You won’t see that in the MSM, they have their agenda and they are sticking to it.

  17. How cosy – Turnbull dining with Leigh Sales last night.

    Breaking bread. A tipster spotted Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull having dinner with his wife and the ABC’s Leigh Sales and Annabel Crabb last night in Glebe Point Diner, not far from the Ultimo studio where Sales had interviewed Turnbull on 7.30 earlier in the night. While Sales and Turnbull discussed Q&A and where the responsibility lay for hyperbole about Islamic State earlier in the night, who knows what they talked about afterwards …?

    While it’s not unusual for senior journalists and politicians to talk regularly, it’s interesting timing, with the government putting pressure on the ABC to move Q&A to the news and current affairs department. Sales told Crikey: “As the anchor of 7.30, I regularly network with a wide range of politicians, business people and other contacts, as any good journalist would.” The dinner took place while Turnbull should have been preparing for Q&A, but until Prime Minister Tony Abbott lifts the ban on government ministers appearing on the show, it looks like all Coalition frontbenchers can have relaxing Monday night dinners

    http://www.crikey.com.au/2015/07/14/tips-and-rumours-1410/

    I don’t recall any reports of Julia Gillard having dinner with Sales after an interview. I hope Turnbull the Ball-less paid for his own dinner and won’t send us the bill.

  18. Essential hasn’t moved, still 52/48 in favour of Labor. The Greens primary vote was up 1, Labor’s down 1, the Coalition unchanged, but the way Crikey is reporting you’d think Abbott had dragged the government up 10 points 2PP.

    No surprise given that Bernard Keane’s a press gallery hack.

  19. I hope Turnbull the Ball-less paid for his own dinner and won’t send us the bill.

    And I hope Lucy paid for her own as well.

  21. ” And I hope Lucy paid for her own as well.”
    Once you get amongst THAT echelon, you don’t pay for nuthin’!..”I want the best possibel job..a..at the cheapest possible price” quote unquote!..it’s us mugs in the real world pay for everything we get AND theirs too!
    Away with all pests!

  23. Those “pests” usually underpay their servants, quibble over their holidays and make sure they don’t get served any lobster or edible jellyfish …

  24. Kirsdarke:

    It’s becoming a farce the way the MSM reports polls.

    That they ignore polls that go down for Abbott and wet themselves with pleasure with reporting those that go up for the LNP, it’s a wonder that they don’t realize how stupid they look when they report polls are getting better for Abbott every single week since March, and yet he’s still behind.

    I’ve had a running joke going on that. The Coalition have improved their position in every polling cycle this year, taking their 2PP from 48-52 right up to 48-52. The MSM have given them an armchair ride all the way to where they were at the start.

    Pretty much everyone and everything supporting Abbott is now up to their foreheads in quicksand, arms outstretched to keep him out of the mire.

  28. There’s a lot of spin and commentary about what Labor needs, but what it definitely doesn’t need is another month long leadership campaign/election. Abbott’s stooges in the media know that this would be the death knell for any chance of Labor winning the next election and will do anything to bring it about.

  29. So abbott’s chickens are coming home to roost. Indonesia has started to make abbott pay for all the insults it has suffered and betcha it has more up it’s sleeves than slashing the live cattle quota.

  30. The MSM seem to have forgotten something – Labor’s national conference is next week. If there was any hint of a leadership contest it would have been leaked by now. We all know Labor members who are upset with the leader leak like crazy. There has not been the whiff of a hint of a rumour. Instead there have been comments about increasing support for Shorten.

    Shorten will be given strong support as leader and that, you would hope, will put an end to all this MSM garbage. It was very clever of Shorten to deal with TURC earlier than the government would have liked. Not only has he got the worst out of the way but he has done it before Labor’s conference.

    If Shorten is recalled to TURC his own legal team will be able to cross examine him, that should kill off any more’ grilling’ and ‘blowtorch’ rubbish from the usual suspects.

    The MSM have not yet worked out that Shorten is quietly creating big problems for the government. The same sex marriage thing was handled brilliantly. First the Labor policy launch, which caused Abbott to say he wanted a decision to be made by all the parliament, not just one party. Talk about rope a dope. Abbott fell right into that trap, opening the gate for a cross-party bill. Now he has to decide whether or not to allow his MPs a conscience vote and whatever he decides it will make half the government very angry. It’s a no-win situation and Shorten (or his strategists) pulled it off brilliantly.

    Shorten’s challenge to bring on an early election was clever too. We all know Abbott loves a fight, he might not be able to resist the challenge. All those back-benchers who were elected with tiny majorities two years ago must be feeling very anxious now.

  31. On the Leigh Sales story,
    Ive never heard one single story of her having dinner with a labor pollie. Im sure given the apparent ‘bias’ the ABC shows towards the ALP that if it had of happened we would of heard the squealing from the LNP and the news corp lynch mob.
    As to her claim that she dines with pollies and business leaders as any good journalist would I call bullshit.
    Surely a good journalist would be impartial and avoid becoming too close with the pollies they report on.

  32. Leone,

    I certainly hope Labor wouldn’t go down the leadershit road again. MSM and abbott would revel in watching Labor tear itself apart again and hand abbott another term on a silver platter.

    As for abbott calling an early election, I’d be very surprised. I reckon abbott has been using an early election to keep his backbenchers in line rather than being keen on actually calling one before his term is up.

  33. StonyHabbott,

    But, but, but there can’t be more than one or two journalists in this country who are even remotely impartial – they are all welded to the LNP with blinkers firmly in place so that they can’t see where they’re being led.

  34. The mistake many make about the MSM. “celeb” journos’ is that they got the gig because they are smart..intelligent..I used to think Fran was there because she was a tad above the smartest pollie…but she’s really dumb, not in a totally gormless way..not like Dutton..but she’s dumb for being in the one line of work for so many years…she no longer can think outside the constructed circle…someone like Textor has them all figured out!…It’s like( and meaning no disrespect, just example) a production-line jobber who has that one job, like doing all the wheel-nuts up..change the thread direction and they are knackered!..there’s no instruction for a change of direction..they might as well put the machine down and go home!…sure, that’s going too far, but you get my drift..like a power-line with a birds on it..one twitters and they all twitter..one flies off and pretty soon they all go…it’s in their DNA.

    Tragically hopeless.

  35. http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/divorce-fee-rise-sneaks-back-in-despite-senate-ruling-20150714-gibyil.html

    http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21656706-australia-wants-turn-its-most-remote-region-asian-investment-hub-taming-frontier

    http://www.budget.qld.gov.au/

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-14/queensland-budget-2015-curtis-pitt-delivers-economic-plan/6618732

    Click to access essential_report_150714.pdf

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-14/lewis-shorten-suffers-a-61-million-hit-to-his-approval-ratings/6618832

  36. Peak body lashes Abbott government: Our business interests in Indonesia harmed by bad diplomacy

    Australia’s “megaphone” diplomacy and lack of consultation with Indonesia over policies like boat turnbacks has caused widespread unhappiness in Jakarta and harmed relations, the head of the peak body representing Australian businesses operating there says.
    The unusually blunt assessment came as Indonesia dramatically cut its permits for live cattle exports for the three months ending September to 50,000 animals, significantly less than the 200,000 expected and the 250,000 quota for the quarter just gone

    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/peak-body-lashes-abbott-government-our-business-interests-in-indonesia-harmed-by-bad-diplomacy-20150714-gic4zj.html#ixzz3frRvyP7k

    Julie Bishop says Indonesia’s cattle decision has nothing to do with diplomacy. Well, she would say that…..it can’t possibly be due to anything she has said, or not said, or done,or not done,,,,,no connection at all, …..
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-14/indonesia-slashing-cattle-imports-not-a-diplomatic/6619884

  38. NASA posted this on Instagram 20 minutes ago.

    View this post on Instagram

    Gorgeous Pluto! The dwarf planet has sent a love note back to Earth via our New Horizons spacecraft, which has traveled more than 9 years and 3+ billion miles. This is the last and most detailed image of Pluto sent to Earth before the moment of closest approach, which was at 7:49 a.m. EDT Tuesday – about 7,750 miles above the surface — roughly the same distance from New York to Mumbai, India – making it the first-ever space mission to explore a world so far from Earth. This stunning image of the dwarf planet was captured from New Horizons at about 4 p.m. EDT on July 13, about 16 hours before the moment of closest approach. The spacecraft was 476,000 miles (766,000 kilometers) from the surface. Images from closest approach are expected to be released on Wednesday, July 15. Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI #nasa #pluto #plutoflyby #newhorizons#solarsystem #nasabeyond #science

    A post shared by NASA (@nasa) on

  39. Russian space agency workers unable to secure visas to Australia for satellite conference

    Russia has lashed out at Australia after several members of its space agency were unable to get visas for an international satellite conference which begins in Queensland today.

    The Russian embassy in Canberra claimed it was an “unfriendly” act by Australia, while organisers of the three-day symposium said they were not sure why some delegates had not secured entry rights.

    Hundreds of delegates have arrived at the Gold Coast for a symposium hosted by the International Global Navigation Satellite Systems Society.

    But the ABC has learnt several members of Russia’s space agency — Roscosmos — who were invited were not able to secure visas to attend.

    Russian embassy spokesman Alexander Odoevskiy told the AM program his country was disappointed.

    “Obviously every country can decide who to let [have] a visa but in the current circumstances, given it’s an international — as I understand United Nations conference — it is not a very friendly step from Australia as a whole country to do so,” he said

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-14/russian-space-agency-workers-unable-to-obtain-visas-to-australia/6617048

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