France’s new AGV: and you thought the TGV was fast

by Anna Brones on

Despite the many Frenchmen complaining about Sarkozy behaving more like a celebrity than President, he is still treated like a king at all of France’s important events. Tuesday February 5 was a classic example when a whole lot of pomp and circumstance went into the unveiling of Alstom engineering company’s new train, the AGV. In French that stands for automatrice à grande vitesse. Loosely translated: a really really fast train.

The TGV led to a lot of “oohs” and “ahs” last year when it broke the world speed record for a train. But going 574.8 km/hour was only a one time deal, passenger TGVs have a maximum rail speed of 320 km/h. The new AGV will up that to 360 km/h (224 miles/h) allowing passengers to do about 1000 km (600 miles) in three hours, getting one step closer to making train travel comparable to traveling by plane. The Alstom company is pretty proud of its production, comparing it to the Airbus A380 in terms of importance and innovation, probably on account of the fact that the train is more energy efficient than the TGV and has a larger passenger capacity.

The Italian operator NTV has already bought 25 trains and says it will have them running on Italy’s high speed tracks by 2011. Let the countdown begin.

Sarkozy sues Ryanair over (cheesy) ad

by Iva Skoch on

There is never a dull moment with the current French president, is there. While the ex-French president Francois Mitterrand liked to keep his affairs private, Nicolas Sarkozy likes the spotlight. The only thing stopping him from becoming a total French stud, “le stud”, is a supermodel wrapped around him. Oh wait, he has managed to find one of those, too.

The drama of the week is this. Sarkozy and his ex-supermodel girlfriend Carla Bruni are suing the low-cost carrier Ryanair over a picture of the two of them used in a Ryanair ad in Le Parisien. Bruni is demanding 500,000 Euro (Which is apparently how much she normally charges for a photo. Isn’t she an EX-supermodel?) The modest Sarkozy is willing to settle for 1 Euro. I mean, the president can’t seem greedy. He is, after all, a man of principles.

Ryanair has apologized and offered to donate 5,000 Euro to a charity of Sarkozy’s choice. Let’s see, how about donating some to the Midlife Crisis Helpline?

(Per Reuters, the cartoon bubble above Bruni, the scion of a rich Italian industrial dynasty, says: “With Ryanair, my whole family can come to my wedding.”)

Sarkozy asks news channel for 100% French broadcasts

by Anna Brones on

Browsing through a past edition of the Economist, I came across this article about a French news channel that broadcasts in English and Arabic. The channel was recently shocked when President Nicolas Sarkozy stated that he thought it should only broadcast in French.

France 24 is France’s version of Al-Jazeera, a way to communicate a French perspective on news but at the same time keeping it accessible to even those who didn’t get past their high school vocab list of bonjour and merci. Despite France 24’s difficulties in finding distribution channels in the US, the broadcasting company has offered a fresh perspective in comparison to other global news media.

Sarkozy wants the channel to become French only, because he is “not disposed to finance a channel that does not speak French.” Yes Sarko, blame it on the budget. Foreign Minister Bernard Koucher doesn’t agree with his co-worker, much like most of the managers of France 24 who have already committed to lobbying for their trilingual broadcasts. From a country that has its own academy to protect its language, it will be interesting to see where this goes, just make sure not to judge too hard.

One thing is sure: Sarkozy’s choice does seem odd given his pro-American stance, but maybe some people just want to keep things en français.

Photo of the Day 1-27-2008

by Catherine Bodry on


When I lived in France, I made sure to try every single pastry available. I took me most of my stay there to get through them all, but sampling those sweet delicacies was a highlight of my trip. This photo, taken by Annie White in Paris, takes me back to those winter days in France where I would warm myself up with a café creme and pain au chocolat fresh out of the oven.

Do you have any travel photos you think might invoke tasty memories? Upload them to Gadling’s Flickr pool and we’ll consider them for our Photo of the Day feature.

Majority of births in France out of wedlock

by Iva Skoch on

Children born to unmarried parents used to be the kind of “lifestyle confined to Paris”. Now, it has spread to rural areas of France as well, making 2007 the first year when the majority of children born in France are born to unmarried couples, according to Bloomberg.

Contrast that with the US, where 37% of children are born to unmarried couples. What this statistic doesn’t show, though, is whether or not they are “unmarried by choice.” Call me crazy, but that makes a huge difference.

In the Czech Republic, for example, a growing number of people don’t get married because they a) do not believe in the institution of marriage and b) get substantial tax benefits by not getting married (e.g. single mothers get generous benefits from the state.)

I don’t know how much that actually says about the “Paris lifestyle.”