Berlusconi's back...

Lost for words... Who the hell voted for him? Now the Berluska-Sarko duo puts Italy and France on the same level in terms of Banana Republics of the world: the higher one...

Sad Italy...

Ferrari wins

Felipe Massa has won the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix! "After a bad start to the season, we have proved we know how to react with our actions, as usual" Ferrari sporting director Stefano Domenicali said. "Now we have to continue down this road, without allowing our absolute concentration to slip for a moment ... "

So, for now, in the general ranking,Italian Ferrari is far ahead French Renault. In fact Alonso came just tenth in the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Poor Alonso, driving such a slow car as the French one...

Results from 2008 Bahrain F1 GP

• Felipe Massa (BRA/Ferrari) 1hr31min06.970
• Kimi Raikkonen (FIN/Ferrari) +3.339
• Robert Kubica (POL/BMW Sauber) +4.998

Constructors' points standings

• BMW Sauber - 30
• Ferrari - 29
• McLaren - 28
• Williams - 10
• Toyota - 8
• Renault - 6
• Red Bull - 4
• Toro Rosso - 2

Beautiful Ferrari!!!

Dirty French car deals

Dirty deal behind the backs of offish people...

The heads of France and Germany are about to conclude a bilateral deal, which threatens to water down (already weak!) European legislation tackling CO2 emissions from cars. Greenpeace has made a petition for the European Council's current President, demanding that he and other heads of state stand up for the climate.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION NOW.

Greenpeace will deliver the petition to the President of the European Council on Monday, and every day before 12 April.
The German government is driving this--putting the immediate commercial interests of German luxury car-makers before the safety of the planet. Sarkozy is riding along with Merkel because he needs Germany's support for his grand plans for a Mediterranean Union.

Source: GREENPEACE

The French keyboard

I have just found a blog that is very funny. It's called 'The French baguette'. There is a post which is very interesting to me about the French keyboard.

As you can read on that post, the author asks himself why the hell those Frenchies have to use a non standard 'occidental' keyboard.

I don't have a technical answer to his question. What I know is that, in general, French don't like sharing other peoples' ways of doing, so, I suppose, they wanted to swap around some keys (A and Q, for instance) just to look different.

How pretentious they are... don't you agree with me?

Why AirFrance?

Of all the companies of the world, why it has to be AirFrance that wants to takeover Alitalia? The Italians don't want them. They don't want this French takeover on our flagship carrier. You see them quitting takeover talks with their very French pompous attitude? Let them go then. They know very well that buying Alitalia they would win access to one of Europe's biggest passenger markets. They are pompous, but not stupid.
Apperently Berlusconi is the only one defending Italian interests, but, please, don't forget the past, don't vote for him, or our future will be doomed at an even higher degree.


No to AirFrance-KLM. No to Silvio Berlusconi.


There's must be a better solution...

My tag cloud!!!

beats berlusconi bernard blog champion comes comments competition country eindhoven emigr euro european football france freestyle french italian italy life magnini mozzarella paris people pizza posted race recipes record remember restaurant rome second swimming vincent visit vittoz vs wine world

created at TagCrowd.com

Mispelling recipes

French have a common habit for misspelling Italian recipes names: take any of the pizza recipes and in France you'll find many different ways of writing them.

As background information, I can say that just a few real original recipes do exist:

• Pizza Napoletana
• Pizza Margherita
• Pizza Quattro Stagioni
• Pizza Quattro Formaggi
• Pizza Capricciosa

Happily enough, in Italy there is a bill to safeguard the traditional Italian pizza, specifying permissible ingredients and methods of processing. Only pizzas which followed these guidelines could be called "traditional Italian pizzas", at least in Italy.

Italy has also requested that the European Union safeguard some traditional Italian pizzas, such as "Margherita" and "Marinara". The European Union enacted a protected designation of origin system in the 1990s.

Here's the links to the related websites: Pizzeria italiana tradizionale

But I am not writing this post to talk of ways of making pizza. My aim is to show how Frenchies misspell our recipes, by simply inventing words that do not exist!
Let's take for instance Pizza Margherita, many transcriptions can be found in the restaurant menus or even on recipes websites:

• Pizza Margarita
• Pizza Marguerite
• Pizza Marguarita
• Pizza Margharita
• Pizza Margiarita

etc, etc, etc...

This is very deceiving to me! I can't get how people starting-up a restaurant cannot have a look in an Italian dictionary to find the right word to use... Should I open a restaurant and put down a list of dishes, I would first check their correct spelling, especially for foreign recipes. How can a hungry customer looking for an italian meal trust a would-be Italian Restaurant that wrongly spells recipe's names?

The correct form is "pizza" and "pizze" in the plural. Not "pizzas".

"Napoletana" and not "Neapolitana" or "Napolitana" or "Napolitenne" or "Napolitaine".

"Salame" in the singular and "Salami" in the plural form.

And "Panini" is the plural form for "Panino": you can't ask for a panini!! But you can ask for a panino or for two panini. That's not that difficult, isn't it?

I really would appreciate Italian Restaurants in France mangling Italian recipes names. And maybe they could count on more eager customers to come and taste. In the meantime I won't hesitate to publish on my blog pics of funny Italian unbelievably misspelled menus that I will find during my stay in France. And I am sure you will enjoy...

French Wine?

A Study of wines sold in the EU, including a number from France, were found to contain a range of pesticides, with one bottle from the sample containing ten different varieties.

This is maybe why you sould taste Italian wine, which is better and healtier.

Source: 'Wine contaminated with pesticides, study claims' post on This French Life blog

Related posts: 'Fighting in the kitchen'

XC Skiing - Giorgio Di Centa vs Vincent Vittoz

Moments to remember: Giorgio Di Centa defeating Vincent Vittoz for the final 50kms XC Skiing Race in Turin 2006 is surely one of them! The Italian stayed with the lead pack for the better part of two hours, then sprinted away in the final few hundred meters to win the men's 50-kilometer race.
I watched the race with most of my French colleagues and, despite being alone, I enjoyed seeing the French champion, Vincent Vittoz, desperatedly trying to follow Giorgio!
The Italian was too strong that day, and my work colleagues had to pay the check for the Spumante! I won't really forget their typically-French pompous look vanishing during the race... Moments to remember, as I said, moments to remember!

Rome vs Paris - Comparing monuments...

Today's face-to-face: 2000 years old Roman Colosseum (originally known as the Flavian amphitheatre) against the Tour Eiffel (built for the 1889 World's Fair). Two pics, two cities, two different worlds... and it is up to you to comment which one you would visit! As a technical information, the Colosseum was built to host bloody gladiatorial combats and wild beast shows and can be visited for just 8 euro! And for the same price you can freely visit the Arch of Constantine (AD312) just on its west side and the Palatin Hill, center of the imperial power for centuries. The Eiffel Tower is 320 meters high and can be visited for 10 euro... a little expensive to visit what it is just a television antenna!