There’s too much sex and not enough eroticism,” says Jean-Jacques Pauvert in his anthology of erotic writing: “From Infinity to Zero,” a 700-page postcript to a four-volume opus the author first compiled in the early 1980s. Pauvert fears that rampant sex in media and advertising may be killing French erotic literature.
The average French woman becomes a grandparent at age 49.9 and the average French man at 52.5. L'INSEE recently tallied 12.6 million living French grandparents, 2 million great-grandparents and 30,000 great-great-grandparents.
An outer wall of the 10th century Château de Saumur, located in the Loire Valley, collapsed last month injuring three people. French authorities say that the collapse may be due to erosion caused by record-breaking rainfall.
Consumers in France are eating more horse meat — up 30.7 percent during the first three months of this year. During the same period beef sales droped by 22.2% according to Ofival, the national meat bureau. Last year the average Frenchman consumed 25kg of beef a year, compared with 0.6kg of horse meat.
A French woman, Marie Bremont, celebrated her 115th birthday last month with a glass of wine. The woman who lives 150 miles west of Paris is believed to be the oldest living person.
For the first time in its 100-year history, Le Concours Lépine, an inventor’s competition in France, crowned a female with its top honors. Electronics engineer Florence Floret won for her long-distance, code-smart TV remote control.
15.26% of France is Internet-savvy, compared with 52.6% of Norway, the world-leader. Last year French Internet users numbered 6% of the world population.
