Learning French By Watching Télévision

J’aime la France, J’aime la television et J’aime de television Françoise.  French programmes were supposed to be educational, supposed to help me learn the language but I got too engrossed in the story lines and characters to make notes or repeat what the beautiful people said.

My first impression of Sky Living's The Tunnel was it’s a bit slow at the start and not in a cool French type of way, it needed to pick up speed and it did.  Clémence Poésy was great as the miserable straight talking workaholic Elise Wassermann and the more human British DCI Karl Roebuck’s (played by Stephen J. Dillane) wise cracks tried to lighten her mood. I do need to watch it again to piece together all the twists.

The Tunnel

  
Has my previous post states Channel 4 series – The Returned (les Revants) is currently my favourite new show of 2013. I know the American version of it won’t be half as good as the original. Frenchies + zombies = my television heaven!

Other Frenchie shows I’ve found on my SKY TV channels, on Sky Arts there was Mansion Close I found it very boring but maybe a programme about prostitutes back in 17th century isn’t for everyone’s taste. But a sit-com about the porn industry (only the French could make it) – Hard was hilarious, very crude but who cares I‘m not a nun and dull Sophie needed to cheer up, having to run a seedy porn business after she husband died isn’t paradise but being with the hot Roy the Rod (a sensitive caring porn star) would make even a nun smile.

Hard

Jo on Fox with Jean Reno wasn’t very French.  Reno is the only French guy in it and the rest of the characters are American or in one case a British actress with an American accent.  An interesting cop murder drama but more a Paris tourism advert with dead bodies lying around the French capital's popular tourist areas.

On the subject of French police, welcome back Braquo on Fox for series 3 (especially Theo played by Nicolas Duvauchelle) I do enjoy a bunch of dirty cops fighting crime their own way.

Braquo

 

TV Travel Bucket List – The Returned

It might have been less than a minute but it counts. One place ticked off my list - the Lake Pub featured in Channel 4’s The Returned.

Monsieur X picked me up at Geneva Airport on an April Saturday, and we drove though the town of Annecy on the way to Courchevel.  He wanted to show me the lake however I wanted to go zombie hunting and begged him to stop off at the Lake Pub in Sévrier for a quick photo, after his complaining he gave in. Luckily for him it was closed (opens at 5pm), so he only had to drive around the car park while I took a photo of the pub.  It made my day!

 

 

So this holiday weekend I watched the The Returned (les Revants) again.  It’s my favourite new show of 2013 and it freaked me out! No blood, gorge and graphic violence like the Walking Dead just a guessing game of what the hell is going on. 

Series one is about a bunch of ‘dead’ people who suddenly return to their village, acting like nothing ever happened to them, while the ‘alive’ people are being all French and acting cool about this crazy situation.  Only the French would have gorgeous zombies. There is Simon the brooding undead who even looks good lying in the morgue and Serge the cannibal zombie who still manages to get his leg over with a human.  Then on the cuteness scale of 9 out of 10 there is little Victor, this boy loses a point due to his sinister ways.

Not that I’m jealous of their beauty and Frenchness (I so am!) but the women in this show are annoyingly beautiful and the younger cast are just annoying. Oui! I mean you Camille! The film this series was based on (called They Came Back/Les Revenants) was just as weird and being a scared pathetic loser as I had to watch it in the day with the lights on, no pretty zombies this time but it did screw up my head again.

So I’ve seen the front of the pub and the lake, maybe next year when I visit Monsieur X, we can visit another Returned scene hopefully the Tignes Dam (Barrage de Tignes) which is only 67km - 1 hour and 15 minutes away from Le Praz, Courchevel - hint hint Monsieur X hint hint.  

Courchevel Weekend... For a Broke Non Skier

When my photographer friend Monsieur X gives me an invite to France, I never say no even if it is on the wrong side of pay day and it’s to a five star ski resort.  This was my second attempt to visit Courchevel, last year I ended up in Marseille instead (24 hours in Marseille:  An unplanned weekend), but after a £150 return Easyjet  flight from Birmingham to Geneva  and a drive though Annecy I reached Monsieur X ‘office’.

I was staying at Monsieur X very little penthouse apartment aka his studio in La Praz and less said about his place the better, but the words ‘clean up’ needs to be said. Its location was perfect a few minutes’ walk after from the bus stop and cable cars.  After dumping my bag at his studio he took me to Courchevel 1850 (via the free bus service) to show me where he works…on the beautiful slopes of 1850 and his base for selling his photos at (Funhouse) La Datcha restaurant in the Forum Centre. The La Datcha staff was very welcoming, there was a good chilled out and quiet atmosphere (due to it being end of the ski season) and the pizza tasted great.

La Praz

Courchevel

Sunday was his day off and after realising my cash isn’t going to last my stay or even another day we went to the top of this mountain.  Seriously 8€ for a coffee and a tea in Le Praz and it wasn’t even a proper cup of tea! Yes you can take the girl out of England but not the England out of the girl.  We took a cable car from 1850 up to the highest level we could go for around 15€, I was unsure due to the cost (and that I hate cable cars) but Monsieur X  said it would be worth it.  He was right the white mountain views of snow and clouds took away any remaining bit of stress I had and drinking white wine lying on a deck chair knowing that I would have a sunburnt nose the next day isn’t what I usually do on a Sunday afternoon.

Before heading back down we took a detour to La Folie Douce in Meribel, the Sun, dance music and people dancing on the tables reminded me of my Ibiza days and so did 7€ a pint! Watching the tres expensive bottles of champagne been send via a mini cable car/box from the DJ stage to the VIP area bizarrely reminded me that I need to buy a new car. Why? One of those bottles of champagne is the same price as my car deposit. I seriously need to find a new job to fund my five star lifestyle. I also learned a valuable lesson – trying to run for the last cable car back to Courchevel in snow after a few beers isn’t cool.

La Folie Douce

I can’t go to a ski resort and not have fondue and after nagging Monsieur X in the cable car and free shuttle bus down the mountains, he gave in at 1650 and we went to the Le Table de Marie not far from the bus stop.  It was empty around 7ish but by 8 it was full. It was 25€ each for fondue for 2 people and the plate of bread, salad and meats was massive and there was enough cheese for us so there were no fighting over the last melted drop.

The next few days of my long weekend consisted on pretty much nothing, just up and down between Le Praz and 1850 and afternoon drinks in La Datcha and dinner in L’Escorchevel pub and restaurant in Le Praz. It was mainly English/American food on the menu and very big portions, I’ve had a lot of chicken nuggets in my time but not as big as these.  With a car it was easy to visit the town Moûtiers and another the resort of Champagny  and I think four nights in Courchevel was enough time for a broke non-skier like myself to relax, socialize and see this rich resort from the top to the bottom.

 

On the way back down

 

 

Merci Monsieur X I hope we can do this again next year.

My TV Travel Bucket List

As you can see from my above statement and ‘About Me’ I want to travel and my life at the moment involves seeing the world from the comfort of my sofa and getting fat at the same time.  So why don’t I mix the both up and visit the beautiful places (without the crime and zombies) I see on a screen every day.

Yes it’s cheaper and easier to lie on my sofa and watch the imagery world go by but where’s the excitement and enjoyment of visiting other countries and meeting new people.  Now I’ve visited a few but that was before I had this idea now I have another reason to go back… yes I mean you Ibiza and Paris.

The Telly Travel List (Blue = visited)

UK

England
Birmingham (got to start somewhere):  Peaky Blinders, Doctors. 
London: 24: Live another Day and every other English drama.

Wales

Rhondda Valley: Stella
Barry Island: Gavin & Stacy

EUROPE

Spain
Ibiza/Majorca:  Mad Dogs.

France

Paris:  Braquo
French Alps: Annecy (Lake Pub) & Tignes Dam: The Returned

Italy

Rome:  Romanzo Criminale
Sicily: Young/Inspector Montalbano

REST OF THE WORLD

Caribbean:  Death in Paradise  
Canada, Toronto:  Rookie Blue 

USA

Chicago:  ER (the George Clooney years), Chicago Fire, Mike & Molly
Washington:  Bones, Scandal
New Orleans:  Treme
Hawaii: Hawaii 5-0, Lost
Texas: Friday Night Lights
Atlanta:  Walking Dead
Virginia: Criminal Minds, NCIS
Philadelphia: Body of Proof
New York: Friends, Blue Bloods, The Following, Elementary and many more
Los Angeles: Mentalist, NCIS: Los Angeles, Two & a Half Men, Major Crimes/Closer to name a few.
Dallas:  Oh Man what’s that programme called again!

Any new TV locations would be greatly appreciated and a message to SKY TV if you want to reduce my mega monthly subscription payments so that I can save for my trips that would be greatly appreciated too. 

Hey if you don’t ask you don’t get!