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

 

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!

2012 Review: Inspired By The Box

Where do I start travel or television? The good, the bad or the ugly?


The highlight as to be the Olympics and Paralympics for travel and TV, it made a change watching real talent and real stars (note to self - cancel Sky Sports subscription. I’m bored of overpaid arrogant footballers) not wannabees and has-beens on reality TV shows. I loved going to London this summer during the Olympics, and I would argue with Disney over the ‘happiest place on earth’ tag because I’m sure during the summer of 2012 London won that gold medal.

It wasn’t all positives this year,  £800 for 2 nights room only in a London Holiday Inn Express, still chained to my desk and I wasted my time watching a group of one-hit wonders called Alcatraz, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour and the aptly titled Unforgettable – I liked them.  At least Damien Lewis’s Life lasted two seasons.

It was au revoir to Desperate Housewives and Harry’s Law and bonjour to Touch, Elementary and Homeland, even thou I’m still not sure if I enjoyed season 2 it was all over the place.  Guy Pearce’s Jack Irish, Arrow and Person of Interest were all 5 star and American Horror Story: Asylum and Girls (I think I’m getting old) were a dirty 1 star hostel which I walked away from after two episodes.

With foreign TV (meaning non English speaking shows) I was gutted I missed Romanzo Criminale season 2 the first time around on Sky Arts but the series link is now in place for the repeats and Vinicio Marchioni is my first crush of 2013. Then there is the French.  Braquo season 2 was magnifique bring on season 3 and Mansion Close was alright but did drag on a bit. Now for 2013 so far there is Hard on Sky Arts, watching a comedy about a straight-laced widow running a porn business should be interesting especially when I’m watching it with my Mom in the room. Merci it’s in another language.

Vinicio Marchioni

On the travel front apart from London being my top destination for 2012 I only managed two trips abroad.  In April I went to Switzerland for the first time – a long weekend of après-ski in Verbier and an hour running around a windy Geneva trying to see as much as possible.  The other was a beautiful week in Provence, visiting Nimes, Arles, Salon de Provence, Aix en Provence and Istres with Monsieur X as my personal tour guide, host and cook.

Windy Geneva

Hot Salon de Provence

My 'Disneyland' - Olympic Park

But what about 2013? More travelling for starters and until then I have my faithful box in the corner…it’s only the 6^th January and with new seasons of NCIS, Bones, Stella and Silent Witness starting this week and getting closer to the second half of Walking Dead season 3 and Sky’s new Kevin Bacon show the Following (FYI loving the EE Bacon ads) I think it’s going to be a great year.

New Year Resolutions?  Yes!

No more ‘R’s – repeats and reality (massive fail as I’m watching Celebrity Big Brother).
More ‘T’s – Travel and (Quality) TV.

Decisions or Décisions: TV Dream Homes and/or Foreign Destinations

‘How to buy a house’ and ‘jobs involving travel’ were my Google searches this weekend. Still deciding whether I should stay in Boredville and buy my own place or go travelling and live out of a suitcase for a couple of years.  I know my decision would be a lot easier if my family didn’t live in Boredville or if there was any future with my current job #sinkingship .

Then I switch on the box and transport my brain into TV world. I’ve stopped watching Place in the Sun type of programmes; they don’t inspire me they depress me, but what about living on planet TV? Add harp music and a big thinking cloud above my head, now I could probably be happy in Southfork Ranch in Dallas, but looks like too much hard work with the oil business and all those family fights.

 

Or there is the apartment in New Girl, not very believable though.  How can a school teacher, barman, office worker and unemployed basketball player afford a massive apartment/penthouse like that? It’s a bigger fairy-tale than Grimm. Plus points a gorgeous apartment and Nick but Jess and her constant singing would drive me mad if she was my flat mate.
 

New Girl: How could a teacher afford this?

 

Monica's Pad: The Dream

The ultimate place to live would have to be Monica and Rachel’s New York apartment (or any TV New York apartment) when Joey and Chandler lived there because I would have Chandler’s Lazy Boy (I dream of the day I can afford my own). Yes living in New York with a coffee shop close by full of your friends who are funny all the time would be perfect, but these TV accommodations aren’t within my price range. I think I could just about pay the mortage repayments for the shacks in Raising Hope or The Middle.
 

 

Raising Hope: More my price range

 

Oui! In the real world France would be my first choice if I decided to pack my bags. I just wish there a language pill giving me the ability to speak French because the books and CDs aren’t helping, but in France TV world the brothel in Maison Close on Sky Arts or the Eddie Caplan's boat in Braquo isn’t my ideal accommodation. 

Currently I’m in the process of sorting out everything I own and everything my sister has left behind when she moved out a few months ago in to four piles 'Keep' 'Charity' 'eBay/Car Boot' or 'Bin' (hmmm a good idea for a daytime TV show (c) englishchouchou). I have more space but still don't have any independence or privacy. I can’t invite friends to stay, and my life is still in boxes. But with all the money I should make, it can go towards a flight ticket or a flat deposit?

Decisions, Décisions!