The restaurant was also the school canteen Or, more accurately (like one of those Robert Ludlum titles), the Potato Questions. You can gauge how bored people were during work and pensions' questions because there was a ripple of excitement caused by a rumour. She came second, with six votes, in the vote for female class captain Democracy starts early in France. Each school class elects boy and girl delegates to represent the opinions of the class to the school hierarchy. If they try to say anything critical, they are slapped down or ignored A useful lesson in democracy, French-style Grace failed by one vote. I tried to explain that, for a second generation, immigrant child like her, this was a great success.. Good wheeze.Except that three days later one of the journalists from the magazine was caught in one of the new traps and tried to appeal to one of the ministers he had just "stung" to let him off his fine. The magazine set up its own, unofficial speed trap and caught two ministers' official cars speeding away from the press photo opportunity for one of the first radar machines, south of Paris. The tougher approach to road safety enforcement is reducing the number of road deaths in France by 120 coffins a month.Grace unfavouredMy youngest child, Grace, is a political failure, aged six. The murderous concept of immunity to road traffic laws dies hard in France.But it is dying, little by little and, as a result, French people are dying less.
And yet a whole generation of French people is being educated to eat badly.Stalked by sexually deviant robots?French borrowings from the English language can have unusual effects. A headline in a French newspaper the other day said: "J'ai ? flash?ar un robot" - "I was flashed by a robot". Is France being stalked by sexually deviant machines? No, the robot in question was a radar speed trap, a startling, new concept in France.A car lovers' magazine, Auto Plus, recently took revenge on the government for curbing every Frenchman's right (it is mostly the men) to break the speed limit. French anti-globalist campaigners such as Jos?ov?rotest against la malbouffe (bad grub) invading France from abroad. Even French school textbooks mock the American diet.School meals are supposed to be an education in taste. The restaurant was also the school canteen.But, overall, France, which claims to be worried about increasing obesity among young people, is not living up to its own ambitions and propaganda. A little time ago, I ate in a village restaurant in the Alps not far from Grenoble The entire village school filed in and sat down to lunch. Do they? The Marianne investigation claimed that up to 80 per cent of meals at some schools were ending up in the bin. This is confirmed, anecdotally, by my own kids, although my son has now gone to another school, with its own kitchens, where he says the food is much better.All, certainly, is not lost. A recent study by dieticians in 80 communes across France showed that the typical school meal contained processed foods such as chicken nuggets or lasagne, rich in salt and saturated fat.The big catering companies justify their choices by saying that these are the kinds of meals which children like. Marianne says it is often half that amount.Marianne's investigation suggests that the mass catering companies - soci?s de restauration collective - ignore the education ministry guidelines calling for a school diet of fresh fruit and vegetables, fish and unprocessed meat. French school canteens are supposed to be part of France's basic training in the art de vivre of being French.The reality is rather different. |
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