Enough with this french stuff already!
Don't get me wrong: I love the French! I grew up in the french speaking part of Switzerland, looking at the French Alps across Lake Geneva 
and felt often culturally closer to the French than to my fellow German- or Italian-speaking Swiss. I read their books, sang their songs, ate their cheese and drank their wine before I could even spell beer; I listened to their radio stations and watched french TV at a time when Switzerland's only french speaking television channel's annual budget was about the same as a commercial on any of the french stations.
And I love the french language. There is something about how french words flow through a sentence that doesn't come close in any other languages. Nothing moves me more than listening to the lyrics of some of the French singers - songwriters - poets from the sixties, seventies and eighties, with Jacques Brel way up there on top of my list.
But enough is enough: not only is the english language filled with french words like bureau, menu, terrorist, imbecile, bidet, chauffeur, etiquette and I could go on and on (about 30 % of english words have a french origin), they're putting the adjective "french" before everything from french fries, french toast and french vanilla to french doors and french windows, french maid and french kiss.
French kiss! How presumptuous! Like the rest of the world needed help figuring out what to do! C'est ridicule!!! And when I see french kiss on the same list as french horn, french stick and french knot, I'm not surprised that they also came up with french letters! Is it really all they ever think about or is it the impression that the non-french world has of them?
It could very well be the former judging by how Sarkozy was able to pull off a divorce, a highly publicized courtship with a super model and a wedding, all this just a couple of months after having being elected "President de la Republique". AND improve his popularity ratings in the process!!! Maybe W should have tried that to get his ratings up a bit. Can you imagine him photo-opping with let's say Paris Hilton wearing a T-shirt saying "Make Love not War"?
Some even say that this "frenchizing" spread all the way to the Orient, that the French gave a couple of lessons of "savoir-vivre" to the Chinese, and that the term "Feng Shui" is a actually a derivative of the "French Way". Now that's what I call Avant-Garde and quite an accomplishment considering that the Chinese practiced the art of Feng Shui long before the French found out that frogs' legs tasted actually much better cooked.
You must be wondering what this has to do with custom framing? Well I was thinking about all this while doing some "french lines" the other day (don't worry, it's perfectly legal). It actually distracted me so much that I goofed and had to start all over again. Twice. MERDE!
(I'm not sure how well I'll be greeted at the next "Soiree Francophone" at Amanouz after this!)
