Word: frenchness
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...years, and second dreariest in the past half century. Monday's forecast (rain, highs of 63 degrees) was rather typical of the season, which dumped down nearly three times the amount of rain as you'd expect to find during an average June-August period. According to French press reports, temperatures only reached seasonal averages around 10 times during those same three months, with highs frequently 10 to 20 degrees below normal. Little wonder the Seine-side version of a Potemkin beach - the annual Paris Plage - drew less people and shorter visits per person this year, or that its food...
...well since and I think they're starting to worry," said Kearns, who predicts the Cup favorites will be bidding au revoir in the quarter-finals. The Wallabies' Cup-winning coach of '99, Rod Macqueen, questioned whether the Blacks had the versatility to play more than one style. French mentor Bernard Laporte has accused them of playing to the limit of the rules and exploiting weak refereeing...
Such is the razzle-dazzle of French President Nicolas Sarkozy that he is able to turn a speech to business leaders on such staid topics as labor contracts, taxation, inflation and purchasing power into some truly captivating theatrics. During a nearly 45-minute address billed as the blueprint of the second phase of Sarkozy's economic reforms, the gesticulating, sardonic, often dramatic President drew applause, laughter and even a gasp or two of excitement as he described how he intends to make France a more competitive economy...
...these measures would obviously please the assembled business leaders, Sarkozy made it clear he also expected effort from them in return. Increased productivity anticipated by limbering up the work week should bring salary increases in order to boost French purchasing power. "Ever since the introduction of the 35-hour week, we've heard discussion about purchasing power, not about salaries," Sarkozy said - rebuffing the business leaders' frequent retort that purchasing power is mostly an old union chestnut to justify demands for pay hikes. "Explaining there's no problem of purchasing power in France is trying to pull the public...
...Show, nor the policies it sought to introduce. Socialist Party economic expert and former Economy and Finance Minister Michel Sapin described the speech as big on generalities but short on detail. "This speech lacked everything we were waiting: for concrete and specific answers to the grave problems of the French economy," Sapin told French television. Like other critics of Sarkozy's performance, Sapin noted the nearly $15 billion in tax cuts already passed by the President has further bloated France's staggering public debt without finding new revenues to offset the cost. Meanwhile, faltering economic performance threatens to shrink France...