Pesky Olympics!

[Evianers]

No doubt we are totally alone in the world, but we are not interested in sport of any kind, under any circumstances. We are rather disenchanted that having suffered surfeits of golf, tennis, TdF et al, we

are not subjected day and night with the above. Not a great deal of consideration is given to those of

us who are not totally addicted to sports, but having said that, thank heavens for Barenboim and his

9 Beethoven Symphonies - where would we have been without him these past few days.

[Russethouse]

My mother is 92 and these days is not the least bit interested in sport, I'm sure it will be a very long coulple of weeks for her.....yes the has free view, but she isn't really au fait with it. Her carers will do their best to help her find appropriate things to watch but it won't be easy.

[woolybanana]

Only one French TV channel has the games which leaves you loads of choice.

[Evianers]

Thanks for your input.

Yes I am certain you are right, but our French is not quite up to following rapid-fire conversations

so we tend to be mega-lazy and watch the BBC all the time. Our fault - perhaps it would have been

better if 7 years ago [or whatever it was] France had won the bid - although we doubt it!

[idun]

[quote user="woolybanana"]Only one French TV channel has the games which leaves you loads of choice.[/quote]

 

Has french tv improved so much that there is really now 'loads' of choice? I admit there were a few excellent programs, superlative even, but there was always much more dross. And I did watch it for years and years.

Cannot say I'm happy about the programs I like being off tv for the olympics.

I started to watch the 9th tonight, but  I don't like it, the first movement is boring,  sounds like it is a technical piece and not for me and even the 2nd movement which is far better, didn't grab me enough to leave it on. Now last night, my favourite the 7th was on, just love it.

[5-element]

[quote user="Russethouse"]My mother is 92 and these days is not the least bit interested in sport, I'm sure it will be a very long coulple of weeks for her.....yes the has free view, but she isn't really au fait with it. Her carers will do their best to help her find appropriate things to watch but it won't be easy.[/quote]

 

My mother is also 92, and also not at all interested in sports. Being housebound, her choices of entertainment are limited. Yet she found an enormous amount of pleasure watching most of the Tour de France (trip all around France with fantastic helicopter shots of all the varied scenery, and many cultural and historical commentaries about the chateaux etc.). She also enjoyed greatly all aspects of the opening ceremony, and will no doubt continue to find enjoyable aspects to the whole fortnight! What with her being French, she only watches French channels, and never ceases to amaze me with the way she has become interested in the world at large (and sometimes quite knowledgeable) via TV programmes, especially French ones!

[NormanH]

[quote user="Evianers"]Thanks for your input.

Yes I am certain you are right, but our French is not quite up to following rapid-fire conversations

so we tend to be mega-lazy and watch the BBC all the time. Our fault - perhaps it would have been

better if 7 years ago [or whatever it was] France had won the bid - although we doubt it!

[/quote]

There are several interesting  documentary programmes which you might well enjoy, and the pace of the French is much more relaxed.

You can watch them on 'catch-up' TV which has the added advantage that you can pause or replay a section if you didn't quite catch it the first time.

I used that technique to accustom my ear to messages with my old ansaphone when I first came to France.

http://www.pluzz.fr/documentaire/

http://videos.arte.tv/fr/videos/programmes

give a selection of such programmes.

[Chancer]

I bit the bullet and dumped my Sky system about 5 years ago as I decided that watching UK Tv was a major hindrance to learning french, I had had a wake up call when I was rushed to hospital and went through several operations only being able to understand a fraction of what was going on, my skybox playing up was also timely.

At the time I would have defended french TV and said that it wasnt rubbish and that people were just trotting it out as an excuse to justify living in a UK bubble, if you do a search you will no doubt find postings of mine exactly like that.

Just as the honeymoon period for peoples excitement of living in France usually ends so has mine for French tv and I ask myself did I really enjoy this stuff once?

Well yes I really did and now I really dont!!! I guess its my character to be enthusiastic, energetic and to ignore shortcomings when starting on any new venture be it career, business, relationship, or country, I definitely get a 7 year itch with most things.

I have no regrets re my learning of the language, I had studied the basics but my quantum leap in comprehension and communication has come about mainly thanks to French tv, I will one day watch sky again but it will be a few more years yet of purgatory before I will allow myself to do so.

Please note I am not comparing French with UK tv, for me its not a choice and is a bit like the irrelevant question that the French love to ask me "is French harder to learn than english?"

What is it that I dont like? Well pretty much all that others have said, plus some others of my own that have gradually needled at me and now have become major irritations.

All french dramas (or their miserable attempts) involve the characters always speaking in breathless emotional whispers to each other that are pretty much incomprehensible, try watching Poubelle la vie to see the masters of the art. I pretty much always watch documentaries these days which are much easier to follow.

Due to the lack of home grown drama and films most are imported and dubbed however it seems obligatory for people to speak in the above manner and for all women, no matter how gutsy or ballsy the role/actress to sound perpetually anxious, panicky or terrorised like someone in a teenage slasher movie.

Presenters that spend most of their time saying" euuhhh", its rare that any of them can articulate for more than 3 seconds without using one to punctuate.

Shows that rely on the inane interaction of a panel of "celebs" with each other who seem to think its de rigeur to wear stupid glasses or clothing although the decolletage is most welcome!

ALL FRENCH ADVERTS! And they are far too frequent and repetitive, only 2 voices seem to be allowed and I suspect its the same 2 people that do them all, the woman has une voix mieleuse and the guy a sort of chippy chirpy chappy but the sickly sounding breathless whispering complicity of the women are by far the most annoying and omnipresent, I have to immediately mute the sound when the adverts come around and for the same reason have yet to find a french radio station that I can stomach despite loving the music played by many of them.

What makes me laugh though is that I had become the same way in the UK with regard to what I called "voice-over woman" and could no longer stand radio programs, my bête noir there was people who said "like" all the time, it was refreshing to get away from all that but now voice over woman has been replaced by la voix mieleuse and "like" with "euuuhh".

In conclusion its just me, I become a grumpy sod every few years without change, preferably drastic [;-)]

[NormanH]

I don't think you can say there is  lack of home-made films (Just have a look at the French cinema thread), although I agree that French soaps don't really exist.

There are also a few excellent series such as Engrenages (Known as Spiral in the UK)

I can agree with quite a few of your other points, though I only see those programmes when someone in the next hospital bed has them on....

[Evianers]

Yes, we watched Engrenages with great alacrity each week - magnificent series, very informative - especially regarding how the French legal system works, and perhaps how it can be "manipulated" somewhat by hungry lawyers. Amazingly good and oh so realistic.

The Beethoven last evening was superb - have sung it several times so could well associate with the singers.

Barenboim's orchestra is a credit to him and his idea to bring troubled peoples together. Will definitely watch more of the Proms especially during the remainder of the PO!

[Clair]

[quote user="NormanH"]There are also a few excellent series such as Engrenages (Known as Spiral in the UK) [/quote]

I have to wait for this to be shown on a BBC channel, as it is shown on a Canal-encrypted channel in France.

Series 2 is on stand-by on the Humax to provide an alternative to the Olympic coverage...

[Mr Ceour de Lion II]

I'm proud to say that I haven't seen a single thing of the games, not even the opening ceremony. I see there's one channel that is showing the olympics here in the States, but with 400 odd other channels of shit to choose from, I very much doubt I'll see any of it. Plus I spend most time out and about doing stuff, and what with the kids being off, I'm subjected more to Spongebob than I am to cycling or whatever.

That's the good thing about them having the games at this time of year, the good weather means there's more options than just tv :)

[Evianers]

[quote user="Mr Ceour de Lion II"]I'm proud to say that I haven't seen a single thing of the games, not even the opening ceremony. I see there's one channel that is showing the olympics here in the States, but with 400 odd other channels of shit to choose from, I very much doubt I'll see any of it. Plus I spend most time out and about doing stuff, and what with the kids being off, I'm subjected more to Spongebob than I am to cycling or whatever.

That's the good thing about them having the games at this time of year, the good weather means there's more options than just tv :)

[/quote]

Bravo! Echoing our sentiments entirely.

[idun]

We still try and watch Thalassa and Envoyé Speciale when we can. I used to watch Faux pas Rever and other such docs. The natural history programs can be fanatastic, often seen from a different angle, and the photography excellent. Films can be marvellous too. And the very odd home grown series was good. And ofcourse local news on FR3, now France 3, isn't that essential viewing?

That said, that is what 10% or less of viewing and that leaves many hours of mediocrity. Still I can watch american things dubbed into french, in fact some I much prefered. Even though it was always the same voices, but some lovely voices never the less.

When my kids were small and sometimes played up at bedtime I'd have to go and sort them out. When my parents in law were there and I'd miss sometimes huge chunks of programs, I'd ask what had happened and they always told me. Speak french, not a word, either of them.

 I actually recommend french tv, the music of the language without the pressure of not having to have to reply.

 

So why after 15 years did we happily get UK satellite? We had lousy lousy reception where we lived. Had the TDF out twice, had two ariels to get different channels and boosters(cannot remember the right word, may even be the right one[:D]). And still we had lousy reception. When we got UK satellite tv, we also bought a dish for french satellite and a box and we just could not receive french satellite. A huge mountain was just in the way and we could neither move the mountain or the house. And a storm had moved our ariels and I just couldn't face going back to a fuzzy screen even if the ariels had been realigned.

 

[Chancer]

I had never seen or heard of Engrenages although know what the word means.

I now know from google that it is a good drama series and probably the only one that has been exported, its a shame that it is not diffused on any of the French free to air channels, I dont pay for Canal+ so wont get to see it [:(]

[Evianers]

[quote user="Chancer"]

I had never seen or heard of Engrenages although know what the word means.

I now know from google that it is a good drama series and probably the only one that has been exported, its a shame that it is not diffused on any of the French free to air channels, I dont pay for Canal+ so wont get to see it [:(]

[/quote]

Funny that as we saw it on the BBC - were hooked immediately we saw the first episode - it's marvellous. Hopefully there will be a follow-up series. Well worth watching. BTW, it's with English subtitles.

[Frederick]

http://news.oneindia.in/2012/07/29/mystery-woman-with-indian-contingent-identified-1043995.html

Perhaps nobody gave her a seat ?

[idun]

Won't Engrenages be on french tv eventually sans sous titrage[:)]?

[Clair]

Very unlikely, as it is produced by Canal for Canal, and has already been shown on French TV.

The series has probably been sold to French-speaking countries.

France Televisions are unlikely to spend any money buying their competitor's program, in the same way that the BBC would be unlikely to buy a Sky-produced program.

[Frederick]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-19075397

It seems things are not working as planned in Weymouth .

One of my colleagues returning  to his home after taking in a patient to hospital found  the road to his home  had  a barrier placed across it while he was away  manned by a security guard . He was told he could not go down When he asked the security guy how he was supposed to get to his house he was told  " Put your car in the park and ride and take the bus " He got out  moved the barrier and drove through . This is what people have to put up with . Many will be glad when the Olympics are out of town .

[just john]

[quote user="Frederick"]

Many will be glad when the Olympics are out of town

[/quote]

Amend that to most, Local cafe owner saying that it's her worst trade for three years, normal visitors have voted with their feet to avoid the town and it's restrictions ' park and ride triple normal price, and less users

[Benjamin]

BBC news ran a story this morning(?) from outside a hotel that had just dropped their room rate from £500 to under £100. Likewise  central London stores are reporting lower than normal numbers of shoppers.

Anyone who's  attempted to cash in deserves to catch a cold.

[Quillan]

They were talking yesterday about the empty corporate seats. Quite frankly they have been paid for so who cares. In the meantime somebody bought a load off one of the companies and was flogging them for a grand a piece on Ebay. Ebay UK have now pulled all seat tickets off their site so this fella is left with a shed load of tickets that short of standing outside trying to sell them has no way to flog them, I call that justice.

Meanwhile I understand that the Chinese badminton players have been thrown out for cheating, or throwing their matches. Wanted to save energy apparently, bad sportsmanship I call it.

Then I looked at our medal rankings, we seemed t have jumped to 10th place after Bradley won his bike race yet quantity wise we are well behind the top players (China, USA and France).

On top of that with the aid of the red button and the extra channels laid on for the Olympics why is it still on BBC1 and 2. At this time of the year my only small pleasure is to sit down for an hour with a cup of tea and a sandwich to watch Bargain Hunt only to find it's changed both channel and time. Grrrrrrrrr [:@]

[cooperlola]

[quote user="Quillan"]

At this time of the year my only small pleasure is to sit down for an hour with a cup of tea and a sandwich to watch Bargain Hunt only to find it's changed both channel and time. Grrrrrrrrr [:@]

[/quote]This is what HDD recorders are for, Quillan. 

[Quillan]

But I don't have the time to look through the liosting to find out the time and channel it's changed to as every day it is different.