A French experience
Yesterday was a busy day. In between checking my amazon rating, I interviewed Christine Ockrent, who is Belgian but one of those women you always think of as French because she made her career there. She was, among other notable things, France’s first female news anchor and also the only journalist to get an interview with Saddam Hussein during the first gulf war.
She was late due to lunch with a Sheikha and so I waited with her entourage of French women in the Business Centre at the Emirates Palace Hotel. There is one thing I had forgotten about French women. They all smoke. I couldn’t believe it. There I was innocently working out what to ask Madame Ockrent when suddenly I was being fumigated.
“Oh, do you mind the smoke?” said one.
“Well, I’m not mad about it, ” I replied.
“Oh, sorry,” she said making a lame attempt to wave her poison in the other direction.
What is the point I wondered, in asking someone if they mind and then carrying on? ‘Oh do you mind if I sleep with your husband?’ ‘You do? Oh well, try not to notice would you?’
Anyway Madame Ockrent was extremely interesting. She is now CEO of France 24 and here to launch the extended Arab version of the channel. She has done pretty much everything I always wanted to; including reading the news on national TV, writing books, working as a foreign correspondent all over the world and getting major scoops.
And, as far as I know, she doesn’t smoke….
Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2009
06 May 2009 helena
Smoking is very hard on the skin and muscles in the face. It surprises me that French women who are soooo obsessive about looking young would indulge. Other than that it is a filthy, smelly habit. I have asthma and am allergic to smoke. Even that does not deter a smoker from lighting up a cigarette.
Christine Okrent is by all standards a woman of high intelligence, regarded in journalistic and political milieus as a very high achiever. Check her profile on wikipedia and you-ll understand what I mean. She has been named La reine Christine. As far as I know no one has ever mentioned her disturbing smoking habit. It is extremely clicheesque to reduce a person to what is in fact a very common addiction, certainly not exclusively French.
It s like the forest and the trees. It shows how you see the world. I like her version a lot more. I like her bravery and her honesty. And I don-t give a hoot whether she smokes or not. But of course, I m French…
Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why French women are thin, the smoking. Smoking is an appetite suppressant.
Hello Elisabeth
I think you missed the point here, my conclusion is that she is an incredible woman and that she DOES NOT smoke – which makes her even more amazing!
Hx
Oh dear. Sorry Helena. My bad. It’s not an excuse but I wrote this in an intensely fumigated environment. Either that or I have the attention span of a gold fish. The truth is I grew up looking up to the likes of Christine Ockrent, Françoise Giroux, Simone Weil and Elisabeth Badinter. These extraordinary women changed the life of French women. You are very fortunate to have met one of them.
Ps. As off today, I will make sure to read your posts until ZE end.
Elisabeth
No worries Elisabeth, I agree I was lucky to have met her, I listened to the tape today while writing my article, she really was great. Her story about interviewing Saddam Hussein is fabulous. It will be in the magazine a week on Saturday and I’ll post a link to it.
ZE END!
Hx
Christine Ockrent, what a “Grande Dame” ..
and talking about the smoking french women, I’m french , women , and smoking ^^, I’m so cliché
but a german friend of mine told me once that french women are the only one who are elegant and sexy when smoking and that was one of the reasons she stopped, it didn’t look good on her ..
I can-t wait to read your article. Keep up the good work. You are indeed a very versatile writer.
About the legendary thinness of French women… It might have been true in the thirties and post war years, but now, I-m not so sure. I know so many overweight ladies. If you love cassoulet and fois gras or the cuisine lyonnaise it-s hard to live up to your reputation.