Laurel Zuckerman's Paris Weblog

Will Peugeot die?

 
Five  billion euros in losses in 2012, 11,000 layoffs in France planned by 2014, saddled with overcapacity in a shrinking European car market, how long can asset sales and French government aid keep PSA - and the tens of thousands of suppliers that depend on it - afloat?

Car companies have been saved before. But France's industrial policy is in stunning disarray. Worse, Europe is wary.

What future for France's automaker?

A short press review.

Bloomsberg Businessweek

Fiat, Peugeot Miss Out as Europe Auto Sales Gain Fri May 17, 2013

Peugeot Sees Europe Car Market Stabilizing at Low Delivery Level Wed May 22, 2013

Peugeot Unions Back Job-Cuts Plan as European Deliveries Decline Mon April 29, 2013,

Peugeot Settles With CGT Union on Terms of Factory Shutdown (1) Fri May 17, 2013,

Peugeot Restructuring Plan Faces In-Depth EU Antitrust Probe (2)Thu May 02, 2013, 8:1

 

European Commission investigates Peugeot state aid Thu May 02, 2013

Europe's Carmakers Want to Shrink. Unions Stand in the Way Thu March 07, 2013,

Layoffs at Peugeot Signal France's Deepening Problems Thu July 12, 2012,

 

La Tribune

Le marché auto français toujours en panne en mai

Les immatriculations de voitures neuves en France ont reculé de 9,5% sur les trois premières semaines de mai, selon des chiffres officieux. Renault plonge, malgré le succès de sa marque roumaine à bas prix Dacia. Peugeot reste quasi-stable 

La Commission européenne ouvre une enquête sur PSA

Bruxelles veut vérifier si les aides accordées par l'Etat français au constructeur automobile respecte les règles en vigueur dans l'Union. 

Réunion décevante entre PSA, l'Etat et les syndicats, sur l'avenir du site de Rennes

La troisième réunion tripartite sur l'avenir du site de PSA à Rennes a été jugée très décevante par la CFDT. 1.400 suppressions d'emplois y sont prévues. Certains redoutent mettent une fermeture du site à terme. 

FT 

Apr 24 2013 15:59 BST Peugeot pledges to curb cash burn as car sales plunge

PSA Peugeot Citroën suffered a 10.3 per cent decline in first-quarter car sales because of plunging demand in Europe but insisted it could still halve the rate at which it is burning through cash. But the ailing French carmaker warned that it would need to embark on further "operational initiatives"By James Boxell in Paris

May 17 2013 23:36 BST Car sales drive European stocks near five-year high

Car sales figures helped auto companies lead European stocks higher this week, and move closer to a five-year high. The data, released on Friday, showed sales ended an 18-month falling streak in April. New registrations in the EU rose 1.7 per cent compared with a year earlier. Renault rose 17By Conor Sullivan

The Economist

PSA Peugeot-Citroën’s troubles - Running out of road - Another dire warning for Europe’s carmakers

 

Zero Hedge

Germany's Revenge: Peugeot German New Car Registrations Collapse by 41%

Peugeot (the large French car manufacturer) have plunged year-over-year. Now down over 40% in the last ... Montebourg, Montebourg : my Ministry for a Peugeot!  No problem.  The French No problem.  The French ... Peugeot--1 month to assemble and 35 months break time. High frequency High frequency commenting..You ...

Story - Tyler Durden - 03/04/2013 - 12:24 - 66 comments - 0 attachments

Peugeot, Its Record High Default Probability, And A Brief Primer On Corporate Viability Under Socialism

past few weeks: namely the case study of emblematic French automaker Peugeot , which just happens to ... nearly doubled from 29% to 52% in a few short months. Yet what is it about Peugeot that is interesting - ... May after pledging to block a “parade of firings,” said July 14 he would lean on Peugeot to rework ...

Paris failing to protect tourists from pickpockets and other criminals

The unwritten rule among Paris bloggers is not to "burst the bubble". For many visitors - especially Americans - Paris represents a gorgeous dream, and a visit here is often a culmination of considerable effort and expense, in search of a glimpse of a better, more beautiful, higher way of living.  It is, among those who write regularly about France, considered cruel and unnecessary to undermine these innocent desires.

However, a dear friend of mine was recently pickpocketed for the second time on a bus, joining the thousands of tourists who get robbed every year in the capital, often by criminal gangs that work openly using the same techniques again and again, risking - giving the vagaries of the French justice system - basically nothing.

In fact, if you have a free moment, you can take a ride on the 1 line and watch the youngest pickpockets at work. Or, if the sun is shining, enjoy the sight of teenaged gangs relieving happy, jet-lagged tourists of their wallets with the famous fake petition trick around the Comédie Française.

These attacks on defenseless tourists are so common that they rarely even make the news - unless, as yesterday, it is a member of former president Clinton's inner circle who is attacked. (On the Champs Elysées, withdrawing money from an ATM, with the old "distract the target with a fake petition" ploy)

"C'est un vol à la tire, comme malheureusement il y en a beaucoup à cet endroit", selon une source policière, quotes le Figaro in today's "Un conseiller de Clinton dépouillé à Paris.

Earlier this week it was a Chinese film mogul who complained about the lack of security in France. After his room was robbed at a Pierre et Vacances in Cannes, he said the manager offered no help whatsoever, abandoning him to figure out how to deal with the police and papers on his own. A treatment which so outraged film industry people that Hollywood Reporter picked up the story (see China Film Group vice president Zhang Qiang had all of his luggage stolen from his rented Cote d'Azur apartment, leading the senior exec to tweet: “This film festival is not worth mentioning!”)

Usually, however, victims are just tourists not worth a mention and the crimes shrugged off as "normal".

Last month, in an exceptional event, workers at the Louvre shut down the entire museum, so sick they were of watching tourists get robbed and fearful for their own security (see Le "ras-le-bol" des agents du Louvre face aux vols des mineurs roumains in Le Monde)

Only a massive police presence on the streets of Paris prevents the problem from being even worse. But the "forces of order" can only do so much. Underage pickpockets are systematically released and even the most hardened repeat adult offenders rarely incarcerated for long. After long investigation, the police managed to break up an organized crime group that forced gypsy children into pickpocket slavery - and despite the severity of the crime (child slavery?) the judge accorded only the lightest sentence to the adult kingpin.(see Le gang Hamidovic jugé pour traite d'êtres humains in Nouvel Observateur)

Paris bloggers who try to warn their readers about these criminals by describing them and their tactics specifically run the risk of being criticized for being downers - or even worse and highly unfairly - racists.

But is putting our heads in the sand really the best we can offer the tourists who flock here to enjoy the City of Lights?

 

 

 

What if your moment came- and you didn't know what to do?

François Hollande was elected to the French presidency on the flamby promise to close his eyes and plug his ears and yell ee eee ee eee eee eee eee until the Dragon of  Reality got bored and went away.

Now it's been a year, and the charmingly wishful ee eee ee eee eee eee eee policy is under strain.  Instead of disappearing in a puff, the Dragon of Reality, contrary to expectations, has been devouring everything in sight. This is bad news. For France. For the left. For the President himself. No one is more stunned than Mr Hollande's supporters - who now slam him for his lack of faith. Shout ee eee ee eee eee eee eee louder, you flabby infidel! they cry.

It's like watching a theater full of children clapping frantically to save Tinkerbell, only to see her, not just die, but get hit by a bus, and thrown into a boiling poisonous river, where she is ripped apart by that awful crocodile with the clock ticking inside him.

Imagine the trauma.

This, in short, is the psychological position of the French left today.

What is the Dragon of Reality? (Or the ticking clock) Take your pick:

unemployment, or

unfunded pensions or

massive government overspending, or

a dying industrial base, or

excessive costs to employers, or

endemic corruption, or

disheveled universities, or

inegalitarian schools, or

polluted water, deadly seaweed and lost and dying bees, or repeat violent offenders, or

the unspeakable horrors of foreign languages...

Poor François. Unable to sustain the fiction that he was stupid enough to believe his own promises, he started plummeting in the poles only weeks after entering office, and, like that cool Mad Man suit guy, has only accelerated since (but way less cool).

Splat, the one word on everyone's lips, makes no sense in French, where one talks of deserts to be crossed and waiting for one's moment.

What if one's moment is here and one has not the slightest idea what to do with it?

What if one is not the right man for the job?

What France needs, more than a man of incessant action, is a calm yet steely explainer-in-chief, someone who can put France's troubles in context, carefully showing how France got into them and how France can get back out.

But for that to happen, François Hollande must first acknowledge that Reality is not the enemy - false, wishful and crazy thinking about Reality is.

Consequently, his first arrow must be destined for the hallucinations of his own political base: the people who cast their vote for him in the absurd and touching hope that believing in miracles will make it so.

His second arrow should be aimed at incompetence in his own ranks - Hollande has assembled the least experienced crew of "broken arms" we've seen in 25 years. Hardly anyone has any idea of what goes on in the private sector, how companies function, what is takes to produce, distribute and market goods and services. This lack of basic knowledge of the world is killing. Time to bring in some people who know what they're doing. 

 His third arrow should go straight to the heart of ideology. In nearly every sector - most visibly education - ideology has trumped basic pragmatism. The preference for the theoretical over the real is a traditional French disease, but under Hollande it's grown to devastating proportions.

THE GOOD NEWS is that it should be easier for François Hollande to apply common sense than it was for his predecessor: he has only his own supporters to overcome - and not an insanely irresponsible opposition.

 

 

Literary Events, Readings and New Books in Paris May 2013

This month, news from Peter Gumbel, Barry Kirwan, Nancy Kricorian, Roderick d'Entrac, Cathy Altman Nocquet, Douglas Kennedy, Nathalie Bassand, Edward Rutherfurd, Ann Saul, Rupert Thomson, Elena Nesti, Rosemary Flannery, Elliot Perlman,  Elena Nesti, Ben Fountain, Kate Noakes, Jerome Charyn, Linda Lappin, Roy Lisker, Margaret Aldridge, David Barnes, Alice Boatwright,  the Over 50s contest, the Prada contest, Moving Parts, Paris Lit Up, the Paris Prize, the Novella Contest, and more…  (update in progress)

 

NEW BOOKS from Paris Writers

 

Eden's Revenge by Barry Kirwan, the thrilling third book in The Eden Paradox Series ("“Brilliant plotting, sizzling action, awe-inspiring aliens")

 

Paris to the Pyrenees : a Skeptical Pilgrim Walks the Way of Saint James by David Downie  ("Motivated not by God, but by nearly everything else, American author David Downie traveled hundreds of miles on foot across France." NPR)

Elite Academie: Enquête sur la France Malade de ses Grandes Ecoles by Peter Gumbel, also available in English as France's Got Talent (May 15); From the bestselling author of They Shoot Schoolchildren, Don't They?

 

Paris to Provence: Childhood Memories of Food & France Ethel Brennan and Sara Remington ("partly a travelogue and part cookbook.. beautifully photographed")

 

Five Days by Douglas Kennedy ("a brilliant meditation on regret, fidelity, family, and second chances")

Paris Night by Roderick d'Entrac ("a highly topical thriller")

 

NEWS: Alice Boatwright's Collateral Damage received the Bronze Medal for Literary Fiction from the Independent Publisher Book Awards. The award ceremony will be on 29 May in New York City.

 

Selected Literary Events in Paris this May

 (for more events - especially poetry, music, bilingual readings  and literary in French - please see the excellent Paris Readings and Events)

Sunday, 5th May 2013 at 7.30 pm MOVING  PARTS presents presents 3 one-act plays SES PLUMES COMME DE LA NEIGE by Nathalie Bassand with YANNICK ROCHER, GEN SHIMAOKA and PABLO DIAZ,  BITE  THE  APPLE by Elena Nesti with KRISTINA DEKENS and CARLINE LEMIRE, and CHANGING TABLES by  Elena Nesti with JOLAINE BEAL at Carr's Pub & Restaurant 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris Metro : Tuileries

 

May 5 and 6:  The May Used Book Sale The Library’s first-weekend-of-the-month book sales are getting bigger and bigger.. Most books at €3, €2, and €1! For details on how to donate books to the Library, see the Book Bags & Book Donations page on our website. American Library in Paris

6 May 7 pm: Rupert Thomson on Secrecy Shakespeare and  Company

 

May 6th – Danger – Spoken word  Open mic/scène ouverte: Performance poetry. Lire vivant. Poésie sonore. Stand up. Monologue. Stories. Beat poetry. Spoken word. English. Français. Your own original texts. Old texts from Rimbaud to Dr Seuss, Beowulf to Gil Scott-Heron. Chacun a son mot à dire. Make the words come alive. Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud 75011. Métro Parmentier/Couronnes. Sign up from 7.30pm in the bar. Poetics start from 8.30pm underground. Check out the Practical info page for more info.

 

Tuesday 14 May   19h30 Ben Fountain presents Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. American Library in P aris

 

Tuesday 14 May  3-5pm  Rosemary Flannery will speaking about her book, Angels of Paris,  upstairs at La Pierre du Marais, Corner of rue des Archives and rue de Bretagne  75003.   3:00 - 5:00pm. 

May 15th from 3:30-5pm Cathy Altman Nocquet will sign her book Write Outside the Lines AT  L'Emile Booksore in Paris ave Emile Zola in the 15th 


Wednesday 15 May   19h30 Nancy Kricorian reveals the Armenian immigrant experience in Paris in All the Light There Was. American Library in Paris

15 May 7 pm:  Ben Fountain on Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk Shakespeare and  Company

 

Friday 17th May 7:00pm Elliot Perlman on The Street Sweeper. Shakespeare and  Company

Tuesday 21 May   19h30 Jerome Charyn tells a tale of Emily Dickinson in The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson. American Library in Paris

Wednesday 22 May   19h30 Ann Saul presents and discusses the work of Danish-French artist Camille Pissarro in Pissarro's Places. American Library in Paris

Thursday, May 23rd 6 p.m. POETS Dorianne Laux, Joseph Millar & Cecilia Woloch will read their work in conjunction with the University of Southern California’s The Poet in Paris Program, directed by poet and long-time part-time Paris resident Cecilia Woloch. Entrance is free with one drink minimum! AT La Pierre Du Marais, 96 rue des Archives 75003/ M: Arts et Metiers or Temple

 26th May MOVING PARTS play reading Roy Lisker's "Commerce and Illusions" Carr's Pub & Restaurant 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris Metro : Tuileries          

Sunday 26th May 6:00pm Carol Ann Duffy, one of the most important and best-loved voices in contemporary British poetry AT Shakespeare and  Company             

27 May SpokenWord!– open mic/scène ouverte: performance poetry, stand up, monologue, stories, beat poetry, sketches, songs, spoken word. Primarily in English but open to all languages. Your own original texts or favourite old texts – from Rimbaud to Dr Seuss, Beowulf to Gil Scott-Heron.  Sign up in the bar from 7.30pm for your 5 minutes of fame. Poetics begin underground from 8.30pm. Make the words come alive. Au Chat Noir, 76 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud. Métro Parmentier/Couronnes. Run by David Barnes & Alberto Rigettini. http://spokenwordparis.org/ 

 

 

28 May at 7 p.m. POETS LIVE invites you to an evening of poetry and image, with an English poet, a Swedish poet and a Swedish photographer—the reading, as always, will be in English.  Come at 7 p.m. for a drink at the bar, the reading will begin at 7.30 (on the dot), downstairs in “le cave.” AT: Carr’s Pub, 1 rue du Mont Thabor, 75001 Paris, Métro: Tuileries

 

29th May 6pm Philosophers in the Library at Shakespeare and Co. on the shifting meanings of the concept of law. Join a conversation led by Gregory Bligh, doctoral student in legal philosophy at Paris II and the French child of English parents, for an exploration of law, rights, and fairness in two very different languages. AT: Shakespeare and Company, 37, rue de la Bucherie, 75005. M° St Michel or Cluny la Sorbonne. http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/

 

30 May  19h30-00h00 Paris Lit Up Open Mic night every Thursday (in English  or other languages.  Sign up all night, but first come first served from 19h30. Starts at 20h with rotating hosts Jason Mc Gimsey, Kate Noakes, Emily Ruck-Keene. AT: the historic home of French Slam poetry, Culture Rapide, at 103 Rue Julien Lacroix, 75020. For more or to see whether there are featured themes and readers: http://parislitup.com/ai1ec_event/paris-lit-up-open-mic/?instance_id=9261

 

30th May – 1st June International Conference on Vladimir Nabokov The Enchanted Researchers Society, also known as Société Française Vladimir Nabokov, is organizing its first International Conference in Paris.  The conference is free and open to all. Please register if you wish to attend. For further information and registration, please visit their website at: http://www.vladimir-nabokov.org/ Each day’s events are held in different places, so do consult their site AND “register”—many free events require your name on a list.

 

Intriguing Calls for Submissions and Nominations:

 

 

Calling all fiction writers 50 and older! Huff/Post50 is seeking short-story submissions. 

Prada is  launching a short story contest, with a 5000 euro prize. Details here http://www.prada.com/fr/journal/terms?cc=GB … (rather legalistic submissions rules)

Call for nominations: THE AMERICAN LIBRARY IN PARIS BOOK AWARD will be given to the best book of the year in English about France or the French-American encounter. NOMINATIONS:   The deadline for the nominations for the Award is June 1, 2013.

Call for entries for the CAN WRITING International, deadline June 15th. Participants email their response (1000 words max) to any exercise in Cathy Altman Nocquet's book WOTL for a chance to win freeclasses. Contact [email protected] for more info

 

 

Writing Classes and Workshops

Paris Lit Up Writing Workshop

A drop-in workshop led by Kate Noakes on the first Sunday of every month at 12h30 – 14h30 at Shakespeare and Company. Open to all. Kate provides ideas and writing prompts on a theme each month. It is not a feedback workshop. More information about the instructor blog. The workshop cost is a suggested donation of 10 Euros.

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The Paris Writers’ Group

Open to all writers, regardless of genre: fiction, poetry, theatre, journalism, essay, criticism, dreams, musical lyrics – as well as translators of any and all of the above.  Held occasional Wednesdays at Le Café Apparement, 18 rue des Coutures Saint-Gervaise, near the Picasso Museum. Sign up to the online group for notification and further details here: meetup.com/pariswriters/ The workshop is free, but please be prepared to buy a drink or something more substantial from the cafe. The group is currently hosted by John Pope and/or Helen Cusack O’Keeffe.

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Paris Lit Up Friday Writers

Monthly feedback workshop for poets and prose writers, meets at a private venue on a Friday evening to read, comment and quaff.  Invitation only group. If you have been writing for a while and think you might like to join this group please send a sample of your work and your bio to moc.putilsirap@ofni. We can’t promise there will be a space, but it would be good to know you are interested.

 

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WICE Summer Writing Classes

For information and inscriptions, see http://www.wice-paris.org/pariswritersworkshop

 

Other literary resources at WICE

• Upstairs at Duroc, an international literary and arts journal that publishes established and emerging Paris-based writers.
• Bilingual Book Group, a monthly get together to discuss books (French and English).
• Writers on Writing, informal conversations with accomplished writers to inspire and inform the art and craft of writing.
• Paris Writers’ Workshop, a summer writing workshop offering instruction from some of the best contemporary writers in the world.

 

***

Casting announcement for English-speaking and other actors from Margaret Aldridge

This autumn (September/October) we're shooting a black comedy/horror film set in the Var.  We need male and female actors.  It's low budget, so unpaid ("deferred payment" possibilities)  but all travel and accommodation will be reimbursed. Please send your headshot, bodyshot and cv to Margaret (not to Moving Parts) on :[email protected]

The main roles are as follows:

Male 40-50 suave sophisticated eccentric charismatic

Male 31-40 feral, scruffy, resemblance to Pan

Male 40-50 average all round

Male 20s    quite good looking, slim

Male 20s    boyish looking, slightly overweight

Male 40-50 Russian looking, Russian accent, overweight, heavy set

Male 20s    Good looking, French accent, wiry. Acrobatics necessary

Female 40-50  American, vague and a bit dizzy. Attractive but not overly

Female 30-40  English, bit brassy and cheap.  Good figure

Female 30s     Russian accent.  Plain but slim.

Female 20/30s Russian accent.  Gorgeous, Fantastic figure

Female 30s      Average, quite attractive, English, good legs

_____________________________________________________________________

“A BLEEDING HORSE” CASTING CALL: Looking for extras for the following settings!

TRANSLIT OFFICE

Dates: Wednesday 1st of May, Saturday 4th of May, Sunday 5th of May, Saturday 25th of May, Sunday 26th of May.

Age range: mid-twenties to early forties…

Costume requirements:  office suit and dress. Look sharp, your characters are all working for a translation agency in Paris!

ART GALLERY EXTRAS

Dates: Tuesday 7th of May, Wednesday  8th of May.

Age range: mid-twenties to mid-forties…

Costume requirements: dress chic. You’re all going to an art exhibit in Paris!

COFFEE SHOP EXTRAS

For Monday 10th of June, Tuesday 11th of June…

Age range: mid-twenties to forties…

Costume requirements: Dress casual! You’re going there for coffee or to work on your laptop!

Of course, you will all be compensated for this.

Ask for Olivia Fuchs once you get on set.

Please email; christian_delavie@ hotmail.com and [email protected] (not Moving Parts)

 

 

 

 

Jennie Fields, author of The Age of Desire, on recreating Edith Wharton

Authors interview Authors

Jennie Fields ( The Age of Desire)  talks with Anne Korkeakivi (An Unexpected Guest) about Paris, women in publishing, and the challenges of making Edith Wharton have sex...

How to ensure that young people hate and fear poetry - lessons from a French middle school

 

It's easy! 

Especially with teenagers, say, around age fifteen or so, who are just opening up to the mysterious powers of language and poetry.

All you have to do is to (teachers please take note):

Terrific literary events in Paris this month! Paris Writers News April 2013 Update

This month, news from Tatiana de Rosnay, Adam Biles, Charles Glass, Jennifer K Dick, Spoken Word, Gary Lee Kraut, Pamela Druckerman, Annik La Farge, Scott Hutchins, Siobhan Wall, Joanne and David Burke, Kathy D'Arcy, Ann Egan, Cliona O'Connell, Jennie Fields, Marilyn Hacker and Habib Tengour, Book Club at the Carmen, Moving Paris, IAN MONK, SARAH RIGGS, CHRISTOPHE LAMIOT ENOS, MARGO BERDESHEVSKY, RUFO QUINTAVALLE, WICE and more and more.... (update ongoing)!

Digital Currency: ten years before Bitcoin, Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon

Sci-fi writers are supposed to be ahead of their time, but this is ridiculous! From Neal Stephenson's 1999 Cryptonomicon

 

"We are going to launch our own currency.” By saying this, Randy is divulging proprietary information to someone not authorized to hear it. But he does it anyway, because opening himself up to Amy in this way, making himself vulnerable to her, gives him a hard-on.

“How do you go about that? Don’t you have to be a government?”

An Angiogram that costs 2430 USD in the USA costs only 264 USD in France

 

source: International Federation of Health Plans (USA costs a range due to price variability)

 

From "21 graphs that show America’s health-care prices are ludicrous" in Wonkblog by Ezra Klein in the Washington Post

 See also:

Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills are KillinAmg Us, by Steven Brill in Time

Why an MRI costs 1080 USD in American and only 280 USD in France by Ezra Klein on Wonkblog

Could the French Carte Vitale save America billions?

Jessica McCann, author of All Different Kinds of Free, on being sold into slavery

I first met Jessica McCann, the author of All Different Kinds of Free, in Tempe, Arizona at the excellent Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference which brought together talented writers in fiction, non-fiction, mystery, YA, childrens and sci-fi  to name but a few. After a passionate chat about her  (true) story of a freeborn black woman kidnapped into slavery,  I knew I had to interview her.  Winner of the Freedom in Fiction Prize with nearly 100 five star reviews on Amazon,  All Different Kinds of Free is Jessica's debut novel.