Dominique Strauss Kahn - "The Great Seducer" Gets Nabbed In New York

DSK Laughing All The Way To The (World) Bank

The big new today - Dominique Strauss Kahn, the Socialist head of the International Monetary Fund
was pulled off a Paris bound  Air France flight and charged by the New York police for sexual assault.

From the NY Daily News
Strauss-Kahn, 62, allegedly crept up behind a maid after she entered his room and forced her to perform oral sex on him, sources said.

The woman broke free and ran out of the room. Strauss-Kahn quickly headed for the airport, sources said.
Charges against Strauss-Kahn, who is married to well-known French TV journalist Anne Sinclair, were pending Saturday night, sources said.
Hours before Strauss-Kahn was pulled from the flight, a close Socialist Party ally claimed he was the target of a smear campaign by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
"There is now a totally structured and orchestrated campaign, which has already been announced by Mr. Sarkozy and his closest allies, to attack the character of Strauss-Kahn," Socialist politician Jean-Marie Le Guen told Europe 1 radio.
This is not the first time Strauss-Kahn has been embroiled in a sex scandal.
Two years ago, the former French finance minister was accused of having a fling with a former underling at the Davos international forum.

And from the NY Post
The trouble began at around 1 p.m. yesterday when a 32-year-old housekeeper entered Strauss-Kahn's $3,000-a-night suite at the luxury Sofitel on West 44th Street -- apparently unaware he was still inside.

The married Strauss-Kahn was in the bathroom, and emerged naked, chased her down a hallway and pulled her into a bedroom, where "he jumps her," a source said.
"She pulled away from him and he dragged her down a hallway into the bathroom where he engaged in a criminal sexual act, according to her account to detectives," Browne said. "He tried to lock her into the hotel room."
Soon afterward, Strauss-Kahn got dressed and headed off to JFK for a flight to Paris.

When he was approached on the plane by Port Authority cops, he said, "What is this about?" sources said. He was taken off the aircraft without handcuffs.
Two law-enforcement sources said Strauss-Kahn was trying to flee authorities. Police said he left his cellphone and other personal items in the room.
"It looked like he got out of there in a hurry," Browne said.

The shocking arrest came hours after a Socialist Party ally of Strauss-Kahn accused Sarkozy of kicking off a smear campaign against his longtime rival -- focusing on his lavish lifestyle, including his preference for suits from the same tailor favored by President Obama.

"There is now a totally structured and orchestrated campaign, which has already been announced by Mr. Sarkozy and his closest allies, to attack the character of Strauss-Kahn," Socialist politician Jean-Marie Le Guen told Europe 1 radio.

Way back in 2008 I blogged about DSK and his misdeeds
In the IMF - If You Kahn - You Will
DSK Kahn't Get Enough
and
Kahn't Stop The Love


So...was is sexual assault at the Sofitel Hotel in New York or a set up by Sarkozy?
I don't know
But a pattern of misbehavior is....well...a pattern of behavior
and men who consistently misbehave and get away with it, will continue to misbehave


Note:  DSK does not have diplomatic immunity

There are 300 plus comments on the subject on the Wall Street Journal online.

I like this one
The IMG usually just screws countries...broadening their service?
and this one
It's too bad that this guy didn't call Elliot Spitzer and get the name of the call service he used. Or maybe the guy was just such a cheapskate, he didn't want to pay for it. He's in a heap of deep trouble now. But, more than likely, he's got the attitude, what's the big deal? I guess he was absent that day when they held the "Sexual harrassment training."

He's going to need an awfully good lawyer. Maybe he can blame this on the fact that he was molested as a child, or they he's was taking Viagara and it went to his head. Or, he could say that the devil made him do it.
Or maybe, somehow he could blame the Democrats or the Republicans.
The Wall Street Journal ought to file this under the heading of "Men who couldn't keep their zippers zipped."
What a wonderful idea. Famous people caught in a compromising position. What will they think of next.

In My Dreams - Luscious Luberon

I just read on the Provence Post that "A Year In Provence" author Peter Mayles has put his house up for sale.
Sud Luberon. A 30 minutes d’Aix-en-Provence, à deux pas d’un des plus beaux villages classés de France. Dans un lieu très privé au cœur d’un environnement rare et intact, au plus grand calme, majestueuse Demeure provençale des XVII et XVIIIème siècles s’articulant autour d’une cour intérieure. Elle comprend 600 m² habitables dont un logement d’amis et diverses dépendances sur 5,7 hectares de parc avec une magnifique oliveraie, potager, roseraie, fruitiers, étangs ainsi qu’une piscine à débordement et son pool house. Beaucoup de charme et de quiétude.

I love this lush little oasis in Luberon.

This gorgeous French Country house just seems to have BHB written all over it, don't you think?

The real estate ad shows 5 chateaux in the price category...I believe that means that it is above my budget.

But I wonder, where does one move to after living in such a beautiful place?

Striking, Reading, Working and Shopping

Really I wonder, when do the French get to the point of saying enough is enough?

The above photo isn't recent, it is from March 2009 telling us that if there is one thing that the French do with consistency, it is protesting, something, anything, everything...

OK, we've all know that this latest month of protest has been about raising the retirement age, for public workers, (about 1 in every 4 works for the State in some form or another) from 60 to 62. 

So if you are French, after 35 hour work weeks, and 6 weeks off for vacation, retirement should start at 60.

As Guy Sorman wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "The French have a long tradition of taking to the streets as an irrational answer to economic reforms." Sorman goes on to remind us that "Alexis de Tocqueville, then a member of parliament, wrote in his "Memoires" that the French knew a lot about politics and understood nothing about economics".

And it isn't just the public workers who are protesting.  High school and university students have gotten in on the fun too. " For the young, street riots are a sort of generational rite of passage.  They replay the Revolution as their parents did in May 1968"

In disagreement with Sorman I will say this.  There is a huge economic and societal problem with France when the French are unemployed at 30 and expected to work at 62.  Since there is virtually no new job growth in the private sector, the older workers need to retire to make jobs available for the young.

Still, the State needs to be fed if government pension accounts are going to have enough to pay for retirement benefits.

Here in the US, our middle aged managers have suffered for years from rampant age discrimination.  How often do we read about the 50 something year old manager who has gotten downsized and replaced with a younger and cheaper employee. That 50 year old is never going to get that level of job back.  And now with record high unemployment, many are only so happy to still have a job at 60 years old. 

In addition, many workers who have formally retired from decades of work at their career jobs, desire to continue working in related fields or to go into some new field altogether.  And before our recent economic boondogle, people could do this.  Jobs were available. Who knows now.

Recently, I've been reading the books of Elizabeth Gaskell, the female Dickens, who wrote novels dealing with the conditions of factory workers during the Industrial Revolution. A key element in her books, aside from the extraordinarily harsh conditions of life where people lived at the edge and poverty was the norm, was the desire to work.  At that time when workers went on strike or factories cut back production, people starved...to death.

Thankfully today, striking workers are not going to starve in France, the UK or in the US.

I'm very glad that at least today we live with an abundance of goods that can tide us over in bad economic times.

Virginia Postrel's article in the WSJ, Saved By The Closet, we've got so much stuff that it's easing the slump

discusses this phenomenon.
Americans have a lot of stuff—so much, in fact, that getting it under control has become a major cultural fantasy. Witness the Container Store, whose aisles of closet systems and colorful boxes peddle dreams as seductive as any fashion shoot.
Over the past few decades, as businesses have learned to streamline their inventories, American households have done just the opposite, accumulating ever more linens and kitchen gadgets, toys and TV sets, sporting goods and crafts supplies. "Because of all the shopping we've done, many of us now own lots of great stuff we never use anymore.
Because of our rampant consumerism in the past, we don't live on the edge anymore.
In today's sour economy, however, what once seemed like waste is starting to look like wealth: assets to draw on when times get tough (and not just because of all those ads promising top dollar for your gold jewelry). Material abundance, it turns out, produces economic resilience. Even if today's recession approached Great Depression levels of unemployment, the hardship wouldn't be as severe, because today's consumers aren't living as close to the edge.

Reading so much in the blogosphere questioning can we get by with less and can we survive on a wardrobe of 15 items or less for a month or some such challenge, I am very thankful that I don't have to because I have a closet, or three, full of clothes. 
And I'm also thankful that I have a job that I'm passionate about.  I can only hope that at the age of 60 I am still doing what I am doing now.

La France Profonde in Fall

Pretty pictures of La France Profonde shamelessly stolen from a friend on Facebook.
Pretty aren't they?
Happy Wednesday!

Business As Usual In France

For a while now I've been thinking that I wanted to sneak in a little vacation this month, after all, I've only taken one week off during the last 12 months.  For some reason, this particular Autumn, I've been thinking of travelling to Paris for a little antique shopping and museum going.

But, Paris as the rest of France, is on strike.
This isn't a little greve where the metro shuts down for 6 hours, this is a major strike.

Don't the French do this about once every decade or so?
I understand that a big part what this is about is the raising of the retirement age from 60 to 62.
Yes, that is certainly devastating, for the French.
And as we all know France, the idea if not the actual country, is all about quality of life.
Who wouldn't want to retire to a life of pastis and tarot at their country house at the age of 60?

Last night I had dinner with a group of  friends who travel often.  One was just back from Paris, another from London, and another had just returned from two months in Australia. She raved about how wonderful the quality of life is there. 
So now I'm starting to think to myself, maybe that 20 hour plane ride over the Pacific wouldn't be so bad, if Australia was on the other side of it....
And on that topic, thank you to Faux Fuchsia my favorite Australian blogger for mentioning BHB on her blog. If you are not already reading her blog, you need to start reading it today. As she would say, run don't walk.

Rachida Dati or Another Reason To Love The French

Just trying to keep up with the shenanigans at the Elysee Palace is exhausting.
Thankfully, we now have the new tell all book about femme fatale first lady Carla Bruni.
According to "Carla and the Ambitious" by Michael Darman and Yves Derai, Rachida Dati, former Justice Minister, was also competing for President Sarkozy's attentions.
Miss Dati was fired from President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government last year because of her inability to do her job properly, and her frivolous nature.

She frequently appeared on the cover of magazines in designer dresses and stirred up speculation about the mystery father of her baby daughter to the extent that some still think it might be Mr Sarkozy himself.
Miss Dati was a love rival of Mr Sarkozy’s third wife, Carla Bruni, for many months as both battled for a place in the Elysee Palace bed chamber.

And now, according to this article in the Daily Mail
Glamorous French politician Rachida Dati has been forced to issue a public apology after confusing oral sex with inflation.
The 44-year-old former justice minister and MEP is frequently nicknamed ‘Rachida Barbie’ because of her poor understanding of complicated political issues.
But nobody expected her extraordinary mistake on the national Europe 1 radio station on Sunday.
Seriously, how do you apologize for something like this
say, 'ooops, my bad'?
Can you imagine Janet Napolitano, Kathleen Sibelius or Hilda Solis making a Freudian slip like this?
I think not.

Happy Bastille Day!

Sorry... but I just had to post a little humor at expense of the French

On the other hand I give you

10 Hot Frenchmen Who Make Bastille Day Worth Celebrating

Celebrate with a
French 75
1 1/2 oz gin

2 tsp superfine sugar
1 1/2 oz lemon juice
4 oz chilled Champagne
1 slice orange
1 maraschino cherry
In a shaker half-filled with ice cubes, combine the gin, sugar, and lemon juice. Shake well. Pour into a collins glass. Top with the champagne. Stir well and garnish with the orange slice and the cherry.

Vive La France!

Wherever You Go - There You Are

Yesterday, a happy Sunday
Racing down the 405 freeway in the morning to get to Laguna Beach where the sky was blue and the tide was crazy high
Cafe creme and croissants at Jean Paul's bakery
Later lunch with an ocean view at the Coyote Grill
And then a quiet afternoon, sitting in the sun in my mother's spring garden

admiring her rosesand her blackberries

and her lavender

My mother had just returned from her vacation in Europe and she had a bunch of French magazines that she had bought for the flight home from Paris.

You know the usual Marie Claire, Vogue etc.

But in the group was a magazine that I had never seen before

Envy

with the tag line

Toutes Vos Envies Sont dans Envy

Sadly, it was frenchified version of OK or US magazine, complete with the usual celebrity nonsense....Kim Kardashian, Rachel Bilson, Victoria Beckham, Jessica Simpson, Beyonce, Jennifer Aniston,Tori Spelling, Lindsey Lohan, Jessica Alba...et al.

Kate Hudson & Cameron Diaz

La guerre est déclarée!
Belles et célibattantes: elles ont beaucoup en commun. Sûrement même un peu trop! Car depuis que Cameron sort avec l’ex de Kate, rien ne va plus...

So even France is polluted with B and C list American celebrities.

Wherever you to...there you are. You can't escape the cult of celebrity worship.

Sad, non?

If Only - En Vacance à Villeneuve-les-Avignon

Something strange always happens at this time of year...my personal space-time continuum seems to go into warp speed.
I have so much to do to get ready for the Antique and Estate Jewelry Show in Las Vegas, which is coming up in a matter of days, yet my mind keeps lingering on the idea of getting away from it all and relaxing in a peaceful pretty place.

And then there is the matter of the Euro. Will it finally fall enough against the dollar so that I can start planning a summer vacation in France?


Because I would like to visit the Fort Saint Andre in Villeneuve-les-Avignon

Because the history of Avignon is fascinating

and because Vicky Archer posted these enticing photos on her beautiful blog French Essence

which of course I have shamelessly stolen and posted here

Yes I know that wisteria and iris season will be long over by summer, but the green in this garden will still evoke a serene oasis, the perfect antidote to a busy business life.

OK...enough of the dream...Vicky has already monopolized it at her Mas de Berard which I enjoy vicariously through her blog...and back to the reality of current projects at Beladora.

France as Viewed by the French

I tried to embed this slide show but it took to long to load
so instead
go here and enjoy

h/t Just Another American In Paris