How Different Are the French?

Here's how different . . .

Imagine, if you will, Laura Bush putting out a music album this week with lyrics like these . . . "You are my drug, more deadly than Afghan heroin, more dangerous than Colombian white."

Imagine if Laura Bush used to date Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger before marrying George.

Imagine (I dare you) that prior to becoming First Lady, Laura Bush had a modeling career and posed nude for a photo shoot. Imagine also that Christie's recently auctioned one of those photos for $91,000.

Finally, imagine Laura Bush being totally hot.

Well, that's exactly the situation in France, where all of this and more is true of the French First Lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, wife of President Nicolas Sarkozy.

And, other than critics trashing her new album (after it's gotten over half a million listens on her website), the French seem pretty cool with most of this.

Here's a link to that infamous photo of the French First Lady with the naughty bits covered by digital duct tape and a link to the uncovered version if you like your art fig leaf free.

http://www.digitalalchemy.tv/2008/03/carla-bruni-sarkozy-nude-photo.html

When former French President Francois Mitterand died in 1996, he left behind both a widow (to whom he had been married 50 years) and a long-time mistress and illegitimate daughter (age 21 at the time of his death). Both the mistress and daughter were seated prominently with the rest of the family at Mitterand's funeral and nobody was shocked.

I ask once again, gentle reader, are the French different? Oh yeah, you bet they are. Vivre la difference!

SO, in closing, here are a couple more of Carla's album covers. I'm including these only so that you'll be able to so that you'll be able to recognize her if we run into her while we're in France and for no other reason. Click on either of the covers and they'll expand on your screen for your viewing pleasure.