This started in a letter to Jon, but I thought others might be interested. 

Here, in France, there's only one news topic this week: DSK. The politicians are all shocked at how he has been treated, which just goes to show that they've never watched "Law & Order", which regular people can see in multiple reruns (usually 3 episodes per day). It took a few days for words of compassion for the victim to come out. This morning, astonishment at the terms of bail, not realizing that bail is set by the judge and is not the same for everyone. He, or at least his wife, can afford his bail. My own thinking on the whole thing is that, yes, everyone knew he had a sleazy reputation, kind of like Clinton's. It was even public, with the mistress at the IMF, for which he should have been fired. But, from sleazy behavior to criminal behavior is a big jump and if he did assault her, then somewhere in the back of his head, he must have been committing suicide. Even if it was consensual, which I rather doubt, then the publicity around it has killed his political self. A few weeks ago, at lunch, I was speaking to a recent American arrival in France and she asked about DSK as a presidential candidate and I said he would be the best Socialist candidate, but that I doubted he would run, in spite of all the pressure to do so. I didn't think he could really support the PS platform, which has already been formulated.

Nobody expects a political party to really live up to everything on the platform; they have to deal with the parties that have other agendas and share the legislature with them, but the PS platforms are sometimes ludicrous. Oh, they sound okay, but enaction is either impossible or impractable. The project for next year's presidential and legislative elections is around development (mostly more taxes), justice, and the "republican promesse", which is basically equal rights for all. So, I'm all for it. But when you look at the details, it just doesn't work and I don't think any of the possible candidates can really support it.

And what else is new? Nothing here. No news from Claire, so I guess their house is not yet sold. No news from Emma, so I guess she's still woofing. No news from Anne, so I guess she's been going to lots and lots of movies at the Cannes Festival. Louis called to give us his new home phone number. He's changed internet providers, which forced a phone number change. I filed our French tax declaration yesterday. The only complication with it is making sure I have all the donation receipts, US income info and other documents at hand so the online application doesn't time out. It takes less than an hour to complete, and that's because of our complications. Most people only need to verify the numbers that were automatically filled in and click to sign electronically.

The drought we are having means that the water levels are at their late July level, so there are restrictions. It also means that fruit and vegetables are maturing too soon and there's a glut. Grain crops, on the other hand are drying up and there is fear of crop failure. Pastures are already at their late summer quality and farmers are starting to use winter fodder.

And that's it.

remarks on remarks

This started out as a comment on Ken Broadhurst's post, in which he remarked on French taxes. 

Ken said there was talk of eliminating the income tax here. I hadn't heard of a move to eliminate the income tax. There's been a move to remove the yearly estate tax and it's going to be altered this year so that households of over €1.3 million are at the low end rather than €750,000. The old minimum took in too many not so rich people who lived in places where home prices are up there. Just owning your home made you rich. And there has been talk of a super tax on super salaries, but they haven't defined "super" yet. This reminds me that I should start our French declaration. The French declaration is very simple; most of it is pre-filled so I just need to add US dividend and interest income (for calculation of the tax base). We don't have to do any of the calculations; their computers do it for you and you get the final notification in the fall and finish paying it off or get a refund. After doing the US declaration, this is a breeze.

The VAT  (value added tax) is the biggest income producer for the country. Some say it's unfair because everyone has to buy things, so the poor are taxed more heavily in proportion to what they can afford; they spend more of their income. In Pennsylvania, where I'm from, food and clothing were not included in sales tax (don't know if that's still the case), to address that problem. Here, no. The VAT is about 20% and it's included in the price tag. So if a printer costs €100, that TTC (Toute taxe comprise) and that is what you pay. When you are comparing prices, it's useful to take that into consideration. If a printer costs $75 and you have to add 6, 7, or 8%, depending on where you live in Pennsylvania, then in the end that printer might actually be less expensive in France. That is just a hypothetical situation; whenever I really calculate, it's almost always cheaper in the US, even when the dollar is stronger.

Energy has extra taxes, so that our liter of gas is an enormous amount of tax for very little actual cost of the stuff. At our current €/$ rate, it's about $2.25 per liter (*4 brings you up to about $9 per gallon!) I almost laugh when US friends complain about the price of gas there.

What else is new? AARO had its annual general meeting at the Tallyrand building on rue St. Florentin. We had an excellent speaker, François Heisbourg, who spoke about the US and the new world "disorder". He started with a joke about the president walking on water, but it seems more like trying to walk on eggs. The Hôtel de Tallyrand  is where the consular services used to be, where we got our passports renewed and reported the birth of our babies, where foreigners got their visas. Now the consular services are at the embassy and this building has been completed restored. Part of it is still US, the George C. Marshall center (because it was the headquarters for the Marshall Plan). The rest has been rented out to a law firm. It's beautiful. I was volunteering -- greeting people at the staircase to urge them to go up to the meeting -- and people stopped to admire and remember, "that's where the security gates were." "That's the old passport office."

Tuesday evening we got together with the kids; Claire was in Paris on business and spending the night at Louis and Gwen's. This morning, Anne left for Cannes. She got her list of movies she wants to see. Last year she was a little disappointed, so I wish her better luck this year. Tomorrow, if it's not raining, I'll go over to the ballpark and root for the PUC. I haven't been to a game since about this time last year. Emma, we think, is still in the southwest of France, but according to her last very short e-mail, she's somewhere where the internet connection is very intermittent and there is no cell phone service.

Caillebotte brothers

 Paul and I just got in from seeing an exhibit at the Musée André-Jacquemart. You might know the name Caillebotte from the famous painting of the floor scrapers. Well, there were two rather wealthy brothers and one, Gustave, was a painter. He exhibited with the Impressionist and was a collector and patron. His brother, Marcel, took up photography. One of the things about Gustave was the way he chose the point of view for many of his paintings -- looking down on the floor scrappers, taking a plunging view from what seems to be a fifth-floor apartment on the Boulevard Haussmann (Marcel's apartment) and almost photographic, modern points of view. Marcel's photos, when you consider how expensive photo development and printing were, are exceptionally banal, everyday photos of family in their activities or at rest, people in the street, street scenes. They are not so different from what catches the eye today, like seeing two guys perched on ladders at the Place de la Concorde would be something I'd take a picture of, too. And this is modern because most 19th century photos were formal productions. Marcel took advantage of the new techniques that allowed for faster shooting. There is a lot of similarity between the two brothers' subject matter. Of course, there's family, but even the boating scenes or the railroad bridges are shared. As you can tell, I enjoyed it.

On the way home, we stopped to eat at Le Relais in Nogent and ate in the courtyard. The prices seem to have gone up there since the change in management, but the food was good, so no complaints. We've had such summer-like weather for the past month, I just know we're going to pay for it one way or another. Might as well take advantage of it, though. Paul is out reading (or sleeping?) in the backyard. The tomato plants are coming up just fine. I should buy more plants for the vegetable garden this weekend.