Later today we will be the proud new owners of British television.
When we first moved to France and were offered English telly I was guilty of saying (in a rather scornful, snotty way) that, "I didn't move to France to watch English television."
Oh, how things have changed!
Four years ago, Canal Satellite was pretty decent. They had some great French channels, offered a few channels in English and a good number of the movies were played in VO*, not dubbed. A little more than a year ago they dropped a couple of our favorite channels and almost all the American/British series and movies were shown dubbed into French.
Now, I know we live in France and they speak French and their television should be in French, yadda yadda yadda. I get that.
But why, for the love of god, do they have to dub almost every decent English language film into French??? What is wrong with subtitles????
So, I've completely reversed my opinion about British television. I apologize for being so disapproving of you. I cannot wait to welcome you into my home.
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I'm proud to report that my husband is embarking on a new venture. Starting at the end of September he'll be hosting a one hour a week radio program on Radio Marseillette! He's calling it Xpat Blues and it will offer interviews, upcoming events, weather (there isn't any traffic out here other than the occasional tractor holding things up) and the Blues.
You can listen to Radio Marseillette live, via your computer.
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Last May we bought some amazing Pomegranate Liqueur during our visit to la Charente-Maritime. We've kept it cold in the fridge and occasionally sipped a small glass. We didn't want it to disappear too quickly!
Last night we went all out and made cocktails with what was left in the bottle, mixed with vodka and some freshly squeezed lime juice. YUM! They were sweet and tart and fabulous and strong! We rarely drink anything but wine so it felt very decadent.
Did I mention how strong they were?
*version originale or original language
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4 comments:
We have Canalsat and the movie channels (the 7 CineCinema ones) all show movies in VO or VM (we can select dubbed or original language), and we also get TCM which is all American films in English. We often have the option of switching off the subtitles if they get annoying.
There are a few channels that show programming (like series) in VM as well, like Jimmy and SciFi.
We also get CNN and CNBC, and Sky News. They did take away BBC Prime recently.
We watch a lot of French TV but also a good amount of VO stuff. I don't think it's worth watching movies that are dubbed when you speak both languages. You want to hear the actors' voices.
We never did upgrade to the Premium package with the movies. It would have been more interesting, in retrospect! :)
Jimmy used to show more in VO, don't you think?
We liked the new France 24 news channel, too. CNN was good to have but we find that we get most of our news on the computer.
Anyway, four years of CanalSat was enough...
Well, I have to say you get a lot more TV in English in France, even with CanalSat only, than you would ever get of French TV in Britain or the U.S. American movies have always been dubbed into French by the mainstream French TV channels, and I guess that is only normal. Luckily, the CinéCinéma channels on CanalSat give you both the English and the French soundtracks on the English-language movies they show. I wonder if any American TV broadcasters do the same over there for movies from France or other countries.
Good luck with British TV. It's not American, that's for sure. When you live in France, it's probably a lot more useful to adapt to French TV, even if not exclusively. I hope that you have an antenna so that you can still watch French news and weather reports and not be completely cut off from the local culture.
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I would never think of comparing the English language TV offerings in France with (probably zero) offerings of French TV in the States or Britain.
We've been lucky to have had even a few channels in English the last four years!
Believe me, we've adapted in every other way humanly possible, but TV is really our only source of entertainment, other than socializing. We need something to get us through the winter!
Just walking down the street to the épicerie, reading the Midi Libre or la Semaine du Minervois newspapers or going to the local market keeps us attuned to the local culture.
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