The TV Tax, Public Television

The first time we received the bill for our TV tax, “Redevance Audiovisuelle”, I thought it was a joke or some kind of fraud. A brightly colored two-page form asking for Euro 116 because we own a TV? We called a friend who assured us that, yes, we have to pay this tax every year. We bought our TV at Darty. I bet they turned us in.

So, we paid the bill, not really knowing what it was for, thinking it is just another way for the French government to tax us.

Later on we learned that this tax allows the French state-owned TV channels to try to strike a better balance between culture and commerce. In other words, fewer commercials and perhaps programming that is more esoteric so that it doesn’t have to compete for ad dollars with more popular shows.

Of course, even though this seems complex, this is just the start of the issue.



Now, it seems that Sarkozy is proposing to ban all advertising on public channels by 2011. The plan will start to be realized in January with a ban on advertising after 8 PM.

If this proposal is approved by parliament, our TV tax will increase.

But the competing private broadcasters, and telecom/internet operators such as France Telecom would pay for the majority of this plan. So, if this happens, the private channels will be forced to subsidize their competitors.

And, don't forget that this is France. Employees from the public radio and television stations have already gone on strike to protest this change. The daily newspaper “Liberation” ran a front-page headline, “France Sarkovision”. It is widely thought that Sarkozy’s plan is really a propagandist strategy aimed at controlling the media. But, the culture minister, Christine Albanel says that these claims are absurd and that there are parliamentary checks in place.

It all boils down to "what's in it for me?" Maybe there will be more opera on TV. But, our taxes will go up. And I'm sure that the increased taxes paid by companies like France Telecom will be passed along to us too. So, we all end up paying for this, one way or another.

In the US, where we have no television tax and plenty of commercials, we also have recording devices that we can use to "zap" all the commercials. The advertising sponsors can pay for the programs, but I don't have to watch all those ads. We have been recording Wimbledon on our DVR. We probably fast-forward through four hours of commercials in a 10 hour broadcast. It does get a little annoying, but I'm not sure that Sarkozy has found the solution.

Vehicular Worries

The Universal Little Green Man


In Paris I am always a little bit afraid of being hit by a car.

Pedestrians don't have the right-of-way and cars enforce this rule. Before I cross a street, even if the little green man is illuminated (the french/universal symbol for the "go" command), I swivel my head right, left, right, left to make sure a car isn't speeding in my direction.

In Manhattan Beach, it is a law that you stop your car for people in a crosswalk. You get a ticket if you don't obey this rule.

It is annoying when I am trying to run errands and a person steps into the crosswalk in front of my car, stares me down, and expects me to stop on a dime. Then, the person proceeds to walk, ever so slowly, across the street. Sometimes the person is eating something, which slows them down even more. But,the person doesn't worry that I won't stop.

I have never been worried about getting hit by a car on the beach though. In Florida, and I think in Texas, cars are allowed on the beach. But not in California.

So, back to my vehicular worries. I guess you can never be too careful!

My Hero, Trader Joe's

Trader Joe's has come to the rescue.

I was shopping there a few days ago and took a look at their "foreign" wine section. I tend to do this in every grocery store these days and I always get a little homesick for my local Monoprix.

Well, in looking through the small French offering, I spotted this wine. "Hmmm, it's only $9.99 and if it tastes horrible, I can use it in a sauce, " I tell myself. So, I brought a bottle home.

We opened it that night and it was quite tasty.

A little bit of France was delivered to Manhattan Beach.

Thank you, Trader Joe's.

Here's The Beach Today

He's Back!

I'm glad to see that Terry is finally on the mend. It's been two months, but he's finally getting back to his old self.

Here's the knee today.

We’ve Been Spoiled

I never thought about gas prices until very recently. I have a small car and drive very little.

Even when the news every night was about oil prices going up to $70 per barrel and then $80, it really didn’t concern me much.

But, when I fill up my tank now, it’s going to set me back around $60. It's starting to get scary.

We have a gas station just around the corner that has always had cheap gas. My friend Madeline told me that Cost Co gas is even cheaper. So, I decided on Saturday to go to Cost Co.

They didn’t have the gas prices posted, but I waited in the line, about 6 cars deep at all 10 pumps. I think that if we checked the “carbon footprint” directly over the 50-60 cars idling over the Cost Co pumps, we would be appalled.

I finally got to the pump and was very surprised to see that the price was $4.349 per gallon. I was hoping for a mere $4.20. But, I’d invested a lot in wasted time, so I filled my tank, which was only half empty (or half full for all the gas optimists).

Two days later, I drove by my cheap neighborhood station and the price is now $4.57 and heading toward $5.00.

We’ll all wish that we knew how to take the bus in LA pretty soon. Then, we’ll have to hope that the public transportation in LA is safe. I think it’s not, but we’ll all be finding out soon. Luckily, I’m a whiz at bus routes in Paris, so this should help out a little.