France is the first nation in history to qualify for the round of 16 of a major competition, Euro 2024, without a single one of its players having scored a single goal! Zero. Nada. Nib. How is it possible ? With a 1-0 victory against Austria and a 0-0 draw against the Netherlands – before the match against Poland – France was already certain of reaching the 8th. Because it turns out that the winning goal was scored by the Austrian Wöber… against his side.
PHILIPPE VANDEL’S WEEK: I’m going or I’m not going
Tuesday, first televised debate of the legislative elections. Present: Attal, Bardella, Bompard. One notable absentee: Mélenchon. All we talk about is him. Thursday night, no better. First televised debate of the American presidential election. Joe Biden was present, but he was conspicuous by his absences.
One issue unites the three French political blocs battling it out for the legislative elections: inheritance tax. All promise a reduction. And if there is no heir? Well, we can find one!
On Friday, the Nanterre court will rule on the rights to Boléro, the world’s greatest classical music hit, which entered the public domain in 2016.
Who wrote the Bolero by Ravel? It’s Ravel. Yes, but when Maurice died on December 28, 1937, he had no children, and his brother had no descendants either.
The Parisian takes stock: “ From death to death, and after several unsuccessful trials for “fraudulent inheritance” brought by the Ravel second cousins, the high-sounding returnees of Bolero fell in 2012 – as did the composer’s entire repertoire – to Évelyne Pen de Castel, whose link with the artist is only held by a very tangled thread. »
What thread? You couldn’t make it up: “She is the daughter, born from a first marriage, of Georgette Taverne, second wife of the husband of the masseuse and governess of Maurice Ravel’s brother.” As in Boléro, I reread this sentence 50 times.
“Incongruous?” “No, unless we go back to the whole principle of successions! There are not always blood ties,” dismisses Gilles Vercken, the lawyer of the heiress, who leads a discreet and comfortable life near Lake Geneva. “She chose Switzerland, surely for the mountain climate. It is estimated that between 2011 and 2016 the Bolero brought in around 135,000 euros per year.
The work was first performed on November 22, 1928 at the Opéra Garnier. But now the heirs of Bronislava Nijinska, Russian ballet mistress, and Alexandre Benois, who painted the sets, want their share. They did not compose the music. Yes, but… Benois died in 1960, twenty-three years after Ravel. Which would extend the rights by that much. Nijinska died in 1972. If justice makes her the author of the score, the work will enter the public domain in 2051!
It should be noted that all the heirs of these families disagree with Sacem, but agree among themselves. You surprise me ! The dispatch came in the evening. They were disgusted. Sorry, rejected. Absence has no value, but it has a price.
From this Monday, shrinkflation will necessarily be mentioned on the shelves. What is shrinkflation? From the English verb to shrink, ” shrink ” ; this is when a manufacturer does not increase its price but reduces quantities. On the sly. Example: a few rusks removed from the packet, or fewer triangles in a Toblerone bar. The consumer does not pay more, but he buys something empty. From tomorrow, therefore, it will be displayed in black and white. This is the good news of July. One was needed.
Le Figaro previewed the audio system of the future Alpine A290, an electric sports car that will be released in September. Alpine called on the French company Devialet, a high-end hi-fi with a global reputation. In the passenger compartment, the system includes no fewer than nine speakers connected to a 615-watt amplifier! The journalist savors: ” A perfect or almost perfect spectral balance, and a pleasant soundstage in all circumstances. »
Especially since the A290 is electric. On board, the silence is almost absolute, except for the friction of the wheels on the asphalt and the wind on the windshield. That’s not enough for racing car enthusiasts.
Le Figaro : « This deafening silence is not in phase with the very sporty steering of Alpine. It was therefore decided to create an audio feedback accompanying the driving, in order to be able to transmit direct information on the solicitation of the mechanics and to improve the sensations as well as the experience at the wheel. “How beautifully these things are said!
In short: this absence of sound was not satisfactory. They installed an electronic system to make vroom vroom! A lot of noise, yes, but quality. “ The Devialet audio system broadcasts Alpine Drive Sound sounds. »
When I was a kid, kids stuck pieces of cardboard against the spokes of bikes, to imitate the sound of motorcycles. Crcrcrcr… It happened to us around 7 or 8 years old.
When I was a teenager, when literature was the ultimate cultural marker, we made fun of the upstarts who bought libraries by the kilometer without ever opening the books piled up there. Sometimes there weren’t even any printed pages under the gleaming leather-bound covers, just paper for bulk. Absence of words, to conceal what absence?
I remember the journalistic fantasy of the – already – regretted Bernard Pivot, as he told it: ” My fantasy? PPDA who receives Paul-Loup Sulitzer: a guy who didn’t write his book, questioned by someone who didn’t read it. »
