France Trip Day 4: Dinner and American Idol à la France

We ate dinner this evening at Hippopotamus Restaurant and Grill. Dinner was only OK (overpriced and the food was not spectacular), and since the kids' meals came with two scoops of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, David and I ordered some as well as a special treat. We haven't had Ben and Jerry's in years.

My scoops of lemonade and coffee ice cream (weird combo I know) arrived in a large martini glass. I had to squint to find the two half-melted miniscule scoops of ice cream sitting in the bottom of the glass. "You've got to be kidding me!" I said to myself. I wasn't peeved that the scoops were so small (I think they used what we would call a melon scoop back in the kitchen). It was how much we paid for them. 4 Euros. That's $5.50 for the equivalent of 4 tablespoons of ice cream. Did I mention it was half-melted? I love Ben and Jerry's as much as anyone else, and a glass of Coke cost the same amount, but...come on! We took tiny bites to make it last.

In the evening, we came across the French equivalent of American Idol on TV, Nouvelle Star, or "New Star." Time for another comparison!

The German version, "Germany's seeks the Superstar," is currently running as well. I recently caught most of one show and was struck by how, except for one performance, every song was an English-language one.

Can you guess what song this contestant sang? You would be correct if you answered, "Annemarie sang the Sweet Home Alabama-inspired All Summer Long." When she finished, one of the judges said, "Kid Rock would be proud of you!"

It's quite different in France. Radio stations in France are required to play at least 40% of their songs in French, during prime hours, and the same goes for songs sung on Nouvelle Star. Tonight, everyone sang in French, except for one Peruvian-born young lady who sang a song that had been popular when she was a little girl in Peru, a song her mother used to sing to her.

Maria Paz was criticized for her song choice by a judge who said, "Obviously, by your facial expressions and hand gestures, you were singing a song with a great story and showed a lot of emotion. But, we had no idea what you were actually singing about! Why would you choose to sing in Spanish? How am I supposed to judge you?"

Soan, another contestant made an impression on me, not because of his edgy appearance above the neck...

....but rather, below the knee. I did a bit of research on Soan and he prefers to wear skirts, or more specifically, kilts. Considering we have not yet seen (nor would we see) a French man wearing a skirt or kilt during our trip, I think it would be safe to say that his apparel makes as big a statement to the French as it did to us.