Disappointed in people's critics of Paris OG ceremonies

[Letti9]

I have been reading the disgusting comments about the opening and closing ceremony in Paris games and I am shocked but not surprised about the pathetic and ridiculous criticisms!!! British are so arrogant and always think they can do better...very disappointed with members of Mumsnet who I thought where a bit more open minded. I think it was amazing whether you agree or not!!!

Amazing flounce. All over a couple of Olympic ceremonies!

In fact a gold medal bit of foot stamping.

You have to be Brigitte Macron. Please tell us you are!

Totally agree.

As a vegetarian I find the food choices in France pathetic and being offered a cheese and ham sandwich for lunch when you tell them you are vegetarian is a joke.

Me and DH have had some really good meals in the UK, Holland and Sweden but never in France.

Even when we ate meat we were never particularly impressed with the food in France

Any country that shrugs at vegetarians gets my approval. 👍

What a ridiculous comment.

I only watched the opening ceremony and found it rather boring. It didn't have the impact a ceremony in a stadium would have had - a point made by @SheilaFentiman who was actually there.

I haven't read any "disgusting" comments about it, just comments from posters who enjoyed it and poster who, like me, found it rather underwhelming and not "French" enough.

@Letti9 you must have clicked on different threads from me.

Any country that shrugs at vegetarians gets my approval.

Why @Rummly?

Because the French know how to eat. And they’re not sentimental about animals. On the whole, of course.

Andouillette, steak cooked blue, Ortalan Bunting…mmm.

Well you sound nice! Why do you have a problem with vegetarians? Any decent chef and/or restaurant should be able to serve a good veggie dish. Any idiot can cook a bit of meat but good vegetarian food takes more imagination and skill.

Believe me I know they are not sentimental about animals having lived in France and seeing my neighbours have cats that they never bothered to neuter but just drowned the kittens. Lovely attitude

I don’t have a problem with vegetarians. As far as I’m concerned everyone can eat or not eat whatever they want.

But one of the many joys of going to France is having decent food. Including plenty of meat. If the French think vegetarians are odd folk who need to grow up that’s their right.

Ignore Rummly @mydogisthebest

They are being deliberately goady. I didn't deign to respond to their post. Besides, killing ortolan bunting is illegal. It happens, and those who eat them have to do so in secret.

So you say you don't have a problem with vegetarians but in 2 posts you have made the following comments:

Any country that shrugs at vegetarians gets my approval and vegetarians are odd folk who need to grow up

I think you do have a problem with vegetarians as do so many French who also need to grow up and realise there are many vegetarians across the world who do not want to eat their frogs legs, snails and undercooked meats. Oh and lets not forget the cruelty of foie gras.

Also why do they serve chips with almost every meal (usually not very nice chips either) and hardly any veg? Don't call that decent food

Goady? Pfft.

I wasn’t the poster being rude about an entire nation and imposing my own ‘moral’ values on them.

Well aren’t you a delight. What do other people’s dietary choices have to do with you? How does it impact you personally?

Or maybe the British just have a sense of humour and are good at taking the piss.

<sorry>

This is hilarious, OP is so easily wound up.

The whole British/French relationship is just slagging off each other's food, and has been for hundreds of years. It’s to stop us blowing each other up.

I’m howling at the thought of us all being called racist rioters because we didn’t like the opening ceremony? OP did you get sunstroke or something?? These reactions are strange.

I personally never understood the love of French food personally (except their bread and pastries, which is off the scale good). I always found it too rich and quite dull. Even in the days when I ate meat. And their lack of compassion for the animals they eat doesn’t help. Even Hitler banned foie gras during the occupation. Give me Italian cuisine any day. I’d say french cuisine is way down the list nowadays.

Wah, wah, wah - no-one agreed with me or appreciated my obvious superiority, therefore I shall flounce. And I am going to stop following this thread because you are all big ol’ meanies.

A wheelie bin on fire would have been a highlight of the ceremony.

I think the BBC coverage of the opening ceremony was bad and the whole thing was spoint by the rain. The comentators had either not read the briefing notes or had not been properly briefed, and because of this none of the context was explained so it's easy to see why people were underwhelmed - they didn't understand the significance of the various parts.

Take for example the Aya Nakamura section, no one explained that she was the top selling artist in France and had been slated by the far right for not using 'proper French' in her songs (two fingers up to the far right with this choice). And that she then went and inserted her version of an old Charles Aznavour song into her compilation (which was also spoilt by the BBC having the in situ sound turned down too low). This excert was all about using the language of Moliere (French Shakespeare equivalent) to express her feelings. All very clever, together with the juxtaposition of the French Guard providing the drumming showing the diversity of French society.

Also, the BBC comentators spoke extremely loudly over anything important being relayed so we couldn't hear it - would have been really nice for French speakers here to follow what was happening. Couldn't they have had automatic subtitles instead?

Such a shame I had to resort to TikTok to get the full benefit of the ceremony. It was brilliant but rubbished by the BBC. When can we get rid of the licence fee?

Basically, having the ceremony over several locations meant that it lacked the impact that having it in a stadium would have done.

There were no briefing notes issued in advance (which is very unusual, London had sheaves of them and a face 2face for anyone who wanted to attend), I don’t know about Bejing but I would be surprised if it wasn’t the same, given the language barrier.
The organisers wanted it to be a ‘surprise’. I presume this was because they knew it was going to be ‘controversial’ and did not want any leaks, in case some of the more ‘conservative’ athletes or delegations pulled out. Given the reaction to aspects of the OC (and the withdrawal by some sponsors ) this was probably a good call.

The show organisers were bizarrely unprepared, though. The weather was extreme, but not unprecedented, I’ve been in France when the Bastille Day (14 July) parades were cancelled because of ‘adverse weather’ : torrential rain and thunder. They made no attempt to provide shelter for Céline or the other performers, or the athletes , even the centenarian medal winner was left sitting in his wheelchair with the rain sluicing down on him. Not even a bloke with a brolly.

Simone Biles refused to go on the boat, she said she had to compete very soon after and ‘ it was not suitable’. Smart woman.

@Allthegoodnamesarechosen - you are spot on about the weather and the lack of preparedness. In addition to being so sorry for everyone who was taking part, and getting drenched, I was horrified at the grand piano and all the orchestral instruments out in the rain. These will have cost thousands of pounds, and, in the case of the orchestral musicians, will be their own personal property, and the wooden instruments could well have been completely ruined. I wonder if the organising committee will be covering the cost of repairs or replacements?

😂

Absolutely.

We joke about the British being shit and having shit weather but we'd have had an emergency gazebo to had especially given the forecast.

With regards to criticism of the BBC footage, the BBC had to use a feed supplied to them of the footage. They could cut in with audio but they didn't have editorial control over the visuals and didnt have an outside broadcast except for the commentary team. That will have affected what we saw and heard as it wasn't a normal BBC outside broadcast. They made a point of saying the briefing notes were minimal which meant they were on the back foot. I'm not sure we have an experienced outside broadcaster for live commentary who also knows french cultural references enough to get some of the points above. But if it wasn't going to be easily accessible to non french residents, then the briefing notes had to be explicit and extensive or the meaning would be completely lost. This isn't the fault of the BBC because the assumption would automatically be, if you aren't going to brief extensively then it's going to give thought to how it's widely understood outside France, so you wouldn't need to hire a French commentator. Tbh I think by the sound of it even Fred might not know some of it being resident in the UK (and he hasn't got experience in live commentary - which is different to simply live broadcast).

This wasn't hard to work out and foresee as an organiser. How do you make France and French culture accessible to others in a way that's either entertaining regardless, simple enough to not need translation or properly briefed so people can share in the meaning? Otherwise it's just an arrogant display of snobby french intellectualism which deliberately seeks to exclude outsiders.

I liked the opening ceremony so I'm glad I'm not grouped in with the firey bin pusher people 😁