Bar le Constellation

Posted on by MELewis

A year ago we celebrated New Year’s eve by wandering along the Chemin des Lanternes in Crans Montana. The ski resort is just a short drive from us and the illuminations on a winding path by the little lake are magical. I posted about it here, under the title ‘Une bonne étoile’. Somewhat ironically, in hindsight, as no good star was shining down over the resort in the wee hours of 2026.

We woke up this morning to the news that a tragic fire had killed dozens of people at a new year’s party at Bar le Constellation in the heart of Crans. A hundred other injured, some with severe burns, were airlifted to hospitals in Valais and beyond.

The skies were perfectly blue and an eerie silence reigned — flyovers of the area having been forbidden. Until the victims have been identified, Swiss authorities have closed off the main part of the resort. Because it’s a popular place with international tourists, there will be repercussions beyond our borders. My heart is full with thoughts of those lives lost, and the heartbreak for their families and loved ones.

So far, the theories on what caused the fire range from fireworks (although they were strictly forbidden at altitude this year due to drought) to candles and sparklers in the basement bar. But it’s all only speculation until the experts can do the gruesome work of clearing the remains and investigating the source of the blaze. It does sound like the place was dangerously full considering it was in a basement with limited access to fire exits.

It is shocking when a tragedy happens close to home, all the more so when you live in a place far removed from the drama of the newsfeed. Not a lot tends to happen around here, and the Valaisans like it that way. People here are close-knit, down-to-earth and truly upset that something so awful should occur in their backyard. They help each other. I could see Mathias Reynard, the president of the Valais canton, struggle to hold back tears when speaking to the media earlier about the emotion of families looking for answers, and the solidarity shown amongst hospitals to ensure the injured get the best medical care possible.

It makes me realize how very fortunate we are to live here, to have our families and our health as we begin another year.

I hope that wherever you are, you are welcoming 2026 in the best possible way.

Bonne année, bonne santé!

Salut le toutou!

Posted on by MELewis

There are many ways to say hello in French — bonjour being the most classic and commonly used. But in real-life, people will often say salut, especially in casual situations. There are also many words for dog: chien, obviously, but also toutou, cabot, clébard or clebs (the latter two somewhat pejorative).

All of this to introduce our newest family member, Marcel, a 3-month-old French bulldog. We waited over a year after our last two passed away before deciding to adopt another dog. Higgins and Humphrey were the very heart and soul of our empty-nester family for nearly 12 years, so they deserved a proper grieving period. We still miss them but life is short — and frankly better with a dog.

We weren’t going to get a Frenchie ever again. At least that was the theory, for a number of reasons, mostly health-related. Far too popular for their own good, the bulldog breed standard had become too extreme: heads too big and hips too narrow for natural birth, even natural conception. Many, if not most, French bulldogs are conceived artificially and born by C-section. This is common among all the Brachycephalic breeds, including pugs, boxers and shih tzus, among others.

(Side note: there’s a silly word-play joke about the name shih tzu in French, which sounds like ‘chier dessus’ literally, to shit upon. True enough for all puppies!)

The fact is that Frenchies often have difficulty breathing due to their short skulls and smooshed-in faces, leading to narrow airways with too much soft palate and tiny nostrils (nares). They are prone to heat stroke, which can quickly be fatal in dogs. Congenital malformations lead to IVDD, intervertebral disc disease, which can cause pain and ultimately paralysis. Sadly, many French bulldogs sink rather than swim; we lost one of our earlier dogs to drowning years ago.

But here’s the thing: we didn’t know any of this when we first fell in love with the breed. Something about their impudent stare, their rude noises and tendency to overstep their marks just got to me. After five French bulldogs over the course of nearly 40 years together, we struggled to imagine anything but. We looked at rescues but, unlike in the US where over-breeding has seen a ton of these babies end up in shelters, around here rescues are few and far between.

Meanwhile, I discovered a move to change the breed standard so that Frenchies can be healthier. Thanks to animal welfare groups like CRUFFA (Campaign for the Responsible Use of Flat-Faced Animals), things are slowly changing. A few breeders in Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland are crossing bulldogs with other breeds to come up with a dog that has the best of both. In France, we found some breeders returning to the ‘old style’ Frenchies: longer bodies with tails, a bit more muzzle and smaller heads.

That was all we needed to know. Marcel was born on the 9th of September (almost the same day as Higgins — a sign from over the rainbow bridge 😅). He was conceived and delivered naturally. He hails from La Creuse department of France, and is now happily settling into our home.

Please join me in saying hello to Marcel and wishing him la bienvenue!

Les brouteurs

Posted on by MELewis

I learned a new word the other day: brouteur. A scammer in French.

It comes from the verb brouter, to graze, as in a sheep. Its modern-day meaning comes to us from French-speaking Africa, where internet fraudsters first used it to mean literally cutting the grass out from under someone’s feet.

French-speaking scammers are often traced to Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), a former French colony, Mali and Nigeria. They are known in particular for deep-fake sentimental scams, in which a ‘client’ (victim) is made to believe that an incredibly rich or famous person has fallen in love with them.

And instead of sheep grazing, it’s rather lambs being brought to slaughter. Not actual slaughter but financial destitution, having being made to part with their life savings.

Case in point: Brad Pitt.

Personally speaking, I’ve never understood the appeal of the actor (on screen or off) but it seems that online impersonators of Brad Pitt are especially rife. So let’s try to understand how it happens.

Imagine you’re a lonely middle-aged woman who decides to create an Instagram profile to share some holiday photos. A Hollywood star (or one of their handlers) somehow notices your profile and you begin to exchange messages online. Before you knew it, you have a blossoming relationship (alas, only online) and he professes his undying love. But then, drama! Brad gets cancer. He desperately needs treatment that he can’t afford after his expensive divorce from Angelina. Brad needs your help and you are his only hope. So you transfer some money. And then some more.

And once you’ve been hooked, obviously you keep going, because…why? Maybe because if for an instant you were to doubt his sincerity, your whole world would collapse. So you keep sending money, until one day you see him in the media with his real-life paramour. And realize you’ve been scammed.

When I first heard this story, I laughed it off. How could anyone be so gullible as to believe such an obvious scam?  A natural reaction, though not a very kind one.

When French TV first ran the story last year of Anne, a woman who gave away over EUR 800,000 to scammers, it went viral. She became the butt of jokes, cruel comments and spoofs online and in the mainstream media. Too late, they removed the interview but by then the damage was done.

Now, in an effort to vindicate herself, or maybe get some of the cash back, she’s published a book about the experience (“Je ne serai plus une proie”). What else?

Sadly, despite all the publicity around the case there have been other victims of the same scam.

Just last week, Swiss TV aired the story of a woman in canton Vaud duped by AI Brad. The report showed screen shots of their exchanges online, bearing obvious signs they were fake. I mean, who puts their Instagram profile in all caps? That’s an obvious tell for English native as it’s a very French way of writing names. Also, a handwritten note sent to her in the mail, signed simply ‘Pitt’. She lost CHF 100K.

But lest we be too quick to judge. English was not the woman’s first language. And by her own admission, she was a neophyte on social media.

Sadly, internet scammers are ‘d’actualité’ — in the news — everywhere these days. Powered by AI, they’re getting more convincing, with AI-generated photos and personal details that can fool even the cleverest among us.

Open AI CEO Sam Altman has warned of an impending fraud crisis due to AI, and has admitted to a major data breach exposing users’ locations, emails and user names. Scammers using fake profiles are offering so-called legal services on the popular freelance platform Fiverr. Writers and other creatives seeking representation for their work are particularly vulnerable to publishing scams.

I can’t imagine falling for it. But in all humility, who knows? On a bad day, when our guard is down and we’re feeling vulnerable, we’re all potential victims.

So, browser beware! ‘Les brouteurs’ are everywhere!

Plainte contre X

Posted on by MELewis

In the spotlight in France last week was Brigitte Macron’s case against ‘X’ for online harassment. The French first lady has taken legal action against a collective group of individuals who claimed online that she is actually her brother, now a trans woman and even, in the most absurd example, married to her own son.

The case calls into question the responsibility of internet users in sharing ‘infox’ — fake news. And it raises some important questions:

When does posting content online become a form of harassment? Can we as individuals be held responsible for creating or sharing false claims about a public figure? Can fake news be freely disseminated under the banner of satire, or passed off as a joke? At what point does sharing it become malicious, and its proponents liable for prosecution?

When a video is retweeted by thousands of accounts, hundreds and thousands of times, it gets millions of views. If many are responsible, no one is. That’s the terrifying thing about our online world, where anyone can post anything behind a fake name and it’s up to you to protect yourself from being ripped off, threatened, sold a pack of lies, having your identity stolen. Browser beware!

In the French legal system a complaint against ‘X’ can be filed when the identity of the perpetrator or, in this case, perpetrators, is unknown.

As I understand it, the public prosecutor in Macron’s case proceeded by identifying the original sources of the false information along with a sample of others. They ended up with 10 people standing trial, a few of whom are considered the instigators with large online followings (a so-called medium and an art gallery owner) and others who shared it as satire or because it was funny: a gym teacher, an insurance salesman, an IT technician.

The court is deliberating and has until January 5th to decide on sentencing (likely suspended sentences of 3-12 months with fines up  EUR 8,000). After that, the decision can still be appealed.

Brigitte Macron’s current case against X was filed after the original charge of slander against the two main instigators, Natacha Rey and Amandine Roy, was overturned on appeal in 2024. The court found that the defendants had shared the information in ‘good faith.’

In parallel, the Macrons are taking legal action in the US courts against Candace Owens, a right-wing influencer close to Trump. Her series of videos, ‘Becoming Brigitte’ have been viewed over 6 million times on YouTube. Owens has said that she will ‘stake her entire reputation’ (for what that’s worth, lol) on the fact that Brigitte is in fact her brother, Jean-Michel Trogneux.

Interviewed about the rumours, Mme Macron has suggested that by “rewriting her family tree,” the online harassment has gone beyond a joke to profoundly upset her family. Formerly a high school French and drama teacher, as première dame she has made bullying one of her battlefields.

It’s not the first time that women in the public eye have been hounded by conspiracy theories around gender. Michelle Obama and Taylor Swift are just two names on the Wikipedia list of celebs who’ve been subjected to ‘transvestigation.’

A 24-year age gap in a couple will always make tongues wag, especially when the woman is the older one. Even more so when that couple is in the public eye and politics are involved. But should that give anyone a license to spread unproven claims or outright lies about them?

I’m not sure where the line is, but I’m pretty sure it needs to be drawn. I’ll be watching with interest as the case continues, especially in the US.

A suivre…

Oups!

Posted on by MELewis

I once lined up for hours to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. When I finally got to see the famous portrait, it was in a cordoned-off area with security guards standing by to make sure no one got too close. La Joconde herself was small and unassuming, dark and remote behind protective glass.

Unfortunately it seems that security in the world’s most-visited museum is mostly for show.

Yesterday, shortly after opening at around 9:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, Paris time, robbers used a ‘monte-meubles’ (portable lifting ladder) to reach the second floor, then a disc-cutter to break the window and disrobe France of priceless crown jewels. The brazen heist took only seven minutes to pull off, raising all kinds of questions about security.

But that wasn’t the only ‘oops’ moment: the thieves dropped some of their booty in their haste to get away. A crown worn by Empress Eugénie at the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1855. That slip-up cost them 1,354 diamonds, 1,136 rose-cut diamonds and 56 emeralds.

It’s the latest in a series of spectacular heists in France, as reported in The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/19/world/europe/louvre-paris-robbery.html?unlocked_article_code=1.u08.D_yX.IaHlIQxlxbij&smid=url-share (link sans paywall if want to read it — I found the article very interesting).

I’ve posted before about the French ‘chic’ (talent) for pulling off incredibly brazen stunts, though it’s been suggested this heist may have been carried out by foreign professionals. It’s also been speculated that the jewels were ‘ordered’ by a foreign collector as they would be virtually unsaleable in France. The secret police are on the case and, according to criminology experts, it’s not a matter of if but rather when they’ll be caught.

As for the ‘oops’, seems it’s more or less the same in any language.

What’s your most memorable museum moment?