It would take a Simone de Beauvoir to sort out this situation. Does the local Sartre take an interest in the matter?

Strongly recommend writing about the two by the way.

I presume there are translations of her books such as The Mandarins where her kind are portrayed as passionate young intellectuals in Paris at what is presumably your age. Now the French are trained from an early age to question by means of a thorough study of philosphy which permeates French society of today as well.

It makes them slightly impatient with Americans.

Or as Talleyrand characterised your country at the end of the l8th century: "32 religions and only one sauce."

Carry on!

I have rarely read someone as under such enormous stress as the poor woman longing for a routine.

It is not the lack of routine that is her problem but how to handle a great deal of stress.

If she lived in a more civilised society she would go to a "hamman" the steam baths for women only with a great deal of beauty care from massage and hardly that sauna stuff,

a relief for mind ánd body that humanity has used since Roman times found wherever there is a strong Arab population and very elegant. You will find this bliss very much in France.

Now the lady lives in the US where civilisation is having no more than 4 minutes to the nearest McDonald.

That I would say is a problem.

In the Angloamerican world on both sides of the Atlantic there is a whole literary genre devoting itself to France with the ego of a raging tooth.

Founded on the rich fields of prejudice in combination with readers kept in constant isolation from the outside world not the least with the help of television, the genre keeps spitting out ever more books on a culture never mastered however true it is that Julia Child really tried with cooking.

It really does pay for those exploiting the genre as the isolation shows no signs of diminishing as every visitor to the US knows only too well.

I am appalled when visiting the US being treated as the scum of the earth at passport controls having to answer questions such as if one has participated in genocide or arrives in the States with "immoral intentions" etc etc. One answers on a card handed out before landing and you cannot imagine the character of the questions and mind you long long before nine-eleven.

I once found it too insulting to a yes or no and was luckily received by an intelligent passport officer in Atlanta Ga who very patiently made me face the insults tempting me with the reward, being allowed in.

Now darlings do cheer up. The French love you more than you can imagine and who does not - Bush was rid of and

Obama arrived. We are all in love with this man très cool.

Apart from this remember the true advantages of the US for every woman since the birth of the nation: the money economy and being able to divorce.

There are the keys to freedom.

In France divorce is no easy thing. Nor abortion. On the other hand in France there is greater freedom for a woman to choose a life without husband and children because of the strong emphasis on the beautiful future with a good educatin.

Good brains and hard work are rewarded with free education at the nation´s top schools

which in turn guarantee you fabulous jobs and great incomes allowing you independent bliss in that paradise on earth which is French culture.

Nor is there this American obsession with going to church which might explain the American emphasis on women to be associated with families. Using every sexist angle the meaning of being single is looking for mr Right while having a bit of fun on the way - as stated in the television series Sex and the City.

As Talleyrand noted on the US after visiting New York in the end of the l8th century: a country of 32 religions and only one sauce.

why is it that some men cannot stop staring at women and then comment in thick books as this pretentious Mann after all she was more than that.

It may be so that she does not sell when presented as an actress but this is her profession and a respectable one at that and achieved through endless support by Richard Burton. Her Kate in their production of Twelfh Night is very wonderful and best of all their marvellous acting in Who´s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, black and white movie that everyone interested in acting should have on the DVD shelf at home.

The tremendous work behind it - does that have no value?

And how much it meant to both of them and why was it not continued? Those are questions that Mann is not professional enough to be able to attention.

One might remind the reader how exploited Taylor has been throughout her life by people like Mann.

Do remember that a gentleman is a patient wolf.

I have for a long time wondered why the way of shopping at IKEA has not inspired television series.

There is no place like it for getting lost for hours.

Let alone the cruel IKEA way of keeping the Swedish names for the displayed objects.

Living in France I take no small pleasure in listening to the

French breaking their teeth on the stone hard nouns of Vikings.

Yet once they understand Swedes pronounce the alphabet as they do themselves (unlike the Englishspeaking world) they also

take rather a fancy to the Swedish food served in the IKEA restaurant.

Très cool.