No matter if you are in France, the United States or any other place in the world, male-female relationships are often complicated for one reason or another.\u00a0 And this area is another where the French and the Americans can find common ground.\u00a0 In both countries, men are often stereotyped in certain ways as are women and the essence of their relationships as affected by men’s and women’s different feelings, ideas of commitment, their families of origin, what they like to talk about and do in their free time, etc., etc. is very similar regardless of culture and language.\u00a0 These differences can often be very humorous when seen from the outside.<\/p>\n
One of my favorite French TV shows is called 1 Gars 1 Fille<\/em>.\u00a0 It is a comedy about the daily ongoings of a 30-something couple that lives together.\u00a0 The main characters are Alex (nicknamed Chouchou) and Jean (nicknamed Loulou).\u00a0 Alex represents the women of our times as she is very independent, attractive, charming, fashionable, ultra-feminist and obsessive about certain things like cleanliness and order, but still loves to cuddle, is mischievous and a bit annoying at times to the opposite sex.\u00a0 Jean, on the other hand, is a typical very cool guy who likes cars, computers, sports, going out with his friends, hates his mother-in-law, the opera and intrusions into his privacy and even though he puts on a very masculine air, he ends up having to show his emotions and sensitivity at times.\u00a0 He works a lot, but is very lazy at home and he loves to tease his significant other.<\/p>\n Just to give you an idea of the topics dealt with, some of the episode titles include “In Bed”, “Breakfast at Mother-in-Law’s”, “Shopping”, “Friends Over For Supper”, “In The Kitchen”, “In the Bathroom”, “Playing Cards”, “Playing Golf”, “Doing Exercise”, “At the Bookstore”, “At A Friend’s Wedding”, “Television Night”, “At the Bar”, “At the Spa” and “Valentine’s Day”.\u00a0 There are many, many more titles as the series has been on the air for several years and some titles even have second and third parts given the amount of material that can be found in all of our ‘backyards’.<\/p>\n Although I found it in France, the show actually originated in Canada, where it focuses on a 40-something couple, but the idea is basically the same.\u00a0 In Canada, it is a weekly 26-minute show, whereas in France it is on every day before the evening news for about 7 minutes.\u00a0 Production companies in 13 countries have bought rights to the series.\u00a0 Versions are also currently running on Portuguese, Greek and Spanish television.\u00a0 And plans are underway to start production on shows in Italy, Germany, Israel, Bulgaria, Poland, the United Kingdom and of course the United States!<\/p>\n