Sacr? Bleu! Top Gear Fran?aise!!!

Looks like top quality filming, like they lent the production team from TGUK. We'll see how the events/scripts/etc go.

I don't think rips will be an issue in socialist France... but I could be wrong!

Charges de telecharger se il vous pla?t

Hmm great way to teach my french

Je ai besoin de beaucoup de ce se il vous pla?t

Doit obtenir C?cile de M?nibus ? faire SIARPC
 
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French like French.

And don't like speaking English. Sounds like an old stereotype, but from all the french people I had the pleasure to meet, still true.
 
And don't like speaking English. Sounds like an old stereotype, but from all the french people I had the pleasure to meet, still true.

It is true but it is also getting better. A lot more people will try talking english to you now than (for example) 10 years ago.
English also does not come easy to them like it is for us. With the same number of years of english in school, I?ve never meet a french person who?s English got close to what you generally reach in germany (or the netherlands for that matter). Germanic vs Italic language family and all that ... so it?s not like they are not trying, but they?re already starting with a handicap compared to germans and other germanic languages.
 
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English lessons in France suck donkey balls, which means nobody's interested in it.

Also our accent sucks and is actually quite hard to lose, which means quite a lot of people actually feel self conscious about speaking English and won't even try.


And don't like speaking English. Sounds like an old stereotype, but from all the french people I had the pleasure to meet, still true.

I like speaking English, but that's because I've been out of France long enough that I'm at the stage where people can't actually tell that I'm French anymore.
 
It is slightly easier with Slavic languages, however, for a Czech person words like "girlfriend" are real tongue-breakers.

No problem with "squirrel" though. :)
 
Looks interesting. :think:

(Maybe they will show this on BBC Four.)

EDIT: I wonder, have BBC WW & Willman/Clarkson ever considered a Spanish TG? Lots of spanish speaking countries out there in the Americas.
 
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So by a fate's accident, the first airing of the french topgear coincides with the end of the original one.

Of the three presenters , i know only vaguely Phillippe Lellouche who is an actor although his brother Gilles (actor also) is much more famous.
It's on a private network which depends on the announcers to live and among them car's makers , i don't know how everything will work but we can only hope for the best.

They seem to have a SIARPC segment too: lots of actors or "humorist" in there (at least four, a chef and an ex first minister ( F. Fillon) which is also the mayor of Le Mans ( yes that Le Mans).
 
I have to say it all has started quite well.

tgF.jpg

Episode 1 is still airing and no 2 will follow after that (that?s a french thing to air multiple episodes after another). Cheap (youth dream)-car challenge (1500?), two guests (of who I only know one) and a Dacia Sandero as the resonably priced car. The track has a Clarkson Corner and the hosts are doing well as far as I can tell. News segment was quite funny and opinionated. It is a lot longer than the british version too.

So far, I really like it. Feels a lot more like early top gear than anything else.
 
Update: episode 2 did not quite succeed. This felt very much like Top Gear of recent years with all the boring scripting and warmed-up jokes. Race across Paris using electric vehicles, Nissan GTR Nismo review - both not convincing (but with good moments). The SIARPC was not a good guest (IMHO, no Idea who that was) and the news-segment had a harsh cut in it and only old stories.
 
and an ex first minister ( F. Fillon) which is also the mayor of Le Mans ( yes that Le Mans).

He's also big in the ACO and I think he races classic Ferrari's
 
Not sure if it is still kosher to ask here but are there any torrents up yet? The only 2 I've seen were on member only sites.
 
Is there really a need for a french Top Gear when there is already a Europe-based version of the show?

Why not just learn english?

I hope you realize this is the French you're talking about :lol:
 
First thing first , the show is sponsored by ... TAADAA... SEAT .

Everything is a carbon copy of the original : the stage , the stig, the circuit , lap times , SIARPC, scripted as hell's challenges even music in Stig lap times.

There is a Clarkson, a James May and the third one is more a Tanner Faust than a Hammond.

The first challenge : the cheap car challenge with a Talbot Matra Rancho, a Renault Fuego and a 82 serie3 BMW : all finished in crash in spectacular fashion.( fracas?)

The first automotive news were in fact not news but jokes about names of cars that sound funny in french: a lot of terrible jokes which don't sound natural and a lot of forced laugh...

The next segment was much better : a comparaison between the AMG GTS and the Jaguar type f coup? R ( or whatever the order of those words) , very dynamic and well filmed. Of course the 50.000 ? more expansive AMG destroyed the " Bollywood car" ( dixit Bruce Jouanny).

Then , the SIARPC : the two guys were funny , spontaneous and their interaction generats at least "natural" laugh.

Now episode 2 : the cross Paris from east to west in a electric transportation : one has choosen an electric boat , the other a monowheel, and the third an autolib , the electrical car in self service.
Like IB said it was scripted as hell with the magical apparition of a BMW i3 right in the middle of the race , like if there were not enough advert in this show.

The nismo GTR impressed the guys and all the viewers i think.

The SIARPC guest was good , don't know about him ,there is so much humorist here you can't know all of them , but as a professionnal entertainer he knows how to provoque laughs in the public.
 
It's difficult to watch the French version without seing a total ripoff of the english version. Same studio, same runway, same king of track, same 3 guys (the good looking one, the slow nerd, the ugly petrolhead), same stig, same way of filming and editing, same challenges... So for a fan of the original TopGear it's not very intersting. We'll have to wait a couple of seasons for them to freed themselves from the Perfide Albion.

But before that the show must survive. So is it any good ? Yes, it's quite good actually. The guys are OK, they seem passionate enough (though they were not the names I'd picked from all the rumored possibility). They are quite funny, and the only thing I could say against them is that they don't seems completly natural. For exemple the studio parts are sometimes badly played, especially the news part. Looks like they're reading the jokes... Top Gear comedy is bad, Top Gear France comedy is dreadful...

The challenge are familiars but francis? enough to make them intersting. Yes, the Matra Rancho or the Renault Fuego brings more nostalgia to me than an old Rover. The race accross Paris is funny enough just by the absurd paths they're all choosing. And no, though there is a lot of beautiful girls on Paris streets, none of them will lead you her brand new BMW I3...

As for the production, well there is plenty of money ! If you cut the sound, the test of the AMG GTS could be taken of the english version.

The show was quite a success in France. The network "RMC D?couverte" is a really small one, nothing like BBC2. Last night the first episode got 1.000.000 spectators (3.6% market share), the second one 800.000 (4.4% market share). The best audience of this network ever ! A lot of tweets too, some bad of course, but mainly good ones.

So all in all, i'm surprised not to be disapointed. But for all you poor guys who don't leave in France, well I don't really see the interest. You could watch one episode out of curiosity if you understand French well enough, but otherwise I'd say stick with the english one... if it ever come back...
 
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