Carla Bruni's Russian Tongue-Twister

1 August - 10k - 54.19 min. Cool drizzle, windy.

Does Sarkozy run with his dogs? I was asked the other day. I don't know, I could find no images or footage of him running with dogs. Only with his wife Carla and loads of security.


But I know he has three dogs, including a little chihuahua cross called Dumbledore and a beautiful white labrador Clara. While looking for info about Sarkozy's dogs I stumbled upon this video which reminded me of the famous Russian tongue twister based on the names of Karl and Klara.

(Click on images to watch the video.)



In the rhyme Karl and Clara steal similarly sounding things from each other. It goes something like this:

Off Klara Karl cleared the corals,
Off Karl Klara cleared the clarinet
(read phonetically transcribed Russian verse below)

No matter how hard you try, you end up mixing Klara into Karla, or Karl into Klar. Which is exactly what happened to the French journalist interviewing Carla Bruni. Her dapper husband President Sarkozy 'accidentally' walked into the room and, for want of something to say, decided to introduce the dogs to the journalists.

'This is Clara, the second one is Dumbledore and the third one - oh, it's just ran off...'

The journalist, looking somewhat dazed, tries to remember who is who. 'So, that one is Dumbledore, and this one is Carla'

'No, no, Carla is her-is me' Sarkozy and Bruni say in unison. 'The dog is Clara'.

Read and extended version of this post on Russian Review of Books

Video by FemmeActuelle.fr

Please let me know if you see images of Sarkozy running with dogs.

Phonetic transcript of the Carl-Clara rhyme:
Karl ooh KlAry ukrAl corAlly
KlAra ooh KArla ukrAla clarnEt

Why the French can't forgive Sarkozy his running?

27 July - really cool. 6 miles - 51.54 min

Nicolas Sarkozy had a health scare while jogging, but is out of hospital today with a clean bill. I do hope he sticks to his guns and carries on with his running which attracted a lot of ridicule and even outright criticism here in France and throughout Europe. French 'intellectuals', the chain-smoking, coffee-draining narcissistic crowd, decided it was inapropriate for a President to show his knees in public. They declared that running is not an activity suitable for 'thinkers' who should rather stroll. And some conspirologists saw Sarkozy's running as giving in to American influence.

Holy-moly, how much can one read into a simple pleasure of running! They should try running to feel how much better it is for thinking - and to keep your knees fit to show publicly.

Seriously, the weather here has been treacherous. It feels less warm than it really is and humidity has been high. I think the French President just got dizzy because of dehydration.

Here is a spoof video with Sarkozy's jog quick-paced to the theme tune of the Benny Hill Show: