I finally saw L'Auberge Espagnol the other night, and I'm probably the last person in France to do so. They're already past the sequel Les Poupées russes which I'll have to get hold of soon as Auberge was a great film!

It's kind of odd seeing a film about escaping Paris for a better life after making my way here from the UK to do the same thing, but it does give a great perspective on the French (even though it's mostly in Spain). Apart from the great scene about insane bureaucracy and getting the right forms to take the Erasmus trip (should be part of any induction course into living in France - there's no avoiding it, just live with it!), the biggest thing it showed was the propensity of the french for having affairs. It seems to be a natural state of being here - I once knew a woman who was the second mistress of some guy or other, and she felt she was in quite a position of power (since she could tell either the first mistress or the wife to screw him over, whereas the first mistress only knew about the wife). Unfortunately she had begun to suspect there was a third mistress who knew about all of them, and she was wondering whether she really wanted to entertain his dreams of forming a quintet...

Not that L'Auberge goes to that kind of lengths (I'm sure there's a french film or two out there that does, although I'm sure they've managed to reduce it to the same dreary introspective that's de rigour here - just because you get french exports like Amelie and Delicatessen, don't think that they're all that great!). The main guy just gets all depressed when skinny Audrey Tatou dumps him because that means he's reduced to only the wife of his friend (at least, I think that's why he was fed up).

Anyway, try and see the film if you can. Definitely worth it...