Our friends over at YourTango have an interesting new webisode that’s part of their “Single in France” series by Liz Tuccillo: “‘Date’ Doesn’t Translate.” What’s it like to date in France? “We don’t have dates,” the French women explain to the silly American woman. Mon Dieu! Instead, one reveals, when men and women get together, “It’s like an open window.” Apparently, les femmes don’t need rules or The Rules because they’re more spontaneous than us. Sounds revolutionary, really. Watch the video to find out what the crazy French ladies say about dating and sex. [Huffington Post]

The September issue of Vanity Fair features French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy on the cover, looking as effortlessly glamourous as ever wearing a classic white collared shirt, jodhpurs, and leather riding boots. Writer Maureen Orth spoke with Carla, and also met President Nicolas Sarkosy (who told her, “I am happy like nev-air.”), and the first lady seems absolutely charming. While some may think their whirlwind, three-month romance was too rushed and the relationship couldn’t possibly last (she didn’t even vote for him in the last election), we think it just might work, and here’s why.

France, bottled water’s native land, have started to drink tap water more regularly. According to The Guardian, more than 67 percent of French people say they regularly drink tap water “l’eau du robinet,” compared with 59 percent five years ago, and spring sales of bottled water like Evian, Volvic, and Vittel are down 6.7 percent from last spring. This is great considering how much energy and plastic is used to make water bottles, but can you imagine the chicest of the French carrying around aluminum water bottles? [The Guardian, U.K.]

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s latest album Comme si de rien n’était is the number one album in France, beating out Coldplay’s Viva la Vida in its first full week on sale. Now, Carla was famous before she married French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but she was by no means at the same level as Miley Cyrus, at least when it came to record sales. She still isn’t anywhere near as popular as Miley, but we’ve been checking up on the Amazon.com sales ranking of her last album, No Promises since the moment we heard she and Nicolas got together, and it is clear that getting involved with him has helped her career. Keep reading for a chart showing how her sales ranking has dropped (that’s a good thing) since getting with Nicolas in December.

Last month, a French judge annulled a couple’s marriage because the woman wasn’t actually a virgin. Perhaps because other women don’t want to have a similar fate, or disappoint their future husbands with bloodless sheets, some are undergoing hymen reconstruction before getting married, spending as much as $5,250 at private clinics in France, or traveling to other countries where it costs as little as $300. (I wouldn’t scrimp on this kind of surgery, people.) Time spoke to one French doctor, Dr. Stephane Saint-Leger, who often performs the surgery because he feels that Muslim women’s physical and psychological well-being can be threatened if they aren’t virgins, and he said that 30 to 40 percent of both original and reconstructed hymens fail to produce “virginity-confirming bleeding” when ruptured by penetration, anyway,  so there’s no need to feel inferior if yours doesn’t. [Time]

Lately virginity has seemed trendier than skinny pants. But just like the slim slacks, chastity also doesn’t fit everyone’s style.  When our cool Catherine posted about Australian FHM’s poll where 28% of men said they hoped to marry virgins, we all shrugged—a guy can dream can’t he? We here at The Frisky have been enjoying the sexual revolution, and we thought the dudes of the world were too. Alas, no. This week, a French Court annulled a Muslim couple’s marriage because the bride wasn’t a virgin on her wedding night. When the man, in his 30’s (?!), didn’t have blood-stained sheets from his wedding bed to show his family, they decided to take her to court. While plenty of girls lose their hymen nowadays from activities like gymnastics, the bride confessed she had lied because she didn’t think he would marry her if she told the truth. So, under an antiquated French law that protects the “essential quality” insisted upon by the groom, the marriage was null and void. Boo! This verdict has enraged feminists around and the world as well as the Prime Minister of France and the rector at a Mosque in Paris who all see the ruling as reverting women to being commodities for men. Although, something good has come out of all this—this poor woman was saved from a lifetime sentence with a seriously unrealistic and demanding husband. [Yahoo News]

French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent died yesterday of a brain tumor at the age of 71. YSL epitomized crazy, chic, snooty (and I mean that in a good way) French style and pioneered the lady pantsuit. If we were still using the term, we would call him fierce. [Bloomberg.com]

As a jury member at the Cannes Film Festival, Natalie must have had to travel to France with a lot of fancy dress for all those red-carpet appearances. Her favorite style right now seems to be anything involving ruffles, and while on other people we might be more critical of this choice, Natalie makes ruffles look good. Ruffles are her friends.

Apparently everything is sexier in France. In this ad, Schweppes has managed to make its drinks, or at least this particular drinker of its drinks, so hot and bothered that she rolls fruit all over her naked body. Doesn’t it make you want to sip a fruit-flavored soda? No? Yeah, me neither. [via Shape+Colour]

Previously: Artsy Condom Ads

France’s lower house of parliament adopted a bill today that would make it illegal for anyone, including fashion mags, advertisers, and websites, to incite extreme thinness. The bill still needs to be approved by the National Assembly and then go through the Senate, so who knows whether it will actually go into effect, especially because people in the couture industry aren’t into this idea. They believe there shouldn’t be legal boundaries on beauty standards. “Never will we accept in our profession that a judge decides if a young girl is skinny or not skinny,” said Didier Grumbach, president of the French Federation of Couture. “That doesn’t exist in the world, and it will certainly not exist in France.” [CNN]

Who?, you may be asking. Does it really matter? Honestly, this might be the most exciting Daily Hotness yet, as we just stumbled upon his photos yesterday and our knees instantly went weak in the way that only pouty lipped French men can cause. Gaspard is indeed a French actor, who you may have caught in Paris, Je T’Aime and Hannibal Rising. If you haven’t seen him anything yet, hopefully your local art house theater will be showing any one of his upcoming French film projects. Otherwise, you may just need to put on some sexy Edith Piaf and peruse the extensive online gallery of photos on his website (otherwise known as our Friday night plans!). [GaspardUlliel.net]

That bubbly stuff you buy at the liquor store for $9.99 and call “champagne” is probably not champagne. I hate to break it to you, but it is most likely sparkling wine, which sounds a whole lot less classy, but that’s the truth. Only sparkling wine produced in the Champagne region of France can be called champagne. Because there’s so much demand for champagne, the group that controls the wine-growing boundaries will probably add 40 villages to the Champagne region so that more bubbly can be labeled as champagne. Sadly, we doubt this will have an effect on the cost of champagne, so you (and I) will have to continue guzzling our sparkling wine. [May I recommend the Italian sparkling wine, called “prosecco”? It’s the best.—Editor] [BBC]

“Sex—What’s the big deal?” A French Museum of Science and Industry exhibit for children is asking that very question. The “cheeky, hands-on” experience is adapted from a book by Zep and Hélène Brulle and features a comic girl and boy as hosts.  Kid visitors, unlike most adult sexual experiences, start off “Being in Love” in the “Gallery of Kisses” where they can flirt or hang out on a heart-shaped bed. Sadly, they must head to the “Puberty” section next, an adult-free zone decked out like a bathroom, where students get a first-hand look at what’s going to happen to their bodies.  (We’re sure a few kids run out crying.)

According to a recent national study of sex lives, one in five French dudes, from ages 18-24, “has no interest in sex” and the abstinence rate in men under 35 is double that of the ladies’.  To counteract the shocking switch, French women have become more aggressive and have even doubled their number of partners since the 1970s. In France, females are screwing around with as much abandon as the males have traditionally been attributed and are getting even friskier after fifty. As the 600-page report proves, French women have risen to the challenge. Their icon: First Lady/model Carla Bruni.  The Italian beauty, who wed President Nicholas Sarkozy last month, has boasted about her sexploits, from Mick Jagger to Eric Clapton, and was recently quoted bashing monogamy.  Three cheers for: Liberté! Egalité! Vajayjé!  [Telegraph]