We'd Rather Be Working

Those zany French fill up the hours away from the office:

France's handful of "fetes folles," or crazy festivals, attract a regular cult following and throngs of incredulous holidaymakers. One fete features an acclaimed lying contest; another boasts a distance spitting competition.

But the annual Pig Festival and French Pig-Squealing Championships in Trie-sur-Baise, a remote farming village in the foothills of the Pyrenees, are acknowledged to be in a class of their own.

Besides the pig-squealing, there were awards in the Sunday competition for pigging out - this year's winner ate 1.2 meters (nearly 4 feet) of blood sausage in under five minutes - and heavy gambling on the final eight-piglet race.

C'est la vie.