I’m a big fan of France.

I grew up very close to it, you know.

I like France thanks to (my perception of) their attitude to life, work, and art. I love French music, and I love French sport.

Oh and who could forget the delightful Marie-France from Longman’s Audio Visual French?
Oh and who could forget the delightful Marie-France from Longman’s Audio Visual French?

But most of all I like France because my family went on holiday there just about every year when I was a kid.

So whenever I hear a French voice on the TV I’m transported back to those sun-drench two weeks of my childhood on the Riviera, with the smell of pine trees in my nostrils and the sound of 10,000 crickets in my ears.

Heaven.

(Obviously for the purpose of glorifying France in this post I’m ignoring the 13 hour car journey to get there, the 2 weeks as a target practice for French mosquitoes and the foul stench of the bins on the camp site.)

That’s why “>the advert for the new Renault Laguna caught my ear. The man doing the voice-over has a deep, rich, sophisticated drawl that only a Frenchman can possess. In fact his gravelly, 60 Marlborough-and-cognacs-a-day voice sounds like that of Jean Reno.

In fact, is it Jean Reno?

Do you think Renault have asked Jean Reno to do the voice over for their new Laguna advert because his surname sounds like Renault?

To be fair they probably thought he’s a high-profile Hollywood B-list’er whose got the image they want us to associate with the new car and it just so happens that his name rhymes with Renault.

(Note: I’ve done some searching but I can’t find if it is actually Jean Reno or just a sound-a-like.)

Either way my favourite part of the advert is when he (whoever he might be) tells us of the past 6 years’ efforts at Renault to make the new Laguna all things to all men just as Otis Redding sings the “…wasting my time” line from Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay.

After all the thought and effort that has clearly gone into make this advert they match those 2 lines together. Tsk!

Oh well, I’ve got some reminiscing about hot sand between my toes and wandering watch salesmen to get back to.

Au revoir, mes amis!

Judge for yourself.