Shirley Bassey’s ”Goldfinger” booms out of a ghetto blaster as five men attempt to sashay on tiptoe the length of a dance studio in the heart of Paris. ”Be relaxed and virile,” shouts coach Veronique J. ”Think of James Bond. Tight bottoms and hold those stomachs in.”
It’s just one exercise in a nine-month programme her students are following at the Ecole Française de Seduction (French School of Seduction), an academy aimed at retraining men and women in the art of romance.
With an estimated 800 000 singles living in Paris — one in three people — speed dating and internet matchmaking services abound in the city.
And while outside France Parisians are still seen as among the world’s most capable flirts, the reality, insists Veronique J. (the name she uses professionally), is very different.
”The French lover is finished,” she says. ”French men are all talk and no action. They know how to blah blah but after that nothing. The great seducers like Yves Montand and Alain Delon have disappeared.”
French women don’t rate much higher. ”Feminism has a lot to answer for,” she says darkly. ”Women don’t understand that being feminine doesn’t mean losing power, all the opposite.” She claims her politically incorrect methods have led to over 1 000 of her graduates successfully cracking the dating code.
She founded the school eight years ago after working at a
matrimonial agency.
”I would bring well-suited men and women nose to nose and they still wouldn’t have a clue how to proceed,” she says. She decided to study men starting with her father (a ”grand seducteur” and serial cheater) and turned to ex-lovers for advice on how they approached women.
She began the school for men only, but women now make up a substantial number of her students. Current clients range from a 44-year-old woman who is still a virgin to a 22-year-old man who is driven to the lessons once a week by his mother from their home in far-off Toulouse, southwest France.
She has businessmen, housewives, teachers on her books. ”I am teaching seduction in its broadest sense from picking up a date to improving your confidence,” she says. ”Men come to find a woman, women often want to learn how to handle their bosses.”
For between 1 500 and 2 600 euros she offers courses with
coaching from two to nine months. The longer course is split between lessons in grooming, etiquette and seduction theory and training in the field. Students are sent on dates, to cocktail parties or the local supermarket to put their learning into practice, and are observed at a discreet remove by their coaches.
Everyone starts with a psychological profile as Veronique’s methods can be vigorous.
”This course is for people who dare,” she says recalling the student she was moved to correct on a dinner date as he licked his cutlery after each mouthful. ”I also have men who earn a lot of money and have no life except their work and then ask ‘but what on earth do I talk to her about?”’
That’s why the ex-actress and dancer is spending a chilly
Saturday morning showing a group of quietly spoken, smartly casual men and one woman how to shake hands, slow dance and chat over dinner. The class is a mixture of role-play and pep-talk. Students are asked to imagine themselves as James Bond (”a magnificent symbol for all men” according to Veronique), the Jets and the Puerto Rican dancers from West Side story, or (strictly for the
men) a gorilla.
”I want you to walk down the middle of the studio as if you had a line of Miss Frances on both sides and look at yourselves in the mirror,” she says.
”I want you to play with your hair, those who have any. Do you like what you see?” Today’s pupils are fairly representative ranging in age from 20 to 50-something with four divorcees and a woman who is married but looking to improve her general appeal.
They all insist they have seen a rise in confidence since starting. With her is a male assistant who shows how to move in for the kill without getting a slapped face. ”When you take their hand stroke the underside or hold it for a short while,” he says. ”Make her feel that you like her. Don’t shake it like you have just signed a deal.”
Then it’s on to engaging a woman at the supermarket. ”Don’t hold yourself so stiffly, women will think you are a pervert,” says Veronique. ”And remember grooming is important. If a man turns up smelling of cheese with greasy hair and a beer belly he can’t expect to get very far,” she says.
”Would it seem impolite to ask a woman for a second date during the first date?” asks one worried middle-aged man.
”What do I do when women get in a huddle at a party?” another man wants to know.
”Force your way in with a joke,” counsels Veronique. ”It’s a cruel world out there and he who dares definitely wins. Statistically if you try 10 times it’s going to work once or twice.”
For women Veronique’s advice is different. ”Even if you are running your own company you have to appeal to the man for help, make him think you need him,” she says.
The class ends on a high note. ”Remember there are thousands of ‘nanas’ (girls) out there desperate to meet someone. What are you waiting for?” says Veronique, who having cut her teeth helping the world’s most romantic city rediscover its innate charms, now has her sights set on America. – Sapa=AFP