A 25 year-old man is focus of a documentary on what it's like living with only French-made posessions, and finds his flat stripped almost bare, reports The Guardian.
It must have seemed a great idea over a couple of Belgian beers and a glass of Scotch whisky while listening to David Bowie. Then the furniture removers arrived at Benjamin Carle's Paris flat and stripped it almost bare.
Out went anything foreign made including the fridge, washing machine, most of his clothing and his British-made bicycle, leaving Carle, 25, with an old table, a chair and a second-hand wardrobe.
At that point, minus the beer, whisky and Bowie, the young documentary-maker might have been forgiven for abandoning his nine-month "economic patriotism" experiment in which he uses and consumes only French-made products.
Thankfully Loon the cat, made in France but named after the late Keith Moon "the Loon", British drummer with The Who, was allowed to stay. "I don't think my girlfriend was very impressed when she came home," admits Carle. "She must love me because it's no fun for her."
Since May, Carle has become Monsieur Made-in-France for a television documentary, to be screened next spring, about the difficulties of consuming products that are exclusively French.
The idea was inspired by the political debate during the 2012 presidential election, which reached a high point when Arnaud Montebourg, the Socialist minister for industrial renewal, posed in a natty Breton T-shirt to extol the merits of buying French as a way of supporting Gallic industry.
Sitting in a French cafe in Belleville, an ethnically mixed area of north-east Paris, Carle drinks Perrier water from a glass that may or may not be French ("that's not as important as what's in the glass").
From the €90 cap (Larose) to the €80 trainers (Dutt), via his corduroy trousers, white T-shirt, blue sweatshirt (Bleu de Paname), his clothes were all made in France. Carle is adamant his underpants are also French made, but does not reveal the label. And his socks? There is an awkward silence. "It's a bit embarrassing because we make a lot of socks in France, but I ran out. It's quite hard not having a washing machine," he says.
It is an interesting and occasionally exaggerated premise for a television programme, however Carle insists the experiment has a serious point.
"I am not someone who is particularly patriotic and I'm not at all nationalistic. Like many young people my cultural influences are mostly Anglo-American. It's an experiment to see if it can be done, and if it could save jobs in France.
"It's harder than you'd think. I thought I'd have some small electrical things, but I discovered they were all made in China. I can have Häagen-Dazs, Coca-Cola and McDonald's because they are made in France, but I cannot listen to David Bowie, even on the radio in a French-made car. I don't have a fridge so I can't eat frozen food and I am only eating fruit and vegetables that are grown in France therefore they are in season."
Read more of this report from The Guardian.