agency had realised".

IAEA inspectors in their last survey of Iranian atomic-related installations found substantial amount of radioactivity in areas near Natanz, in central Iran and site of the countrys secret installations for enriching uranium.

Mr. Kharrazi explained that the equipments had been radio activated before their import to Iran, but he refused to say from which country Iran had purchased the equipments.

Mr. El-Bradei said although he was not certain of the countries that made the equipment Iran had acquired on the black market, but he had a "pretty good idea" which ones they were.

Media reports have named Pakistan, a nuclear weapons state that has refused to sign the nuclear 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), as one of countries whose nuclear technology Iran is believed to be using.

But both Tehran andPalestinian and Arab groups opposed to peace with Israel.

Iran is the first stop on Solana's regional tour that will also take him to Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, where he will focus on the battered Middle East peace "road map".

TEHRAN, Aug. 30  Javier Solana, the foreign policy chief for the European Union, today pressed Iran to sign a protocol that would allow more aggressive inspections of its nuclear sites.

"We will have bad news for Iran if it refuses to sign the additional protocol," said Mr. Solana, who came to Iran to meet with officials here, during a news conference with the Iranian foreign minister, Kamal Kharazi.

"Let me say this openly: no one should expect a reward for signing it," he added. "The issue is not for bargaining;


it is a matter of a friend advising another friend, and Iranian authorities are politically mature to hear a friend's advice."

Iran has come under mounting pressure to sign the protocol to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The United States has repeatedly accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons. The European Union warned last month that it would review its economic ties with Iran if it refused to sign the protocol.

Iran took a step toward signing the protocol this week after a report disclosed that the International Atomic Energy Agency's inspectors had found traces of highly enriched uranium in environmental samples taken at the country's Natanz facility. Iran announced its willingness in a letter to the agency to begin negotiations on the issue.

Mr. Kharazi said today that Iran's good willNations Security Council if the agency concludes that Iran's nuclear activities pose a threat.

TEHRAN - The international community has stepped up the pressure on Iran to accept unconditional and snap International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of its nuclear sites, but just days ahead of a crucial IAEA meeting, uncertainty reigns as to Tehran's intentions.

An IAEA report on Iran will be presented to the IAEA's board of governors in Vienna at a September 8-11 meeting, and were Iran to be found in breach of its commitments the matter could be referred to the UN Security Council.

On a visit to Tehran on Saturday, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said it would be "bad news" if Iran did not sign an additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)


and warned Tehran against bargaining.

"We want it to be signed: the sooner the better," Solana said. "It brings trust and confidence to the officials in Vienna and the members of the international community."

Brussels last month warned that if Iran did not sign the protocol, it would review its economic ties with Iran following the IAEA meeting.

The European Union, which is negotiating a trade pact with Tehran, seemed to be moving closer to the position taken by Washington, which has accused Iran of secretly seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

According to diplomats here, there are no indications that Iran will sign the protocol before September 8.

"Iran could be tempted to gain time. The decision to open negotiations on signing the protocol could be part of this tactic," said one, referringto Tehran's announcement on Tuesday that it was seeking clarifications but had a "positive approach" to the protocol.

In a surprise announcement Friday, Moscow said it would delay until the end of the year the signing of an accord under which Iran would return all spent nuclear fuel from its Bushehr nuclear reactor that is being built in southern Iran with Russian help.

The announcement appeared to be a direct concession to Washington's concerns that Iran could re-process the used fuel to create low-grade nuclear weapons. Washington had been pressing Russia to suspend the project with Tehran until it agreed to more stringent checks.

This, in addition to the findings of the IAEA report, will strengthen the case put forward by the United States and France who suspect Iran is secretly


report also says Iran had admitted to working with heavy water, which some nuclear states use to produce plutonium, in the 1980s.

Tehran also conceded for the first time that it had imported nuclear equipment, the sources said, adding that the IAEA was investigating which countries had helped Iran in this.

"These admissions came under duress, Iran changed its story because IAEA inspectors have found evidence that made it impossible for it to do otherwise," one official said.

However, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said on Thursday that the particles had been brought into Iran on imported equipment that had been contaminated.

London -- British Ambassador to Iran, Richard Dalton, has cut short his holiday to return to Tehran amid the controversy over the continuing detention of former Iranian Ambassador to Argentina, HadiSoleimanpour, in the UK, IRNA reported.

Dalton flew back to Tehran on Friday as an application to release Soleimanpour was refused for a second time, despite being held only on a provisional extradition request from Argentina, pending a formal application with full evidence.

Argentina has to present supporting documents by September 19, when the former Iranian ambassador is next due to appear in court. It is at that stage that Home Secretary David Blunkett has to sign an Authority to Proceed for a committal hearing to go ahead.

Despite Blunkett's role, the British Foreign Office has insisted that it is powerless to intervene in the case that is seen as having strong political dimensions following the election of a new president in Argentina earlier this year.

The accusations go back to the


1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires and come after relatives of the 85 victims filed a civil suit charging Argentinean authorities in February with failing to adequately investigate the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in 1992.

London's Jewish Chronicle earlier this month suggested that right-wing elements in Argentina's own police or security forces could be involved in the terror bombings and that the extradition suit filed against Soleimanpour and other Iranian diplomats could be cover.

The Times newspaper connected Dalton's early return to Tehran with British fears that Iran may retaliate over the treatment of Soleimanpour and suggested that the expulsion of the British ambassador could come as early as Saturday.

Persia and Israel shared years of friendship and strategic cooperation until the Shah's regime was overthrown in1979. Early good relations resulted from the fact that Persian nationalism did not contradict close relations with Israel. The Shah's never conducted a Shi'ite foreign policy, and Arab countries chiefly Iraq were the Shah's implacable enemies.

However, under the current Islamic Republic foreign policy is driven not only by Iranian interests but also by Islamicism. With regard to Israel, the Islamic element is dominant and unshakeable.

By adopting a vitriolic anti-Israel policy the Islamic regime hoped to win over Arab and Muslim public opinion. Let's admit it: They have largely succeeded.

By placing itself in the forefront of the struggle against Israel, the regime seeks to highlight the conflict in the Middle East as not just Israeli-Palestinian or Israel-Arab, but as one with a major religious dimension something that was previously


August 27, Muwaffak al-Rubai, a member of Iraqs interim Governing Council, said Iraq was negotiating the purchase of electricity from Iran, Syria and Turkey in an effort to stem growing power shortages since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

Rubai said talks Turkey were in an advanced stage, those with Syria were moving ahead and that Iran would supply power to Iraqs predominately Shiite Muslim southern provinces. The US-led coalition imposed in late July a power rationing program which supplies electricity every three hours followed by a similar period of cuts.

Iraqs current power production capacity is 3,200 megawatts compared with 4,000 megawatts before the start of the war in March, according to one coalition official.

Russia has pressed ahead with plans to build a nuclear plant at the southern port ofBushehr in Iran despite criticism from Washington, which accuses Tehran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian program.

"The agreement will be signed very soon, perhaps by the end of September. It has been a year since Russian officials began to announce that they are about to sign this agreement. Last week, the Russian government instructed our ministry to sign the protocol in the nearest future," the official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

As soon as the protocol is signed, Russia will ship fuel to Iran for the Bushehr reactor, which will then process it to generate power and send all spent nuclear materialwhich can be converted to weapons grade materialback to Russia. The official said the document would be signed during a regular


is built on the twin assumptions that post Cold War geopolitics will remain unipolar for a long time and that the worlds sole hyper power, the US, has the right to recraft the structures of geopolitics to make the world more benign, from its perspective.

Globalization has increased the potential for terrorism. Unipolarity, in turn, justifies preemption by the hyper power to contain and eliminate the forces that sponsor it. These new international conditions also justify the policy of regime change and the political engineering of new democratic institutions, whose advent is allegedly accompanied by greater stability and peace. On the potential US target list, beyond Iraq, are Iran, Syria and even, perhaps, Saudi Arabia  all of which are critical to world oil.

Many around the world, especially inof efforts by officials in the Pentagon and elsewhere, including Richard Perle, once a senior official at the Pentagon, but now a senior advisor to Secretary Rumsfeld and a professional at the American Enterprise Institute, to wage economic warfare on the former Soviet Union. In this context five critical elements appear to underlie the neo-con approach to oil.

First, the neo-cons have a clear orientation to prices: the lower the better! High prices have resulted in the transfer of much more than $1 trillion, and possibly as much as $3 trillion to governments in the oil producing world since 1973, many of which have used the revenues not just for unproductive purposes, but worse, they have financed terrorist acts against the interests of the US and some of its


prices was the primary enemy of the United States, the Soviet Union. Since hydrocarbon exports were the single most important source of revenue for the USSR, one of the best ways to sap the strength of the USSR was to deprive it of revenues needed to buy the technology required to maintain Soviet military power and needed to finance Soviet objectives abroad.

The second feature of the neo-con view of oil is the obsession of a number of neo-conservative writers on ways to undermine OPEC. This view was obscured in the Cold War context, since key OPEC members were allied to the US in the effort to block the advance of the Soviet Unions influence in the Middle East. But it has come to the fore today. OPEC isthe key to the anti-OPEC strategy.

The third element  the neo-cons radical, proactive orientation to change  also has its roots in the Cold War. It stems from the approach taken toward the Soviet Union: Finding a way to bring about the collapse of the regime and help replace that regime with one based on democratic institutions, an idea deemed far-fetched in the early to mid-1980s. There were several elements to this approach. There is now clear evidence, for example, that there were discussions between senior US officials, including CIA Director William Casey, and senior Saudi officials, including King Fahd, in the mid-1980s to reduce radically the price of oil in order to reduce access to foreign exchange by Moscow, Tehran and Tripoli. No one disputes that other


factors also motivated Riyadh, not the least being the need to regain lost market share. Yet, the lesson learned in neo-conservative circles was that there was direct causality in the agreement to bring down oil prices radically in 1985-86, and the collapse of the USSR five years later.

To be sure oil prices were not the only element of the proactive approach taken by Washington to win the Cold War. It was combined with other elements of economic warfare, including an arms race designed to induce Moscow to expand military expenditures to the point of bankrupting the country, tight restrictions on export credits and on sales of high technology goods, and with placing obstacles on the USSRs efforts to expand hydrocarbon exports through natural gas sales to Western Europe.

Justifiablethose of Petroleumworld.

Editor's Note:This article appeared in the latest edition of the quarterly Oxford Energy Forum and reprinted with permission by Middle East Economic Revew, on 18-August-2003.Petroleumworld reprint this article in the interest of our readers.

Iran's pursuit of a nuclear capability is a "nightmare scenario" which demands immediate international action, Israeli Foreign Minsiter Silvan Shalom said Sunday.

"Iran is fast apporaching the point of no return in its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons capability," Shalom said here after talks with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana who was fresh from a visit to Tehran.

"It's urgent that the international community act to ensure that this nightmare scenario is prevented."

Solana said he had urged the Islamic republic to agree to snap inspections by the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency


and 11.

Israel has come to regard Iran as its chief military threat since the downfall of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.

It warned last month said that a new ballistic missile that was officially inaugurated by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei represented a threat to the whole of the Middle East.

Even during the depths of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union often worked together to halt the spread of nuclear weapons to new countries. Now, both countries are dealing with the realization that Iran's nuclear program is more advanced than previously thought and may be aimed directly at acquiring nuclear weapons in the next few years.

Unfortunately, the approaches being pursued by both countries will do nothing to slow Iran's ability to produce nuclear weapons,not to be the primary source of Iran's newfound capabilities. Yet Russia also ignored clear signs that Iran was interested in much more than a peaceful nuclear power program. Its willingness to engage in nuclear commerce with Iran, while financially beneficial, is now coming back to negatively effect Russia's security.

To remedy the situation, the two countries have adopted similarly flawed approaches. Russian officials are working with Iran to ensure that any fuel used in the reactor at Bushehr -- fuel that when reprocessed could produce hundreds of nuclear weapons worth of plutonium -- is returned to Russia. For its part, with Russian support, the United States is pushing Iran to join the IAEA's enhanced inspection agreement, which will give the agency broader inspection and monitoring rights in Iran.

While


both of these initiatives are helpful, they will do absolutely nothing to head off the main challenge posed by Iran's growing nuclear program -- Tehran's construction of advanced centrifuge enrichment facilities that could produce enough weapons-grade uranium for 20 weapons per year by the end of the decade. Iran has stated that it is developing the means to produce its own enriched uranium fuel for the Bushehr reactors out of concern that the United States will convince Russia to cut off its fuel supply.

Under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a party, states are entitled to engage in all manner of peaceful nuclear development as long as they accept international inspections. This provision, however, allows states to use the cover of the treaty to acquire theIsrael might take before Iran's became a reality.

Thus, in addition to the offer to guarantee Iran's supply of low enriched uranium fuel for its nuclear reactor, the United States and Russia should revisit the idea of establishing a clear policy that nuclear weapons will not be used to threaten states that do not have nuclear weapons or an active nuclear program. Amazingly, since the end of the Cold War, both the United States and Russia have increased the circumstances under which they would be willing to use or threaten use of nuclear weapons. It is time the two countries recognize that such a policy has negative implications that could drive states to acquire nuclear weapons.

Russia and America have an important legacy of preventing proliferation of which they should


factories engaged in car-part manufacturing. Their preservation is the governments duty, so we will not jeopardize their existence by importing foreign-made cars, he added.

We wanted to import foreign-made cars in order to rid the streets of polluting cars, but not at the expense of destroying our domestic car manufacturing industry, Shariatmadari said.

As early as three days ago, a senior official in the Commerce Ministry named five brands of foreign cars ready to export to Iran. Mitsubishi, Toyota, BMW, Hyundai and Lada were given the green light to ship 35 different models to Iran, of which 33 were sedans and the rest minibuses, Hossein Faraji, trade chief at the Ministry of Commerce told newspapers.

It would have been the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution that Iran sanctioned carA man is being treated in hospital after he knocked on a door in a Toronto apartment building Wednesday night and was attacked by a dog, Toronto police say.

"The person who lived there set the dog on him," Const. David Hopkinson told CBC News.

Hopkinson said police received a call from the victim at about 8:40 p.m. The incident occurred near Gower Street in the Dawes Road and Victoria Park Avenue area.

Police said the man was going door-to-door for a lawful reason, a resident answered when he knocked, and the resident released the dog. The dog was described as large, but there's no word on the breed.

Hopkinson said no one has been arrested but police are investigating.

He said the first priority of police is to ensure the victim is


‘Modric is in many ways the one that got away for the Premier League, and who has always been a little too lightly mourned.’
Illustration: David Humphries for the Guardian

Then there were two. On Tuesday night inside the giant shiny-plated Armadillo that is the Juventus Stadium, as the lights dazzled and thrillingly loud American brat-rock split a hole in the sky, 10,000 Italians held up 10,000 plastic cards to spell the word “Cardiff” in vast shimmery letters. This is, in all likelihood, the first time this has ever happened, and probably the last too.

A day later in Madrid as thunderstorms cleared the streets after midnight people in the city centre bars could be heard yelling and chanting and, in one side street off the Calle de Toledo, singing witha thick, beery Spanish inflection about Cardiff.

Real Madrid and Juventus collide in Champions League final – Football Weekly Extra

Read more

And so on to Cardiff it is then. Another high-grade, pizzazz-ridden, gas-wangling Champions League campaign has boiled down to its final pairing. No real surprises here. The team that always reaches the final will play the team that sometimes reaches the final. Although, looking at Real Madrid and in particular Juventus one thing does stand out. These are the most seasoned, weathered and manly of Champions League finalists: balding, grizzled and masters of a more stately game compared to the wild collisions of the Premier League.

The big question in Cardiff is can the 32-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo find space between Leonardo Bonucci (30), Giorgio Chiellini (32) and Andrea Barzagli (36)


to put one past the 39-year-old Gianluigi Buffon, who made his debut for Italy when Tony Adams and Gazza were still trying to win the World Cup and who still has something unbound and compelling about him, glowering on his goal-line like a wild-eyed evangelical priest in foam gloves and lime green nylon jumper.

It was wonderful to watch that Juventus defence in Turin, men for whom to defend is a kind of muscular physical art, strung together across the pitch like a Renaissance frieze of a particularly heroic battlefield massacre. Chiellini in particular, with his noble, beaky profile, resembles a huge, sad medieval ivory chess piece come to life and crammed into a black and white striped shirt. They really are going to look good holding up thatworld these days. All hail, once again, the wonderful Luka Modric.

What a performance Modric produced at the Vicente Calderón. At the start he had to snap and snipe and wrestle as Atlético swarmed through the holes in this occasionally misshapen Real team. By the hour mark Modric was running the game in more elegant ways, reeling out the full range of his wonderfully complete set of skills, the instant control, the ability to hold the ball in any space, to jink and pass and set the rhythms of the game around him. Over 90 minutes he had 103 touches, more than anyone else on the pitch. He had the most dribbles. He made the most interceptions. His final heat map looks like a massive fungal omelette spread across


though a pale, wispy woodland elf has turned up at the front door and proceeded to barge his way in, start ripping out the skirting boards and replastering the hall – “Cheers mate, seven sugars, don’t mind the radio on do you?”

End of an era for Atlético Madrid as curtain falls on Vicente Calderón

Read more

But then Modric has often had to defy expectations. Overlooked by Hajduk Split because of his size, he came through at Dinamo Zagreb and first made his name in the badlands of the Bosnian League on loan at Zrinjski. Harry Redknapp took at least a season to trust him as a central midfielder at Spurs. Even renowned bruiser Arsène Wenger is said to have dismissed him as “a lightweight”. At Madrid he was famouslyCanadians indicated their religion as Jedi. In other countries, the numbers were much more impressive. For instance, in 2001 New Zealand had the highest per capita population of reported Jedi followers, even eclipsing those who identified with two major world religions – Buddhism and Hinduism.

Certainly, the movement has had its critics – particularly those from the irreligious persuasion who believe that their own numbers are being under-recorded due to non-religious folks indicating Jedi as a joke or novel answer to the question. Make no mistake – practitioners of this religion are serious about their faith.

Jediism, like many other religions, has different variations between groups. Most groups draw inspiration from the Lucas films, such as the belief in the Force and possibility of interaction with the Force. The manifestation


of those college camps, Moore was in attendence at Mississippi State's camp last week and then made his way to LSU and then Nebraska.

"I am going to Nebraska's camp this week and I felt I did well at LSU," said Moore. "LSU didn't talk about offering but I did well at their camp. After Nebraska, I am not sure where I might go the rest of the summer."

Moore currently holds offers from MSU, Ole Miss, Nebraska, Texas A&M, Minnesota and Memphis. As noted, Moore put on a solid showing at Mississippi State and said he left campus impressed with the Bulldogs.

"It was a very good trip and very good seeing their campus," said Moore. "That was my first time at Mississippi State and it went good. Their coachesattendees or anything – about the situation and they said, “Barrett’s got no chance. People are sick of this thing.”

The Justice Department announced today that it will monitor elections on June 5, 2012, in the following jurisdictions to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other federal voting rights statutes: Alameda, Fresno and Riverside Counties, Calif.; Cibola and Sandoval Counties, N.M.; Shannon County, S.D.; and the city of Milwaukee.

The Voting Rights Act prohibits discrimination in the election process on the basis of race, color or membership in a minority language group. In addition, the act requires certain covered jurisdictions to provide language assistance during the election process. Fresno County, Riverside County and the city of Milwaukee are required to provide assistance in Spanish. Cibola, Sandoval


Ever wondered what happened to the mall in The Blues Brothers after Jake, Elwood, and all those cops drove right through it? They actually left it just the way it was, but that's only the start of the Dixie Square Mall's decline.

We just saw that legendary Blues Brother chase today on our list of crazy videos of cars driving through stuff. Reader Jonrev then told us the whole story of the mall itself, something I'd never heard before.

Some intel on the Blues Brothers mall: it was the former Dixie Square Shopping Center in Harvey, IL; a south-suburb of Chicago. It was only open for 13 years before closing in 1979, when the city's crime rate exploded in the wake of "white flight". Timing, of course, couldn't be betterfor John Landis, and in August he set up shop in the vacant mall and "dressed it up" to appear fully-functional and open. Of course, that was just Hollywood magic, and once the crew left (the mall in a disastrous state that was never repaired, despite a lawsuit that was ultimately tossed): the mall was briefly used as a school, then left to rot from 1981 onward. From there, it was a heavy crime magnet, with gang activity and vandalism taking over for the first 20 years until photographers began documenting and exploring its bombed-out shell, starting around 2003 or so. After at least one murder was committed in there, multiple arsons, roof collapses, one botched revitalization project after another, thousands of photographs, and an "accidental" demolition of


and péages and – sometimes
violent – street protests, the president

announced concessions, including €100
more a month for those on the minimum wage, axing a planned rise in tax on
diesel, suspending a new tougher contrôle
technique on diesel cars for six months,
ending tax on overtime, and axing higher
social charges on pensions for those with
income under €2,000 a month.
One of the unwitting founders of
the movement, Jacline Mouraud, who
made a passionate video against the
fuel tax but has since been disowned by

many hardliners, has called for an end
to the blockages. She told Connexion:
“The changes made by the president are
in the right direction, even if they do
not go far enough. His tone was serious
and marked with humility. We must
now transform the movement to limit
the impact on the economy.”
She said the government planned to
organise ‘citizens’ rendez-vous’substances in diet,
medicines or the environment.

My house is in one region, my garden in another
YOU can only imagine the
administrative headaches for
the hamlet of La Lamberdais –
its eight homes are split between
two communes, two departments and even two regions.
But the good news for
residents is that, from January 1,
all their homes in north-east
France have been “moved” into
one commune in Brittany.
For decades, some residents
have belonged to the commune
of Grand-Fougeray in Ille-etVilaine in Brittany while others
to Mouais commune in LoireAtlantique, Pays de la Loire.
It meant the Mouais postman
had to cover an extra 4.5km to
deliver mail to two people, and
one traditional longère received
two taxe foncière bills each year
because the long low home is
half in one region and half in
the other.
Local farmer François Ruanlt
said: “At one point La Poste got
mixed up and wanted me


way.

France has taken action to protect the rights
of Britons living here in the event of no deal
with a new law allowing it to bring in safeguard
measures quickly.
It comes as the UK – finally – issues no-deal
planning advice for Britons living in the EU.
France’s Ministry of the Interior has also
created advice pages for British residents, with
information relating to both a deal and a
no-deal. This is in six sections: residency, travel,
integration, driving licences, elections, and
applying for French nationality.
Connexion has translated the sections, with
verification by the British Community
Committee of France. The translations are on
our website, or email news@connexion
france.com to have the links sent to you.
The British no-deal planning paper states that,
in that event, the UK wishes to continue to pay
an uprated state pension to eligible Britons living
in the EU. This and–
the same as under the deal.
There are differences: in the event of no-deal,
there would be no transition period and those
living in the UK before Brexit would have to
apply for ‘settled status’ by the end of 2020 (in the
event of a deal, there would be a grace period
until the end of June 2021).
There are also more restrictions than under the
deal regarding EU citizens bringing family to the
UK (see the full UK paper: tinyurl.com/y93optje).
The French Interior Ministry’s new site for

British teachers and hospital
workers can keep their jobs
THERE is good news for British
teachers and others who are
fonctionnaires in France as the
government and MPs have backed
an amendment to the new Brexit
law to allow them to keep this
special status afterwards.
This status is normally – by a law
called the Loi le Pors – reserved


for
French and EU/EEA citizens.
When we speak of a fonctionnaire, technically this refers to a
fonctionnaire titulaire – a person
who works in la fonction publique
(public service), with a special
civil servant status.
It applies to 1,715 Britons out of
a total 5,115 working for the
national state, local government
or public hospitals. Many of them
teach English in state schools and
private ones under contract.
Britons in hundreds of other
professions, such as nurses, psychologists and hospital managers,
are potentially affected by the loss
of the status too.
A titulaire has high job security
and a clearly-defined pay structure based on seniority and time
in the post.
Other public sector workers are
contractuels, on less secure work
contracts with a salary which is,
in theory, negotiated with the
employer, who is meant to consider qualifications and experience. In practice, it is often “take
it or leave it”. They sometimes
take examsto establish in the future a really close
relationship between the EU and the UK.
“The basis of this would be an ‘association agreement’, as the European Parliament has proposed
from day one.”

Lord Lawson leaving France
FORMER Vote Leave chairman
Lord Lawson is selling up in
France to move back to the UK,
six months after revealing to
Connexion he was applying for a
carte de séjour – a card which
proves you are a legal and stable
resident of France.
Lord Lawson, Chancellor of
the Exchequer under Margaret
Thatcher, bought and renovated
a 19th century country mansion
in the Gers in the south-west in
2001. He lives there and travels
back for House of Lords debates.
But he recently told a BBC
Radio 5 interviewer that he was
returning to live in the UK.
When Connexion contacted
him to ask why, he said: “My
house is on the market. It’s well
known


also failed – not
surprisingly, as even the Cour
des Comptes was unable to find
any physical trace of their
holding company in France.
The French state sold a 49.9%
stake in the airport to the
Chinese consortium Casil
Europe, which had bid €308mil-

Photo: Benjamin Pasquier CC BY-SA 4.0

Chinese criticised over €40m
claim on €10m airport profit

Occitanie’s Carole Delga
said Toulouse was unique
lion. It is made up of Shandong
Hi-Speed, owned by the
Chinese state, and British
Virgin Islands firm Friedmann
Pacific AG, which is owned and
operated by a Hong Kong businessman.
The consortium committed to
an option to buy the state’s last
10% of shares by April 2019,
and joined it in a confidential
shareholders’ pact.
However, local representatives
on the 15-seat board were upset
and wrote to the prime minister,
asking the state not to sell its
remaining shares. Last February

the government cancelled the
sale option and maintained a
state interest inthe airport,
although details of the deal with
Casil Europe remained secret.
The Cour des Comptes condemned this arrangement, saying governance was “unstable
and ambiguous”.
The board has six Chinese
members, two from the French
state, four from Toulouse
Chambre de Commerce (CCI),
and one each from Toulouse
Métropole, Haute-Garonne and
Occitanie local authorities.
The councils and Toulouse
CCI hold the remaining shares.
Difficulties started at the
board’s first meeting as some
Chinese directors did not speak
French or English and the need
for translation slowed progress.
But what most upset local representatives were the Chinese
demands, backed by the French
state, for big dividends, even if
it meant raiding reserves.
In 2016 the Chinese wanted
€40million in dividends from a
net profit of around €10million.
After a boardroom battle, they
accepted a €20million dividend,
with €15million coming from
reserves. In 2017 a similar

battle resulted in a €7.8million
dividend, with €1.5million
from reserves.
Occitanie region president
Carole Delga replied to
questions with


by using heavy-sulphur oil.
The fine on the skipper of the Azura and
US owner Carnival is the first such court
case in France. It comes after heavy local
criticism of poor air quality with plumes of
black smoke seen over the port area.

The Puma
system
explained

FRANCE’S ENGLISH-LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER
Hors serie No 17/ special publication from

herbalists who treat health
problems with plants have been
banned as a profession in
France since 1942 but may soon
regain official status.
This follows months of
consultations into the role of
herboristes at the Sénat, leading
to senators making 39 recommendations in a report, including calls for law changes.
A further consultation period
has started.
Among the justifications for
working to bring herboristes
into the modern health system
is the agricultural potential of
growing plants for health
purposes and the boost it could
bring to rural areas.
The Vichy regime banned
herboristes in 1942 under pressure from pharmacists, who
wantedto get rid of competitors
who used what they saw as
unscientific charlatan practices.
Despite the ban, many rural
areas continued to have “wise
women” to whom locals would
turn for remedies made from
plants.
In 2004 the law was amended
to allow the few stores still selling herbs, often under the guise
of being tisane shops, to again
promote the health benefits, as
long as it was done under the
guidance of a pharmacist.
Even before then, herboristes
were getting round the law.
The private Ecole Lyonnaise
de Plantes Médicinales et des
Savoirs Naturels was founded
40 years ago, with faculty staff
including doctors, botanists
and pharmacists. The school

has had record numbers of
students in the past few years
and is highly selective, with
student fees of €1,800 a year, or
€2,268 if financed by training
groups or companies.
Students are a mix of people
with farming projects, health
professionals, cooks, and those
seeking work with organic


dashed when her
beloved horse fell ill.
Despite being blind, Nîmes-based Verity, 45, is
ranked 12th in France at Elite Able-Bodied level.
Her only concession is the use of a team of nine
“Scoobies”, who call out the letters positioned
around the arena.
In 2017, Verity and her horse Szekit were
selected for the French dressage Paralympic
squad and had a realistic prospect of competing
in both games in Tokyo, but those hopes seemed
over when the horse fell seriously ill.
Verity, who is British but has lived most of her

life in France after moving here as a teenager, has
spent many months by Szekit’s side at a clinic in
St Etienne. Due to their bond, Verity felt her
career as a rider was finished. Then her trainer
said she had found a new horse: a 10-year-old
Hanoverian mare called Daizy. Former Team GB
rider Verityobligatory for all from the age of three from
the 2019 rentrée in September.
CONTINUOUS training credits in
the Compte personnel de formation
(CPF) that employees, jobseekers and
self-employed people now build up
will this year consist of a value in
euros rather than an amount of hours.
During the second half of the year, an
app will be launched that will allow
credit-holders to manage purchases of
training, which can include online
learning but must consist of approved
courses leading to a certificate.

Sport
THE TOUR de France starts from
Brussels, the capital of Belgium (and
the EU). The Grand Départ will be
on Saturday July 6 and the route will
cross north-eastern France before
heading south-west to the Pyrénées.
The closing stages will be in the
Alps before the riders fly to the
Ile-de-France for the traditional finale along the ChampsElysées in Paris on July 28.
PRICES of a national
hunting


will no longer be possible for a British person in France to
change their regime only for property in France. It will now have to
apply to their worldwide estate. The
change is not retrospective.
UNDER an EU proposal, countries
may be asked to decide by March 31 if
they wish to retain their winter time
all year round – in which case they
would change clocks for the last time
in October – or summer time (the last
change would be in March).

Transport
PLANS to raise fuel prices on January
1 by 3 centimes/litre on diesel and 6
centimes/litre on petrol – targets of
the gilets jaunes protests – have been
cancelled by the prime minister. A
temporary cap has also been set on
electricity and gas prices.
SIMILARLY, new stricter emissions
rules in the Contrôle technique (MOT)
have been suspended for six months.
A NEW law onAmounts are higher for electric
or (new this year) hybrid cars.
THE MALUS (financial penalty)
applied to polluting cars will also now
apply to pick-ups, apart from ones
used by artisans for their work.
FROM winter 2019/2020, drivers in
some mountain areas may be obliged
by law to use winter tyres. Prefects
will list the communes affected.
4G INTERNET reception will be
available in the Lyon metro this year.
Both Easyjet and Ryanair are opening new bases in France. See page 6.

Culture and events
ELTON John will play four French
dates in Lille, Paris, Bordeaux and
Nîmes for his Farewell Yellow Brick
Road tour. The Lille event is June 18,
with Paris on June 20, Bordeaux June
22, and Nîmes on June 23
THIS year is the 350th anniversary of
the Opéra National de Paris since it
was created as the Académie Royale
de Musique by Louis XIV.

THE ACCRE scheme,


RIGHT to paid maternity leave
for self-employed women is extended to give equality with employees,
ie. a total of four months, or 16
weeks, up from 10. Maternity pay is
around €54/day. Those taking paid
maternity leave must stop work for
at least 56 days, up from 44.
THE ARPE, a benefit for certain
people aged under 28 seeking a first
job, has been abolished.
BUSINESSES with a CSE committee
representing the employees (which
from 2020 will include all those with
at least 11 employees) should now
designate one member to have
responsibility for combating sexual

A STAGE show in honour of Johnny
Hallyday is to open in Paris by the
end of the year at the Casino de Paris
music hall in the 9th arrondissement.
REPLICA 18th Century frigate the
Hermione will voyage around the
north from April to July, coinciding
with the 75th anniversary of the
Normandy Landings. She willonly be payable for two to
five years (for the wealthiest). MPs

expected to pass laws to deal with
this before Brexit day, including
ones helping secure the right of
existing British residents to continue to live and work in France.
EUROPEAN elections will be held
on May 23-26. British people will not
be able to take part.
A REFERENDUM could take place
on whether or not the department of
Loire-Atlantique should join Brittany.
A BILL to end the 15-year limit on
Britons voting from abroad may
finally be passed by the UK
Parliament early this year.
British MP Sir Roger Gale has
proposed it be known as Shindler’s
Law, for campaigner Harry Shindler
who will be 98 in July.
raised this after the government proposed two years for all.
IN JANUARY complementary
pension regimes for management and
other workers will merge – to be
called Agirc-Arrco. Rights obtained
before this will be


1919. As a result, most
departments in France forbid shops,
stands and stalls selling loaves – such as
baguettes – every day, and demand that
shops have at least one day off a week.
The Perret bakery is not the first to
fall foul of such laws in recent years.

people falsely posing as candidates took the theoretical part
of the driving test.

State will now pay
cost of condoms
A BRAND of condom – the
French-made Eden – can now
be reimbursed on prescription
by social security as part of a
national effort to combat
sexually transmitted infections.
At present, the cost of treating STIs is €2billion per year,
including €1.6billion for HIV
alone. About 6,000 new cases
of HIV infections are discovered every year, according to
the Ministry of Health.

Official warning over
carte vitale scam
The public are being
warned against an email scam

Last July, Servane and Emmanuel
Deuval – whoArthur
Martin); Indesit (Ariston,
Scholtès); and Whirlpool
joined together to increase

their minimum selling prices
to distributors, the investigation found. The policies were
found to have been agreed “at
the highest levels of the companies during secret meetings”.

Louvre reaches
10m visitor mark
The LOUVRE is seeking to
widen its appeal to Chinese
visitors as it celebrates a
record-breaking 10 million
tourist visits in 2018 –
confirming its status as the
world’s most-visited museum.
Its president Jean-Luc
Martinez said it is becoming
even more important for the
site to widen its appeal to
foreigners - especially the
Chinese, who make up an
ever-greater proportion of visitors. It is looking to include
more exhibitions of Asian art.

FRANCE has asked President
Donald Trump to stop interfering in its national politics
after his repeated tweets on the
gilets jaunes protests.
The US president, who
alleged that the Paris Agreement
on climate change was at fault,
has also been criticised for not
commenting on


France.”
He claimed French protesters
had chanted “We Want Trump”,
but Mr Le Drian said: “As far as
I know, the gilets jaunes did not
protest in English, and videos
that appeared in the US in
which you hear ‘We want
Trump’ were from London, and
filmed during Mr Trump’s visit.”
Mr Trump announced his
intention to take the United
States out of the Paris Agree
ment, which aims to decrease
greenhouse gas emissions and
limit temperature rises, in 2017.

The Connexion

January 2019

connexionfrance.com

News in brief 11

Dordogne named one of world’s most exciting places to visit

February

FRANCE’S ENGLISH-LANGUAGE NEWSPAPER

Your practical Q&A

The stunning Benedictine Abbey of Brantôme (above), on the banks of the Dronne in the
Dordogne was one of the attractions mentioned in the National Geographic article. The abbey
was founded in 769 by Charlemagne. According to legend, he donated relics of Saint Sicarius to
the abbey. It wasdestroyed and rebuilt several times in the centuries that followed. Its
Romanesque bell-tower is a competitor for the title ‘oldest in France’.

Exciting? Not really but many, many other reasons to love living here
Connexion reporter
Jane Hanks puts her
long-held love of
Dordogne into words
I have lived in the Dordogne
for 27 years and I love it.
There are many beautiful
places in France. Some are
more spectacular, like the
Alps. Others are more culturally vibrant, like nearby Bordeaux and Toulouse, or with
more sun, but it is always good
to get back to the Périgord.
The combination of the rural
landscape and the consistently
beautiful architecture with
its warm ochre stone makes

it a wonderful place to be. It
is part of a Unesco biosphere
reserve; chosen because there
is no major industry or vast
city to pollute the beauty of
the department.
National Geographic says it is
one of the


most “exciting”
places to visit in the world. It
is not the word I would use;
no mind-blowing thrills here,
rather an appreciation of the
best things in life and a closeness to nature and history.
Here are the famous painted
prehistoric caves like Lascaux,
the valley of the five chateaux,
the medieval town of Sarlat
and the river Dordogne at its
most majestic. I never cease to
enjoy the beauty of it each

time I have to drive anywhere,
even for the most banal
administrative appointment.
I also love my Dordogne,
which is the woodland just
outside my back door. Trees
cover 45% of the department
and most of it is unmanaged
and wild. It is a privilege to
have such easy access to
nature. Often, while out walking, I am rewarded by the site
of deer feeding on grass.
One bleak winter day, a
magnificent stag walked
across the track in front of
me.Two days ago, a wild boar
hurtled out of hiding.
My family have always
appreciated the river. Every
summer we spend hours

either in, on or by it. The
children learned to swim in
its unpolluted waters and we
have enjoyed many a barbecue
on the beach.
The Château de Commarque
sums up the best of the
Dordogne for me (see page 37)
– centuries of human history
hiding in the undergrowth to
be revealed by the hard toil of
a typically warm-hearted and
generous local man.
The Dordogne has a special
rustic, earthy beauty. Black
winter trees silhouetted against
the sky. The richness of the
greens in the summer.
Underlying history everywhere. A mixture of stone and
tree and earth.

Photo: Google

Levothyrox hearing moves to hall
to fit in huge crowd of witnesses

Google honours French ‘father of
deaf’ who worked to stop prejudice

Photo: Unknown / Public domain

GOOGLE has paid
homage to CharlesMichel de l’Epée
(right), who


founded the first school
for deaf children in
Paris in 1760 and is
seen as leading the
way in deaf education. His methods
spread throughout
the world.
A Google Doodle
on its home page (above)
featured an animation of
children using sign language
to spell “Google” to mark
what would have been Abbé
l’Epée’s 306th birthday.
Born near Versailles in 1712,
Abbé l’Épée (he trained as a
priest) helped dispel the myth

that deaf people
were incapable of
learning. His work
allowed deaf people
to have an education and to defend
themselves in court.
Sign language
existed among deaf
people but he was
the first French
hearing person to
take an interest in it
and helped standardise French
sign language by categorising
the signs people used. He
developed a visually-based
educational system used in
his free school, which after his
death became a state institution, now the Institut national
de jeunes sourds de Paris.

A COURT hearing in the case
of controversial thyroid medication Levothyrox hasopened in
a concert hall as the Lyon Palais
de Justice was too small for the
4,113 plaintiffs.
The hearing began last
month, with plaintiffs suing the
drug manufacturer, German
laboratory Merck, over a “lack
of information about the
medication’s controversial new
formula”, which was introduced
in France in spring 2017. It had
to decamp to the Double Mixte
concert hall in Villeurbanne.
The new formula caused a
scandal, with patients claiming
the medicine no longer works.
Around three million people
take the formula in France and
around 30,000 have reported
side-effects. Reports of problems emerged in August 2017.
Health Minister Agnès Buzyn
then made the old formula of
Levothyrox available, with
almost half the 130,000 boxes
selling out in two days.
Further tests of the new one –
including by French medical

safety body ANSM – found it to
be of “good quality”, and it is
still used. One ANSM study
found side-effects were similar
to those of the


phone from her
home in rural France.
She is singing You Raise Me Up in
flawless, clear tones as her way of
explaining who Brendan Graham is.
Graham, one of Ireland’s most
prolific songwriters, wrote Wait until
the Weekend Comes. In 1985 the
teenage Maria (singing as Maria
Christian) opened the Eurovision
Song Contest by singing that song.
Maria, now 53, is a force of nature.
Born into poverty in the Irish
border town of Dundalk in 1965, she
became blind at the age of nine
through a rare genetic illness but went
on to tour America at the age of 13
and then win the hearts of the public
in the Eurovision Song Contest.
A few years later she married a
Frenchman she had met just six
weeks earlier and then moved to
Chanteheux in Lorraine, north-east
France, where they have raised seven
children.
She remembers her life vividly,
recounting details as ifon its front page across a pho
tograph of the president, his gaze fixed
to the ground ahead of him, walking
into the meeting alone and manifestly
without his usual swagger.
That he had to apologise for that
swagger – his arrogance, which
seemed to mark him out as a
self-conscious Brahmin or elitist – as
part of his appeasement of the gilets
jaunes was but a part of his selfabasement before a group who chose
civil disobedience rather than consti
tutional methods to show their dis
satisfaction with the Macron régime.
How did they hobble him so quick
ly? Perhaps the first reason lay in a
central paradox of French life: that
for a country which, since 1789, has
prided itself on equality, it has
through its system of grandes écoles
created a ruling elite of which
M. Macron is a poor advertisement.
It is an elite that betrays


little con
nection with the average French man
or woman, and the gulf between the
two was responsible for M. Macron’s
inability to damp down the feelings
of the protesters. He simply did not
know where to start and was being
bombarded on a number of fronts.
That was a further problem. The
gilets jaunes were a barely coherent
force: they had no leader, or any
unanimously-agreed manifesto of
objections to the Macron programme.
Once M. Macron settled what had
appeared to be the main problem
– the rise in taxation of diesel and
petrol that especially disadvantaged
those living in the French countryside
– others, such as purchasing power
and the size of disposable income –
came out of the metaphorical trees
and started to attack him.
The president went on television to
offer his list of bribes and induce
ments to his disaffected people,
including a rise in the minimum
wage, butseemed to have had the
stuffing knocked out of him aware
his forthrightness in the past had
done him no favours, M. Macron
now seemed positively sheepish.
Having been perceived as aggressive,
he was now perceived as weak.
The British statesman R. A. Butler,
one of the cleverest men to have held
office in the United Kingdom in the
last century and, largely for that
reason, twice cheated of the job of
prime minister, called politics “the
art of the possible”. M. Macron would
have done well to bear that in mind,

Macron’s error
was trying to do
the impossible.
Politics is the art
of the possible

because if you design policies to
assist a minority at the expense of
the many you are asking for trouble.
His fuel tax increases aimed to com
bat global warming, something dear
to the hearts of metropolitan liberals
in Paris as in smart cities the world
over. If


it occurred to M. Macron the
required sacrifice might not play so
well in the Dordogne, the Auvergne
or the economically-deprived villages
of Hauts-de-France, he did not allow
it to affect his policy. By trying to do
what was impossible, he has badly
weakened himself.
He has more than three years of his
mandate left; he also has pitifully
weak organised political opposition,
another, and under-appreciated, rea
son for the rise of the gilets jaunes,
who were merely doing what a seri
ous Opposition ought to do. Also,
France is rich enough, in global
terms, to rub along issuing the odd
bribe and inducement to calm down
the people without causing immedi
ate economic collapse. But M.
Macron does not have a coherent
party of his own; La République en
Marche, the vehicle that got him to
the Élysée Palace in 2019, started to
decompose almost as soon as its job

“

His mainrulebook by
which relations between employers
and their staff are regulated, France
remains a profoundly over-regulated
economy. After his surrender to the
gilets jaunes – a surrender made all
the more embarrassing after the mas
sive displays of force, with hundreds
of arrests, that preceded it – it defies
belief that the president can achieve
the sort of widespread reforms that
France so badly needs.
He should have engaged the public
– and not just his fellow elitists – in a
proper conversation about how he
needed their co-operation to change
France in a way that equipped it to
deal with the modern world.
His main hope must be that the
gilets jaunes form a party and stand in
the European elections in the spring,
and take votes from his rivals –
though they might just take votes
from LREM, itself a protest move
ment. As it is, France remains trapped
in the


from being a senator,
you are an entrepreneur?

commerce, for example a FranceMozambique one; I support creating
French schools and Alliances Françaises
abroad and worked to support the transfer
of a French medical centre to Vietnam.
I helped find a solution for retirees in
America whose French banks didn’t want
problems with the American authorities so
stopped sending their pensions.

Photo: Sénat

FRANCE has 12 senators for the French
abroad and 11 dedicated MPs.
One of its senators Olivier Cadic, who
lives in Kent, recently spoke at both the
French Senate and at the British Houses of
Parliament to support maintaining the
rights of Britons in the EU.
Mr Cadic was formerly a councillor on
the Assembly of the French Abroad, a
consultative body which has one or more
elected representatives for each French
consulate (including nine in London),
elected by French people registered with
that consulate. It meets twice a yearwhich
defined it as a
symbol of Les
Trente Glorieuses
There are few things more
thoroughly French than a 2CV
– apart from the Eiffel Tower,
baguettes, berets… well, you
get the point.
Like the 2CV, the DS is the
essence of Frenchness – even
though its original designer
was Italian. Its name is a play
on words – DS with a French
pronunciation gives déesse, the
goddess – and it harks back to
a period of forward-looking
optimism, social change and
industrial growth.
The car was ahead of its time
– and an instant success, with
nearly 1.5 million cars produced over a 20-year period
until 1975. It combined technological prowess and audacious design innovation which
defined it as a symbol of the
Trente Glorieuses period, from
post-war reconstruction to the
1970s oil crisis. The extended

bonnet with integrated headlights, the curved windscreen
and streamlined roof, the long
tail and sweeping rear wing,
half enveloping the back
wheels,


gave the DS its
avant-garde style.
The look was enhanced by
the big chrome hubcaps,
roof-mounted cylindrical indicators and extensive colour
schemes, often with a differentcolour body and roof.
The DS was packed with
innovative technology. It was
the first European car to have
independent brakes equipped
with discs at the front. It had
power-assisted steering, a
1900cc engine, and a semiautomatic gear change.
But it is the variable-height
hydro-pneumatic suspension
that most people associate with
the double-chevron brand.
Select the ride height, and with
the pressurised system allowing
trajectory correction, you
could experience magic carpet
comfort when out on the road.
Famously, the suspension also
allowed the DS to drive on
three wheels if required, in case
of a puncture or damage.
Inside, the futuristic dashboard was like nothing before.
In front of the single-branch
steering wheel, you used the
stick shifter to start the motor
as well as change gear.
Aeronautical-style instruments
and switches were visible and
accessible behind.
Theunable or unwilling to
take decisive action.
At this time of the year I
usually travel by car to England
to share Christmas and New
Year with my family. This year it
is impossible.
I am told that the gilets jaunes
have legitimate grievances. That
may be so but the method of
securing a resolution cannot be
right. Ordinary people are being
prevented from going about
their lawful lives. People are
being prevented from keeping
medical appointments.
Businesses unable to trade.
The rest of the world is seeing
a capital trashed; the Arc de
Triomphe desecrated and that
must grieve many war veterans.

As a former senior police
officer of over 30 years I suspect
genuine ranks of the gilets
jaunes have been infiltrated by
criminal elements for their own
ends – those who are seen to be
wearing masks. The genuine
gilets jaunes are willing to be
seen and be interviewed.
When this situation is finally
over, there


the UK – December) complains
about TV coverage of British problems.
Maybe when he lived in the UK he did not notice the continual
digs and abuse of France and the French in the press, on TV, from
comedians, and in everyday conversation.
We noticed it because my French wife had to put up with it almost
every day, sometimes to her face. It was as if people did not notice
they were being Francophobic, so embedded is this kind of
unpleasantness. She was relieved to come to live in her country,
where we have not noticed much negative feeling towards the UK,
more a kind of respect for things British.
Anyway, gangs and use of knives is on British TV and in the press
almost every day now, so it is hardly surprising it has been picked
up by foreignhas lived in France
since the age of six but does that mean he has
to have had his sixth birthday here or is it all
right if he moved here when he was already six,
as is our case? I have also heard that a parent
of a French person has the right to French
nationality 25 years after the child gained
French nationality – is that correct and is it only
if the child was born in France? D.A.
THE first rule applies as long as the person came
before their seventh birthday, an Interior Ministry
spokesman said. Other conditions apply too, such as
residency in France, being aged over 18 and
having been to school in France.
As for the 25-year rule, this is correct and it applies
to parents of French people regardless of how they
gained French nationality. The


at times on
the last weekend in November,
with barrages of officers equip
ped with reinforced trucks at
the end of the Champs-Elysées
nearest the presidential palace.
This came after they were
caught out the weekend before
when protesters came near the

Elysée. Le Monde said: “On
Saturday morning they straight
away started using tear gas
against little disparate groups
which until then had been
perfectly non-violent.”
Elsewhere around France there
was a CRS presence at locations
where the gilets jaunes protesters were active, on roads and
roundabouts and at motorway
péages.
A reassuring presence helping
to keep the peace and public
safety – or an oppressive tool of
the capitalist state? It
depends on your
politics. CRS forces
are generally recognisable from their
heavy protective gear,
often with riot shields
and helmets, and the
red and white logo on
the uniform showing
a flaming torch and
an oak leaf wreath.
The Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS) were
created in 1944 to filla gap after
the dissolution of Vichy regime
paramilitary groups. They were
established on a permanent
national footing after the
government considered they
conducted themselves well
during strikes in 1947.
Their role is maintaining and
re-establishing public order –
essentially riot and crowd
control – including dealing with
terror attacks.
Officially the CRS are “com-

panies” of the police, and une
CRS usually refers to one of the
companies, whereas, informally,
un CRS means a CRS officer.
Their motto is “To serve” and
their logo, known as the CRS
flame, was designed by a French
painter from Versailles.
In the past the CRS were
especially present at flashpoints
of unrest, such as May 1968 in
Paris or the 1995 fishermen’s
protest in Rennes, when the
17th century Brittany parliament building was set alight.
They were also involved in
the Algerian war. Thousands
were sent over in the period
1952-1962 and many were
killed or wounded.
Unlike the officers, who undeniably have


a challenging job,
those involved in such protests
see the clashes differently. Take
singer-songwriter Maxime le
Forestier’s 1972 song, Mon

Our main image
was drawn for
Connexion by
artist Perry Taylor.
For more of
his work see
www.perrytaylor.fr
Frère, about things he would
have liked to have done with his
imaginary brother, in which he
tenderly sang that: “If life had
been kinder, she would have
divided into two, the pairs of
gloves, the pairs of smacks; she
would surely have shared out
the words of love, and the
paving stones, girls and baton
blows.”
The officers have chosen this
specialism and receive appropriate training. As well as 60
general CRS companies, there
are nine for motorways, two for
mountain rescue and six motor-

cycle units. There is also one
specialising in escorting celebrities, notably the president of the
Republic, called CRS no.1 (la
Musique de la Police Nationale,
a professional fanfare band and
orchestra, is part of it).
Another role, sincea public body or the army,
police or sapeurs pompiers.
A second phase, to be introduced
later, would last one to three months.
Young people would be engaged in a
public-interest pursuit such as
heritage or helping others, or a spell
in the military.
A recent government study of
45,000 teenagers found 75% were in
favour, despite a lycée student strike
in early December in protest at
education reforms, including
compulsory civic service.

Homeless charity work
made me rethink career
CASE STUDY: Tài NGO is 19 and, like many young
people, he started a post-bac course but soon realised
it was not for him. Instead of biology, he decided he
wanted to do social work and opted for a Service
Civique to find out more about what it involves.
He is in Paris working in a charity called Les Enfants
du Canal, which assists people living on the streets. He
started


of €580
a month to help with living costs.
The scheme was introduced in 2010,
and it aims to encourage social
cohesion by giving young adults the
chance to meet people and experience
situations they would not otherwise
come across.
It can also teach skills volunteers
might not have learned at school and
give them ideas for future careers.
The scheme has grown steadily. In
the first year, some 6,000 took part,
rising to 140,000 in 2018.
More than 11,000 associations,
organisations and public bodies are
authorised to take on Service Civique
volunteers but there is still far more
demand from young people than
available places. The current aim is to
have 150,000 placements a year.
The scheme is open to anyone aged
16 to 25 – extended to 30 for people
with disabilities – and it attracts the
same number of men and women.
The average age is 21 and around
40% enterrestaurant, and a cheaper
canteen, plus bars
and an all-day club
atmosphere – with
sun-bathing, drinking,
music and dancing on a terrace overlooking the slopes. Many
people take a cable car to the club for
lunch, party all afternoon and take the
last cable car down to the resort – to
plunge into a vibrant après-ski scene.
Not all resorts in the Alps are party
central, however; there are quieter,
more family-friendly places (Les Saisies,
Ardent, and Reberty 2000, for example)
but as a rule the Pyrenees offers smaller,
more relaxing, resorts with quieter bars
and restaurants.

By the numbers

Pay attention to those numbers tacked
onto the end of resort names. ‘Les Arcs’
in the Savoie might sound like one resort,
but it is actually five separate places.
‘Arc 1600’ was the first ski resort constructed in 1968 above the market town
of Bourg-Saint-Maurice and connected
directly to the town’s railway


of bringing costs down is
booking your own travel and opting
for hostel-style accommodation, available in many resorts. Modern hostels
offer family rooms, washing machines,
restaurants, and wifi as well as communal kitchens and dormitories, and
breakfast is usually included.
The International Youth Hostelling
Association (fuaj.org) has properties
in ski resorts. The Auberge de
Jeunesse Chamonix Mont-Blanc offers
bed and breakfast plus free shuttle
rides to the slopes starting at €23 per
night (minimum of two nights).
They offer two-day packages from
around €60 including one night in the
hostel and a ski pass. There are hostels
in Chamonix, as well as Chamrousse,
La Clusaz and Les Deux Alpes.
The-backpacking-site.com has useful

Real towns

The Pyrenees has its own charms. More
resorts are real towns, and because they
are smaller, the welcome is personal.
A personal favourite is La Mongie, a
small resort at 1800m which offers skiing
and lounging about in thehas been another
success for Open Gardens/
Jardins Ouverts, which has
donated €25,000 to charity,
€1,500 more than last year.
It means that since it was created in 2013,
the association has been able to hand out
€75,550 in total.
It began when four British gardeners in
the Creuse decided to open their gardens
to see if they could raise money for charity and the idea quickly caught on. There
are now 151 gardens signed up and the
scheme is present in 35 departments and
it encourages gardeners of all nationalities to open up their gardens, big and
small to the public.
Visitors buy a €10 membership card
which gives them access to any of the
gardens for one year or pay €5 for a Day
Pass which allows access to any of the
gardens on the day of purchase. There is
also the €35 Partner Gardens card,


which
gives access to privately owned gardens
as well as a growing list of prestigious
French gardens, which are offering Open
Garden members free entry.
40% of gardens are French owned and
it has been welcomed with open arms by
one of France’s most prestigious gardening shows, the bi-annual Journées des
Plantes de Chantilly, held in the grounds
of the château de Chantilly, north-west of
Paris. During the show in October, there
was a ceremony to hand over the money
raised to two of this years fifteen charities,
A Chacun son Everest and Quelque
Chose en Plus.
The main beneficiary
from the start has been,
A Chacun son Everest
which runs courses in
the Alps to help children
and women who are in
remission from cancer
but need help restoring
their confidence after
treatment. It received
€15,000.
Among the other
fourteen charities is Dauphin Corse,
which received €1,000.
It gives financial help towards the treatment of individualssays will to help finance, and
potentially increase, the buyer’s ‘conver-

Corsica, used to work for the police, but
lost both his arms and a toe after a fishing expedition, when his carbon rod
touched an electricity line as he crossed a
bridge over a railway line. He had always
loved sport and was three times vice-judo
champion for France Police. So just
months after his accident he started running, and then turned to swimming with
a mono-flipper and
set himself astonishing challenges.
In 2017 he swam
80km non-stop
between Montecristo
in Italy and Bastia in
Corsica, which took
him 26 hours. This year
he was one of a team of
four who swam around
Corsica.
He used to raise money through his
challenges for other charities, but in 2012
he decided to set up his own.
“I will help anyone who has a story
which touches me and where I think


I
can help. Recently it was for a man in his
sixties who has gallbladder cancer and
the only treatment available was in
Germany where he had to fund the operation himself. A lady from Guadeloupe
Photo: Pixabay

Green news

Photos: Fondation Claude Monet

Jane Hanks speaks to the founder of Open Gardens about another successful year and meets a remarkable beneficiary

“

I have
found that
there are
many,
many
people who
are willing
to give up
their time
for nothing
Mick Moat,
Open Gardens
founder

sion bonus’. It has also called on manufacturers to help with some of the costs.
You can see details of current levels
of ‘bonus’ – including up to €2,500 for
the purchase of an electric car – at
www.primealaconversion.gouv.fr
New eco post for airport politician
Nicole Klein, Prefect of Loire-Atlantique
and the Pays-de-la-Loire region, was due
to retire at the end of November. But
instead, at the age of 66, she became
the newChief of Staff of Nantes-born
François de Rugy, who was appointed
Minister of Ecological Transition last
September, replacing Nicolas Hulot.
Mrs Klein had previously impressed
ministers with how she handled the
shelving of the Notre-Dame-des-Landes
new airport plan, and she will now be
dealing with equally thorny subjects as
conflicts with France’s powerful hunting

who has a rare tumour needed to come
to Marseille and we paid to enable her
husband to accompany her. For some
years we have supported a young girl,
Chloé Verbauwe, who is unable
to walk and her family cannot pay for
all the costly materials she needs.”
In 2019 he will be sixty and plans to
swim 60km in Lac Léman. He trains by
swimming every day of the year in the
sea as the majority of the money given
out by the association is raised
by Thierry Corbalan himself. However he also has
partners like


Open
Gardens and he says he
is very grateful for the
support he has had
since Mick Moat first
contacted him.
The other charities
that Open Gardens supports are Quelque chose en
Plus, €1,500, a centre for
young people with disabilities;
Réseau Bulle, €1,000, a network of assistance and mutual support for families
and individuals affected by autism;
Costello Syndrome, €1,000, gives help for
those with a rare disease which manifests
itself in the first months of life and results
lobby, the limitation of pesticides in agriculture, the future of the French nuclear
fleet and the conversion of coal-fired
power plants.
‘Funnel’ lake dries up due to drought
A lake in the Doubs department of
Bourgogne-Franche-Comté has completely dried up due to the ongoing drought
affecting parts of France, resulting in
thousands of dead fish.
Due to mud hazards (a walker recently
got stuck), visitors are no longer permitted at Lake Bouverans,said. “I decided to
retire when I was 61 so I could work for
Médecins sans Frontières.
“For the past nine years I have taken
part in five or six missions a year. Half
have been in Africa, and half in the
Middle East – in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.”
Dr Leménager has recently returned
from seven weeks operating and saving
lives in Yemen, where civil war has raged
since 2014 when Houthi rebels, a group
of Shi’ite Muslims from the north, overran the capital and forced President Hadi
to flee. The President had been supported
by Saudi Arabia, which set up a coalition
and began air strikes.
The conflict, which has become known
as the Forgotten War as it has had little
media coverage in the west, has left the
country’s infrastructure in tatters.
MSF calculates that half its medical
structures have been destroyed. In 2017,
the United


Nations estimated that – out
of a population of around 27million –
more than 20million were in need of
humanitarian aid.
In October 2018, the UN said the country was about to face one of the biggest
famines for 100 years, with 13million on
the verge of starvation.
MSF has since said that, though there
are huge problems in Yemen, the disaster
is not on that scale. They point out that it
is difficult for journalists to access the
country and for facts to be verified and
there are many no go zones because of
continuous bombing.
The medical charity is one of the few
to have been able to gain access to the
country. It has centres in Houthi territory
to the north, as well as the Saudi coalition-controlled south.
Between March 2015 and May 2018,
MSF treated 81,633 war casualties and
835,333 people in its casualtydepartments in Yemen, and carried out 64,659
surgical interventions. Another 108,032
were admitted to Cholera Treatment
Centres.
That is just a fraction of the work it
does. In 2018, MSF France undertook
operations in, among others, Gaza,
Central African Republic, Syria, Libya,
Chad, Uganda, and Iraq. It helped
the ship Aquarius save refugees in the
Mediterranean and cared for Rohingya
refugees in Bangladesh. Doctors treated a
new Ebola outbreak in Congo.
In total, it dealt with 10.6million
out-patient consultations and admitted
749,700 patients for treatment.
Dr Leménager has been to Yemen several times and described the hospital he
worked in the last time he was there:
“I was in an MSF hospital constructed
out of tents in Mocha, a small town on

‘We operated
on a man
who was
110, and a
7-month-old
baby who
had been shot
in the stomach’
the Red Sea coast which gave its name to
the coffee it used to export from


in too much
danger. We are there to cure, not to fight.”
Dr Leménager may have made light of
the dangers, but it only takes one look at
the facts to realise the risks he and his
colleagues take. In 2016, four medical
units supported by MSF were attacked in
Yemen. One, a hospital in Abs, in the

Photos on this page: Mathieu Fortoul / MSFG and Rémi Decoster

Dr Bernard Leménager
recently returned from
seven weeks in Yemen,
where he worked –
again – with Médecins
Sans Frontières. He tells
Jane Hanks about the
fearless charity’s work

French Living I January 2019

north-west, was hit by an air attack
which left 19 dead and 124wounded. One
of those who died was an MSF employee.
He agrees that not many people in
France know about the extent of the conflict in Yemen. “There has been very little
about it in thehence
the name ‘tournante.’ The festival of wine
dates back to the Medieval era and this
year, Burgundy’s winegrowers will unite
in the idyllic village of Vézelay, to thank
the patron saint of the wine harvest.
Burgundy’s heavy-hitters: Nuits Saint
Georges, Chablis and Mercurey are
honoured during dinners, processions
and tastings. It is a great chance to
discover some of the region’s lesser
known – but equally good – vintages.
vezelay2019.fr
Le Festival International du Film
Fantastique, Gérardmer
January 30 – February 3
The ski resort of Gérardmer in Vosges
turns into an unexpected cultural hub
when 100 showings of fantasy films are
projected across the big screens of four
movie theatres.
European and Asian films are shown in
their original versions with subtitles and
it is a good opportunity to catch new
material pre-release.
There are also sculptures, literature,
theatre and fantastical street
performances, as well as video gaming
and speciality make-up booths.
festival-gerardmer.com
Chagall, Du noir


or sit down in the immersive exhibition space.
Dance is traditionally practiced in world cultures, employed in
contemporary parties and is a natural part of human movement
and social exchange. It is as prevalent in the every day as it is in
raves, formalised choreography and carefully rehearsed performances. The exhibition takes the three pillars of space, time and
body to ask the question ‘how do we dance?’
www.mucem.org/en

3. Le Bataclan is back
Le Bataclan rock venue, which was the
scene of a deadly terrorist attack in 2015,
began a new chapter in its history in
November with new owners (the
Lagardère group) and a new woman at
its helm – Florence Jeux, former director
of the annual Francofolies music festival
in La Rochelle.
The concert hall in the 11th arrondissement, which was completely renovated in
the months after the tragedy of

Christie’s auction housemusicians.
The festival also pledges to support emerging musicians. Since
it started in 1995, La Folle Journée aims to make classical music
accessible to the widest possible audience. This year’s edition is
dedicated to musical creations born during travelling, modelled
on Mozart’s symphonies that were inspired by his voyages across
Europe, in particular to Prague and Paris.
In addition to Nantes, this year the music can be heard in concert
halls across 11 towns in the Pays de Loire, from January 25 to 27.
La Folle Journée has also taken place in Spain, Poland and Japan.
follejournee.fr/en

November 13 2015, symbolically reopened with a concert by Sting on the day
before the first anniversary of the attacks.
90 concert goers were killed by gunmen while watching a gig by US group
Eagles of Death Metal.

Photo: Still from Belle de Jour

1.Frocks for the


memories
French actress Catherine Deneuve will
have plenty of wardrobe space at the end
of this month, as around 300 items of her
clothing, all made by Yves St Laurent,
will be auctioned off.
Many of the pieces being sold are
bespoke creations by the bespectacled
haute couture icon, who died in 2008.

5

12 Recipes

French Living I

When Ritz met Escoffie
Jean-François Mesplède on the unique chemistry between two giants
of the hotel and culinary worlds that combined to luxurious effect

T

he partnership between
César Ritz and Auguste
Escoffier, sealed in
Monte Carlo, was one
of the most fortunate
events in their lives,” said Ritz’s wife
Marie-Louise. She goes on to say that
although Ritz had fully grasped the
importance of exceptional cuisine
during his years at the Grand Hôtel
de Lucerne, he constantly ran up
against obstacles when attempting to
put the theory into practice.
As for Escoffier, his lack of understanding preventedhim from fully
exercising his considerable talents.
From the moment they met, their
compatibility worked its chemistry.
So while César Ritz knew exactly
how to taste a new sauce and give
useful advice on making it, Auguste
Escoffier could advise him on the size
of dishes and bowls.
Both innovators, Ritz was brimming
over with ideas on building and furnishing hotels, the choice of staff uniforms down to the smallest details,
and Escoffier was already reflecting
on the indispensible reorganisation of
the kitchens, an operation he carried
out a few years later.
To quote Marie-Louise Ritz again:
“they both adored simplicity.” With
one man intent on getting rid of ridiculous baubles and faded fabrics, the
other was eliminating indigestible garnishes that enhanced nothing, simplifying the menus, going so far as to
turn his back on some of Antonin
Carême’s edicts from the previous century that he now considered


the money
he needed to finance the
eight-day option.
César Ritz then resigned
from
the Savoy, retaining
Partners César Ritz and Auguste Escoffier
the right to found hotels
anywhere he pleased, on either side
mean that it would be devalued –
of the Atlantic. For the moment, he
quite the contrary. Since tastes are
was starting in Paris. Escoffier was of
perpetually becoming more refined,
course embarking on the adventure
cooking must become more refined
with him. He still had to find a good
to satisfy them.
architect. Ritz knew precisely what
And now to the Ritz we must go. At
was required to fit out a hotel with
the Savoy, Ritz and Escoffier introthe greatest elegance, but he admitted
duced the English to the art of fine
that he had no idea where to begin.
dining. Gourmets flocked to the stylBy chance, Charles Mewès crossed
ish dining room. Benoît-Constant
his path. He wasjust the right man.
Coquelin and Bernhardt, the wellRitz explained to him that he wanted
known actors, made a point of
his hotel to be the ultimate in elepatronizing the restaurant whenever
gance, the first truly modern hotel in
they were in London. “Boni” de
Paris: “My hotel must be the last word
Castellane, politician, writer, dandy,
in modernity. Mine will be the first
and esthete, had his usual table there.
modern hotel in Paris, and it must be
It was said that thanks to its very
hygienic, efficient, and beautiful.”
capable management and excellent
Ritz did not want the establishment
kitchens, the Savoy was pushing the
to resemble a grand hotel; rather, it
borders of France as far as London.
should have the atmosphere of an
There, Escoffier created the filets de
aristocratic home, one where several
sole Coquelin, homard aux feux étergenerations had been living happily.
nels, la


volaille à le Derby, and les cuiThe smallest details that would prosses de nymphes à l’aurore, which had
vide comfort were given close attenthe Prince of Wales himself tasting
tion; the kitchens were equally imporfrogs’ legs. It was there, too, that he
tant. Escoffier provided his wealth of
created the famous Peach Melba that
experience, and Ritz took a close
would appear on the Ritz menu.
interest in the ovens and iceboxes,
Yes, the Ritz. For many years, César
asking the technician who was installRitz thought longingly of Paris, a city
ing the appliances endless questions.
he had fallen in love with at a young
The main dining room, called the
age. It was his hope to create the perRégence, which opened onto a large
fect hotel there, one that would be difgarden, also involved lengthy discusferent from all those he hadbuilding” was too
the table, so he returned them to the
high for what they wanted. Ritz did
cabinetmaker to add armrests and
not give up, and in the end, the day
upholster them with the right fabric.
was saved by nothing other than a
The tables were judged to be too
liqueur. It is a story worth telling...
high and uncomfortable. They were
When he was at the Savoy, an indusreturned to the workshop to have
trialist by the name of Marnier
their legs shortened by barely an inch
Lapostolle introduced himself to
César Ritz one day. He had just creat- and delivered in the nick of time to
be installed in the dining room,
ed a liqueur, which he wanted his
where they were hastily covered
opinion on. Ritz approved heartily
with Damascus linen and laden with
of the drink, complimenting the man
shining silver and delicately


year’s harvest will be
better. In France, concentration is mainly
on oils of quality and 27% of oils have an
AOP label. There are four regions: 66%
is produced in PACA, 20% in Occitanie,
10% in Auvergne Rhône-Alpes and 4%
in Corsica.
Though production is small in Corsica,
it is an area where the production of olive
oil is on the increase and where olive oil
of a very high quality is being produced
after years of abandon. Trees over a
thousand years old are still producing
fruit and new varieties, specific to the
island have been developed by agricultural researchers and from 2017 have been
planted for future crops.
Up until the 1980s the production of
oil on the island had dwindled to almost

“

Olive producers
say there are at
least as many
types of oil as
there are wines

zero from a flourishing commerce at the
beginning of the twentiethnot
water them or add fertiliser, though I
have to treat them against the olive fruit
fly, but only when absolutely necessary. I
think it gives a better oil, less bitter and
more in line with tradition.”
From 60 trees, he produces between
1,500 and 2,000 litres, which sells quickly because of its quality, but he cannot
make a living wage from it and has
a daytime job.

From one oil to another

The President of the Syndicate
for olive producers in Corsica is
Sandrine Marfisi. She originally
worked in marketing for an international oil company but gave it up when
she married a Corsican. For the past
fifteen years her workplace has been in
the most beautiful of sites imaginable,
an olive grove by the Mediterranean,
the silvery leaves of the trees reflecting

Above: Olives that
fall naturally are
ripe and produce a
soft and rounded
oil, while some are
sharper using


the
modern method of
shaking the olives
off using a machine
(right); Inset:
Sandrine Marfisi,
President of
Corsica’s olive oil
producers’ syndicate

against the deep blue of the sea beyond.
She has older existing trees but has also
planted new trees and grafted new plants
on old trunks. She produces 3,000 litres
a year from six hectares and her oil has
won many prizes, including gold from
the prestigious Paris International Agricultural Show. She needs on average 5kg
of olives to produce one litre of oil.
She harvests her olives using a hand
held machine which both vibrates the
branches and combs the fruit off into the
nets below, so all the olives from one tree
are collected at the same time. Though
still extremely physical work, with seven
hour days going from one tree to another, it is more
economically
viable than the
older method,
and the one used
the most widely.
Because all
the olives are
harvestedin one
go, fertilisers are
used and high
producing varieties chosen,
the tree will
produce olives every year.
Some pesticides are used against the
olive fruit fly. Not all the olives are ripe
when picked which means the resulting
oil is sharper. As you taste it, the oil has a
smooth flavour at the front of the mouth,
with a spicy kick as it reaches the back of
the palate. Olive producers say that there
are at least as many tastes and types of oil
as there are wines.
Mrs Marfisi has her own mill, which
is unusual, but as she has a favourable
position on the coast her olives are the
first to ripen in October and the 28 AOP
approved mills on the island are not yet
in full production.
Old traditional mills with stone wheels
have now been replaced by modern aluminium ones, which do the same


of bottling and Virgin Oil within 12 months. Corsican olive
oil is best eaten uncooked on salads and
as a dressing on fish or poultry dishes.

Photo: Chocolatrium Atelier

M

arc Cluizel and his sisters Sylvie and Catherine
are the third generation
to run Manufacture
Cluizel, the family choc-

Photo: Cluizel

olate business.
“My grandparents created the company,
my grandfather was a pâtissier from
Lyon,” says Marc. “His wife Marcelle ran
a sweet shop, and together they set up a
combined pâtisserie, chocolaterie and delicatessen in Rambouillet.
“After the First World War, they moved
to Paris but in the currency crash and
subsequent inflation, they lost most of
their money. Then suddenly my grandmother inherited a house in Damville,
in Normandy. So he decided to make his
filled chocolates there, and supply them
wholesale to other shops. Gradually, the
business grew and by 1964 the company
had 50 employees.”
The company was eventuallythe spirit of Dior. Its vineyards,
olive groves, Renaissance stone lions, and
shaded Italian garden mingle past with
present. Cool tiled hallways, glimpses of
linen velvet, and Emilio Terry influences
add calm and charm. If his house in Passy
was a civilized nest amid the demands of
Paris and Le Moulin du Coudret represented an escape from the city, La Colle
Noire, with its solid dignity, was Dior’s
chosen home.
Purchased in 1950, the coaching inn
turned manor house was Dior’s final
domestic creation, and still a work in
progress at the time of his death in 1957.
Just as another of his last creations – the
1957 city dress “Palais de Glace,” with tidy
bodice, slender sleeves, and meticulously
gathered skirt – signalled in its sobriety,
beauty, and understatement a return
to the vision of 1947, the stone house
represented permanence. Its atmosphere
of storied family house, mixing


antiques
with the occasional surprise, was gracious
and unaffected. Dior, who planned to retire to La Colle Noire, was so dedicated to
the house that he eventually sold the mill
at Milly to underwrite the renovations,
the cost of which, as typically happens,
exceeded expectations.
Approached through an allée of cypress
trees, the house sat on more than a hundred acres of pleasure garden and working
land, accompanied by gravelled terraces,
a private chapel, and views across the
valley. Dior installed a 150-foot reflecting
pool that ran the length of the house. For
parties, he illuminated the pool with fifty
candled hurricanes
around its perimeter.
André Svetchine,
the Nice-based
architect who had
designed Raymonde
Zehnacker’s nearby
country house,
provided Dior with
plenty of rein to play
gentleman architect. In fact, Dior
conceived much of
the house on his
own, often relying on
Svetchine and interior decorator MichelJacques Marsan
more for execution
than conception.
For construction,
as for couture, Dior
was acurator of
time-honoured
craftsmanship. He
required the use of old materials or, at
least, materials made in the old-fashioned
manner, whenever possible. Fortunately,
Svetchine proved adept at sourcing local
and antique elements that reinforced the
ambience of an old manor house. Glazed
Anduze planters flanked the door, and a
new gravel forecourt greeted arrivals.
Throughout the house, white walls, grey

panelling, and terracotta or white stone
floors, or some combination thereof,
weave simplicity and continuity into the
décor. Following the notion of a provincial manor that has evolved over the
years, formulas were relaxed, never strictly enforced. Periods, styles, colours, and
types of rugs varied; the only cardinal rule
was that the ambience remain polished
but unpretentious.
Decoration proceeded slowly, in part
determined by the renovation schedule. Because of a delay in the electrical
hookup, only two rooms were habitable
as of 1956. With such a leisurely pace,
the loose accumulation of


furniture gave
the impression of having been amassed
over generations.
Except for one
chair by Séné, the
furniture was warm
and burnished but
far from museum
quality, generally
eighteenth- and
nineteenth-century
French, with the occasional Biedermeier
chair or Continental
piece for variety.
With its waxed
tiles and patinated
furniture, La Colle
Noire conveys Dior’s
response to postwar
reality. Instead of
falling back into familiar routines after
the war, the world
had rushed forward
into uncharted
territory.
Europe integrated warily, colonies sought
independence, the Soviet Union loomed as
the new world menace, and the economy
transitioned to industrial production. In
this mid-century flux, as patterns changed
and the pace picked up, Dior was a conservator of enduring custom.
A fashion genius coupled with conscientious businessman, Dior worked

From top: driveway
at La Colle Noire;
the designer in the
countryside; bedroom
detail with its vivid
‘retour d’Egypte’
wallpaper

Extracted from
Dior and His
Decorators: Victor
Grandpierre,
Georges Geffroy,
and The New Look
by Maureen Footer, published by
Vendome Press.
Available in all
good bookstores
and online.

incessantly in this neweconomic climate,
designing collections, developing perfume, and licensing new global products,
leaving him less time to pursue the
friendships, gardening, antiquing, music,
and quiet he craved. Others found themselves with less wherewithal, and even
less inclination, to observe the niceties of
the past.
Even Maison et Jardin, the glossy broadcaster of aspirational decoration, vaunted
a plastic tablecloth that could be cleaned
with the swipe of a dishcloth. Jewels, hats,
and gloves, those precious accoutrements
perfected by centuries of patronage, with
techniques conserved from generation
to generation, were called into question.
Emblematically, the actress Grace Kelly, a
Dior client, though engaged to a prince,
was photographed for Vogue without
adornment, just bare shoulders, blonde
hair, and American fraîcheur.
Quality, time, and heritage, those
hallmarks of Dior, were the new luxuries.
Now, interiors and clothes that were in
sync with the time were comfortable and
timeless, without gimmick or artifice.
Frivolity, Dior determined, was


passé,
and as an artist, he reflected his time. His
pet model changed from the aloof Renée
to the accessible Victoire. He streamlined
his 1954 collection into the quiet H-Line.
Dior was – both as a professional couturier and as an individual – a believer in
the accomplishments of French civilization. The hand sewing, beading, embroidery, solid construction, and line of a
Dior dress were rooted in French history.
So, too, were Dior’s courtesy, table, and
interests in art, music, and antiques. La
Colle Noire, indifferent to fad, drew on
French crafts in its construction, history
in its furnishings, and tradition in its
seasonal rhythms.
While timelessness emanated from the
time-worn stone of Dior’s last house, its
modernity was in its ease, adaptability to
contemporary life, loose appropriation
of the past, and embrace of its time. Its
appeal, like that of the New Look dress,
was that it5,
8, 16, and 20, and the first
letter of the both words in
the answer to question 9
to spell out the name of a
delicate meringue based
biscuit in French.

20 Reviews
French films
A critical eye on the
latest ciné releases
An Impossible Love

French Living I January 2019
Are you the foie gras correspondent? Chris Bockman, Matador, £13.99 ISBN: 978-1788034-654
THERE are plenty of books about Britons
who have moved to France and done up a
rural property – but while this one seems
to be another one at first, it gives quite a
different take. Bockman moved to set up a
press agency in Toulouse, despite warnings
that there would not be enough to write
about. This is a memoir of a working life
through the lens of quirky or dramatic tales
that proved the naysayers wrong.
He first thought there might be more to
the area than


and is
often seen on TV chat shows being
something of a controversial provocatrice.
It begins in 1958, in Châteauroux, Indre
where mid-twenties typist Rachel – a
superb performance by Virginie Efira
(normally a comic performer but whose
serious acting skills get better with each
film) falls for a dashing and intellectual
young man, Philippe (Niels Schneider)
that she meets in the work canteen. She
falls pregnant and a daughter, Chantal
(Estelle Lescure), is born. However,
Philippe will not marry Rachel or allow
Chantal to take his surname, which for
the times is unsettling and bodes badly.
Over time, despite his manipulative
nature, narcissism and absence, Rachel
still holds a torch for him, while the now
teenage Chantal gets ever closer to her
father. Yet his increasingly dubious
behaviour is never far from the surface.
A word of praise for the superbly
naturalistic ageing make-up work on
both Rachel and Philippe –they look
very convincing as grandparents.

Also out: Sink or Swim

A disparate (and sometimes desperate)
gaggle of 30-50-something men make a
life change for the unexpected – by joining
a synchronised swimming team. Cue a
blend of farce and philosophy à la piscine!

Conflicts of Interest Terry
Stiastny, John Murray £8.99
ISBN: 978-1-444-79439-7
THIS novel by a
former BBC news
journalist is – at
least partly – set in
rural southern
France, where the
main character, a
has-been TV journalist has moved
after his marriage
and career ended.
His life is turned upside down by the arrival of an old friend on a cycling tour, a PR
man who moves in Westminster circles and
is on the verge of a peerage, whose seemingly perfect life seems to contrast with his.
The opening sets the scene in a sleepy village before the aging former war correspondent finds himself hiding under his
café table


novels about the character.
Maigret, a bon vivant known for his
pipe smoking, is often found following
up leads in the city’s bistrots and brasseries, which is where we find him at the
start of this book.
Simenon fans love his simple language
and attention to detail and the story of
this book, which opens with an investigation into a murder, in mysterious circumstances, of a strip club owner from the
seedy Pigalle entertainment district, gets
straight to the point without literary flourishes. The anger of the title comes after a
lack of clues and progress which puts
Maigret’s reputation on the line.
Worth checking out if you enjoy well
put-together police mysteries though
the dialogue-led, plot-focused style also
means the book is not very introspective
or psychological, so you may sometimes
feel a little detached from the character.

The enduring linguistic legacy of the Gauls
Languagelittle stones or
pebbles (as used to describe beaches, for
instance) is cailloux, which stems from
the Gaulois word caljo meaning stone.
As do galets (also pebbles) from the
Gaulois gallos.
The French word for sheep – mouton –
resisted the Roman incarnation of the
species ovis to survive until today. It
comes from the Gaulois word multo.
A very pretty sounding Gaulois remnant, so memorably heard in song, is
alouette (lark) from alauda. Caesar is said
to have recruited some Alpine Gaulois
soldiers in 50BC and gave their legion
the name ‘Alauda’, which prolonged the
word’s resistance to any Latin successor.
Finally, a few dirty words – literally. La
boue in French means mud, and it can
be traced to the Gaulois bawa, which
itself stemmed from baw, meaning dirt.
Glaise, meaning clay, comes from the
Celtic gliso, while suie (soot) has its
origins in the Gallo-Roman word suda.

Shopping/Did


of skilled craftsmen.
The company works with major
hotels in France to craft in situ artworks and has also collaborated with
Philippe Starck. Artwork shown
Jeune Fille by Jean-Hippolyte
Flandrin: lampshade from €180.
en.muzeo.com

Replicas of the 1799
metre (in original case)
and kilogram measures

A weighty issue: France
invented metric system
Did you know?

T

he metric system, which is
used the world over, apart
from the USA, Burma and
Liberia, was invented in
France and was a direct
result of the Revolution. France
remains the world centre for deciding
just how we work out how long and
how heavy everything is, as the
International Bureau for Weights
and Measurements is in Paris.
Before the Revolution, weights and
measures varied not only between
countries but within nations, and
could be different from one town to
another. The new leaders in France
wanted to unify the country and one
way was to introduce a national measurement system.
They opted fora decimal system
which would be interrelated and it is
no accident that a litre of pure water
weighs a kilogram. However, the basis
of the system, which was to be the
metre, had yet to be invented. The scientific greats of the time decided to
use a natural phenomenon and so the
metre was to be equal to one ten millionth of the distance from the North
Pole to the equator. But first this had
to be measured.
In 1791, two astronomers, Joseph
Delambre and Pierre Méchain, set out
to do this by accurately measuring a
quarter of the meridian from Dunkirk

to Barcelona. Delambre went north
and Méchain went south and they
were to meet in the middle.
They thought it might take them
two years, using a triangulation system and the latest in equipment, the
Borda repeating circle. However, the
unrest following the revolution and
war