This will hurt me...

We are all familiar with the de rigueur image of the bon vivant bourgeois doyen of dress tossing about bon mots with élan in a blasé way to every belle and brunette that draws the eye. Imagine the mise en scène : through the milieu you see a mélange of men in a mêlée . No, it’s not a ménage à trios , only one monsieur imagining presenting a montage of himself to some nouveau riche mademoiselles during Mardi gras . The Frogs trade in on this cachet of style, presenting themselves fashionable entrepreneurs , using it carte blanche as they recline on the chaise longue gobbling hors d'œuvres , when in fact they are nothing more than charlatans ! Oh, I know that it is not du jour to say it, but rest assured that today’s ad is but the first in a dossier of disaster. Whether a chauffeur or a clique of chefs en route tp a club, this cliché of chez chic is a shonk ! Consider this communiqué a future concordat a coup (of sorts). Consider this a coup de grace ...

This is a photo taken a month or so ago when the French Navy were in town. I can't remember the name, but it was something beginning with 'V'. The French Navy hasn't impressed me since they were trounced at Trafalgar, to be honest. I mean really, when your greatest triumph is scuttling your own ships in harbour so that the Vichy regime couldn't pass them over to the Nazis, I'd suggest that triumphs are a little thin on the ground!

The best that I can say about this French advertisement for tampons is that it is, err, very French . The tagline reads: "I am like a fish in water" , but I am not sure that this really helps all that much in getting the gist of the piece. Now, you must believe me when I say that I’ve thought long and hard [oohh err missus!] about this particular product promotion, but admit that I am no closer at answering the riddle that might unlock this particular enigma than when I began, and figure that I shan’t locate that answer any time soon. The most obvious answer harks back to grubby schoolboy locker room jokes, but to my knowledge – and I say this as someone who remains a grubby schoolboy at heart – grubby schoolboys do not represent a significant proportion of the market share of feminine hygiene products . No, I figure that is women who buy tampons (see, all of that taxpayers’ money wasn’t wasted on my education). As it is women that buy the tampons, it must be women that t...

In Paris: After the Liberation , Antony Beevor (with the aid of fellow historian – who also happens to be his wife – Artemis Cooper) begins with a brief recount of the invasion of France, the collapse of the French defence and subsequent German occupation. However, his main concern lays with the post-war period in the French capital. This period saw the trials of collaborationist leaders, de Gaulle's reestablishment of the republic and his rapid resignation in 1946, widespread panic at the prospect of a Communist or right-wing coup and the arrival of Marshall Plan aid, which aided the French in the face of economic collapse. As usual, Beevor constructs an engaging account at both the macro and micro level, capturing the desperation and exhilaration of those years through a blend of history, personal accounts, interviews, significant events and gossip. In particular, the authors illuminate the chronicle of the blind Stalinism of France's "progressive" intelligentsia. A...