27th May 2018

Make no mistake. The clock’s ticking for Europe. Its only hope is if a miracle happens and Britain stops the exit before the ref blows the final whistle. Don’t just take my word for it. Great minds like French philosopher Bernard-Henry Levy say the same “The EU will collapse because when the body is deprived of its brain and heart, its spirit dies.” And I thought the French didn’t like the British. He says the British were asked a stupidly simple question about a very complex problem - at best foolishly irresponsible, at worst sinfully illegal. If next March arrives without a second referendum, the die is cast. Already cracks in the EU are evident, with first Greece and now Italy on the brink of pulling out due to bankruptcy. And all the while Germany prospered. Was the whole EU project flawed from the start with the cards stacked heavily in Germany’s favour to the detriment of everyone else? Faites vos jeux, Mesdames/Messieurs.

20th May 2018

The wedding of the year. Bar none.  A royal soap opera par excellence. The BBC camera panned to:
    Prince Charles and Camilla,  as Harry and Meghan were asked Do you forsake all others..?;
    Harry’s face when the congregation were asked if there was any reason why the marriage should not take place (i.e. is your ‘real’ father present, potentially negating your royal status?);
    Harry’s previous girlfriend, looking unhappy at how things might have been;
   Philip’s face at the ‘jokey’ shenanigans of the American bishop;
   Victoria Beckham arriving without a smile for anyone, appearing to disdain anyone she perceived to be of lower status than she;.
   The bride’s mother sitting all alone, regal in her dignity, but with scarce a greeting from anyone.

And yet it was a wondrous spectacle. The choirs were wonderful, the mediaeval setting amazing, the couple handsome and very much in love, cheering crowds. Sunshine all around. Undoubtedly it’s what England does best. Could America do it or France?  No! Wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

13th May 2018

The French are puzzled...No, not about Eurovision but about when Harry meets Meghan next week. The one thing the French envy about Britain - and it is probably the only thing - is the royal family. Ever since the last tumbrils rolled up to the Bastille in the 1790s, they’ve bemoaned the fact they no longer have a royal head of state. They, like the Americans, love the splendour and pomp that only a royal family can bring. So, all French eyes have been fixated on the wedding next Saturday. But, what’s this they read? That a family worth £400 million can find no budget for feeding the 2,000 peasants so carefully selected to fill the otherwise empty grounds of the chapel at Windsor. “Bring your own sandwiches” decreed the embossed royal invitations.  What? said the French, the land of le bien manger. Where’s the royal cuisine?  Quel catastrophe! Even Marie Antoinette would have provided cake....

6th May 2018

This week in 1869 saw the opening of the Folies Bergere on 32 rue Richer, 9th arrondissement, Paris, where a troupe of high-kicking girls displayed an element of je ne sais quoi. Today very different folies are taking place in Paris as yet more students take to the streets to protest, as in 1968, against government plans to modernise out-dated working practices. Elsewhere in France, a museum in Elne discovered that 60% of its paintings by local artist Etienne Terrus were fake, only discovered by accident when a curator tried to re-hang them. He found that some of the artwork was on material that didn’t exist when the paintings were supposedly produced and some of the painted signatures were so recent they could be wiped off with a glove. Wonder what President Macron thought of all this as he continued his globe-trotting quest?  The French may still be revolting, young people continue to kick out at old folies but, as with Monet, Degas and Renoir, first Impressions are de rigeur!