Salut!

Unveiled promises: you haven't heard last of France's niqab ban

Salut! has been quiet this week. The visit to London Zoo left an urgent need to earn some money (sorry about that, Zoo) and, as it happened, I did have a lot of work to return to.

I have written rather a lot, here as well as for The National, Abu Dabi, and two UK outlets, The Guardian online and the Times Educational Supplement, on France's decision to ban the wearing of the full-face veil in public.

It is a subject that will not go away. Yesterday, we saw the first court-imposed fines for defiance of the new law. There will be more and there will be appeals, all the way to the European Court of Human Rights.

I find myself torn between feeling the women have every right to dress as they wish and accepting the security argument advanced by people who think differently.

There is a relatively easy compromise which, in my experience, the minority of French Muslim women who cover their faces would accept: an obligation to remove the veil for purposes of identification or in circumstances where its use otherwise causes problems. The cultural objection I reject, and the issue of men forcing women to wear face-covering clothing should really be treated as quite a separate one (intimidation is already punishable in law).

This is my report of yesterday's events, which made the front page of The National* today and will lead to further coverage ...

London Zoo: rip-off in a good cause

The song had to be tweaked a little: Daddy's taking us to the zoo became Papy's taking us. But to the zoo we went.

A Mediterranean resort that will never be the same without Mamy Moules

It cropped up in the car as we discussed whose turn it was to clean the mussels.

At the hairdresser's, my wife had heard news of a bereavement. A well-known restaurateur had died and it was in the Var-Matin.

So it was, but thus far only as a death notice in words along these lines: the Libert family are sad to announce the death of Madame Denise Libert, at the age of 84, on Sept 13. The funeral was to be at the church of Saint-Trophime in Bormes-les-Mimosas on Saturday.

The name would have meant little to many of the people who, even in September, flock to these parts.

Bienvenue en France Joe Cole and Carly Zucker

Kevin Walsh

If you live in Lille or go there sometimes, this is a new addition to the British community you may run into.

Crème de la crème of lunchtime value in Cassis

Nick and Rosemary, friends settling in the Luberon, had chosen first one, then a second restaurant on the port at Cassis, a charming little Mediterranean resort with charmless parking arrangements.

The first was rejected on inspection of a couple of grim internet reviews. One writer had gone once, been disappointed, gone again and found it even worse. Surly service, a carafe of water served almost at the end of the meal and so on. The second just looked less inviting on close inspection than online.

The skies smile on Provence

Every so often, the night sky over the Varois hills cries out to be captured on film. Nature's tricks can produce splendid results, enhancing this corner of Provence as they do the others.

September 11 2001: responses and memories

Last night on France 3 was wall-to-wall 9/11 or, as I prefer, September 11.

It was a British documentary dubbed in French and followed by another, French programme dwelling more on the aircraft that crashed into the Pentagon after two had earlier been flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

'You're going to kill me ..,' said the Roman waitress

All roads lead to Rome, but they don't necessarily say so.

It was just after I had been relieved of €22 for a stretch of the autostrada that, for the first time since crossing the border near Ventimiglia, I noticed a sign pointing to the capital. It was accurate enough but turned out to be a cost-saving, journey-prolonging instruction since the road in question was the non-motorway route.

On not making mugs of you

STOP PRESS: the first buyer of this Salut! mug declares himself fully satisfied - except that as an old sub-editor, he'd have appreciated a couple of typos to permit a whinge about sloppy reporters - so other orders will be shipped soon.

It would perhaps have been wise to stay in France until this was resolved. Instead, I am leaving the country, though there should be no need to alert Interpol.

Salut! is off for a long weekend in Rome (see next posting) and will not be around to answer questions, post articles or - indeed - sell mugs. What you see above is, as has been explained, no more than a rough representation of the product I am buying and selling, which will have the three lines of text in descending order of font size.