Salut!

French liberties: women don't get fat, kids don't throw food

Over a sumptuous dinner at the Hôtel de Crillon, the author of French Women Don't Get Fat, Mireille Guiliano, once admitted to me that the title took liberties with the truth. The French translation accordingly came out, subtly qualified, as Ces Françaises qui ne grossissent pas. Pamela Druckerman did not take me anywhere swish for dinner, but she did concede in a cross-Channel phone call that the title of her book - French Kids Don't Throw Food - was not meant as "a statement of absolute fact" ...

Paul Lamoitier: Marine Le Pen's halal butcher, as was

Image: Courtneyutt

It was the most delicious morsel of the Front National's seriously overcooked polemic on halal meat production in the Ile de France region, that is to say the Paris metropolitan area.

Christoper Tappin, Mickey Mouse justice and Britain's shame

Like most people, I do not have the slightest idea whether Christopher Tappin - flown off under Britain's squalid extradition policy to face whatever passes for justice in a Texan court - knowingly agreed to export items intended for Iranian missile systems.

Marie Colvin: woman of courage

For reasons many will understand, I do not often go to the Telegraph website. The awful news that drew me there today is that Marie Colvin, a brave, honest and resourceful journalist who made a name reporting from some of the ghastliest locations and circumstances, has been killed in Syria.

The pain in Spain drives people back to pesetas

Image: FaceMePLS

Did anyone else spot this little story about a number of Spanish towns where shopkeepers have been accepting pesetas? My French brother-in-law worked in a bank from leaving school to retirement and remembers with horror the inflation France endured during the franc's lifetime. But he admits that plenty of his friends have joined the ditch-the-euro bandwagon. Hate to say it, but maybe it's a better trump card for Marine Le Pen, who also wants a return to the franc, than her Islamophobia (which can be taken as read in any case) ...

The Great Andouillette Debate: exquisite delicacy or obnoxious aberration?

Andouillettes. Here we have a subject that can be guaranteed to crop up now and then at Salut!, chiefly of course because it takes very little - my occasional fix or the onset of overpowering withdrawal symptoms - to get me thinking about it.

Sunderland le film, with title music from Saint Etienne?

Available at Salut!'s Amazon record shelf

Maryvonne and Peter were, as ever, wonderful hosts in Argenteuil, Paris was - as often in winter - desperately cold and, there in the 9th arrondissement a sharp walk from Saint Lazare station, Sunderland was a pleasure to behold.

Alastair Campbell, Leveson and the double standards of media scrutiny

It is unfashionable to say this, but I have always quite liked Alastair Campbell.

He was a hungry young local paper hack when I first knew him, and gratefully accepted the odd payment from The Daily Telegraph for his stories from Cornwall which I was able to use or develop.