Salut!

French Connexion: it's autumn so let's all go on strike

Buy Emile Zola's Germinal at Salut!'s Amazon link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140447423/salusund-21

Take away the right to withdraw labour and you rob working people of one of only two available responses to employers with little to learn from Victorian coalowners. But is the right always used responsibly and with concern for the other working people who are invariably the chief casualties of the effects? Tricky issues arise, This is my latest column for The Connexion, a monthly newspaper for English speakers in France ...

Imagine a France without pesky trade unions intent on causing maximum disruption to public services and industry.

French Connexion: creating a stink about our meilleurs ennemis across the Channel

Smelly, but not French

The idea of the French being smelly suits froggiebashers and Little Englanders and, arguably, quite a few of those people who decide what is published by the British media.

Is there the whiff of truth in the allegation, or is it a stinking lie? There are references to American soldiers turning up their noses at the personal hygiene of the young French women they 'met' (I believe they were also sniffy about English girls) and, without trying too hard, I came up with an example from Brazil and two more from the USA - all for The Connexion*, a decidedly unfroggiebashing newspaper published for English-speakers in France. In the interests of accuracy, not to mention self-preservation, I must insist the French are positively fragrant ...

French Connexion: the scourge of cold calling

For The Connexion, the excellent monthly newspaper for English speakers in France, I wrote on a subject close to our ears ...

Before France succumbed to brisker eating habits, lunchtime was signalled by sumptuous smells wafting from the kitchen and cries of à table or à la soupe.

These days, even in households where the aromas and announcements survive, there is less welcome evidence that food is about to be served. The phone rings.

French Connexion: so who in France is doing all that drinking?

For my latest column for The Connexion, the monthly newspaper for speakers of English in France, I contrasted recent reports of French binge-drinking with the lack of interest many in France show towards arguably their country's greatest product ...

French Connexion: Le Pen's grotesque words aside, should loyalty become an obligation?

This is my latest column for The Connexion, the monthly newspaper for English speakers in France. It was written, of course, before Marine Le Pen's attempt to turn defeat in to victory in the departmental elections - though in truth, her wretched Front National pushed the unappealing but republican UMP of Nicolas Sarkozy close in many areas, including (I am very sorry to say) Le Lavandou.

It was also written before Jean-Marie Le Pen yet again trashed his daughter's best efforts to present the FN as a "party like any other", repeating his odious view that gas chambers were a mere detail of the Second World War. But while wondering how any decent person could vote for such a party, I recognise that the sort of community tensions that produce such support need to be addressed. I am just rather more even-handed ...

French Connexion: so long Blighty - la rentrée arrive

It's that time of year already. The London hibernation is almost over, as I explain to readers of the new edition of The Connexion, the monthly newspaper for English speakers in France. The good and bad lists for each country are a lot longer than I had room for, of course.

I'll miss Tesco vouchers that make Intermarché look less generous than Victorian coal-owners. I'll miss family and vibrant London life but I won't miss being invited by restaurant staff to a) pay for bread and b) add a tip even after being hit for a whacking service charge. I do not look forward to seeing a lot more of Marine Le Pen on the box, but at least Ukip will recede from my viewing life (until the climax of the general election campaign, when I fear even France will take an interest) ...

Why on earth spend winter wrapped up against the cold in the UK, people ask, when there’s warmth in the south of France?

French Connexion: down with the guillotine

One further piece of unfinished business remains before I bring you some words and pictures from Cuba. My most recent column for The Connexion, a monthly newspaper for English speakers in France, dealt with capital punishment and the inevitable clamour for its return after the despicable events in Paris last month. Erik, our tour guide in Cuba, would quarrel with my conclusions ...

French Connexion: mud, tears and hellfire from Valérie Trierweiler, a woman scorned

As I ploughed through Merci Pour Ce Moment, the French former first lady Valérie Trierweiler's merciless demolition of François Hollande, I experienced several changes of emotion.

These included moments of sympathy for her; if only half of it is true, Hollande was a rotten partner. Her modest origins have instilled sounder values. He was contemptuous of her life and work, interested only in his power and her responsibilities as consort.

Yet she was a loose cannon, constantly liable to embarrass and damage him. She was insanely jealous long before there was cause to be. For a journalist, she was spectacularly naive about, and lacking in understanding of, the inevitable impact on their lives of his overwhelming new challenges as president. And, again for a journalist, she was irrational about the nature of media interest.

The book gives rare insight into the personality, massive warts and all, of a serving president. Perhaps even a woman scorned ought to have waited until he was no longer president, but he arguably brought that inconvenience on himself.

For my latest column in The Connexion, a monthly newspaper for English speakers in France, I considered what the affair tells us of France's high-minded but two-faced attitude towards rights to privacy. Here, more or less, it is ...

French Connexion: Boris's London versus Hidalgo's Paris. One winner or gagnant gagnant?

For my latest column in The Connexion, a monthly newspaper for English speakers in France, it was agreed I should write about the competing virtues of London and Paris. I had no doubt which city I preferred but found it a tall order to make out a conclusive argument based on factual comparison alone. It must be an affair of the heart. Here, more or less, is the column ...

French Connexion: fait maison or not, the sauce Hollandaise is off

Here is my second column for The Connexion, the monthly newspaper produced in Monaco for English speakers in France. You see the little symbol alongside the dishes offered in the French ministry of the economy's illustration of the new fait maison scheme intended to promote fresh, home-produced cooking and preparations in restaurants.

Good to see some andouillettes passing the test, though I am a chips-not-mash man for preferred accompaniment. But should we actually expect any improvement in the increasingly disappointing standards customers in French restaurants have to endure? I doubt it but we shall see.

This, with a political tailpiece, is as written for, and largely as published by, The Connexion ...