VAN EEN CORRESPONDENT

Dear All,

Curiously I was watching a movie yesterday called “The Shooting Party” with James Mason, John Gielgud, Dorothy Tutin and Edward Fox of ‘Day of the Jackal’ fame.  Fox has those craggy, good looks mixed with a kind ageing process as well as that very distinctive and exciting rasping voice. Wonderful!!!

Steve’s comments about a Presidential visit to Paris are very apropos as I believe it was yesterday that Xi Jinping visited Paris. The same bolted down process. They laid it on with a trowel, completing the circus with a banquet a la Louis XIV style in Versailles with a great French chef preparing the delicacies. Entirely appropriate for a Communist ruler with capitalism boosting his power. Delicious irony.

Jenny and I are also going to France in May. The only cavalcade we will receive is cops chasing us to give a ticket if we exceed the speed limit. They are on a tremendous campaign to reduce mortality on the roads as the French are ( at least in my experience) somewhat aggressive drivers. They are having some success as the fatalities rate was around 8000 to 10000 in the 1990s and now has more than halved. They are handing out tickets for all sorts of things like confetti as a nice little money earner.

Bon weekend.

Tony