Once Upon A Time In France: Scandals, Vaccines, And Wine Thieves
And more scandals!
Bonne année! We spent our first Christmas season in the Paris region hitting some of the city’s classic clichés, including the obligatory stop at the Galeries Lafayette, which is France’s holiday shopping cheer equivalent to the Higbee’s department story in A Christmas Story. Well, maybe a touch fancier.
And the view from the roof top, well, one can’t complain.
But the bizarre two-week holiday will mainly be remembered for the COVID buzzkill which gutted the typically over-the-top New Year’s celebrations. And so after a relatively subdued vacances, the French returned to work and school last week. Yet even for the Monday morning alarm clocks rang, the scandals and a fresh wave of complaining had begun.
Over the first weekend of the new year, the French suddenly realized the government’s vaccination plans seemed to be a bit of a disaster. According to a EuroNews report on that Sunday, France had only vaccinated 352 people compared to 1.1 million in Israel and more than 1 million in the U.K. By Sunday, that number was up to 516.
For a couple of days, the French engaged in the national pastime of handwringing and fingerpointing. Various hashtags related to France’s vaccination situation were trending on Twitter as people expressed their incredulity over the puny number of vaccines that had been administered. Was it government incompetence? Were government officials just kowtowing to France’s widespread anti-vaxx sentiment? Even more scandalous: It was revealed in shocking tones that the French government had hired McKinsey to consult on its vaccination strategy!
After insisting all was going according to plan, the government then did some backflips to announce it was accelerating its otherwise perfect plan. France is unlikely to meet its goal of 1 million vaccinations by the end of January, but things seemed to be heading in the right direction.
Unless you happen to run a bar or restaurant or ski lift. Which in that case, you’re pretty much hosed for the next few weeks. France’s daily caseload didn’t fall far enough to hit the milestones for re-opening those establishments. The government is promising to deliver more financial aid to those sectors. But owners insisted they are on their deathbed because the French are never lacking for dramatic flair when it comes to expressing existential fears.
Meanwhile, In Other Scandals…
The French establishment was rocked by the resignation of Sciences Po political scientist Olivier Duhamel. Maybe not a household name in the U.S., but Duhamel was the insider’s insider in France. Among his many duties, he was president of the National Foundation of Political Sciences, the body in charge of the financial management and the strategic orientations of the institute of Parisian political studies.
At least he was, until the contents of an upcoming book became public. In La Familia grande, lawyer Camille Kouchner accused Duhamel of having sexually assaulted her twin brother, then a teenager, for several years. On his way out the door, Duhamel insisted he was the victim of moralists and people who wanted to silence him. But on a larger scale, this is part of France’s belated reckoning with the way the establishment has often protected men accused of harassement and pedophilia.
The scandal-plagued year, only 5 days old, may have reached its peak (or nadir?) with the arrival of #LissageGate. A French minister had gone to the hairdresser to have her hair straightened and then posted about it on her Instagram and thanked the hairdressers. And thus was she accused of…gasp…product placement! With #LissageGate trending on Twitter the same day insurrectionists were storming the U.S. Capitol, her hairdresser was invited onto news programs to deny that there had been a deal.
Dreams of France
Maybe you can’t travel here. But you can begin fantasizing about your next visit. One stop to consider: Chartres. We visited this city about an hour southwest of France over the winter holiday which is known for its artistic bent and the spectacular stained glass windows of its Notre Dame Cathedral (La cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres). I’ll write more about this soon. But here is just a little glimpse:
Great Reads
One story not to be missed is this lovely profile of the monks who make Chartreuse. The pandemic has helped transform Paris into a biking haven. French President Emmanuel Macron still wants to make the French language a thing again on the global stage. Fatburger opened its first restaurant in Paris, because even if the French think Americans are destroying their culture, they still can’t get enough of our hamburgers. Although these French cola makers are getting ready to wage war against the “fortress” of Coca-Cola.
And finally, one doesn’t know whether to be horrified or to salute the daring of thieves who broke into a Burgundy luxury hotel on two consecutive nights to steal about €350,000 worth of wine. On the second night, the owner caught wind and called the fuzz, who gave chase but, as The Guardian’s Kim Willsher tells us:
A gang of wine thieves turned to the closest thing at hand when they discovered French gendarmes in hot pursuit of their van.
The burglars, who were making off with an estimated €350,000 (£317,000) worth of grands crus Burgundy wines, began hurling their loot at officers as they sped down the motorway at high speed.
The thieves got away.
Chris O’Brien
Toulouse, France