Saw Le Monde correspondent Corine Lesnes speak at SAIS yesterday evening about "le divorce" of Nicolas Sarkozy, when host Justin Vaisse plugged her blog, Big Picture. Lesnes, a fashionable Frenchwoman of a certain age, well-dressed, well coiffed, and with a big smile, was--bien sur--very catty about Sarkozy, pointing out his low marks at university (he failed his final exam!); his bad French (oooh la la!), his immigrant stock (not exactly news), and his appeals to the right and co-optation of the left (is that supposed to bad?). After bashing Sarkozy for doing everything himself--and all at once to fox his opponents--while sidelining the prime minister (Francois Fillon, according to Wikipedia, although Lesnes did not mention his name), Lesnes then complimented Sarkozy for calling her boss, the director of Le Monde, personally dialing the number on his own phone.So what's the problem?
Since Lesnes said everyone is talking about Sarkozy's divorce, I went to her blog to find out more. But when I got there, it was even more interesting to this Washingtonian--Lesnes has posts about John Bolton's latest book, and taxis in DC switching from the Zone System (my preference) to Meters (tick, tick, tick while stuck in traffic). And, by the way, Sarkozy is coming to town on November 7th (where's my invitation?).