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Blair should follow Churchill's tack in dealing with the French

By Eric Waugh
featureseditor@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
11 August 2004

I have hazy recollections of Marc Cecillon, the huge six-feet-three lock forward on the French rugby team who retired five years ago. He scored nine international tries and captained the international XV.

But last Saturday M. Cecillon, now 45 and the father of two daughters, went to a party with his wife, Chantal, a medical secretary, at Saint Savin, a village near their home, 25 miles along the eastern autoroute out of Lyons which leads towards the mountains round Chambery.

It was an open-air party. There were about 60 there, mostly French rugby players, past and present. As is not unusual on social occasions built round the camaraderie of the oval ball, there was a fair amount to drink.

In fact M. Cecillon, a former pastrycook, was said by friends late in the evening to be drunk himself. Accounts differ in detail; but it seems the large Frenchman had been arguing with his wife before they went to the party and had more loud words with her at it.

Just after eleven o'clock he left without her. He went back to their home, about five miles away, returning to the party just before midnight. Seeking out his wife, he produced a pistol before the assembled company and shot her three times in the head and throat.

As his wife collapsed, panic gripped the guests; but a group of Cecillon's ex-colleagues had enough presence of mind to seize him. He sustained blows to the head and was taken to hospital.

There he slept off his drunkenness, to awake on Sunday morning to be told the horrific tale. He is now in a prison cell charged with murder.

French rugby captains do not normally shoot their wives; but the tale does drive home a hard truth - that the French as a people can be wilful and headstrong to the point of violence.

Their driving manners are notorious. So much so that they have now captured from the Germans the doubtful distinction of killing more people on their roads than any other nation in the EU.

This wilfulness is also translated into shameless defence of the national interest. On the State-sensitive television service, the news is blatantly managed to that end.

President Bush attends an EU summit outside Limerick and gets nine seconds on the main evening bulletin at eight o'clock. But the American fat boy, Michael Moore, presenting his mendacious tract, Fahrenheit Nine-Eleven, on the same day at Cannes, gets several minutes. The decisive factor is that Moore, being anti-Bush, accords with the national interest.

It is held to be important to the national interest that the Germans be kept on board as joint spearhead of the EU project; so a hotel used by business people in central France carries a bold notice in the restaurant that all meats served are from France and Germany.

In the bedrooms there are French and German channels on the piped television - but no English: which is difficult for guests, such as the Japanese in front of me at the check-out, who speaks English to the clerk and pays with an Anglo-Saxon Visa card.

The British flock to France year by year because there is a national love of the French countryside, of its food, its space and the relics of its antiquity.

But when it comes to negotiating rites of passage in Brussels, it seems that sentiment is allowed to cloud British national judgement.

Churchill did not make the same mistake. Winston loved lolling in the sun on Cap Ferrat; his great heroine was Joan of Arc. But he took his cue from de Gaulle, who warned in 1945: "We shall stun you with our ingratitude".

I once wandered round de Gaulle's home on the edge of the sleepy village of Colombey-les Deux Eglises. All the photographs in the study carry flattering dedications - except Churchill's, which is economically inscribed: "To President de Gaulle from Winston Churchill". There was not a single volume in English on the bookshelves.

De Gaulle saw mechanised war coming in 1939: his superiors did not - and had no stomach for a fight. Winston knew it, and never forgave their making a separate peace with Hitler.

Blair needs to summon up a similar resolve as he confronts the excesses of the proposed EU Constitution.

The French, sensibly, look after No 1 - and give not two figs whom it annoys.

I swear thats the truth , the whole truth , so help me god .

This wilfulness is also translated into shameless defence of the national interest. On the State-sensitive television service, the news is blatantly managed to that end.

First of all, good for the Frenchies - I wish our own country acted in its own interests instead of listening to our red-press that does nothing but inspire self loathing among Americans.

Having said that; the French are total assholes, but the Europeans who are letting them sucker them into a political European Union are even bigger assholes. If they let the Frenchies take them down the road that has lead France to the crumbling state it is in, than they all deserve what they get.

So why Winston wanted France in the security council ?

The guy who wrotes the article drink too much Guinness !
why did he spoke about Marc Cecillon ?

he produced a pistol before the assembled company and shot her three times in the head and throat

So what ?
Everybody do that in France. It's a tradition !

He starts from the murder committed by a drunk Marc Cecillon on his wife with along list of details on the party on the couple; remembers his acts as the captain of the French rugby beam; agress that " French rugby captains do not normally shoot their wives (Thanks God!!); then reach the direct conclusion that " the French as a people can be wilful and headstrong to the point of violence." To draw a conclusion on a 60 million people from ONe case is a littel short on reasoning!!!

Then he goes to "Their driving manners"; Makes a big mistake by adding that" they have now captured from the Germans the doubtful distinction of killing more people on their roads than any other nation in the EU." Which is stunning when road fatalities have gone down over 20% in one year in France!!!

Then he proceeds to the "State-sensitive television service" and places face to face "President Bush" with "nine seconds" at Limerick (he was one among several) and Michael Moore, presenting his mendacious tract, Fahrenheit Nine-Eleven with "several minutes" (but Michael Moore was the Cannes winner

He proceeds by complaining about too much friendship in Central france hotels (sic) between France and Germany while English-speaking tourits would be second-class (ignoring that for one Frnecman speakin German, fives at least speak English).

Only German and French meat would be served; in bedrooms, only Gereman-speaking and French-speaking TV channels (the first I hear and/or see that: i run into much more many French+English than French+German!!)

We learn that the British the French countryside, its food, its space and the relics of its antiquity. (Yes we know: the English loves EVERYTHING and EVERYONE in France but the Frenchmen; or "France would be P E R F E C T, if..... if there was NO Frenchmen!!"

And from here he jumps straight to the "negotiating rites of passage in Brussels". And sham on the UK Govt: his sentiment is allowed to cloud its (British) national judgement.

Witness are called: Old Winston himself!! He loved Cap Ferrat and Joan of Arc (Saignante? Bleue? Ou à point??). But Winston was warned by De Gaulle himself: "We shall stun you with our ingratitude". Ah!! Ah! Aaaahhh!

A jump to Colombey: Winston svaed his ink on the his photograph: "To President de Gaulle from Winston Churchill". Et crime de lèse majesté: not a single volume in English on the bookshelves.

One paragraph on De Gaulle "seeing the mechanized war". And ,hop! Blair and the "excesses of the proposed EU Constitution."

Leading without link or shame to the conclusion: "The French, sensibly, look after No 1 - and give not two figs whom it annoys."

From a murder of a wife by a drunk former rugby captain to "Frenchmen are always full on ingratitude": have you been able to follow the trail of the reasoning???

I was not and I would give an "E" ; not an "F" (failure) because it is grammatically well written!!

of Guinness. No other way to explain it.

And thnaks God, he had no Magnum .357 next to him. This saved the life of his wife!!!

The French word for gratitude is "la gratitude," probably because they had to borrow the word from English as the concept has little meaning in French culture.

Take a look at Quebec: La Nouvelle France was conquered more than 200 years ago yet they were allowed by the liberal British to keep their language and religion (Catholicism); a couple of centuries later, the Quebecois use the Anglo-Saxon democratic political system to limit the cultural rights of the Anglophone minority and commit a form of ethnic cleansing.

Make no mistake about it: the English-speaking countries also practise policies of self-interest, but of the benign sort that often characterize the successful and benefit others. The French are not so much concerned with self-interest but with a selfish revenge against those who, by being generous toward them, exposed their failures and shortcomings, rather than their enemies (whom we defeated on their behalf).

Quebec suffered economically by oppressing its anglophone minority but the nationalists enjoyed it as long as the relative position of the Quebecois improved. France will not benefit in any absolute way by thwarting the United States and diminishing benevolent American power in the world except in psychological terms, clear signs of a society that suffers a pathological (and well-deserved) inferiority complex.

P.S. I agree that the article is one big non sequitur.

but the tale does drive home a hard truth - that the French as a people can be wilful and headstrong to the point of violence.

This statement is a lie.

I was sitting bored at a pub one time when I noticed three frogs accross from my table. They really pissed me off after constantly slurring "le" this na "la" that, so I went over and smacked one of them right on his jaw.

The frog hit the floor hard. He later recovered, and, surpricingly, he simply began asking questions instead of fighting me like a man. The whole scene was pathetic. There he was, about to get the worst ass-beating of his life, and all he wanted to do was "talk this thing."

Meanwhile, his two friends sat close by and watched...unbelievable!

These French men were true cowards. Had this guy been an American or even an Australian, it would have been an awesome brawl.

Reminds me of a story.

Four people were sitting in a train car: an old woman, a young woman, a Frenchman and a Brit.

The train went into a tunnel and when they came out the Frenchman had a black eye.

The old woman thought, "That nasty Frenchman must have made a pass at that young woman and she hit him."

The young woman thought, "That French guy must have groped that poor old woman and she decked him."

The Frenchman thought, "That Brit must have made a pass at the young woman and she thought it was me and punched me in the eye."

The Brit thought, "I can't wait to go through another tunnel so I can smack that French cunt again."

lol@Ihatefrance... When the situation demands force, for those French, self-preservation means a squirm and accepting it up the ass.