It is formed of both a French section and British section. The former focusses on the French baccalaureate, whilst the concentrates on GCSEs and A-levels. One automatically starts in the French section before deciding at the age of 14 whether or not to switch to the British section.
Though one "united" institution, it appears the British Section staff and pupils were excluded and not invited to attend a gathering hosted by President Sarkozy yesterday. French section staff and pupils were welcomed, the British section was not. One can imagine the displeasure caused.
So much for the new 'entente formidable'!
One of the things that I respect about France is its unbending policy of "France and French People First" so it is logical that only the french section would have been invited. Compare and contrast with the British (atually English) policy of "After You" that invites the rest of the world to walk over us.
ReplyDeleteshould be entente degoutante, if the pictures of brown and sarkozy on this blog are anything to go by.
ReplyDeletePetty Iain
ReplyDeleteThis talk of "Entente Formidable" or "Amicale" is so much rubbish.
ReplyDeleteFrance will ALWAYS put french interests first when the chips are down although there was a certain excrutiating pleasure in watching MPs, especially in the Labour Party, having to sit through M.Sarkozy's speech where he misguidedly assumed(natural enough I suppose) that we British had a respect for our past history etc when this government has done all in its power to destroy any sense of national identity and the majority of state schools don't actually teach British history and a large section of kids don't even know that Churchill was our leader in WW2 and not a bulldog selling insurance !
iain, the bottom line of the spectacular visit by Nicholas and his Empress, was that the Tory idea of Europe wa killed stone dead.
ReplyDeleteLook very closely what happened and I think you'll see that any attempt by the Hague/Cash Tories to ressurect another campaign of anti Europeanism, will be seen as simply futile.
Brown actually looked like a leader and not just an economic bookworm.
Quite simply, stunning.
Be warned.
Gary
I think, after getting lost, Gordon was a bit confused and thought he was asking Sarky & Carly to join him in his big tent ie the "entente formidable"!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like a cliche but the French in London are very arrogant and stay in little cliques. If you have the misfortune to sit next to 2 or more of them they will converse exclusively in French and ignore everyone else. They really do believe that they are the great global civilisation. Admittidly their contribution to the arts and sciences dwarfs Britains but they are insufferably up their own derriers.
ReplyDeleteTapestry - any photo which features Gordon Brown is going to be repulsive, but in that shot, the revulsion one feels looking at Brown and his overweight wife's simply ghastly outfit was ameliorated by the very attractive and chic M et Mme Sarkozy. They drew the eye away and settled the stomach.
ReplyDeleteI think your point is a bit silly, Iain, as presumably the French section is going to be the French citizens whilst the British much less so. They were being asked to meet their President - it wasn't the part of the visit to meet British people.
ReplyDeleteWould it have been better if it had just been open to French citizens, which would have split classes and meant that some children with one French and one British parent would have had to "come out" one way or the other?
Verily in print gives me the dry boke.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing wrong with a bit of a curve in the hips.
Vive la rapprochement is what I say, and oblivion to ignorant pointless inane pathetic flea-bitten loners like Verily!
Stuff the Enetente stuff - the French are the French. And for that matter the Scots appear to be the scots.
ReplyDeleteThe alliance that was being renewed this week wasn't the entente cordial, but the Auld Alliance.
Gordon is seen as just the Scot to keep those freedom loving, Anglo-Saxon capitalists at bay.
I really don't like comparisons about which nation has the most important scientists, artists, whatever, but I think that saying France's output dwarfs our is pushing things just a tad far. Perhaps we could say we are about equal.
ReplyDeleteOh, and don't forget the first great haute couture house was started by an Englishman, and another Englishman designed Mme Sarkozy's clothes for Dior.
It appears to be a matter of bureaucracy, though I'd have to disagree with Londoner, the fact that some were excluded on grounds of citizenship is clearly discrimination. If all are members of the same school surely all should be invited to prevent this sort of embarassment? Impressing only those that are able to vote and ignoring those working for you, or paying fees to study at the institution is simply unjustifiable.
ReplyDeleteleroastbeuf said...
ReplyDelete"Admittidly their contribution to the arts and sciences dwarfs Britains ...."
Most certainly not true in relation to science.
e.g.
Nobel prizes in Chemistry or Physics:
France 17
Britain 46