Sadly, all this quaint old-worldliness was soon to disappear, making way for two landmark constructions. First, the Bercy stadium is big enough to house windsurfing demonstrations and motor-cycle races.
Then there's the home of France's treasury ministry, on the right bank of the Seine. It's a curiously-shaped building, like the start of a bridge that had to be abandoned, maybe because they ran out of funds. I often used to think that this building is designed in such a way that, if ever a treasury minister were to act in an unskilled way that forced France into bankruptcy, he would be able to put an end to his disgrace, effortlessly, by wandering to the end of the upper-floor hallway and jumping out the window into the noble river of Paris. His body would then float down past the Ile de la Cité where the people of Paris, thronged around the great cathedral of Notre-Dame, could hurl invective upon the corpse of the minister as it passed by. An event of that kind would indeed be very Parisian.
As of today, a brilliant woman named Christine Lagarde is holding the purse strings of the French Republic in her hands. In this role, she ranks fourth in the hierarchy of the French government. Prior to becoming the first woman to occupy this position in France, the lawyer Lagarde, with a natural gift for oratory, was accustomed to being a very big chief. In 1999, she had been placed in charge of the major US law firm, Baker & McKenzie in Chicago, with 2,400 associates. Not bad for a French female!What exactly was it, in the profile of Christine Lagarde, that persuaded Nicolas Sarkozy to hand over to her the "reins of Bercy" (to employ a metaphor that's often applied to this ministry)? Well, she's something of a Martian in France, where the political milieu is not accustomed to the idea of a woman who evolves in the English-speaking world like a fish in water (as the French saying goes). It's a fact that we shouldn't expect this grand lady to ever set foot in such-and-such a French village to see if the local vineyard or cheese-making firm is getting along well, but she will surely be a precious diplomatic asset for France at the next World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in 2008. In other words, Christine Lagarde might be seen as a symbol of the desire of Sarkozy to move away, once and for all, from the false but enduring image of France as a land of wine, cheese and economic frivolity.
Well, she's something of a Martian in France, where the political milieu is not accustomed to the idea of a woman who evolves in the English-speaking world like a fish in water (as the French saying goes).
ReplyDeleteIndeed! The journalists on France Inter seemed to be very jealous of this woman speaking fluent English!
As for France's treasury ministry, like you I think that it looks like a "bridge that had to be abandoned, maybe because they ran out of funds". But the story I imagine, every time I pass under this building, is different from your’s. I don’t think that French politicians – or politicians, in general – have such values as "disgrace" or "honor" (we had some examples). So, my story goes: if France is about to experience bankruptcy, the employees of the ministry are supposed to throw all documents out of the windows, right into the river – "ni vu, ni connu" as the French saying goes...
Back in the days when Valérie Giscard d'Estaing was the minister of finance, he and his services were housed in a northern wing of the Louvre... which meant that they were often referred to metaphorically as "the Rue de Rivoli". I was always amused by the idea that the financial resources of the République were managed from inside a museum! That situation was in harmony with the old notion that financial wealth only becomes respectable in France when it's a few generations old. Peoople whose wealth is more recent are thought of as nouveaux riches.
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