Kathryn, some of us have been saying for a while that M. Sarkozy cannot be France’s Reagan or Thatcher because the French people are not in the mood the American and British people were in in 1979/80. That said, the appointment of Hubert Védrine as Foreign Minister seems to mock even those with only the most modest expectations of Sarko. It’s not that M. Védrine is anti-American but that his anti-Americanism is founded mostly on Chiracesque snobbery – he was the chap who started all that talk about ghastly Yank simplisme in the wake of the Afghan campaign five years ago.

What next? Jean-Pierre Chevènement for Defense Minister? M. Chevènement is the cabinet minister who said American culture was dedicated to “the organized cretinization of our people”, which is a cute line but sounds better if you’ve never had the misfortune to sit through a weekend of French TV.