In response to a chapter of the book that was published this month in Prospect Magazine, Arthur Goldhammer cautions me:
“Ms. Wadham needs to take a cold shower. True, Yasmina Reza did overhear Sarko telling another pol that “nous [referring to the French political class as a whole] sommes des bêtes sexuelles.” But the president wears elevator shoes. Surely that has to be a turn-off, even supposing that voters were waiting to be ravished…”
Tex_Exile comments: “Reading this piece, one learns more about Ms Wadham than about Sarko or the French electorate. One cannot but wonder if her attitude towards the president is not tainted by her frustration that he did not pursue what his eyes had tacitly promised her.”
Touché!
I shouldn’t be, I know, but I am little amazed by the puritanical responses to my remarks about Sarko as a sex dwarf. I’m also amused and faintly gratified that this was the only part of the chapter to have drawn any comment: it only confirms my belief that in Anglo-Saxon societies, Eros walks in shackles.
I will go and take that cold shower now and hope that my wantonness abates.
The Secret Life of France 
your blog is good. but being with you even better. by saying nothing to me about my seeming perpetually suspended creativity you have induced me to blogism.
Minorbird
you are up to mischief as usual! xx I look forward to our mtg in London – no shackles with me my friend xx
Whether or not the book is any good, I can confirm that in England, Eros walks in shackles.
Read the book, Andrei. It’s well worth the price and you may learn something to your advantage.
Je ne parle pas du livre, Lucy, mais plutôt de votre blog et quelques discutions/articles (les vôtres!) autour du livre qui soulignent cet aspect “personnel” de la vie politique française. Que le livre peut contenir beaucoup d’autre chose, c’est possible, mais parce que je m’intéresse davantage à l’interaction online, j’espère que vous pouvez les faire sortir dans votre blog (aussi pour promouvoir le livre!). Staying tuned for the most secret aspects of life of France and in France. Bonnes retrouvailles!
Je pense, Andrei, qu’il va falloir le lire, helas, avant de juger les merites – ou non – de mon livre…
C’est un peu leger de juger le tout a partir de si peu.
Bien a vous,
Lucy
Indeed, Lucy, what is really “shameless” (with a reference to your previous post here) is that you promise so much (“The Secret Life of France”, oh, “Les mystères de Paris”, excitant!) and give so little. Tell us something truly interesting about France or at least your life in France. By this time you should have already discovered that “romantic” illusions about France as a land of “love everywhere” is a too banal mistake. In real life French people know how to be quite reasonable, first of all, and today they are maybe even somewhat too “mercantile” (but it happens everywhere, of course). It’s evident that they voted for Sarkozy playing a role of a “hard” leader as an answer to growing real “disorder” problems in social environment (uncontrolled immigration, etc.) and economy. In fact, the same has happened with formally “left” but looking particularly “energetic” (“problem-solving”) Obama, and most probably the same tendency will soon appear more clearly in your native Britain, as well as everywhere else: in time of much greater turmoil and uncertainty, people tend massively to support at least externally “stronger” leaders. Sorry, baby, sex has nothing to do with it, it’s just banal politics (although the underlying situation is finally moving far from banal!).
So, tell us something about French life in proportion to the announcement: les vrais mystères, s’il vous plaît, madame! Or at least something new, or in the very least your own exciting relations with Eros in France so much missing (apparently) in the good old England. If nothing else, just tell us that there is no secret life of France any more, nothing new or really interesting. As they say in such cases, a negative result is also a result. Can we hope, for example, for a new French revolution? A least a small one? Let me hope that while you’re there, an opportunity remains… (but it’s too late for a sexual revolution, alas 🙂 ).