La Parisienne of Cafébabel.com

The day after the Italian elections, my mailbox is set upon by continuous emails full of deception, incredulity, despise (for the Italy of Berlusconi-Bossi) and resignation to the centre-right leader’s results, who has been in the limelight of the political scene for the past 15 years.

There is something particular in having bright blond hair in Paris. I have always thought that people with goldilocks enjoy as special status in this city, but now I am convinced we are not only considered eccentric but nearly as endangered species. I was once walking on the street when a car stuffed with guys passed by. The comment was as eloquent as it was profound: “Look, there is a blond walking on the street!”

This year, the NATO summit took place in Romania from April 2nd to April 4th.  . Besides the membership agreements which ended up with the entrance  of Croatia and Albania and the refusal of Georgia and Ukraine, this should have been a crucial event of international policy. After the Nicolas Sarkozy’s statements concerning, on the one hand, France’s reintegrating NATO’s integrated command structures and, on the other hand, the common destiny of NATO and the EU, we expected revolutionary declarations… but “revolutionary is not part of the international language.

The memory dated back to 15 years ago. 1993, the Olympique de Marseille team won the Champion’s league cup. Since that day: it seems like the desert. No French club has succeeded in reaching the top European football heights. While the Real Madrid won the prestigious cup nine times, seven times for the Milan AC, Liverpool chalked it up five times, four times for the Bayern of Munich; compared to this prize lists, French performances look pale.