WHEN THE FRENCH GET IT WRONG

PANIC AT LA POSTE, BLUNDER AT LA BANQUE

France has just experienced one of those embarrassing slips that are forgotten by the start of the next news cycle - except by the ones responsible, who are just settling into new jobs at the Clermont-Ferrand branch as Comptoller of Paper Clips.

The government recently decreed a rise in the general rate of post, which has meant new stamps. The basic design won’t really change; for some time, it has shown the profile head of Marianne, that idealised feminine incarnation of France,  topped with her floppy Phyrgian cap. On the new stamp, designed by one Olivier Balez, she has a mass of flowing hair, and, pinned to the cap, a cockade or rosette in red, white and blue.  It looked so well that La Poste decided a copy of the design should be presented to President Macron. 

Hardly had images of the presentation reached the internet than the hoots of derision started. “What a decline in the republican and more broadly historical culture of our country!” proclaimed one. “The new Marianne unveiled with great fanfare by Emmanuel Macron this morning and who will be found on our stamps wears a cockade not French, but British!” The French cockade has a blue center, surrounded by a white, then red circle. The one on the stamp had a red center, bordered in white, then blue - a configuration most familiar as the emblem of Britain’s Royal Air Force.

La Poste,  exhibiting the loyalty for which bureaucracy is famous, disclaimed any responsibility. The image M. Balez gave to M. Macron was, it announced, “a personal gift from the artist”. Balez obligingly fell on his sword.  “The document in question is not the official Marianne of the Post Office competition,” he announced. “It is an image that I created spontaneously as a unique gift to the President I will obviously correct it”.   And pass me that carton of paper clips, will you?

This is not the first such gaffe. Back in 1992, a new fifty-euro note was issued honouring Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, pioneer aviator and author of The Little Prince.  Almost immediately, there were rumours of something…well, wrong about it.

Marie Dominique and I were discussing this in a local restaurant, and peering at one of the notes, when a distinguished elderly waiter paused by our table.

“I see you are intrigued by the error on the new note,” he said. “If you will permit me….”

He took the note and held it up to the light.

“You see, there is an accent acute on the “E” in ‘Saint-Éxupéry’. Which is quite incorrect, of course. Also,” he continued, “you may not be aware that what appear to be dark lines along the top left hand side of the note are in fact words:  a quotation from Le Petit Prince in micro-print. The text, if memory serves, is ‘There was on a star, a planet, mine, the earth, a little prince to console! I took him in my arms.’ Would you care for dessert? Our special this evening in a millefeuille.”

Once the full story came out, the details were even more delicious. Apparently the error was missed by the eagle-eyed fonctionaires of the Banque de France but spotted by a femme de ménage - a maid.  The notes already having been printed, they hurriedly consulted the Académie de France, the forty members of which, known as Les Immortels, are arbiters on all matters of the French language.  Surely there were some circumstances, they pleaded, under which the rules might be relaxed, even ignored? Their refusal was polite but firm. The bank had to publicly confess its blunder, and its branch in Nouvelle Caledonie no doubt benefited from the arrival of some new janitors.

An odd footnote to the Saint-Exupéry debacle. After the waiter gave his explanation and departed to fill our dessert order, we happened to glance across the aisle. Two women at the opposite table, who had obviously overheard him, were also peering at a fifty-franc note. One was the actress Bulle Ogier, the other the novelist Marguerite Duras. We smiled conspiratorially across the aisle. “In the misfortunes of others,” said de Rochefoudauld, “we always find something not altogether displeasing to us.”