Sunday, August 12, 2007

Ouway le montagne bike trail?

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's vacation in the USA seems to be cause for plenty of chuckling.

I had to laugh at the big flap in France about Nico Sarko daring - -and deigning -- to set foot stateside for his vacances. Who does he think he is, anyway? Shouldn't he just go to some two-star campground like everybody else? Maybe he'd run into some of the Socialist party mucky-mucks who are criticizing his choice of destination! Right...

And Meredith over on Poppy Fields brought up an interesting hypothesis about Cecilia Sarkozy's sudden case of a sore throat right before she would have been spending the day with Bush. Could she have faked it all to get out of the photo... "ops?"

Now Bush is claiming he would be delighted to holiday in France...as long as he could hit the open mountain bike trail:

" Asked by reporters if he would be willing to follow Sarkozy's example and take a vacation away from home, Bush said: 'Of course I would ... there's some spectacular spots around the world ... great places to relax.'

What about France, if Sarkozy should invite him? 'Absolutely. Absolutely. Particulary if he could find a place for me to ride my mountain bike,' responded Bush, who is an avid enthusiast of the sport."

(Extract from "Bush would holiday in France, if he could go biking," The Economic Times)


S'il vous puh-leeease!

4 comments:

wcs said...

If Bush ever does go out of the country for a vacation, it certainly won't be while he's sitting as president. It's just bad form for a national leader to say, through his actions, that there's nothing worth seeing in one's own country.

Even if it's just a jaunt to a private estate (like the Bush ranch in Crawford or the estate in Kennebunkport), it's still spending money at home rather than abroad - you know, investing in your own country and all that patriot stuff they spout.

I think the criticism of Sarko comes from how he retreats to off-shore places at the invitation of his wealthy friends. Remember right after the election ? Private yacht in Malta, or was it Ibiza ?

And to top it all of, he flew back to France from the US for a funeral then back again to New Hampshire to continue his vacation.

And to go cozy up to Bush of all people. Ick.

Rant over. ;)

Betty Carlson said...

I see your point. But then why didn't he just say that there are so many great things to see in the USA that he prefers to vacation here? (As if he ever sees any of them because he's on his ranch all of the time...)

And why that inane comment about mountain biking? It would seem like he could come up with ONE interesting thing to do in France that was specific to France!

Betty Carlson said...

As for Sarkozy, I also see your point but feel -- as I'm sure I made clear -- that all this outrage about his trips is just going to backfire and, as I said on My European Scrapblog, keep him in the media eye even more.

wcs said...

I'll bet you're right about that...