In 1806, after a siege of a month, Ragusa surrendered to the French.

But that is merely an alibi that allows the French to claim that they have nothing against reform in principle, but that the reforms being proposed are riddled with injustice.

What cuisine is to the French, soccer is to Brazilians a matter of the highest national pride.

For the French, as for all Europeans, the EU is not a foreign entity, and its decisions are an integral part of domestic policies.

The Battle of Ko Chang took place on 17 January 1941 during the Franco Thai War and resulted in a decisive victory by the French over the Royal Thai Navy.

Unlike the French, who are handicapped by the high cost of housing, Germans purchasing power is more harmoniously distributed, creating more room for household consumption to contribute to economic growth.

The passage in 1774 of the Quebec Act, which guaranteed French Canadians free practice of Catholicism in the Province of Quebec, provoked complaints from some Americans that the British were introducing Popish principles and French law .

Merkel will have to explain the inconvenient truth to Germans that the price of having the euro is inevitably a transfer and economic union, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will have to make clear to the French the price of a real economic and stability union.

And one could multiply the subjects of possible tensions, from nuclear disarmament too much for the French, too little for many others to the best ways to deal with Iran, Russia, and China.

The chief engineer was John Henry Bastide who had been present at the first siege of Louisbourg in 1745 and was chief engineer at Fort St Philip, Minorca, in 1756 when the British had surrendered the fort and the island to the French after a long siege.

Thanks to its moderate housing costs, Berlin has not become, like Paris, a ghetto for the rich. Unlike the French, who are handicapped by the high cost of housing, Germans purchasing power is more harmoniously distributed, creating more room for household consumption to contribute to economic growth.

For the French, the US position will force a reevaluation of the importance of Africa in France s global strategy, given that the government s 2008 white paper on defense clearly minimized the continent s importance, most likely to justify a reduction in French ground forces.

The fate of those who began working at a very early age, or of women who interrupted work to raise their children, is used as an argument against reform. But that is merely an alibi that allows the French to claim that they have nothing against reform in principle, but that the reforms being proposed are riddled with injustice.