France's new leader - a woman

I know, I know. I sort of made up my mind not to post again until the New Year, but as with all resolutions, it was perhaps meant to be broken.

But the story rather tickled my fancy, and I thought it worth passing on.

Now here's a thing. France has a new leader until the end of the year. A woman!

"What?" I hear you ask.

"Has there been a coup? An election while we weren't looking? A peaceful transition of power?"

"Has the Socialist party finally got its act together and taken over the Elysée palace with Martine Aubry at the helm?"

Well no. None of those.

Here's the explanation.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, is in Brazil - on holiday until the end of the year with his wife Carla after a couple of days of state and European Union business.

So under normal circumstances, François Fillon, the French prime minister would become this country's "main man" for the duration.

Except guess what, he's on holiday too - in Egypt.

The next in line - politically speaking - would be the number three in the government, Jean-Louis Borloo - the minister of the environment, energy, sustainable development, planning and other bits and pieces.

It's a sort of hotchpotch super-ministry grouping together many deparments under the umbrella of the government's attempt to be as ecologically aware as possible.

Anyway Borloo isn't the man in charge because.....well you probably get the picture by now. He's abroad on holiday too. Destination Morocco.

So that leaves Michèle Alliot-Marie, the interior minister, who is actually remaining in France for the Christmas period (yes some French choose to holiday at home) with her "finger on the button" so to speak, making sure everything ticks over in a hunky-dory fashion.

Alliot-Marie is a safe pair of hands, by most people's reckoning, but there have been a few political eyebrows raised - mainly from the opposition as to how come the top three in government couldn't co-ordinate their diaries a little better to ensure that at least one of them was in the country over the festive season.

Be that as it may, for the moment it's Alliot-Marie who's in charge.

So there you go, a woman in power in France (albeit for just a week) and not an election in sight.