"How to divide belongings in a divorce" - according to one French man

Another silly season summer story from France, although clearly the ending could have been quite different had the police not turned up in time.

It could be one of those tales brought to you as a big screen comedy such as the 1980s film "War of the Roses" starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner, in which material possessions became the centre of an outlandish divorce battle between the two main protagonists.

But last weekend, in what is apparently a true story, a husband here in France went to extremes and literally followed his wife's wishes "to the letter" that the couple's belongings be shared fifty-fifty in their divorce.

As reported in the daily newspaper serving the northeastern French regions of Champagne, Ardenne and Picardie, a marital dispute was reported to the police on Sunday.

When they turned up at the family home at Rocroi, not far from the French-Belgian border, they discovered the husband "armed" with a chain saw busily splitting the couple's goods in half - as per his soon-to-be ex-wife's insistence in the divorce proceedings.

He had already made his way through the couple's sofa, the dining room table and the computer, and fearing that his behaviour might escalate and take on more dramatic proportions - namely his previously "better half" - the police successfully sought to calm him down and restore peace, according to the newspaper.

How exactly the couple will share the furniture which came under the saw isn't clear. Presumably it'll be consigned to the local dump.

Nor is it clear how the husband would have intended splitting the chain saw in half once he had finished with everything else!

One thing's likely though. Reconciliation is probably not on the cards.