Life's a beach for Saudi king

Mirandole beach (screenshot BFM TV news report)

What do you do if you're the king of Saudi Arabia holidaying at your private villa on the Côte d'Azur in the south of France for a month with an entourage of around a 1,000 people and you discover there's a public beach (albeit small) at the foot of where you're staying?


The answer is simple really.

You flout the laws of the land, start constructing your own personal lift (after all, it would be too stressful to have to walk) and block access for anyone else.

It's a story that has been brewing for the past fortnight when French national media began reporting that preparations were underway for the impending one-month-long stay of the king of Saudi Arabia, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, at his luxury villa in the town of Vallauris.

"The White Palace on the water", Vallauris (screenshot BBC news report)

 To avoid any unwanted hoi polloi upsetting the king's holiday plans and to ensure his privacy and security (and that of his family), the Mirandole beach at the foot of the villa was closed temporarily while the necessary construction work (without permits) was undertaken.

Some locals, upset by the manner in which a public beach seemed to have been commandeered without any consultation  were concerned that the closure would be extended for the duration of king's visit.

It's a fear that has become a reality as, even though  Michelle Salucki, the mayor of Vallauris, put a temporary stop to the work and wrote to the French president, François Hollande, to argue against the de facto privatisation of public property, she was overruled by higher powers with the sous-préfet, Philippe Castanet, invoking the need to provide security for a visiting head of state and Hollande...well, not reacting at all.

Yes, it's all a question of security...oh and the not-so-small matter of purchasing power.

Cash rich and shopping happy Saudis apparently come with the reputation of spending - big time.

And several reports have appeared on French telly showing how pleased local (luxury, of course) shop owners are at the prospect of all that lovely lolly passing through their hands.

Sod principles and the fact that public beaches are exactly that - public - and supposedly accessible (although there are plenty of other exceptions that prove the rule) to all.

And ditto for the petition that has so far attracted over 100,000 signatures insisting that the beach should be "available for the benefit of all".

"I'm talking about the equality of citizens before the law and the respect of coastal law," local councillor Jean-Noel Falcou said in  BBC news report (see, this story has captured the interest of media outside of France).

"A natural area, a public beach, is an inalienable. It's part of our common property. The point we wanted to make is that not everything can be bought."

Sadly Monsieur Falcou, it appears it can if the power behind the money is one authorities don't wish to offend.



Vallauris: la famille royale saoudienne veut... par afp

France's Rolex-wearing "Ferrari priest" is a free man

Antoine Videau was a bad man; a very, very bad man. But he won't be returning to prison.

Antoine Videau (screenshot from video on Corse Matin report)

As the regional daily Corse Matin reports, the 64-year-old, who was convicted last year of embezzlement, had his sentence reduced on Wednesday by an appeals court and is now effectively a "free man".

In place of the original three years with one year suspended, the man who has been variously dubbed the "Ferrari priest" or the "Rolex priest" in the French media has now been given two years with 16 months suspended.

As he has already served eight months, he will not be returning behind bars.

But the court also ruled that he still had to pay €1.3 million in compensation and put him on probation for three years.

For over 20 years the former priest on the island of Corsica had embezzled more than two million euros and, as the national daily France Soir writes, obviously believed that, "Charity begins with oneself."

Videau had been responsible for managing church property, and when he appeared in court last year, it became evident of just how well he had been doing his job - for his own benefit.

He had cashed in cheques from parishioners, pocketed revenue from a convent on the island which had been converted into a Chambre d'hôtes (bed and breakfast) and diverted funds from the will of an archbishop who died in 1998 and for whom he was the executor into the 28 bank accounts he held on the island nicknamed the Île de Beauté and the Côte d’Azur.

As well as proudly wearing a Rolex, he wasn't averse to turning up at Mass driving a (different) sports car and perhaps most famously organised a "cultural trip" to Las Vegas.

Speaking after Wednesday's ruling Videau's lawyer said the gap between the two decisions had given the courts time to "take measure more accurately the allegations made against his client."

"After the commotion that accompanied the original trial, this hearing was much calmer," Jean-Michel Marriagi told reporters.

"But the civil claims (for compensation) are excessive and don't respect certain rules so there will most certainly be an appeal in the court of cassation."

Hmmmn.

The story of the French couple who spent a year living in a public toilet

The Côte d'Azur, or French riveria as it's often known in English, is internationally renowned as being one of those places that is a playground of the rich and famous.

It's home to a host of cities and resorts that, on paper at least, conjure up images of sun, sea and the good life: Nice, Cannes, Antibes, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Saint Raphaël, Saint Tropez...and so the list goes on.

But of course life in spite of the climate - sunny, hot and dry in summer and relatively mild in winter - is not so wonderful for all that live there.

Such as in the case of 62-year-old Marie Rolin and her 69-year-old husband, Jeannot, who have spent the best part of the past year living in a public toilet in the town of Menton.

The story of how they came to find themselves living in less-than-desirable conditions began after Jeannot fell ill; his diabetes worsening to such an extent that he was hospitalised and had to have one of his legs amputated.

The couple's landlord reportedly took advantage of the situation to repossess their apartment and - to cut a long story short - Marie and Jeannot found themselves homeless.

And without anywhere else to go, they turned to the public conveniences, the place Marie had been cleaning and looking after for around 12 years.

"Some days I spent the whole time scrubbing and trying to get rid of the smells," she told the regional newspaper, Nice Matin, which first broke the story last week.

"And we built a room where we stored household products and somewhere for Jeannot to sleep," she continued.

"For my part, I managed with a camping bed, and to cook, we set up a small kitchen area," she added.

It wasn't as though the couple were resigned to their fate though, and they certainly didn't want to spend the rest of their days living in a public toilet.

"We made housing applications but it was complicated," she told the newspaper.

And in spite of the couple earning about €1,000 a month and being able to pay a modest rent, local authorities didn't appear in any sort of a rush to rehouse them.

Until last week that is.

Their story made it into the national media, being picked up by a radio station, and was heard by Pierre Charon, an advisor to the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

"I heard their daughter interviewed on the radio and found it disgusting that they were living in a public toilet and nobody was doing anything," he said.

"I asked myself what I, as just an advisor the the president, could do to try to get things moving, so I rang Francis Lamy, the prefect (or state representative) in the département of Alpes-Maritimes, who told me he was unaware of their situation," he continued.

"Just three hours later I had a call telling me that a room had been found for the couple in a hotel where they would stay until the authorities had found permanent accommodation for them."

So a happy - if only temporary solution - to the couple's plight has been found with the promise of a more permanent result to come.

But what does it say about our society that their predicament went unnoticed for so long by so many, and that nobody seemed to be in a position to be able to - or to want to - help them out until their story made the headlines?