MAM voyage - a spoof on French foreign minister's "free" travels

Amid all the recent controversy surrounding the travel arrangements of the French foreign minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, a spoof agency has gone online offering trips to dream destinations at truly unbelievable prices: in fact no price at all.

MAM-voyage.com apparently has some unreal bargains on its books.



Tabarka in Tunisia is knocked down from €1,299 to €0. And a similar great offer for Abou Simbel in Egypt sees prices slashed from €1,899 to €0.

Further bargains include Iran, Côte d'Ivoire and Burma - all at the ridiculously giveaway prices of...well you probably get the idea.

There's a testimonial from (among others) Michèle M. who says, "We had a fabulous time and thank you once again for the free upgrade during our stopover in Tunis."

And François F. (a nod to the French prime minister François Fillion who admitted having "accepted the hospitality" of former Eyptian president Hosni Mubarak while on holiday on the Nile at the New Year) writes, "Luxor, the Valley of the Kings, the magnificence of the Nile ... with MAM it's more than a trip. It's a state of mind"

The whole spoof is topped off with contact details which will put you in touch with the French foreign ministry.

The name MAM-voyage is, of course, a parody of the site of the French tour operator FRAM and at the same time a reference to Alliot-Marie, who is more commonly known in France as MAM.

And it perhaps comes as a welcome, light-hearted relief after the recent controversy surrounding one of France's most experienced and longest-serving government ministers.

MAM (the foreign minister that is) has faced opposition calls to resign ever since it was revealed that she used a private jet while on holiday with her partner Patrick Ollier, who is also a government minister, in Tunisia last December at the beginning of the country's uprising.

The 'plane the couple used was owned by a businessman, Aziz Miled who, it was alleged, had been close to the former Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Although she has since admitted that she "regretted her decision to accept the free flight", MAM has also defended Miled saying he had been a longtime friend and a "victim rather than an ally of Ben Ali."

Calls for her resignation have been renewed this week ever since the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné revealed that MAM and Ollier weren't alone in Tunisia.

They were joined by Alliot-Marie's elderly parents who reportedly signed a property deal with Miled.

It was a deal which 92-year-old Bernard Marie, the foreign minister's father, told France 24 he had been advised to do because it "would be an investment in 2012."

Facing parliamentarians on Wednesday in the National Assembly, MAM hit back at those calling for her resignation and criticised the latest turn of events.

"You keep repeating lies in the hope that they'll turn into the truth," she said, stressing that the after trying to find something with which to tarnish her reputation, opponents had now decided to focus their attention on her parents.

"Have they done anything illegal? No. This campaign is shameful," she said.

"I just want to say quite simply how objectionable it is that you try to use my parents to attack me politically."

The saga of "Air Sarko One" and the bath

While the much of the French media is tying itself up in knots wondering who will be the next French prime minister in the government reshuffle expected this month, the weekly satirical, Le Canard Enchainé has been doing what it does best - focussing (among other things) on Nicolas Sarkozy's apparent "displeasure" over reports that his new presidential 'plane will include an on-board bath when refitting has been completed.

"Air Sarko One", as some critics have dubbed it, is due for delivery next month.

Reports during the summer suggested that the 11-year-old Airbus A330-200, formerly owned first by the now defunct Swissair and later by Air Caraïbes, would reflect to an extent a return to the "Bling Bling" character which marked the beginning of Sarkozy's term in office.

Airbus A330-200; similar to the 'plane that will become "Air Sarko One" (from Wikipedia, photographer Adrian Pingstone).

Indeed, at the time, Le Canard Enchainé went as far as to claim that Sarkozy had demanded a bath be installed so that "He would have somewhere to smoke his cigars."

The government spokesman, Luc Chatel, was quick to respond saying that although he had no exact details about how the 'plane would be equipped, one thing was certain and that was that there would be "nothing ostentatious about it."

But the rumour had been started and one journalist from the national radio station RTL decided to take it a little further by "investigating" what could happen if the president's bath water overflowed in mid-air.

He even interviewed an expert to discover how a "catastrophe" could be avoided should such an occurrence take place.

RTL: l'eau du bain du Président va-t-elle déborder? Vidéo LePost sélectionnée dans Actualité

The story could have been considered a light-hearted one broadcast at a time when there really wasn't much news around. And maybe some politicians would have shrugged it off without taking too much offence.

But Sarkozy apparently was far from being amused and, as Le Canard Enchainé (never one to let go of something it has perhaps wickedly started) revealed last week, pressure was put on the station and the journalist in question to "apologise".

Not just one simple 'phone call, according to the newspaper, but repeated threats including "professional sanctions and legal action".

The result was that the journalist duly apologised in person the day after the broadcast was made.

Now. Who is going to succeed François Fillion as prime minister?