Anyone out there fancy standing for mayor in the French local elections?

Voter apathy - or at least a general disinterest in politics - is not an unknown phenomenon in elections.

And in the upcoming local elections in France there'll probably be plenty who just couldn't be bothered to make it to the polling stations.

But in the village of Ouvrouer-les-Champs in the département of Loiret, there's another kind of apparent indifference to the March 23 and 30 votes.

Nobody wants to stand to be mayor.

André Galhac is stepping down after just one term in office and none of his team - nor anyone else come to that - has come forward as a candidate.

André Galhac, mayor of Ouvrouer-les-Champs - looking for a successor ((screenshot BFM TV)

"If nobody stands then the election will not take place," said Galhac, stating perhaps the obvious.

"And the management and administration of the village will be taken over by the Préfecture."

And he's right.

The law in France has provisions for just such cases.

A 'special delegation' is formed to carry out the functions of the local council until a by-election can be held three months later. And if there still aren't any candidates then the Préfecture can propose merging the village - in this case - with a neighbouring one.

It's all there on the official website for "special cases" in local elections along with, for example, villages in which there are no voters (!!!) or in which there are only second homes.

Clearly Ouvrouer-les-Champs case is far from being an isolated one.

La Membrolle-sur-Longuenée (population, just under 2,000) in the département of Maine-et-Loire had problems finding anyone to stand until the current mayor Jean-Louis Gascoin "went public" in appealing for potential candidates back in December.

There are now two who've come forward.

And just to add another angle to the ongoing saga of local election stories, Laurent Jaoul the mayor of the town of Saint-Brès in the département of Hérault is actively encouraging opposition candidates to stand against him in his bid for re-election.

Laurent Jaoul, mayor of Saint-Brès - looking for someone to run against him (screenshot TVSudMedias)

"In a democracy there has to be a place for debate," he said.

"I've outlined all my plans and projects but no other candidate from the major parties (Jaoul is independent) has as yet managed to finalise a list," he continued.

"It would be the first time in 40 years that there hadn't been alternative lists proposed," he added, insisting that "yes" he really wanted to be elected but also have competition.

If anyone fancies "helping out" either Galhac in Ouvrouer-les-Champs or Jaoul La Membrolle-sur-Longuenée, check out the conditions for becoming a candidate.

You have until March 6 to get your act together.

An alliance between the UMP and Front National - a sign of things to come?

Next year the French - and many foreign residents registered in France, mainly EU citizens - will have the chance to go to the polls here in the country's municipal elections.

They'll be choosing the composition of local councils and, as a consequence, who'll be their mayor for the next six years.

Even though turnout might not be as high as it traditionally is for presidential and parliamentary elections, the chances are that (going on past results) a fair number of people will be exercising their democratic right at the ballot boxes.

And that inevitably means the results will be perceived by many as a sort of mid-term test for the French president, François Hollande, the government and the Socialist party.

That's not all of course. The performance of the other parties will also be scrutinised.

Will the opposition centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a popular movement, UMP) finally be able to smooth over its internal differences and actually "win" an election?

How will the far-right Front National (FN) fare under its leader Marine Le Pen?

Will Jean-Luc Mélanchon's 180,000-strong (his figures - 30,000 according to the police) May 5 demonstration gather momentum to become a ballot box protest vote?

Questions, questions, questions.

Doubtless many will be asked and answered in different ways before, during and after the elections depending on the political spin.

One thing's for sure, with over 36,000 mayors to be elected up and down the country, party machines will have a tough job ensuring local activists toe the line.

That's already happening, with the UMP being forced to suspend one of its members for contravening party policy.

Arnaud Cléré
(screenshot France 3 television)

Arnaud Cléré is, or rather was until Monday, a member of the party in the town of Gamaches in the northern département of Somme.

He doesn't actually hold elected office, but wants to. And last week he announced he would be standing in next year's local elections on a list which also contained members of the FN.

It seems that for the 34-year-old, the proverbial "end justifies the means" - winning at any cost.

"It's all about strategy," he said.

"Gamaches has been in the hands of the communists or socialists for the past 30 years," he continued.

"There's no shame in an alliance with the FN...especially if it helps bring the right to power."

Not surprisingly perhaps Cléré's membership of the UMP has been suspended in line with party policy which the UMP leader Jean-François Copé reiterated in a recent speech in Nice insisting that the Front National was "an extremist party" and there would be "no alliance with that party".

But given the current political, economic and social climate in France, does anyone out there have the sense that Cléré's "political and tactical error" as it was decribed by UMP party officials, might be perceived as something else and instead mark a sign of things to come?

A new challenge for Rachida Dati - mayor of Paris?

Well if the latest report in the national daily, le Parisien, is to be believed, that's exactly what the former French justice minister and recently-elected European parliamentarian has in mind.

Dati apparently wants to be the centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire's (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP), candidate for the post of mayor of the capital in the next municipal elections, due in 2014.

Yes it might seem years away, but Dati is reportedly gunning for a return to the domestic political arena.

She's already mayor of the capital's VII arrondissement, having won election in March 2008 after being parachuted in as the UMP's candidate for what was to all intents and purposes a shoo-in for the party.

And now apparently her sights are set on even bigger things.

The paper reports that Dati rang the French prime minister, François Fillon, at the weekend, and left a message on his answerphone making clear her motivation and determination to make a return to the domestic political scene.

"Dear François, I just wanted to tell you that the position of mayor really interest me and there's a strong possibility that I'll put my name forward," she's reported as saying.

"Especially as the last time we spoke about it, you said you weren't interested."

Fillon, says the paper, responded shortly afterwards with an sms saying he had listened to her message.

There are perhaps a couple of major obstacles standing in the way of Dati's ambitions.

Not least of them is the fact that she doesn't have an easy relationship with some advisors close to the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Indeed they are widely thought to be behind the distance Sarkozy put between himself and his erstwhile protégée last year.

Remember he brought Dati into the government in June 2007 as the first person, let alone woman, of North African descent to hold a top ministerial position.

It was generally seen as a pretty smart choice by Sarkozy as part of his policy of "opening up" the government and French politics to make it better reflect political and ethnic diversity in the country.

But her management skills, extravagant lifestyle, departmental overspending and perceived incompetence (from political critics and the judiciary alike) often saw her become the focus of media ridicule.

She gradually lost favour with the president to the extent of first being excluded from the so-called "G7" or inner circle of ministers consulted over future government strategy and then being "strongly encouraged" by Sarkozy himself to stand for election to the European parliament.

Granted, he was reported as promising her a return to the national scene at some undisclosed future date, but it was hard to overcome the feeling that she had in fact been pushed into standing.

Another no-less substantial hurdle perhaps to any chance Dati might have of becoming the party's candidate for the position is the decision by Fillon of exactly what he wants to do in the future.

He is also being touted as being in the running for the same job as the UMP attempts to wrest control from the Socialist Party in 2014. That party's current incumbent, Bertrand Delanoë is thought unlikely to seek a third term.

Mind you Fillon's name has also been linked to a possible job in Europe as a commissioner, or better still as the first President of the European Council, should the Lisbon treaty ever see the light of day.

But that of course is all speculation and a still a way off.

For the moment the focus is once again on Dati and, says Le Parisien, she wants to show how serious she is about remaining a serious contender for the post in 2014 by involving herself - either directly or indirectly - in regional elections scheduled in France for next year.

Dati may only be freshly installed in Brussels and Strasbourg, but that doesn't mean she's going to stay out of the headlines back home.

Paris bans 79-year-old from tending abandoned graves

It's perhaps just one of those everyday stories that illustrates how rigid bureaucracy can sometimes be, and also how rules are applied that seem to fly in the face of common sense.

A 79-year-old woman has been served with an injunction by Parisian authorities to stop her from taking care of unattended graves at one of the capital's most famous cemeteries, Montmartre in the 18th arrondissement.

The reason? They're private property and therefore unless they belong to you or your family, or you have permission, you're not allowed to look after them.

The Montmartre cemetery is the final resting place of many a famous person, including among others, the Egyptian-born singer and actress Dalida, the French singer-song writer, Michel Berger, composer Hector Berlioz and ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky to name but a very few.

Tomb of Dalida (from Wikipedia)

But alongside the tombs of past greats there are also a fair number of unattended graves, and it's those that Marie has been looking after for the past 28 years.

Day in, day out she has turned up at the cemetery, secateurs, watering can and, most importantly, plants at hand to follow her passion and provide a little more colour to the graves of those who would seem to have been forgotten.

"I put the plants on the abandoned tombs, and maybe those who have left are happy about it, and it certainly delights me to do it," she told national radio.

"I'm crazy about flowers and doesn't it look better with all the deteriorating stones covered like that?"

Except the body charged with looking after the capital's greens areas, which also includes its cemeteries, la direction des espaces verts et de l’evnvironnement (DEVE) doesn't quite see things the same way.

As far as it's concerned, not only is the 79-year-old "breaking the rules", she's also leaving her own mess behind her.

"We have photos of hundreds of broken pots left on the grounds of the cemetery," said Pascal-Hervé Daniel, the head of the department responsible for the maintenance of the capital's cemeteries.

"The woman simply leaves them there once she has finished, and we're obliged to clean up after her."

Marie maintains that in spite of the injunction which came into effect on Monday, she'll continue visiting the cemetery, "To the end of my days as flowers are my life."

One well-meaning if slightly potty woman or an overzealous administration?

Or perhaps a little bit of both.