"Leave me alone," says Dominique Strauss-Kahn

Ah. We've all missed him, haven't we?

Who?

Dominique Strauss-Kahn of course.

Since his alleged "philandering" (to put in mildly) in that infamous Sofitel suite in New York back in May 2011, the former head of the International Monetary Fund has only given one interview.

That was with the clearly uncomfortable TF1 news anchor Claire Chazal in September last year when DSK gave a table-thumping performance while brandishing a document "proving" his innocence but also having the temerity to admit he had made a "moral error" - whatever that was supposed to mean.



Since then of course there have been further accusations, such as those of writer and journalist Tristane Banon and investigations into his involvement in hotel sex parties with prostitutes in the northern city of Lille.

His long-suffering and very deep-pocketed wife Anne Sinclair has flown the coop, and the man to whom France must be eternally grateful for the arrival of the gormlessly presidential normal one in office (François Hollande, in case you were wondering), has kept as low a profile as possible given the circumstances.

But now the man the French "affectionately" (really?) refer to as DSK is back - sort of - with an exclusive and all-revealing five-page interview in the weekly news magazine Le Point.

Actually it's not - revealing that is.

Much of what DSK actually tells the magazine has been heard or said before with the exception perhaps that, in almost Greta Garbo-style, DSK launches a plea for the media to leave him alone.

Reach for your handkerchieves everyone as you read the following (paraphrased) extract.

"I no longer play any sort of official public role. I'm not a candidate for anything and I have never been convicted either in this country or any other," he tells Le Point.

"Therefore there's really no reason why the media should be so interested in me and to such an extent it has become almost like a manhunt," he continues, disingenuously to say the least.

"I can no longer stand the fact that the media seems to have given itself the 'right' to violate my privacy in the way it has, just because there have been false allegations made against me and judicial investigations launched.

"I just want to be left alone!"

And yadda yadda yadda.

DSK is probably not the only one - that wishes he would be left alone, that is.

The less coverage, the better.

But just in case you can't get enough and want a great pre-bedtime read with your Horlicks, rush out now to the newsagents to secure your copy of this week's Le Point.

Just how guilty is Gabriel Armandou of killing his wife?

The trial has opened in the Parisian suburb of Creteil of Gabriel Armandou, a man accused of killing his wife.

It's certainly no cut and dried case, leaving you perhaps wondering who exactly was the victim and at the same time maybe how you would have reacted in the same circumstances.

Gabriel Armandou (screenshot from TF1 news report)

For beginners Armandou is 79 years old and the crime for which he stands accused is that of the murder of his wife Paulette back in September 2008.

She was reportedly discovered by their son one evening, dead and almost naked, lying on the  family's sitting room floor, with multiple injuries and bruises.

An autopsy revealed that Paulette had suffered blows to the neck, chest and back.

When questioned by the police, Armandou said he didn't know why he had done it and that he had simply lost control and "cracked" under the pressure.

But of course, that's not the whole story.

The couple had been married for 48 years and in 2000 Paulette was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

Armandou apparently didn't want any outside help and had refused to have his wife committed to a specialised care home, preferring to look after her himself.

In the three months preceding her death, Paulette's condition had deteriorated significantly, putting Armandou under increasing pressure.

But he continued to care for his wife because, in the words of his lawyer Arnaud Richard, "He had promised to help and support his wife to the very end. The couple belonged to a generation where outside help wasn't sought."

Armandou is neither denying he killed his wife, nor does he have an explanation as to why he committed an act which he, in his own words, "doesn't understand."

"If I'm found guilty, I will be found guilty," he told the court during the first day of his trial.

"It won't change anything. My wife is dead and I loved her."

The trial is due to finish on Wednesday and a decision expected shortly afterwards.

Armandou could face a maximum 20-year sentence.

(Really) Petty theft - grounds for suspension?

Hot on the heels of a French supermarket which backed down after threatening to sack an employee for "stealing" from a rubbish bin, comes an incident of a similar nature.

USB key (from Wikipedia, author Usb-thumb-drive.jpg: Evan-Amos)

This time around it concerns a store from one of the country's largest chains and a name known throughout many parts of the world, Carrefour.

As reported in the regional daily Le Dauphine Libéré, management at one of its stores just outside of the southern French city of Avignon has suspended two employees for, as the paper headlines the story "stealing a couple of pens and some chewing gum."

Now while that might tell part of the story and give the impression that management has meted out a punishment that seems inappropriate to the alleged crime committed, it remains a little misleading.

As the paper goes on to say, management claims to have caught the pair red-handed as they left the store, not just with a couple of pens and some gum but also a USB key.

"I just took the pens to use for work," Yassine, one of the men who has been suspended, told the newspaper.

"None of the products was on the shelf and they would all have ended up in the bin or being given to the Food Bank," he added.

Hmmn. The argument that a USB key - or a ballpoint or fountain pen for that matter - might, if thrown out, find its way to the Food Bank doesn't seem a very convincing line of defence does it?.

But perhaps the fact that the "hoard" taken by the two men is reckoned to be worth between 20 and 25 euros suggests that the store's management has rather overreacted.

It's hardly an amount to make a dent in Carrefour's profits.

Of course as far as the director of the store, Fabrice Bertin is concerned, that's not the point, nor the fact that Yassine has worked for Carrefour for the past six years.

"Theft is a serious offence and can result in a warning, a layoff or dismissal," he told the French website Le Post.

"For the moment the case is being investigated and I'll meet the two men on July 20 to decide what measures, if any, to take."

French supermarket sees sense over rubbish bin "thief"

Sometimes you just have to admit that it's a mad, bad world in which those at the top of the heap are in charge and make the rules and those at the bottom - well they just have to like it and lump it.

But sometimes - especially when the regulations are enforced and the outcome is just so barmy, the cause of the so-called "little man" can be helped by the support of those around him and justice can be done.

Monoprix (screenshot from BFM TV report)

Such is surely the case of Kader, a 59-year-old employee of the French supermarket chain Monoprix in the southern city of Marseille.

Last Monday he was sent home from his job and threatened with being sacked.

His crime?

He had supposedly "stolen" six melons and two lettuces.

Except there's a very good reason for the inverted commas.

As the regional daily La Provence reported, Kader had simply retrieved them from a bin at the back of the store where, as out-of-date products, they were waiting to be collected and taken to the nearest landfill.

It appeared that such behaviour was tantamount to "misconduct" and as far as Monoprix rules were concerned employees weren't allowed to take home food even if it were destined for landfill; it said as much in the work contract Kader had signed.

"I didn't know," the shelf-filler who had been working for the store for the past eight years told the newspaper.

"I'm so ashamed. I've never, ever stolen anything in all my years of working," he continued.

"I told my manager, 'If I've stolen something, call the police'. I'm not a thief and I've never taken a thing in my life."

Management at the store remained stumm, refusing to talk to the local media.

But the story soon spread and was reported nationally.

Kader repeated what he had told La Provence on national radio Europe 1.

"When I passed the rubbish bin I saw the melons and lettuce ready to be thrown away," he said

"I thought they were in a reasonable state so I decided to take them home - just to eat," said the father of six.

The unions were soon on the case, pointing out that Monoprix's main shareholder, Casino , had just reported record profits but according to company rules, "appeared ready to fire a man for taking home food that was going to be thrown away."

A demonstration was held outside the shop. Kader's colleagues were interviewed and expressed how "pathetic" they found management's decision.

Monoprix's official Facebook page started receiving complaints and there were calls from some Internauts for a boycott of the store.

And an online petition was started, calling for Kader to be reinstated.

So much bad publicity and on such a scale for a management stance that was surely both as untenable as it was ridiculous.

The Powers that Be at the store finally caved in on Friday, seeing sense and reducing Kader's penalty to a simple one-day reprimand for having failed to follow company regulations.

Regulations which the national daily France Soir says the company had hidden behind in an attempt to explain its (over)reaction and which officially aimed, "To protect human health by avoiding the consumption of spoiled products."

Kader spoke to the local commercial television station, LCM, after he had received news that he was being reinstated.

"I was moved by the reaction of the media, my colleagues and the unions," he said.

"I would just like to thank everyone for the support they've given me."

Dominique Strauss-Kahn handcuffed - the image that shocked the French

The arrest and detention of the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, or DSK as he's more commonly known in France, on charges of alleged sexual assault have made the headlines around the world over the past few days.

But perhaps the one image that those in France have found most difficult to accept is that of the "man who would be president" being handcuffed.

The image that shocked many French (screenshot from BFM TV)

In France, what happened - or didn't happen - on Sunday in New York has of course been major news; DSK was the front-runner in the Socialist party's primary to choose its candidate for next year's presidential election.

Even though he hadn't officially declared his intention to run, everyone knew he would when he decided the time was right.

Since Sunday the Socialist party has been thrown into headless chicken mode wondering how to cope with the accusations.

Its leader, Martine Aubry, had reportedly agreed not to stand in the primary, leaving the way clear for DSK.

Now though she is having to rethink her position, keep the party focused on it policies and manage the upcoming presidential campaign while all the time insisting that everyone in the party is profoundly shocked by the allegations.

The governing centre-right Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (Union for a Popular Movement, UMP) has on the whole been pretty reticent at drawing any conclusions or pointing the finger, declaring that the "presumption of innocence" must take precedence.

And even though the French president has called for "dignity" and requested government ministers from commenting publicly, there have been a few dissenting voices within his party.

UMP, parliamentarian Bernard Debré didn't mince his words when questioned by Europe 1 radio shortly after news broke of DSK's arrest.

"It's humiliating for France to have a man like that who wallows in sex and has done for some time as everyone knows," he said.

"Of course there's the presumption of innocence, but he is a disreputable man."

Not surprisingly Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right Front National took up the theme that many surrounding DSK knew of his behaviour and reputation towards women.

"The truth is that both politicians and journalists have been talking for the past couple of months about Strauss-Kahn's almost 'pathological' relations over the years with women," she told RTL radio.

"He has been definitively discredited as a potential presidential candidate."

French politicians and French society simply hasn't known how to handle what has been reported and the media hasn't made life easier.

It's borrowing courtroom images from the United States - something that simply wouldn't happen in the French judicial system - and happily - if that's the appropriate word - running them in endless loops on the country's many all-news channels.

Legal experts, political colleagues and opponents, friends, associates, pyscho-analysts - you name it - they've all be dragged in front of the cameras and asked for their opinions.

But perhaps the most shocking thing - and there are more than enough elements in the whole affair to shock - to many in France has been the sight of DSK appearing in handcuffs.

Remember this is a man who until the weekend looked as though he could well be the next French president.

This time next year he could have been in office and forming his first government.

Seeing pictures and clips of him in handcuffs seems to have hurt profoundly many French already embarrassed by the unsavoury way in which the equally sordid affair has been reported.

What's more there's actually a law in France - the Guigou law from 2000 - to protect an individual's "presumption of innocence by forbidding the dissemination of any image of a person in handcuffs - before he or she has been found guilty.

Verdict of "neglect" for vegan couple over baby's death

A court in the northern city of Amiens has found Sergine and Joël Le Moaligou guilty of neglect and failure to provide medical care or proper nutrition for their daughter, Louise who died in 2008.

screenshot from France 2 report

They couple were both sentenced to five years imprisonment, but are unlikely to spend time behind bars as part if it was suspended and the period they've spent in custody was taken into account.

The sentence was more lenient than the one the prosecution had called for of 10 years imprisonment.

The case was one where faith in an alternative lifestyle - as well-intentioned as it might have been - came head-to-head with reality. And the results were tragic.

The couple are vegans, and had fed Louise on nothing other than breast milk up until the day she died at the age of 11 months.

When Louise started losing weight they took her to see a doctor who suspected pneumonia.

In spite of a recommendation to take their daughter to hospital for further tests and treatment, the parent's decided to care for her at home - using alternative methods.

Her condition didn't improve and by the time they called the emergency services it was too late.

Louise was just 11 months old when she died of a bronchial infection and weighed 5.7 kilogrammes.

The prosecuting attorney Anne-Laure Sandretto had argued that their alternative lifestyle wasn't on trial but rather whether the couple had "shown a lack of care and caused the death of their child.'

That somehow didn't marry with Sandretto's call for a 10-year prison sentence and her insistence that Louise had died "because of her parents' beliefs and rejection of traditional medicine."

An autopsy on Louise revealed that she suffered from a vitamin A and B12 deficiency, both of which are essential to a child's growth.

For Sandretto that suggested proof of the parents' culpability as Louise had only been fed on breast milk.

"The problem of the vitamin B12 deficiency would be linked to the diet of the mother," Sandretto said.

But the couple also had another child, 12-year-old Elodie, who had not suffered the same vitamin deficiencies and a doctor who had seen Louise at eight months had described her as being "in perfect health."

Speaking after the trial Anne-Laure Pillon, the lawyer for the plaintiff, called the decision the right one, even if it might have appeared lenient to some.

"It gives the family some hope," she told France 2 television.

"At the same time it shows limits and makes clear to the parents that they didn't react appropriately."

The couple have also lost partial parental responsibility for education and health of their older daughter.

Paris "cake burglar" caught

It's the end of the line for the so-called "cake burglar".

(From Wikipedia, author - Algont)

Paris police have arrested and charged a 64-year-old man who had, for over a year, been preying on elderly people in the northern suburbs of the capital.

No he didn't get his nickname because he had been stealing their cakes - just in case that was what you were thinking.

Instead he was robbing them of their bank cards after having offered them cakes and pastries laced with sedatives.

According to RTL radio the methods he employed to steal from his victims, aged from 75 to 88, had always been the same.

He befriended them in local shops or on the street, engaged them in conversation and gained their confidence enough to get himself invited to their homes.

When he turned up it was never empty handed but, as RTL reports, "Always with a French pastry or a cake."

But the 64-year-old was no social do-gooder, because the cakes were spiked with Gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) and after getting his victims to reveal their personal identification numbers and ensuring they had fallen asleep, he would steal their bank cards and use them to withdraw cash.

And that, according to Le Parisien, was how he managed to commit almost 20 robberies dating back to 2009.

The police, the paper reports, hadn't wanted to alarm elderly people living in the area but had "warned them to be vigilant".

Their inquiries investigations had been made more difficult apparently by the "sometimes unreliable descriptions" provided by the victims.

In the end though they were able to identify the man after they had managed to discover where he had been buying the cakes.

Animal cruelty - decision delayed on French teens who set fire to a cat

There are plenty of videos that go viral on the Net showing the horrors of what man can do to animals.

Thankfully a search for the one at the centre of this tale brings up nothing, even though the event was recorded on a mobile 'phone and then posted on the Net.

Sadly though, there are plenty of other examples of similar behaviour; each of them surely equally inexplicable to anyone with even a couple of neurones between their ears.

(source Wikipedia, Author - derivative work: howcheng)

In 2006 two adolescents from the south of France had reportedly spent the night drinking and were "looking for something to do".

The pair, according to a report which appeared at the time in the regional newspaper, Midi Libre, decided to relieve their boredom by locking a cat in a cage, dousing it with petrol before setting light to it and watching it die.

"A sordid story," says the animal charity Fondation 30 millions d'amis on it website after the first of the defendants, now 22 years old, appeared in a court in the southern French city of Nîmes earlier this month.

The Fondation was just one of several animal welfare organisations to file a civil suit against the pair. Others included Respectons, the Fondation Brigitte Bardot and the Société protectrice des animaux (SPA).

Speaking on behalf of Respectons, lawyer Frédérique Ortega outlined what made this case especially, in her terms, "barbaric".

"Beyond the acts themselves, the cruelty of these young people also lay in the fact that they made all the arrangements to disseminate these terrible images," she said.

The court has delayed making a ruling in the case against the 22-year -old until April.

A date has not yet been set to hear the case against the other defendant, who was a minor at the time, and will be appear before a juvenile court.

The maximum penalty for such acts of cruelty to animals, according to the 30 millions d'amis website, is a two-year prison sentence and a €30,000 fine.

In 2009 the case of "Mambo" the dog who survived after being set alight resulted in a 22-year-old woman being handed down a one-year prison sentence with six months suspended and a €6,000 fine.

Her 17-year-old companion received an 18-month probationary sentence

Britain's "Super Granny" to the rescue as an elderly lady foils a robbery WITH UPDATE

It was real handbags-at-dawn-type stuff in the East Midlands town of Northampton on Monday morning as an elderly woman attacked a gang of men attempting to rob a jeweller's store.

Screenshot from YouTube video

There were, according to the BBC, six of them armed with sledgehammers.

There was just one of her, armed with...what else, but a handbag.

Video footage of what happened was broadcast on ITV's Anglia Tonight show and, in the way these things are, soon went viral on the Net.

Take a look at the video and you can see exactly what happened; one old lady, dressed in red, rushing across the street and laying into the men without any apparent concern for her own safety.



It was a case of, as the Guardian puts it, once the cavalry arrived "the thugs - twice her size - didn't stand a chance."

Passers-by eventually lost their British reserve and helped hold down one of the men as he fell from the getaway scooter.

Police later arrested three others and were searching for the other two who managed to get away.

Nobody - least of all Super Granny - was hurt, although she wishes to remain anonymous.

"Clearly we will recognise her for her bravery," Peter Chisholm, a local police inspector told the Guardian.

"We won't be releasing her name though," Inspector Peter Chisholm is quoted as saying.

"There might be more members of the gang out there and we wouldn't want to put her in any danger," he added.

UPDATE

The woman has now been named as Ann Timson, who is quoted in the Daily Mail as saying, "My mother’s instinct kicked in and I ran across the road shouting at the lads to stop it. Only then did I realise that they were smashing glass and that it was a raid."

Read more

Dog owners help slaughter their Labrador-Boxer cross

It is, as the regional daily Le Maine Libre reported earlier this month, unbelievable the lengths to which some people will go to rid themselves of an unwanted animal.

Rather than take their Labrador-Boxer cross Dora to the nearest animal shelter for rehoming, an elderly couple in the western French département of Sarthe helped a friend hang and stab the four-year-old dog to death before throwing her body in a river.

All three "protagonists" have admitted to what they did, but as the animal charity Fondation 30 millions d'amis writes on its website, the most likely sentence they'll receive when their case is heard by a court next month is a fine and perhaps community service.

The Loir, the river into which Dora's body was thrown (from Wikipedia, author Ted Wilkes)

The couple, both in their 70s, from the village of Lavernat could reportedly no longer cope with the spirited Dora and decided to give her to a friend living in the nearby town of Château-du-Loir.

Dora continued her naughtiness and, no longer able to tolerate her behaviour and apparent attempts to run away, the 45-year-old decided to do what any sane-thinking person would.

She hanged the dog in her garden and beat her!

But Dora survived, only to be subjected to the "helping hand" of her previous owners who stepped in and stabbed her to death with a machete.

Together, all three then tied the body to a concrete block and threw it in the river.

The corpse was discovered at the beginning of January and police were able to trace the owners by an identifying tattoo in the animal's ear.

They all admitted to what they had done and now face a court case at the beginning of February.

Because they will "plead guilty" and the case is being judged under civil code the maximum penalty they can be given is a fine or some sort of community service, which as far as Fondation 30 millions d'amis is concerned does not fit the "barbarous nature of the crime committed."

It says on its website that if the case were being tried under the penal code they would be facing a maximum of a two-year suspended sentence and 30,000 euros fine.

What the charity would like to see is a change in how a guilty plea affects possible sentencing under the civil code because "torturers of animals often go unpunished for their crimes."

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.

Renault Twingo - France's most-stolen car

So you might be thinking that those big, showy luxurious cars are the ones thieves find most attractive.

Think again!

Because according to a study released by the weekly car magazine Auto Plus, it's a much humbler vehicle that tops the list of France's most-stolen cars; the Renault Twingo I.

Renault Twingo I (from Wikipedia, author Rudolf Stricker)

"A popular car that can be found everywhere and is easy to break in to," is how the magazine describes the car, which finds itself at the top of the list for the third consecutive year; a list which was compiled based on data supplied by car insurance companies and banks.

Second spot goes to another small car, the Smart Fortwo, which, according to Sandrine Darré who conducted the study, "Is also easy to break in to and whose parts could easily be sold for a high price on the black market."

Rounding off the podium is another Renault in the shape of in the shape of the Mégane 2.

It's perhaps not so surprising to find the French car manufacturer so well represented given the fact that it also places well among the country's top-selling cars with several different models.

The highest-placed top-of-the-range car was the Porsche Cayenne, just missing the "podium" in fourth but which Dorré says attracts another kind of thief (obviously) and for quite different reasons.

"The Cayenne is much more likely to be stolen by an organised crime network," she said.

"For example if there's an 'order' from abroad. But it's also used much more in committing other crimes such as robberies and that's why it's ranks so high in the poll."

Of course the figures are not purely based on the numbers of cars stolen.

If that were the case then the Cayenne would probably not figure on the list as it sales are far lower than other more popular cars.

Let's face it, how many people can afford (to buy) one?

Instead the ranking is calculated individually for each model on a ratio of cars stolen for 100,000 insured; 245 for the Twingo and 169 for the SmartFortwo.

There's also some good news in the study.

The number of cars stolen in France was at a 30-year low in last year at 121, 521 or 332 a day.

But Dorré warns the trend could be reversed in the coming years as "electronic theft" whereby thieves can use equipment to counter inbuilt security measures such as the immobiliser, become more widespread.


Palmarès des voitures les plus volées en 2010
envoyé par BFMTV. - L'actualité du moment en vidéo.

Thieves steal a vineyard-worth of grapes overnight

Harvest time has been and gone - quite literally for Roland Cavaillé. He's a winemaker in the village of Villeneuve-lès-Béziers in southern France.

Cavaillé grows just 10 hectares of grapes and last weekend went along to see how two of the hectares - planted with Cabernet Sauvignon grapes - were doing.

image Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from Wikipedia, Agne27

"I wanted to see not only whether they were ripe enough for harvesting," he told the regional newspaper Midi Libre. "I also wanted to check on the state of the vines themselves."

But Cavaillé was in for a nasty surprise that particular morning, as someone else had been there before him, and harvested the whole two hectares.

The entire crop of Cabernet Sauvignon, totalling around 30 tonnes and valued at €15,000, had been stolen.

A neighbour heard the sound of a harvesting machine in the morning - not so unusual for farmers eager to make an early start - and there were also tyre tracks of a small lorry which had been presumably used to transport the grapes to nobody knows where.

But with a full moon to guide them and the relative isolation of the vineyard, the job of "lifting" the grapes undisturbed made it that much easier for the thieves.

"It has happened before but never to me," he told the national daily Aujourd'hui en France - Le Parisien.

"It's the work of professionals," he added.

"A private person most likely," explaining that it wouldn't be the work of someone supplying the local co-operative as it requires a provenance for all grapes supplied.


Les voleurs vendangent 30 tonnes de raisin en une nuit
envoyé par MCETV. - Gag, sketch et parodie humouristique en video.

"I'm disgusted by what happened," he told Midi Libre.

"We work hard to make ends meet, he said

As national radio Europe 1 reported there's even more bad news because Cavaillé won't see a centime in insurance money even though there's "irrefutable evidence" that a theft occurred.

"We're covered as far as theft of the vines is concerned," he said.

"But not for the grapes."

Trial opens of nurse accused of killing Alzheimer's patient

The trial has opened in France of Véronique Metelo, a nurse accused of fatally poisoning and robbing an elderly patient suffering from Alzheimer's.

On Tuesday the trial opened in Viry-Châtillon, a town in the southern suburbs of the French capital, of Véronique Metelo.

The 54-year-old nurse is accused of having administered a lethal dose of morphine and robbing Simone Bordenave, a patient she was looking after in 2007.

The 76-year-old was found dead in Metelo's home in August of that year just days after the nurse had convinced the elderly woman's son that his mother, who suffered from Alzheimer's, needed around-the-clock care and she would look after her personally.

Bordenave apparently died of cardio-respiratory failure but an autopsy revealed high doses of morphine, "twice the lethal level" according to the prosecution.

As well as administering the overdose of morphine, the prosecution says that Metelo also helped herself to €12,000 of her elderly patient's money, having her sign cheques and hand over her bank card which she then used to buy herself perfume, jewellery and household electrical goods;

As a report on TF1's prime time news on the opening of the trial highlighted, as far as the prosecution was concerned a number of questions remain unanswered.

Why, at the time, had Metelo been so insistent that the only way to look after Bordenave properly was to have the elderly woman live with her?

And why over the past couple of years the only answer she had given to explain the high levels of morphine revealed in the autopsy had been that she "didn't know"?

Speaking to reporters Metelo's lawyer, Patrick Arapian, insisted that the high levels of morphine had been the result of an error, and while cash withdrawals had been made they were far from being anywhere near €12,000.

"There's no denying that my client used some money to make personal purchases," he said.

"But the amounts are far less than has been claimed," he added.

The trial is expected to last until Thursday.

If found guilty, Metelo could face a maximum prison sentence of 30 years.

Drunk in charge of a lawnmower

For one French man this year's May Day celebrations finished before they had begun after police pulled him over for being drunk in charge of a...motorised lawnmower.

May Day was last weekend - a day recognised in many countries as International Workers' Day or Labour Day if you will.

Here in France it's a public holiday even though this year of course May 1 fell on a Saturday.

And there's a tradition that unions take to the streets to demonstrate "solidarity".

There's also a much older and perhaps more quaint custom associated with the day, which dates back to the 16th century; that of offering and receiving a sprig lily of the valley, which is not only a symbol that Spring is well and truly here but is also supposed to be "lucky".

For one man though in the village of Le Pasquier in the eastern département of Jura, the celebrations never really got underway and fortune certainly wasn't on his side as the day before, after apparently having spent a couple of hours in the forest collecting flowers, he was stopped by police as he made his way home.

The 56-year-old was, according to the regional daily Le Progrès, happily driving along not in a car but aboard his motorised lawnmower when he was pulled over.

Hardly a chase reminiscent of those US action films probably as the thing barely goes faster than walking pace, but nonetheless, as the police reminded the newspaper, a motorised lawnmower is not a vehicle "authorised to circulate on public roads in France."

And it didn't take long for the two officers to realise that the man wasn't exactly fully in control of his "capacities".

"It was clear when we started questioning him that he wasn't in a 'normal' state," one of the officers told the newspaper.

"He was talking incoherently and smelled of alcohol."

Sure enough when breathylised, he was found to be well over the limit, and the police immediately impounded his unusual "mode of transport".

Not surprisingly perhaps he'll face charges on two counts when his case comes to court next month; driving an unregistered vehicle and doing so while drunk.

But although he's likely to face a hefty fine, he won't lose his licence, as he doesn't have one.

French pétanque player caught stealing balls

Anyone even slightly familiar with France and things French is likely to have heard of pétanque.

It's a game played by thousands in this country and as with many a sport it can inflame the passions of both participants and spectators.

Unfortunately for one particular young man he took his enthusiasm for it a step too far by stealing a couple of treasured "boules" or balls and getting caught in the act, not once, but twice.

Maybe a word or two on pétanque at this point as even though it's an international sport, it's not exactly one of the best known around the world.

There are plenty of better well-informed sources out there describing what it is and where it originates, but succinctly (and therefore probably not entirely accurately) put it's a sort of French bowls.

Just to emphasise the popularity of pétanque here in France, it ranks as the eighth most played sport in terms of active club membership with apparently more than 362,000 registered players.

There's a federation governing the sport in this country, championships broken down by sex and age, and of course a French cup.

In fact to find out everything and anything you might ever have wanted to know (or not, as the case might be) there's the bible of the game available annually in the form of Le Guide Boulisme.

Anyway back to the man who was caught stealing those boules.

The 33-year-old was arrested in the southwestern French town of Dax earlier this week as he attempted to lift a couple of them worth €199 ($US 269) from a store.

No mean feat really as they usually weigh anything between 650 and 800 grammes each and so aren't exactly the easiest things to sneak out of a shop without being noticed.

Apparently it wasn't the first time he was "caught in the act" according to the regional daily, Sud Ouest.

He was stopped just last month committing a similar theft, albeit for the smaller amount of €163 ($US220).

All of which means, says the paper, that when his case comes to court he'll be treated as a repeat offender and runs the risk of not just facing a fine but also a sentence.

And his defence? Well he claims to be quite good at the game but not to "have the means to finance his passion."

So quite literally a French sporting crime of passion - of sorts?

He'll have the chance to explain himself fully when his case comes to court, but for that he'll have to wait until April.

Thief steals thousands of euros from sleeping passengers on Air France flight

Anyone knows that when you're in a busy place it's always sound advice to look after your personal possessions.

As in many a city worldwide, public transport operators in Paris make regular announcements warning passengers that pickpockets are about.

It's part and parcel of the "joys" of living and working in a large metropolitan area.

When it comes to flying though, the most travellers can normally expect is to be told to keep their own luggage in view at all times, and any left unattended will be "dealt with".

That's of course before you've checked in and made it on to the 'plane.

But once there, cocooned in your own little space, the chances are for the most part that your defences will be down and you'll feel more secure. Well apart from those who are terrified of flying, but that's quite another story.

And so it must have felt for passengers aboard the overnight Air France Tokyo-Paris flight on Tuesday.

Except for five of them travelling in business class, there was something of a rude awakening.

Because while they slept, a thief was busy at work, relieving them of around €4,000 worth of cash in various currencies.

The alarm was only raised shortly before landing, when one of the victims alerted staff that money had been stolen from her purse.

In other words the thief had been going about his or her business right under the noses of dozing passengers and the cabin crew. And nobody had noticed a thing.

The captain informed airport authorities of what had happened ahead of landing and police were on hand to greet the passengers when the 'plane arrived.

But after half an hour, they decided to allow all the passengers to disembark and it was only the five who had been robbed who were detained to make formal complaints.

So what does Air France, the airline, which in its advertising campaign encourages customers to feel almost as though they're flying in pure comfort without a care in the world, have to say about the incident?