Nora Berra, junior health minister, advises homeless to "stay indoors" during cold snap!

As you're doubtless aware by now, much of Europe is going through Brass Monkeys weather, and France has been no exception over the past week.

Indeed there's unlikely to be a let-up in the cold spell until next weekend according to the national meteorological (try saying that after a few bevvies) office Météo France.

Prime time TV news and radio programmes are typically dedicating plenty of air time to - among other aspects - the freezing temperatures, burst pipes, electricity consumption, the danger of blackouts, and the plight of the homeless.

Cue the junior minister for health, Nora Berra, whose job, you would imagine, is one that would require her being particularly sensitive to the needs of the more vulnerable - especially during weather extremes.

And such was the case at the weekend when the 49-year-old helpfully wrote on her blog her recommendations as to how those most at risk - the homeless, infants, the elderly, or people with chronic cardiovascular or respiratory problems - could cope with the cold spell.

A few lines later came her words of wisdom beginning with, "In the case of an extreme drop in temperature, I recommend to those most vulnerable to stay indoors."

(enlarged screenshot of blog from Nouvel Observateur)

Yep. She was apparently telling the homeless that they shouldn't venture outside.

Duh.

As the website of the weekly news magazine Nouvel Observateur pointed out, the Net was soon abuzz with reactions to Berra's blunder, with Twitter users poking fun at the minister by recommending that, "the homeless also eat five fruit and vegetables each day for a healthy diet" or suggesting they "wear fur coats rather than jogging suits because they would keep them warmer."

Berra responded by amending her blog and, as the national daily Le Monde wrote, dropping the homeless from her original list of the "most vulnerable" and giving them a whole sentence at the end of her entry with a reminder that, "if you see a homeless person on the street who seems to need help because of the cold, call 115 (an emergency service for the homeless) to report it without delay."

Seemingly unwilling to admit that she had made any sort of mistake, she also answered her critics by saying that it had been an "error of interpretation" and writing a shorter blog entry (Tweeted) pointing out that, "there are some subject which do not lend themselves to irony."

Well, there's nothing like an apology...and that's...

Eric Cantona for president?

It's unlikely that he'll manage to get the support of the 500 mayors necessary to stand in the French presidential elections, but former international footballer Eric Cantona is apparently seriously thinking about it.

Image (screenshot from BFM TV report)

According to the national daily Libération, the 45-year-old has sent out a letter to all of the country's nearly 37,000 mayors seeking their backing and outlining how much of an "engaged citizen" he is.

In the letter he wrote that he wants to collect at least 500 signatures to "send out a clear and powerful message; a message of of truth and respect at a time when the country faces difficult choices which will be decisive about its future."

Image (screenshot from BFM TV report)

Cantona is already a sponsor of one of the country's most well-known charities helping the homeless, Fondation Abbé Pierre.

And he has the full backing off the Fondation which launched a petition in September 2011 to make homelessness and the lack of affordable housing a major issue in the presidential campaigns.

"We need a stimulus such as Cantona to restore (the issue of) housing to the place it deserves in the campaign," the Fondation's managing director Patrick Doutreligne told Agence France Presse.

So Cantona for president?

Well it'll be an uphill struggle. Even if he manages to collect those 500 signatures needed to stand, there's the additional problem of financing a credible campaign.

And few will forget his last foray into the political arena in December 2010 when he called for a run on the country's banks by encouraging savers to withdraw all their money in protest at the role of the banks in the global financial crisis.

That day of protest came and went with few heeding the call.

A residence tax riddle for a homeless Frenchman

Spare a thought for Emile Busson, a Frenchman who has had problems with the tax authorities here.

He recently received a demand for taxe d'habitation, or local residence tax, for 2008 to the tune of €692.89 to be precise (or just over $US 940).

The only problem is that Busson is homeless and hasn't had a permanent address since 2000.

Actually the most recent bill was a reminder of a previous one amounting to €612 sent last summer to his mother's address in Chelles, a town in the eastern suburbs of the French capital.

Because Busson had "chosen to ignore the first one", the tax office decided to slap on some interest second time around, and add €20 in administrative costs.

Somehow though the records also showed that he had in fact paid 11 centimes of the bill.

A word of explanation perhaps about taxe d'habitation in France without going into too much detail.

It is, as the name suggests, an annual tax based on the combined income of a household and one occupants have to pay collectively regardless as to whether they rent or own a property, unless that is, they fall below a certain threshold.

Lucky home owners also foot an additional bill in the form of a taxe foncière (or property tax). But that's another story.

Anyway back to Busson, who's in his 60s and has for most of the past decade been of "no fixed abode" as he explained to Le Parisien, the capital's edition of the national daily Aujourd'hui en France.

"My last permanent address was back in 2000," he said.

"I couldn't get along with my wife and that's when I decided to leave and move to Chelles," he continued.

"I was put up by a friend, who also gave me a job, and that's where I remained for two years until I moved into a small room at a cheap hotel."

That wasn't permanent though and a year later in 2005 he took to the streets, which is where he has been ever since.

Busson admits that he spends the odd night sleeping on the premises of a shop where he works from time to time in a nearby town; a story backed up by the shopkeeper.

And he occasionally lodges with friends or acquaintances.

But to all intents and purposes he has no permanent roof over his head and is therefore sans domicile fixe (SDF) or of "no fixed abode".

So how come he has been charged a local residence tax? And why do records show that he has already paid the princely sum of 11 centimes while he insists that he ignored both the initial bill and the reminder?

Well the local tax office admits there might well have been a mistake made somewhere along the line.

But it's couched in the sort of bureaucratic legalese surely guaranteed to confuse.

"We've done our research and found nothing that allows us to establish with certainty that Mr Busson is taxable," a spokesman said.

Which in plain English (or French as the case may be) means that he has nothing to pay and the demand has been shelved.

And on that mysterious 11 centimes payment "already made"?

"We advise him to get in touch with us so that he can apply for a rebate."

Huh?

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?