It was all "in a kiss" - Gasquet returns to the tennis circuit

France's former number one tennis player, Richard Gasquet, has been given the all clear to rejoin the ATP tour after the International Tennis Federation (ITF) on Wednesday accepted his explanation of events surrounding his positive control for cocaine back in March.

It decided to impose a two month and 15 day suspension retroactively from May 1, effectively clearing him to return to competition immediately.

You might remember reading about Gasquet testing positive for cocaine during a tournament in Miami, one in which he didn't actually participate. He was scheduled to, but withdrew before his first round match because of a shoulder injury.

Instead the 23-year-old went partying to a nightclub, one in which the use of illegal recreational drugs - including cocaine - was well known, and where according to Gasquet, he had been "inadvertently contaminated" while kissing a girl.

He maintained his innocence at a hearing of the ITF's three-man independent anti-doping tribunal in London at the end of June. And on Wednesday the panel delivered its decision, accepting that Gasquet's version of how cocaine traces had been found in his urine was "more plausible than not" and it had "found the player to be a truthful and honest witness, and a man of integrity".

The ruling was also relatively lenient one. The ITF could have handed down a two-year suspension as it did most notably to Martina Hingis in 2007 after she tested positive for cocaine; a decision which led the former women's world number one to announce her retirement.

In reality Gasquet's punishment is more along the lines of one given in 1995 to the former top-ranked Swedish player Mats Wilander and his Czech doubles partner, Karel Novacek, who tested positive for cocaine at the French Open but denied deliberately using it. They were both suspended for three months.

"Given the unique characteristics and likely 'exceptional' circumstances of this case, it would have been unjust and disproportionate to have imposed a 12-month ban on Gasquet," read the statement issued by the ITF on Wednesday.

And that was a decision greeted with relief by the national technical director of the French tennis federation, Patrice Dominguez.

"Richard has been punished but within reason," he said.

"Of course we were concerned because there had been the risk of him being banned for two years, but the tribunal decided that would be have been disproportionate," he continued.

"It's excellent news and will allow him to return to his highest level of play."

By deciding to suspend him for a limited period from May 1, Gasquet is effectively eligible to return to the ATP tour immediately and in particular begin preparations for the US Open, the final Grand slam tournament of the year which begins at the end of August.

He has already missed both the French Open and Wimbledon.

Gasquet of course is happy that he'll be able to play once again and that his name has been cleared, but for him the past couple of months haven't been easy.

"It has been intense suffering for the past two and a half months for me, and it was terrible not to be able to play either the French Open or Wimbledon," he told national radio.

"My name has been dragged through the mud in the media but I thank all of those who have supported me throughout the whole experience."

Ah yes, it really was "all in a kiss."

Richard Gasquet: Ma suspension "a été une souffrance atroce"
by Europe1fr

Rude, arrogant, mean and moaning. Who? The French on holiday

Guess which nationality figures yet again amongst the most unwelcome when on holiday abroad - the French

For the third consecutive year they rate poorly in a survey of hoteliers carried out on behalf of the Internet travel agency Expedia.fr

Overall they're second from bottom, and are generally seen as rude, mean, complaining and arrogant.

So no clichés there.

Time maybe for the French to take a lesson from the Japanese, British and Canadians, those nationalities that filled the top three slots.

Bastille day (July 14) might have been an excuse for the French to show off their military might with the traditional parade down the Champs Elysées; this year's guest of honour was India.

And there was blanket morning television coverage, exhorting the wonders of the French defence capability and generally revelling in national pride.

All of course in memory of the storming of the Bastille 220 years ago and part of the country's celebration of...well...being France.

But there's perhaps a characteristic the French would like not to dwell on which has nothing to do with fierce nationalism and everything to do with how they're apparently perceived when abroad.

French tourists are pretty much the worst in the world, according to a recent study conducted amongst 4,500 hoteliers by TNS Infratest on behalf of Expedia.fr

They ranked 27th (out of 28 countries) well behind those that headed the list and the worst-placed Europeans.

Only one nationality ranked lower than the French - the Chinese.

The survey questioned hoteliers worldwide about how they found the behaviour of guests from different countries in a number of categories including , general attitude, politeness, discretion, tendency to complain and elegance.

The result doesn't make for pleasant reading as far as the French are concerned.

For a country which likes to think of itself as having a legendary "savoir-vivre" and gallantry, simple manners and good behaviour seem to be more myth than reality, if the survey is to be believed.

The French are the least generous - leaving smaller tips - top the class in complaining and are generally perceived as "impolite (read "rude").

A simple "hello, thank you and goodbye" would not go amiss from the French, and that of course in the local language, which is seen as part of the problem when they decide to venture abroad.

"On the whole we don't speak English or at the best very little," says Timothée de Roux, Expedia's marketing director, adding with remarkable perspicacity, "We speak French which not a great deal of the rest of the world does."

Evidently the French are not quite as willing (or able) to make the effort of the top-ranking Japanese.

Apart from that perennial language problem though, there's also the claim that the French are "mean". But de Roux says the "lack of generosity" might just be a cultural thing, especially when it comes to tipping, as it's simply not a tradition among the French.

In France, "service" is usually included in the bill, whereas in the United States it's common practice to leave (at least) 15 per cent.

"In comparison with other nationalities, the French tend not to travel abroad (90 per cent of them holiday in France) and when they do hoteliers find that they're not very generous and spend less," he said.

"And there's no longer a habit of leaving a tip in France."

One bright note perhaps as far as the French are concerned is that when it comes to "discretion" they rank fourth. Apparently they make less noise than their Italian and Spanish neighbours.

But on the whole they still have a long, long way to go to match the Japanese, and for the moment at least have yet again earned the tag of being among the world's worst tourists.

French government - the comings and goings

The dust has settled somewhat on the government reshuffle announced here in France a couple of weeks ago. The new members have started to get on with their jobs as have those somewhat familiar faces that simply changed ministerial portfolios. And some of those "dismissed" have had the chance to react.

Perhaps now though is the time to reflect on whether it was, as some political commentators have suggested, simply a game of musical chairs among the favoured, the entry into government of a selected few, and if the French president's insistence in an interview with the left-of-centre weekly, Nouvel Observateur, that it was proof of his continued policy of "diversity within government", really holds up.

Of course much of the domestic and international media focussed on the new culture minister, Frédéric Mitterrand, the nephew of the former Socialist president, François.

Although not exactly an example of a further opening up of the government to reflect all political persuasions, the name in itself resonated and was enough to capture the imagination of several headline writers.

Perhaps though the most newsworthy aspect of his appointment - apart maybe for some the fact that he is openly gay - is that Mitterrand rather forced his new boss to announce the reshuffle a day earlier than scheduled by inadvertently confirming to the French media ahead of time that he had been offered the new job.

He later apologised for his faux pas.

So Mitterrand aside, what of some of the others that left or entered the government and the rejigging of ministries.

Well first up there was the rather unceremonious departure of the former housing minister, Christine Boutin.

Whatever you might think about her very strongly pro-life (anti-abortion) views and somewhat "socially conservative" stance on homosexuality, there was understandable indignation from the now former minister in the way she learned of her dismissal; at the same time as the rest of the country when the official announcement of the "comings and goings" was made live on national television.

Appearing on the early morning show of a national radio station a few days later Boutin was in suitably combative form, saying that she somewhat miffed (to put it mildly at the way in which she had been treated.

"I learned about my dismissal along with everyone else," she said.

"I had expected to remain in government and had a meeting in the afternoon with François Fillon (the prime minister) who told me the job of housing minister 'wasn't certain' but when I said that I would be interested in the prisons portfolio, he said he would talk to the president about it and get back to me," she continued.

"I'm still waiting for that call from the prime minister."

So one more-than-aggrieved woman - and her ministry, for so long one of the declared priorities of the French president, has in a sense also been "demoted", because it's now in the hands of Benoist Apparu, who entered the government as a junior minister.

Another victim of the reshuffle was, as expected, the former culture minister Christine Albanel.

There again the close ally of the former president, Jacques Chirac, (with whom Sarkozy had always had a strained relationship) probably saw the proverbial writing on the wall, as she had been charged with trying to see through Hadopi, a bill to crack down on Internet piracy, which although passed by politicians was eventually thrown out by this country's constitutional court.

It's now back, in a revised form, once again making its way through parliament.

Albanel has remained quiet since leaving her job, although as the weekly magazine, Le Point points out, it probably came as a relief to her as her job had not been an easy one, especially after Sarkozy rather unexpectedly announced in January 2008 that he wanted to see an end to all advertising on public television - a policy which also falls within the remit of the culture minister.

It's clear that women didn't fare that well in the reshuffle. There were seven in frontline jobs before, and just four afterwards.

Alongside Boutin and Albanel, the third woman to leave the government was the former justice minister, Rachida Dati.

Her two years in office are of course well documented, she was seldom out of the headlines. And it was known in advance that she would be leaving the government to take up a seat in the European parliament after the June elections.

But this is where it gets interesting and shows a certain inconsistency in the way Sarkozy treated his ministers before and after the reshuffle.

Dati and the former agriculture minister Michel Barnier were both obliged to step down after those June elections.

Sarkozy had made it a rule, if you like - a minister couldn't be in two places at the same time.

Plus he argued that it was a signal that the "best" were being sent to Brussels and Strasbourg, and was proof that France took its role within the EU seriously.

But somehow that seemed to be "forgotten" in the reshuffle as the case of Brice Hortefeux, a long-time friend and close ally of the French president, illustrates. He rather unexpectedly found himself elected to serve for the next five years in Brussels and Strasbourg, but will not take up his seat.

Instead, he has become the new interior minister - a job he has long wanted - replacing Michèle Alliot-Marie, who takes over Dati's old job at the justice ministry (stop the music and find your seats).

And if that were not enough, a new member of the government, Nora Berra, will also have problems fulfilling her obligations to Europe. She too won election to the European parliament.

Because she has entered the government in the newly-created post of junior minister for the elderly.

But this is where it gets really interesting perhaps, because as Sarkozy himself says, Berra is proof of the very ethnic diversity in government in which he seems so proud.

The 46-year-old is the daughter of an Algerian soldier and (cynics might say) in a sense a less controversial and more suitable "replacement" for the now-departed Dati.

And of course if you're really looking for confirmation that diversity remains high on Sarkozy's list of "must haves" for a French government, you need look no further than the fate of Rama Yade.

Granted, she might no longer be the junior minister for human rights - the post no longer exists even though when Sarkozy came to power he said that respect for human rights had to be a vital part of France’s foreign policy, and created a ministry.

Instead she has been become junior minister for sport, a post from which even Yade might have difficulty making her usual controversial statements.

Of course Fadela Amara is still around as a potent symbol of Sarkozy's desire to break with the politics of the past and demonstrate diversity within government. The Socialist politician of Algerian Kabyle descent has kept her job as junior minister for urban policy and has a reputation for speaking her mind.

So there you have it. One interpretation of some of the changes in the French government, but let's leave the last word to the president.

"France needs a team that's diverse", said Sarkozy in that interview with Nouvel Observateur, and as far as he's concerned that's exactly what the reshuffle demonstrates.