Most mornings Nigel and I listen to BBC Radio 4, he always very intently and I somewhat with half an ear as I’m more in tune working on Happy Lappy responding to emails. But this morning my attention was riveted when Edward Stourton interviewed Jacques Myard, the French minister from Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP Party, concerning his immense shock and subsequent bitter complaint over the choice of English in this year’s French entry in the Eurovision Song Contest taking place on Saturday, May 24 in Belgrade.

Indeed, it seems he is not the only one from Sarkozy’s cabinet to feel appalled. Francois-Michel Gonnot is to launch an official complaint in the French Parliament this afternoon with a question to Christine Albanel, minister of Culture while also pointing out his dissatisfaction on his blog under the title Shame on France 3.

Talking to Edward Stourton, Myard voiced his concern how the French language was under serious threat in the face of English imperialism and that by publicizing the French song in English was yet another nail in the coffin. He explained how he had just heard that the European Commission were dropping the French and German translation of statistics in favour of English only. For Myard, language is the heart of a nation’s culture and a tool for its economy. What, he wondered, will be the result if we are speaking constantly English - would foreign students still come to our country to pick up the language when even the French don’t use it?

As a byline it is interesting to note that from 1956 until 1965, no rule existed restricting the languages in which the Eurovision songs could be sung. But in 1966 a rule was imposed stating that songs must be performed in one of the official languages of the country participating. This restriction continued until 1973 when it was then lifted, only to revert back in 1977. In 1999 it was changed once again to allow freedom of language.

Though Myard has a good point it is also significant to mention that between one third and two thirds of all English words have a French origin. For the 300 years after the Norman Conquest in 1066, the kings of England spoke only French and during this time, a large number of French words were assimilated into Old English and resulted into Middle English. During the 17th-19th centuries, French was the lingua franca of the European elite. Monarchs such as Frederick the Great of Prussia and Catherine the Great of Russia could speak and write in French. Russian nobility used French for everyday communication.

While there may be 328 million worldwide native speakers of the English language, there are nonetheless a massive 77 million native French speakers. And though there is a mind-boggling 495 million who speak English as an additional language, 50 million people use French as theirs. More interestingly, there are 16 million French people who speak English as their second language. Even more mind boggling: there are around 400,000 people of French nationality living in the UK, most of them in London while there is a British population of just over 100,000 living full time in France.

While English is the first foreign language in education in all EU Member States, French is nearly always the second.

And so, while I understand Myard’s disappointment that his country has chosen English to represent their country’s song, I can only applaud Sebastien Tellier for his gutsy determination because, and let’s face it, which English singer can you think of that would sing in French for the United Kingdom on such a night? No, I can’t think of one either . . .

Can you believe it? It’s Easter Monday already. Where has the time gone? But, guess what everyone - I know exactly as Nigel’s loaded Entourage onto Happy Lappy and am I ever organized now! Gone are the days of lost To Do lists, misfiled emails or forgotten entries in my agenda, I am now zippy sharp and focused! Though I still have a bit of a learning curve to do with this exceedingly powerful software, I’ve already found myself planning new projects linked with emails, To Do lists and notes. For me, this is an important leap forward in my quest to achieve my ultimate goal: additional contributing authors and broadening the scope and horizon of the website (without dropping any balls in the process).

So apart from learning some great and really useful software, what else have I been up to recently?

Well, last Friday morning I made the short drive to Valbonne to attend a book signing. The very well known and much loved author, journalist and broadcaster Deanna Maclaren was at the English Book Centre signing her latest novel: Villa Fleurie. Valbonne is a great place to go any day of the week but market days are extra special. The narrow cobbled streets simply buzz with people tempted by the sheer diversity of local produce and variety of goods on offer. Against the backdrop of this very vibrant market and pretty stone village houses, Deanna decided to make the most of this fantastic atmosphere and sit outside to sign her books. When I arrived there was already a crowd of people milling around her (I noticed some very well known faces) but I somehow managed to squeeze past them and have a quick chat with this truly lovely and very engaging person.

Only a few weeks prior to her book launch she’d kindly consented to giving me an interview from her home in Cannes and explained the background story about Villa Fleurie. You can read this interview and a review of her book in the June issue of AMB.

It being Easter Monday, Nigel and I drove to the very pretty medieval village of Bar-sur-Loup to attend their yearly Fete de l’Oranger this morning. If you’ve ever driven around this region you’ll have noticed numerous oranges trees. These are the bitter bigaradier oranges that have been cultivated on the south-facing terraces (or restanques as they’re called in French) since the 19th century. The tree is now the symbol of the village (much like the violet flower for Tourrettes-sur-Loup or the lemon tree for Menton).

With the day being so bright and sunny, there was a great turn out so finding a parking slot near to the village wasn’t easy. But perseverence paid off in the end and after parking the car, we then proceeded to walk up to the village centre to enjoy the festivities. I’ll be writing more about this festival in the April issue of AMB but suffice to say that it’s really excellent and if you are over here next year for Easter - mark it in your diary as a festival well worth attending.

Lastly, Maman Fleur is doing well and getting wider as each day passes. She continues her love of anything well, shrimpy, especially if it still retains its shell. While she crunches heads, bodies and tails to her utter delight (and downs the lot), our other cats sit a comfortable distance away from her, glancing over from time to time if a particular crunch is louder than another. But our mum knows a true fish when she smells it; herring, red mullet, tuna and tinned sardines are accepted with relish - but try and pass a surimi stick on her - and forget it.

An absolutely delightful article landed on my desk this morning, which I just have to share with you.  French Kissing – how do you go about it? Before you all get hot and bothered under the collar - no, it’s not that sort of kissing; it’s the Cheek Greeting Kiss kind!  We Brits have never been over demonstrative in our affections, sufficing normally with a formal handshake for “unknowns”, a heartier one for someone familiar and, daringly, a pat on the back if it’s someone we really like. Thankfully, France is much more convivial and has a wonderful tradition that once you’ve been “accepted” either as work colleague, friend or part of the family, you will be cheek-kissed. I find this a lovely gesture but it does mean you’ll need to cheek-kiss back.  And if you’re new to the game it can be all rather worrying, but the trick is simply to let your new French friend take the initiative – and simply copy them.

“Faire la bise” (to give a cheek kiss) is normally done when you meet friends for the first time and, depending where you are in France, the kiss count is different.  (Cheek kissing began in the Middle Ages when men began kissing women as a form of greeting: Bourgeoisie on the cheek, Nobility on the mouth).

But I can tell you that here on the French Riviera you only need to kiss once on both cheeks – and that goes for the whole of the department Provence-Alpes-Maritimes-Cote d’Azur. It’s also true for the departments of Aquitaine, Lorraine, Franche-Comté, Rhone-Alpes and Limousin. But it’s three kisses in Midi-Pyrenées, and Poitou-Charentes. The further north you go it becomes four kisses as Ile-de-France (Paris), Picardie, Normandie, Bretagne, Pays-de-la-Loire make you feel very welcome; as will Champagne-Ardenne, also with four kisses. Mind you, for a glass of their gorgeous bubbly I’d gladly accept twenty kisses.

Now that you know all about French Kisses – have I told you the pitfalls about offering flowers?