Old World Humor

In a follow up story, Yahoo News relates some further shenanigans occurring during the recent EU summit:

"French President Jacques Chirac defended his eye-brow-raising exit from an EU summit session, accusing the French head of Europe's employer union of piquing French pride by daring to speak in English."

"An ardent defender of the French tongue, Chirac said he had been "deeply shocked" to hear English on the lips of the Frenchman in a speech at the two-day European summit."

""I was deeply shocked that a Frenchman would speak at the council table in English," he told journalists, explaining for the first time his abrupt walkout when the summit opened on Thursday."

""That's the reason why the French delegation and myself left so as not to have to listen to that," he added."...

..."Rubbing salt into the wounds Seilliere inflicted on French pride, the Brussels correspondent for Britain's eurosceptic Sun newspaper, Michael Lea, approached Chirac at the end of Friday's news conference with a small English-language phrase book for tourists."

""This is a present from your friends at The Sun," Lea told the French leader, who first looked puzzled, then smiled as he slipped the little tome into his pocket."...

'Little tome'... heh!