“Brigitte Bardot is facing prison if convicted for a fifth time of inciting racial hatred. Brigitte loves animals and hates Muslims, which is why she sent a petition to the president about halal butchers: ‘I’ve had enough of being led by the nose by this whole population which is destroying us, destroying our country, imposing their ways.’ Sarkozy takes a tough line on this sort of abuse. ‘When you live in France’, he is fond of reminding voters, ‘you respect the rules. You don’t have lots of wives, you don’t circumcise your daughters, and you don’t use the bath of your apartment to slaughter sheep in.’ The peace prize is in the post, M President.”

Fiachra Gibbons in the Guardian Paris Diary, 6 May 2008