WSJ.com - Monsieur Triple Espresso:
Most timely "Profile" as we headed to Paris
From WSJournal:
By PHILIP DELVES BROUGHTON
June 10, 2005; Page A8
Soon after the U.S. invaded Iraq, Dominique de Villepin, then France's foreign minister, came to address Paris's foreign press corps over breakfast. He did not touch a single one of the buttery croissants arrayed before him. As a long-distance runner, he maintains a lean silhouette. He took his coffee black and when he sipped it, he cupped his hand beneath his chin to make sure nothing dribbled on to his electric blue shirt. Standing amidst his rumpled audience, his skin shone a deep bronze, his blue eyes flashed beneath his mane of silver and he began to speak, softly at first but growing ever louder. His arms swept this way and that and from his lips poured a torrent of arguments about the risks of the invasion, its illegitimacy and why history would show France was right and the U.S. hideously wrong. After 40 minutes, he was all but shouting: 'We in France recognize that the fate of man is essentially tragic. Humanity is dark.'
It was a familiar display from this most unusual politician, chosen to be prime minister last week, following France's rejection of the European constitution. At a time of deep national unease, his appointment is President Chirac's Hail Mary pass, a final, desperate heave to salvage a fast evaporating mandate."
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