Saturday evening finally brought relief from temperatures in the upper thirties. Overnight thunderstorms cooled things down and Sunday's maximum was a mere 30C. A brief respite it seems, as the forecast is for 35C+ again on Thursday and Friday and Meteo France are predicting a spell of weather similar to the long hot summer of 2003. As you might guess it was a weekend when we did as little as possible. Too hot Saturday to venture out for more than a short walk to the shops, but Sunday we managed a stroll and lunch along the river. It was strangely quiet, with most of the waterside restaurants closed. Perhaps not so strange, with it being the first weekend of the French school holidays. Seems most of the city, all of our building neighbours included, headed straight for the seaside.
The heat in the political arena continues to rise. Revelations in the Bettencourt affair continue to make daily headlines, and today a former accountant for the richest woman in France dropped a fresh bombshell. After being interviewed by police investigating the Bettencourt tax irregularities she talked to the media website which has broken most of the story. Among other things, she alleged that Sarkozy was one of the numerous right wing politicians who regularly visited the Bettencourt home and walked away clutching a brown envelope stuffed with cash. More specifically she also claimed Eric Woerth (in his capacity as treasurer of Sarko's UMP party) was given 150 thousand euros in cash to help fund Sarkozy's presidential election campaign. Naturally Monsieur le Président and his budget minister have denounced the allegations as 'calumnies'.
In other French corruption news, six policemen from in and around Marseille have been arrested following an investigation into inside tip-offs to Marseille crime godfathers.
