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NewsletterOctober 2009

Square Dancing in the French Alps

Square Dancing in the French Alps

Local ‘square dance’ club at the Fête pastorale (pastoral celebration) in the village of Marthod near Albertville.

Clearstream Affair

In what’s being called France’s trial of the century, the Clearstream Affair has finally started. (Clearstream is a bank in Luxembourg) The trial is shaping up to be even more intriguing than first thought. It’s all very complicated and centers around a list, now known to be forged of account numbers that purportedly belonged to some very important French politicians. Allegedly the politicians were hiding kickbacks and bribes. These politicians included the current French President, Nicolas Sarkozy and former Finance and Economy Minister, Dominique Strauss-Kahn (now head of the IMF). Both are civil plaintiffs in the case.
What makes this trial so intriguing isn’t who did it, that’s been known for some time but, who was behind the list’s creation and who tried or didn’t try to manipulate the Clearstream Investigation to their advantage.
One of the accused is former Prime Minister, Dominique de Villepin, who was and still is a rival of Sarkozy. De Villepin isn’t accused of creating the list but of manipulating the Clearstream investigation to harm Sarkozy. De Villepin is crying foul stating his innocence and accusing Sarkozy of being out to get him. As president of France Sarkozy has presidential immunity and couldn’t be brought to justice should it be found that the charges against de Villepin are baseless. Sarkozy is a civil plaintiff and in a way is responsible for the case being brought to trial, if a judge were to throw the case out de Villepin could under normal circumstances take Sarkozy to court.
Sarkozy started the trial, more or less as an injured party looking for justice. But he didn’t help himself when he commented to French journalists that the “guilty parties should be tried before a criminal court.” Calling de Villepin and the other accused ‘guilty’ runs in contrast to the presumption of innocence and makes Sarkozy look like he’s trying to settle a score. Also Sarkozy can as president, appoint judges, making it look like he is trying to influence the trial.

Expat Expo

Again I invite you to attend the Expat Expo on Sunday October 11th. The Expat Expo runs from 11am to 5pm. The location is Palexpo, Hall 7 at the Geneva Airport. There are some 200+ exhibitors, including yours truly at table F7 (listed as GP IMMO).

Email Problems

If anyone experienced problems contacting me with the email address my newsletters are sent from, I apologized. Recently I discovered the address was not working. I try to reply to all my messages, but because of the volume I receive I’m not always able to do so in a timely manner. So if you tried to contact me and never received a response, please try again.
It was also brought to my attention by Paul Varley of Banque Chaix that last month a reader contacted him but the return email didn’t work. Paul has asked the person to please resend their request as a reply is waiting.

Trivia

During the Journées européennes du Patrimoine last month we took part in a treasure hunt and discovered this bit of trivia. It seems that La Roche sur Foron has the 44th swimming pool built in France. It’s out of service now but judging from the photos it used to be a happening place!

Bidart Bed & Breakfast

We are a family home, located in Bidart (near Biarritz), close by everything, yet in the middle of a forest. The bedroom where you shall be staying has two single beds that can be independent or joined together, en suite bathroom opens onto a terrace, where you can breakfast next to the rose garden and birds houses. If the weather does not cooperate, breakfast shall be served by the fireplace. Looking forward to seeing you here!

Follow @jeffsteiner

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