Apologizing is never easy. That's why you get others to do it for you -- if you're the president of France.

Over the weekend, President Nicholas Sarkozy was caught on film cursing at a member of the crowd during his appearance at France's annual agricultural fair. According to Reuters:

Sarkozy offered his hand to a man who said: "Don't touch me, you are soiling me." In reply, Sarkozy said, without dropping his smile: "Get lost, dumb ass."

Watch the incident here:

In an interview following the incident, a journalist from Le Parisien asked the president if he thought his reaction on Saturday appropriate. Sarkozy would not excuse himself for his heated reaction -- so his office did it for him, inserting an apology into the version of the interview to be published. Despite Sarkozy's silence on the matter, the interview that appeared in Le Parisien on Tuesday quoted him as saying, "It would have been better if I had not responded to him."

Apparently, it's common practice for French politicians to edit their own interviews before publication. Recalling interviews with Jacques Chirac and Francois Mitterrand, a journalist present at the Sarkozy interview said:

Sarkozy changes rather less. At least he doesn't touch the questions."

AFP/Getty Images

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's already declining popularity went into a precipitous free-fall over the weekend, and he seems to be taking political allies and family members down with him. The latest victim of Sarkozy's whims is presidential spokesman David Martinon, for whom the President had personally secured the nomination of his party, the UMP, in the election for mayor of Paris suburb Neuilly-sur-Seine, Sarkozy's former office. The president's intervention in the race wasn't popular to begin with, and Martinon's poll numbers sank accordingly. Then this weekend, the president's 21-year-old son, Jean Sarkozy, announced he was no longer supporting Martinon and would form a rival UMP campaign along with two allies. The publicly humiliated Martinon dropped out of the race.

With Sarkozy out of the country in South America at the time, Jean's move certainly seemed like a political hit orchestrated on his father's behalf. The Neuilly affair, with its soap opera overtones (The French press has dubbed it Dallas-sur-Seine.) could not have come at a worse time for Sarkozy, who is also embroiled in a tabloid scandal over text messages he may or may not have sent his ex-wife Cecilia immediately before his recent marriage to singer and former model Carla Bruni. On Monday, Sarkozy's approval rating sank to 39 percent, a 19 point drop since December.

Sarkozy's brash style, which was once his greatest selling point for French voters frustrated by years of political paralysis, appears to have lost its appeal. This may also be part of the reason for his shift away from the controverisal "Anglo-Saxon" economic reforms he emphasized during the first years of his presidency toward the amorphous, socialist-ish, "policy of civilization" he laid out in a speech in January.

But Sarkozy is going to have trouble enacting policies from the right or the left unless he can get his house in order and find a way convince voters that he is neither a distracted dilettante nor a petty autocrat. It's good news for everyone that Jean will not be running for mayor in Martinon's place, as many had predicted, and it would probably be best if the chip-off-the-old-block kept a low profile for a while. As for Martinon, his offer to resign as the elder Sarkozy's spokesman was rejected, so he now has the unenviable job of helping restore the public image of the boss who publicly humiliated him.

Lyon (the real one) via iStockphoto.com

Trying to plan a trip to Lyon, France, but all the hotels are booked? You'll soon have an alternative. Dubai has signed a deal with Lyon to build a clone of the French city renowned as a gastronomy capital and the place where cinema was born.

The Lyon replica, dubbed "Lyon-Dubai City," will feature cafes, squares, museums, and restaurants, all built on a patch of land about the size of Paris's Latin Quarter. The Lyon clone is the brainchild of a Dubai businessman who was inspired to "re-create Lyon's soul" while planning a French-language university in Dubai, with the University of Lyon as partner.

This is hardly the first time a piece of Europe has been cloned. In the United States, there's Paris Las Vegas, there's a one-third replica of the Eiffel Tower at the Kings Island theme park, and of course Disney's Epcot has its "World Showcases." In China, the Eiffel Tower has again been re-created, and entire real estate developments there copy European villas, including "Venice Aquatic City," complete with canals and gondolas.

As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Last week, I blogged about how Florencia Kirchner, the 17-year-old daughter of Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was going wild online. Alert Passport reader Adam Pitman has brought to our attention that two of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's sons have been engaging in antics, too.

Pierre Sarkozy, 23, a hip-hop producer who goes by "Mosey," has written a song for Poison, a French anti-Sarkozy rapper who last year rapped, "Anti-Sarko, anti-right, Nicolas don't you hear. We're anti-you."

Poison described his dealings with Mosey by saying:

I'm not a Sarkozy guy, I don't give a s***. He does good sh**. I didn't know at the start that it was the son of Sarko. When I found out, I blew a fuse and phoned him. He said 'Yeah, but Poison, I didn't wanna tell you 'cos you wouldn't wanna hang out wid me no more.' I told him, hey, no problem. You never done me wrong. We'll bust nobody's balls, we'll just do good stuff.

As for Pierre's brother Jean, 20, he stands accused of driving his scooter into a BMW and failing to stop afterward.

None of this may faze Daddy Sarko, though. According to comments attributed to his ex-wife, Cécilia (who is not the mother of Pierre and Jean), the French president is "a man who likes no-one, not even his children."

The soap opera that French politics has become just keeps getting better and better:

President Nicolas Sarkozy's ex-wife Cécilia has branded him a "stingy philanderer" with a "behavioural problem" who is an "unworthy president" of France... Mrs Sarkozy alleged that her 52-year-old ex-husband was "a man who likes no-one, not even his children".

FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Is there nowhere left in the world where you can wear a beret, drink a capuccino, discuss Sartre, and enjoy a cigarette? Sure seems like it. Last February, France enacted a law banning smoking in office, stores, schools, and hospitals. Totally makes sense. But starting January 1, the ban will be extended to bars, restaurants, hotels, nightclubs, and—gasp!—the café. Surprisingly, 66 percent of the French support the ban. But not everyone is happy:

People say that a café is the thermometer of a country," said Cécile Perez, 54, owner of La Fronde, a bar-tobacco store in the historic Marais district. "In a café, while we smoke, we meet new people, we exchange ideas, we learn, we listen, we talk about everything. If we stop that, what do we have left?"

France is just the latest to join a slew of places that have banned smoking in once-smoky areas. The state of California banned smoking in enclosed spaces in 1998. New York City did the same in 2002. Ireland became the first entire country to do so in 2004, followed by Italy in 2005. Sweden followed a few months later, then Denmark and Britain in the summer of 2007. After France, next up is Romania and the Netherlands in 2008. Mind you, none of these places are actually banning cigarettes. For that, you have to go to Bhutan—the only country today where the sale of tobacco is forbidden.

I grew up in healthy Boulder, Colorado where smoking is viewed on par with drinking a vat of bacon grease. I didn't even try my first cigarette until I was 21, and since then I've had probably one cigarette a year. But nevertheless, I actually do find the total ban to be a tad excessive. I think it's a good idea to forbid smoking in offices, hospitals and schools, and yes, even restaurants. But when I go to a bar, I kind of expect a little smoke.

My solution? Bars and cafes should apply for tobacco licenses just the way a they apply for liquor licenses. That way there will be some smoking places, and some non-smoking places. Those that want to indulge in their vice should have to pay a little extra fee. My plan protects people's health, it protects people's freedom, and the government gets a little extra income too. Everyone wins!

I wouldn't exactly say Moammar el-Qaddafi has been the toast of Paris this week. In fact, whatever the opposite of "the toast" happens to be in this context, the Libyan leader was it. Here's a great shot of Qaddafi signing the guest book at Versailles:

PATRICK KOVARIK/AFP/Getty Images

This one's good, too. I mean really, the captions just write themselves. "Takes one to know one?"

PATRICK KOVARIK/AFP/Getty Images

Tonight, Nicolas Sarkozy will address a joint session of the U.S. Congress. Yesterday, a few of us from FP attended Sarkozy's address to the French-American Business Council, where the French president touched on a number of themes you're likely to see in tonight's speech. The bottom line? Here's a man on a charm offensive.

Some highlights:

• Sarkozy is looking to build bridges with France's socialists. "I want major reforms and for that I need a vast majority", he said. Expect the unity theme to reappear again in his comments on the Franco-American relationship. 
• Building on that topic, Sarkozy will also likely speak of France's own special relationship with the United States. Expect him to mention the portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette that hangs in the House chamber and the "eternal debt" France owes to the United States for its role in both world wars.
• Seven of the 15 ministers in Sarkozy's cabinet are women, a fact he emphasized in yesterday's meeting, describing the United States as a model of inclusion. Expect him to congratulate Nancy Pelosi on her position as Speaker of the House.
• Sarkozy is also likely to speak on the need for reforms in the world's international organizations. "The UN, IMF and G8 are all organizations of the twentieth century," he said yesterday, and it is likely that he will call for changes that would take into account the emerging powers of the developing world.
• On trade, expect Sarkozy to emphasize the need for free trade but a fair playing field. In other words, while Sarkozy may portray himself as a champion of the free market, expect France to continue to protect its domestic industries, especially agriculture.
• On Iran, the French President said that it is "unacceptable" that Iran be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon but that the country, like all others, did have the right to civilian nuclear power; he even dubbed nuclear energy the "technology of the future". He admonished those who are opposed to meeting with Iran's leaders, saying, "there's no contradiction between firmness and dialogue."

While he praised the United States, Sarkozy's overall message, like that of many recent French presidents, is one of restoring France to its former position of international grandeur. But this French leader brings a new twist:

If you want to be an example, you have to behave like an example. We've fallen too far behind, but we're catching up."

Editor's Note: This post coauthored by Joshua Keating.

Pool/Getty Images

Shimon Peres, Israel's president and former ... everything, denounced Columbia University this morning for hosting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday:

I think that Columbia University made a mistake ... With Hitler there was a dialogue. (British Prime Minister Neville) Chamberlain went to talk to him. What did it help? It helped cover the fact that Hitler prepared concentration camps and death camps."

Sure, Ahmadinejad may be strengthening his domestic position. But notice what happened today at the U.N.: French President Sarkozy called for "combining firmness with dialogue," reiterating his position, "if we allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, we would incur an unacceptable risk to stability in the region ad the world." And Germany's Angela Merkel came out in support of a new round of sanctions "if [Iran's] behavior doesn't change." She added, "Israel's security isn't negotiable," and referred to Ahmadinejad's history of comments on Israel as "inhumane".

These statements may well have been worked out on Friday, when the permanent five members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany met in Washington to discuss the sanctions issue. But it sure was easier for Germany to toughen its stance after yesterday's farce at Columbia. Ahmadinejad had a chance to come across as a moderate, undercutting the unity of the EU3. Instead, he came across as a buffoon not ready for prime time. We'll see if he acquits himself better here at the U.N. in a few minutes, but suffice it to say that Iran is back on its heels today.

MICHAEL URBAN/AFP/Getty Images

The French and the Germans have cooperated on many fronts since the end of World War II. Their partnership is largely credited with driving economic growth in Europe, and both countries champion further European integration. Now, French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to take the relationship to a whole new level.

According to a report in Der Spiegel, Sarkozy, in a recent meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, asked if Germany would be interested in some French nuclear weapons. Der Spiegel explains the German reaction thusly:

Both the chancellor and her foreign minister were speechless. The idea of possessing nuclear weapons is taboo in Germany. Sarzoky's predecessor Jacques Chirac cautiously brought up the issue 12 years ago, but he quickly realized it was pointless to pursue it.

Steinmeier eventually explained that as Germany had signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty; it wasn't interested in French nukes. Merkel said nothing. 

Sarkozy's offer is the latest in a series of odd incidents between the French and the Germans. For instance, Sarkozy asked Merkel to force German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück to publicly apologize for contradicting the French president at an EU meeting over the independence of the Central European Bank. Merkel told Sarkozy she couldn't reprimand Steinbrück, as he was articulating German policy. 

Disputes over more substantive issues like Iraq have also emerged. The Germans were miffed when French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner visited Baghdad recently to express support for U.S. policy. Berlin was also upset by France's nuclear agreement with Libya. Both were done without consultation.

What does this new dynamic between France and Germany mean for the rest of Europe? Der Speigel says it best: "It's possible that Europe's legendary Franco-German motor might shift into neutral for a while."

Because of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's un-French habit of "le jogging," you wouldn't expect the leader of France to have much blubber accumulating around his waist. And, indeed, Sarkozy doesn't appear to have any rolls of fat in a photo of him canoeing shirtless during a recent trip to the United States that the French magazine Paris Match published.

But that photo happens to have been airbrushed by the magazine to tighten what the French call poignées d'amour—or what Americans call "love handles."

The French newsweekly L'Express broke the news of the retouched photo by printing "before" and "after" pictures in which Sarkozy's bulge disappears. It also reported that Paris Match said the president's posture made the love handle bulge out more. So maybe he only has rolls when he slouches?

Makes me wonder if any airbrushing went into the recent love handle-free topless photos of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The man who is supposed to become Belgium's next prime minister apparently doesn't know his own country's national anthem. Yves Leterme, head of the Flemish Christian Democrats, said last year that French-speaking Belgians are either too stupid or too unwilling to learn the country's other main language, Flemish. Last Saturday, a TV reporter asked Leterme to sing Belgium's national anthem.

Leterme promptly began singing France's national anthem, "La Marseillaise."

The whole incident was caught on camera as Leterme was entering a church, and regardless of whether or not Leterme was joking, the gaffe isn't going to help him in being a unifying force to form a new government.

Leterme's blundering continued over the weekend when he said that Belgium's National Day—July 21, 1831—commemorates the "proclamation of the constitution." Actually, it marks the day when Leopold I became the country's first king. That gaffe may not have been as bad, though, since only one in five Belgians happens to know what the day commemorates.

If Leterme truly wants to be a uniter and not a divider, then he had better learn "La Brabançonne" fast.

MICHEL GANGNE/AFP

Nicolas Sarkozy, perhaps the most pro-American president in French history, has been stirring up a furor in the French and British media this summer with his most right-wing activity of all: jogging. And to add insult to injury, he often runs in his favorite NYPD T-shirt.

Sarkozy seems to be confirming a French belief that jogging is an activity for self-absorbed individualists such as Americans, the Times of London reports. The editor of V02, a sports magazine, told the left-wing French newspaper Libération, "Jogging is of course about performance and individualism, values that are traditionally ascribed to the right." The Times writes that sports sociologist Patrick Mignon thinks that "French intellectuals have always held sports in contempt, while totalitarian regimes cultivated physical fitness." Meanwhile, Boris Johnson, a member of British Parliament who jogs, says:

Of course [jogging] is right-wing. … The very act of forcing yourself to go for a run, every morning, is a highly conservative business. There is the mental effort needed to overcome your laziness.

A leading French philosopher, Alain Finkielkraut, says Sarkozy should stop his un-French and "undignified" athletic activity, which involves the indecency of exposing one's knees. Finkielkraut thinks strolling is more cerebral and says, "Western civilization, in its best sense, was born with the promenade."

(Well, if sports are indeed right-wing, their health benefits certainly aren't showing up in the most conservative areas of the United States.)