It was almost like a scene from “Night at the Museum,” starring Ben Stiller. Except it was “Day Off at Versailles,” starring the Anglo-American Press Association.
 
The event aired on Monday, March 18th, when about 40 of us got a wonderful “insiders” tour of the Chateau de Versailles on the day when its doors are closed to the public.
 
We followed museum historian and curator Beatrix Saule, who led us through the halls, salons and bedrooms of Louis XIV’s palace, regaling us with tales about how the court lived. Her giant set …

 
 
Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici created news when he revealed exclusively to the AAPA on Feb.18 that the government was moving away from its earlier pledge to bring its budget deficit down to 3% of gross domestic product this year, arguing that Europe’s recession had created an “exceptional” situation requiring less austerity.
 
The minister’s comments were picked up widely by French media, giving our association some nice publicity.
 
The one-hour on-the-record meeting over breakfast in the ministry’s dining room, with over twenty of us attending, covered a wide range of other key topics: …

 
 
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius met February 6 with close to 40 AAPA  members to discuss France’s priorities and concerns in the foreign policy domain.
In an ornate setting at the Quai d’Orsay, Fabius went “off the record” to explain his government’s concerns about Europe, Syria, Lebanon, Mali, Iran, the Middle East Peace Process and many other topics.
For about 90 minutes, in a relaxed, round-table format, the Foreign Minister gave his vision of how the international community should tackle the crises at hand, noting the difficulties of getting consensus in several …

Nicolas Dufourcq, the new head of the French government’s Banque Publique d’Investissement, says that one of the greatest obstacles he faces is finding viable projects, not money.
The state bank was created last year to help small and medium-sized companies overcome difficulties in obtaining financing from traditional sources of funding.
At a lunch hosted by the bank for some twenty AAPA members Feb. 4, he explained: “It’s the projects we need to find, and to help.” There is plenty of funding, state and private, he noted, but many companies would still rather …

Fostering the “reshoring” of French companies that have chosen to relocate overseas and encouraging French people to prefer products “Made in France,” are just two of the tasks set for Industrial Revival Minister Arnaud Montebourg by President Francois Hollande, Mr. Montebourg told some 30 Anglo-American Press Association members on Jan. 8.
During a lunch kindly hosted by Mr. Montebourg at the Finance Ministry at Bercy, he referred to one of President Obama’s campaign slogans: “Let’s bring jobs back home.” And he noted that France’s Socialist party had been inspired by the …