When my local Mayor gets annoyed, he gets VERY ANNOYED INDEED!!

Tut tut, please watch your language. Children may be reading...

Lyon, the wonderful city in which I live, la douce Lyon with its renowned genteel manner and discreet ways, is up in arms at the moment. Up in arms I tell thee! Saperlipopette! Nom d'une pipe!

This city has a fine culinary tradition, which is why it had deservedly high hopes of being selected as France's official 'City of Gastronomy', a distinction which, as one may well imagine, has been much coveted by other cities in France. It's billed as the 'World' capital actually, but that's meaningless, as it's just a one of those grandiloquent self-titled Franco-French distinctions which France likes to invent to keep the morale of the troops up.

The implications of being selected are enormous. Tourism, economy, prestige, there are many tangible benifits to be had, and this was not lost on Lyon's Mayor, the Socialist Gérard Collomb. He is a good mayor in my opinion, and he was naturally disappointed, as were the good citizens of Lyon, including myself, when the EU decided that Marseille, and not Lyon, would be the European Capital of Culture this year.

So one may well imagine his bitter deception upon learning recently that Lyon was not to be chosen as the Gastronomy Capital because the city's proposals and project were deemed by the adjudging powers that be to respond "too partially to the ambitions which the first 'World Capital of Gastronomy' could have inspired."

Two humiliating defeats in a row for our hero! Gadzooks!

But Gérard being Gérard, he is not backwards when it comes to going forwards so he made his views on the decision, which he obviously considers to be tainted by political considerations, crystal-clear to his long-suffering secretary, to whom he is alleged to have said...

"I DON'T WANT TO SEE ANY FUCKING MINISTER FROM THIS SHIT GOVERNMENT IN LYON!!"

Attaboy!! Fighting stuff Gérard! Hooo, Kitty's got claws!

The story was originally posted as a short rolling news piece on local news website Lyon Capital, and I didn't see it at the time, but some sharp-eyed reader at Le Lab did, and screensaved it. He or she was quite right to do so because after a search on Lyon Capital's site it seems to me to have disappeared. Why?

Yup, when our Gérard gets angry, he doesn't do half-rations.

The John McEnroe of French politics?

Have a good evenin' y'all, as they say they say in Texas...