Peter Bills: Strauss-Kahn case hard to digest but unlikely to put French off food

Dominique Strauss-Kahn's fate is somewhat problematic. Photo / AP

It would be fair to say that the news of former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn's alleged indiscretions with a chambermaid at a New York hotel did rather more than raise a few eyebrows on this side of the North Atlantic.

Paris, where in a couple of months Strauss-Kahn was expected to announce his bid for the French presidency in next year's elections, has been awash with rumour and intrigue ever since.

As ever, some French saw it as a dastardly plot. "He was set up" was a view in some quarters, fostered by the public statement of his wife, Anne Sinclair, that "not for one second" did she believe there was any truth in the story of his alleged attempted "sex attack" on the hotel chambermaid.

Not for nothing, given France's love of intrigue, suspicion and a plot, was the fictional detective star Maigret created in this country.

Strauss-Kahn's fate is somewhat problematic. For a start, his lawyer asserts that he will defend the charges vigorously. Nevertheless, it takes something of an imagination to see him completing the journey from a prison cell where he briefly lived alongside those charged with murder, drug dealing and such like in Rikers Island jail before being given restricted bail, all the way to the Elysee Palace in barely 18 months.

His bid for the French presidency as representative of the Socialists would appear to be in tatters. Now, the left has started the search for another candidate and that won't be easy. For a long time, the left saw Strauss-Kahn as a shoo-in for their presidential candidate to fight the widely unloved Nicolas Sarkozy next year.

Yet somehow, whatever adversity strikes France or the French, life tends to roll on. For example, anyone planning on invading this country should know that the optimum time would be lunchtime. Strike hard across the German, Belgian or Italian border just as lunch is being served and the chances are, the next two hours at least will be yours to go and do whatever you please.

Nothing, not even wild horses, would drag a Frenchman away from his lunch table. This tradition goes back centuries and can still be witnessed all over this land. In America and Britain, there seems no time to indulge in such luxuries. Most people take lunch either at their workplace, snatching a few moments to eat a sandwich as they continue to study documents or their computer screen, or in the sunshine outside. But their interlude is brief.

France is a world away from that. Pass a cafe or restaurant either in Paris or any provincial town in mid-morning and vast numbers of tables are laid for lunch. Presumably, the owners don't all do it just to keep them occupied.

The evidence is there pretty well right away once 12 o'clock strikes. In the cities, smartly dressed men and women will pour out of their offices and head for a restaurant.

In the provinces, even workmen will head for the local cafe and sit down for the reasonably priced plat du jour. This can be anything from a starter of salad or local meat to a main course of fish, meat or pasta.

But first comes, of course, le pain, the bread. The fresh baguette is chopped into chunks and offered in a wicker basket. Hungry patrons reach for this appetiser as drowning men grab at a life raft. Soon, drinks are served; very often, a bottle of wine to match the main meal.

In the south at this time of year, as the sun strengthens with the longer days, "un verre de rose" is normal, either to begin or to accompany the meal.

And then they pile in. Great plates of steak, lamb, pork, duck or whatever are served. Frites are often presented in a separate bowl. If not, the French will expect a garnish, perhaps a few lettuce leaves. But the portions are seldom modest.

The foreigner looks on in amazement at this ritual. One wonders just how they go back to work and produce anything sensible, especially on a warm afternoon, after this gastronomic experience in the middle of the day. And you wonder too how they stay in shape. You don't see a tenth of the number of obese people in France as in Britain these days.

It seems unlikely that Strauss-Kahn is likely to be indulging in a good lunch any time soon in his homeland. His fate is unknown, but for sure imperilled.

But the good news for the defendant who was once the world's top money man is that his fellow citizens have not let the news of his own calamity affect their appetites.