In this collection of articles, the veteran international journalist Joseph Harriss provides profiles and analysis of French icons and institutions ranging from the Académie Française and the Foreign Legion, to the Concorde supersonic airliner and the Crazy Horse Saloon. With a lively mix of wit and insight, he also explores national quirks such as the French passion for astrology, the wholesale adoption of English words, and the nation's quixotic fixation on the past. The result is an idiosyncratic, often provocative take by a perceptive writer with an eye for ironic detail.
