Michelle, Ma Belle des Magasins

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Michelle Obama has unwittingly caused a national French debate over working on Sundays. It seems the First Lady wanted to take Sasha and Malia shopping while there: the problem was virtually every store in Paris is closed on Sundays. There is a ban in France, a Catholic country, on working the day God rested. Embarrassed, President Nicolas Sarkozy personally called a few stores and asked them to open especially for the Obama ladies. Sarkozy has since introduced a law, expected to be voted on in the National Assembly on July 6, to allow shops in touristy areas to remain open on Sundays. In an article entitled, “If You Have to Work Sundays, It’s Michelle Obama’s Fault,” Sarkozy, roughly translated, argues: “Is it normal that when Mrs. Obama wants to visit French stores with her daughters on a Sunday, I have to make a call to have them opened? Everyone in President Obama’s entourage was present, great. Who then had to explain to them why we are the only country where, even in Paris, everything is closed on Sunday?” A spokesman for the Communist Party responded saying Sarkozy “crossed the line” by invoking Michelle Obama. Vive le shopping!