1. Frank Johnson Dept d’Hérault Our TGV, slipping through La France Profonde from Lille to Montpelier three days before the referendum, would now end its journey earlier, at Nîmes, the intercom told us÷ unspecified faults on the line.

2. His key partners, including Spencer de Grey and David Nelson, have been with him for more than 30 years, working on landmark structures that include Berlin‘s Reichstag building, the Swiss Re "Gherkin" in London, the Greater London Authority‘s City Hall, Chep Lak Kok airport in Hong Kong, the Nîmes Médiathèque, the Millau viaduct ... When you are such a global force, does the idea of locale still mean anything?

3. "It‘s true that it would have been preferable if Mr. de Villepin had rubbed up against voters," said Jean–Paul Fournier, the center–right mayor of Nîmes in a telephone interview, adding, "I am an elected official from the base, and it is important for a political official to have contact with the voters." But Jean–Louis Debré, president of the National Assembly and a Chirac party loyalist, told reporters, "This is the best choice we could have made because this is a choice that unites us." Villepin had said before his appointment, "All one‘s life one prepares oneself to take on certain missions that are sometimes difficult, sometimes unpredictable." Villepin has been blamed by his enemies for helping persuade Chirac to dissolve the National Assembly in 1''7 and call early elections, a move that brought in a Socialist–led government and ushered in five years of uneasy power–sharing with Chirac.