Plus ça change,

plus c'est le même chose.  At least,that is what we generally find on our return from a week in France.  During those seven - no, eight in fact - days we have usually seen no newspapers or television, heard no radio and have no internet access so we have had no way of keeping up with the news.  But when we get back and open the newspaper, watch the television news and so on, it always seems as though nothing has happened.  It's almost as though the world has been in a state of suspended animation during our absence.  It makes me wonder why I bother to keep up with the news at all.  But this time, things were different - although it has taken until now for me to find out.  That is because it was only as I at last got round to reading the non-news pages of Sunday's paper that I learned of two things I had missed.  Granted, one of those was a report that would have caused only a very slight ripple in the UK and is most unlikely to have been heard anywhere else - and perhaps more of that another day.

The second item was the earth-shattering news of (I assume) research which has shown that men's and women's brains are wired differently.  It seems that men's brains are wired front to back, with few connections between hemispheres, while women are wired left to right.  This explains any number of things.

For example, when reversing a car into a tight parking space, a man will place his right hand on the steering wheel (the other way round in countries where they drive on the wrong side of the road) and the left across the back of the passenger seat.  He will turn his head to look out of the rear window, flashing a jaunty grin at any passengers on the way.  He will then drive into the space in a single, swift, confident manoeuvre.

A woman, on the other hand, will look in the mirror and take hold of the wheel in a very tight grip with both hands, then reverse very slowly indeed, pausing occasionally to check her position and asking any passengers what they can see from their windows.  She may, eventually, just about get in before collapsing in a heap.

On the third hand, a normal human being would just say, "Oh, the hell with it" and go off to find a bigger space.

(With thanks to Telegraph writer David Thomas and my apologies for blatant plagiarism.)

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So, back to Châteaubriant and the Christmas tree in front of the château.