Middle East Focus: Tour d’Argent in Arabia, Too Early for Beaujolais and Rousseau at Janadriyah…………..

Arabia Deserta

Tour d’Argent in Arabia, Too Early for Beaujolais and Rousseau at Janadriyah…………..

“In Saudi Arabia, where Islamic clerics severely repress public music, film and other modern arts, it represented the wedge of domestic reformers and a key thrust of French diplomacy. Abdullah visited the French pavilion on the opening night Wednesday of the Janadriyah festival in the desert outside the Saudi capital, the sole outpost of foreign arts at the annual two-week event. He was welcomed to the pavilion, decked out by mini-Eiffel Towers and French-style cafes, by French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterand. In an address Mitterand praised the king's promotion of traditional Arab culture, adding: "France, also with age-old traditions... shares with your majesty this unique message."………..”

Definitely too early and too dry for Beaujolais Nouveau. But I know that had there been a few cases of it out there, the vendors could have asked any price. The evil red liquid would have been snapped up quickly, by the pious.
I also bet the clever French did not distribute copies of their best-ever products: the thoughts of Rousseau, Montesquieu, François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire, et al.
Cheers
mhg

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