Even more controversial is Depardieu's choice to become a Russian citizen, which is an open gesture of defiance and rejection toward the French nation.
As Mr Evans describes, it was not just Algeria's history that militated against it being an inseparable part of the French nation, but also the context of contemporary geopolitics.
In a measure of the bitterness of the public debate, Serge Dassault, CEO of the Dassault industrial group and a conservative politician, predicted in November that gay marriage would lead to the decline of the French nation, like the peoples of ancient Greece.
About 6, 000 French citizens live in the West African nation, which was a French colony until 1960.
Iran has halted oil sales to British and French companies, the nation's oil ministry has said.
But Mr Chirac is a Gaullist too, and so a defender of French sovereignty and the nation-state.
In particular, I suggest a good French vintage to honor that nation for their support during the Revolutionary War.
French President Jacques Chirac told his nation today that he would sign a controversial new jobs law, but he promised to amend some of its key provisions.
Together with the wild cards handed out by the Roland Garros organisers to young French hopefuls, it means the home nation are going to have plenty of chances for glory this year.
Quebecers have long debated whether their province should separate from the rest of Canada and become its own sovereign nation in order to keep its French identity firmly intact.
The French also take more prescription drugs than any other nation in Europe, and expect brand name drugs, not the cheaper generic version.
In 1870, after France's defeat by Germany, there were calls for the French to produce more children, to overcome the nation's supposed demographic weakness.
ECONOMIST: France's government says it wants to bolster the family
The UK is providing logistical support to French troops who were asked into the west African nation in January to help counter an Islamist insurgency.
The start of a French military campaign this month in the northwest African nation of Mali and a four-day siege of an industrial complex by militants in Algeria has cast extremism there in a new light.
And Wilkinson stunned the crowd with a trademark left-foot drop-goal in the 77th minute as England repeated their 2003 semifinal victory against the French and earned the chance to become the first nation to retain the title.
Do we want to belong to a centrally driven Federation of Europe established as a result of French anxiety to control German aggression or remain an independent outward trading nation?
As the French looked back on a life spent pricking the conscience of a nation about poverty on its own doorstep, they were also digesting a political row about earthly goods at the other end of the scale.
While the new crop of French politicians were making the rounds at the agriculture fair, one of the nation's old guard is bowing out.
The move marks the determination of President Marc Ravalomanana's government to underscore the island nation's economic independence 43 years after it broke free from French colonial rule.
Some regret that the nation didn't build on its technological lead, but most French folks will probably remember the boxes nostalgically, knowing that they beat the internet by almost 20 years.
ENGADGET: Minitel to be shut down tomorrow: France bids adieu to the internet's precursor
The top-selling Nation also brings up the case of the unrest in France, suggesting the French authorities could teach their Kenyan counterparts a thing or two.
French security forces have been on heightened alert since their country launched a military intervention in the African nation of Mali in January to regain territory seized by Islamic radicals.
This cultural capitulation by the young seems intolerable to traditional-minded Frenchmen, who regard French culture, as symbolized by their beautiful and precise language, to be the very soul of the nation.
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