But perhaps most important - and worrying - is that the gap between what France would pay to borrow and what Germany pays to borrow widened to a record.
While this development may not directly help solar and wind firms across Southern Europe, it will likely give ammunition to local companies willing to fill that energy gap and help France reach EU-backed sustainability goals of 20 percent by 2020.
The 12 gas balloons took off from Gap-Tallard in France almost 24 hours ago.
BBC: David Hempleman-Adams' gas balloon 'flying well' in race
And though our workers have caught up with German levels of productivity, the gap with America and France has scarcely budged.
Last year Mr Hempleman-Adams landed in Worgl, Austria, finishing in fourth place after having travelled 580.9km from the launch site at Gap-Tallard in France.
Over the past 12 years, a competitiveness gap has opened up between France and Germany, its biggest trading partner.
World Cup and newly crowned European champions France closed the gap but failed to overhaul Brazil at the top of the rankings.
In fact, the gap between what Germany and France have to pay to borrow is now at its widest for something like 20 years.
EU-wide harmonised index of consumer prices, the gap between British inflation and those of France and Germany is smaller than on national measures.
Since their currencies are now irrevocably fixed, this gap can only be narrowed by prices falling in France or rising in Spain.
ECONOMIST: The Economist offers some hot tips on exchange rates
That distrust is also shared by many in Europe and the prime minister faced the daunting - some say impossible - task of trying to bridge the gap between the views of 'old Europe', led by France and Germany, and the unflinching position of the American administration.
It is interesting that the British 50-year bond, though successful, attracted bids equal to only 1.6 times what was on offer, compared with demand equal to three times the total when France launched its ultra-long bond earlier (though different circumstances explain some of that gap).
Yet as England stuttered to victory in their opening game against France, the first round of Four Nations fixtures seemed to serve only to underline the vast gap in quality that the Aussies will bid to ruthlessly underline at the DW Stadium in Wigan.
The gap was 64% to 37% in the Netherlands, 35.2% to 33.6% in France and 13.1% to 10.6% in Japan.
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