To add to the security worries, a hologram stamp that was to be one of the safety features for euro notes was stolen from an Air France flight from Paris to Munich in May.

ECONOMIST: Unready for blast-off | The

Jean-Paul Vermes, author of a recent report by the Paris Chamber of Commerce on the recruitment crisis in France, notes that many politicians conflate legal and illegal immigration, producing alarmist statistics about the number of jobs going to foreigners.

ECONOMIST: Bridging Europe’s skills gap | The

Widad, a 25-year-old secretary of Algerian origin, notes that when she was a schoolchild in Les Yvelines, in the Paris suburbs, four-fifths of her class were North African and only a handful went on to study for the baccalaureate, the school-leaving certificate that is the essential passport to a university or a reasonable job.

ECONOMIST: France's Muslims

The Enzo, notes Ferrari's boss, Luca di Montezemolo, actually sold out before its official Paris preview, even though the Italian manufacturer had boosted the production run by nearly 15%.

ECONOMIST: Luxury cars