As scandals go, this one was not the classic “tempest in a teapot”. You’d have to call it more a “tempest in a touristy coffee mug”. In any case, it got a surprising amount of coverage in the French press last year when the gift shop at the Elysée Palace discovered souvenir mugs stamped “Made in Limoges” were not made of Limoges porcelain at all. In fact, they may not even have been manufactured in France! The Elysée is President Macron’s official residence in Paris, so that automatically made this news a “political” subject. Still, it struck me that there’s a kind of sad undertone to this story. Do you like reading about the people, places, history, and culture […]