We sat down at the table, me and Jean-Marie on one side, my four new colleagues on the other.

            “OK, everyone. This is a very exciting moment,” Jean-Marie declared. “We are, as the English say, branching away. Flying into new horizons. We know we can succeed in the restaurant business. The fast-food industry in France could not exist without our minced beef. Now we are going to take some more of the profit with out new English tea cafés. And we have someone here who knows this business.” He gestured proudly towards me. “As you know, Paul was chief of marketing of the chain of French cafés in England, Voulez-Vous Café Avec Moi. How many cafés have you created, Paul?”

            “There were 35 when I left the company. But that was two weeks ago, so who knows how many there are now.”

            I was joking, but everyone in the room gaped at me, believing totally in this Anglo-American dynamism.

            “Yes,” Jean-Marie said, bathing vicariously in my reputation. “I saw their success and I wanted their head of marketing, so I went to London and decapitated him. Decapitated?”

            “Head-hunted,” I said.

            “Yes, thank you. I am sure that Paul will bring to our new chain of English cafés in France the same success as he has known with the similar concept in England of French cafés in, er, England. Maybe you can continue to present yourself, Paul?” he said, apparently exhausted by his last sentence.