"Two European nations emerged with credit from the Iraq disaster: France and Germany. Both had the courage to withstand the Bush administration and oppose the U.S.-led invasion" Martin Jacques

But from now on only one of them can retain their seat on the high moral ground.

Yes these two look just like a normal couple of tourists, enjoying a relaxing picnic in a shady spot on a beautiful sunny day... but there's more to this than meets the eye.

Having returned from a trip to the post office I returned to The Manse to find these two sitting on a tree stump in the front garden. I smiled welcomingly - "Hello, lovely day for a picnic," I said distracted by a feeling of nagging familiarity in the crockery they were using.

"Zees eez ze ostel no?" 

"Errr no!"

"Oh we saw ze 'ouse and sought it was ze ostel. Zere was no-one in when we phoned and when we arrived and zere was no one ere we sought zees must be ze place"

(Thought to self - classic case of naturalist fallacy)

"No this is my house, the hostel is just the other side, over there (pointing) but don't worry please stay and finish your picnic"

"Errr, ah am so sorry but we sought zees was ze ostel."

"Yes you said, don't worry about it. You're not the first"

"And so we put our sings in ze kitchen" 

(And so they had - their bags on the settee, some of their food in the fridge, [some of it in a saucepan, some splashed on the cooker and some in crockery from the cupboard] How best to handle this potentially incendiary diplomatic incident?) 

"Would you like tea? coffee? a glass of wine? maybe a dram?" I said struggling to maintain a straight face and some semblance of dignity.

"Err no ah sink we will be going to ze ostel. Sank you vairy much"

Exeunt