Those witty Frenchmen...

This entry from the Al Jazeera blog today is slightly entertaining:

2:34am
A French parliamentary hearing called to discuss the worsening nuclear crisis in Japan has been suspended in uproar - in a spat over a parked car.

As ministers outlined France's response to the explosions, part-meltdowns and radiation leaks at Fukushima nuclear plant, independent member of parliament Maxime Gremetz stormed into the committee room to complain his car was blocked.

"That's enough! This is unworthy!" science committee chairman Claude Birraux protested, amid shouts from MPs, enraged by the timing of the interruption.

After disrupting the hearing - screened on live television - for a second time, Gremetz was ordered to get the car registration number. Committee chairman Birraux told him, "With Japanese people risking their lives today, don't come here and be a pain in the neck with your story about badly parked cars."

Energy minister Eric Besson said he was sure the offending vehicle did not belong either to him, or Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, telling the committee, "If it was either of our cars, I am sure the chauffeurs would be sitting in the front."