“I’m well, Minister, trés bien, merci. Et vous?” replied Sir Stephen, waving aside the Frenchman’s apology but noting his colleague’s ever-so-slight cringe at the English stiffness Stephen applied to his French. Why, thought Stephen, are we so forgiving of the wildly incorrect ways the French pronounce English when they so stringently criticize us for the slightest mispronunciation of an ‘r’ or ‘ou?’ Nonetheless, he smiled patiently as he shook François-Xavier’s hand and accepted the man’s invitation to sit.

They had spent the day in lengthy meetings along with many others, discussing a host of not-very-fascinating issues from immigration bylaws to farming subsidy reform, and neither of them had much of an appetite for discussing political matters. The meetings had been, as they often were, in English, the most uniformly spoken language amongst the group. Though François-Xavier was fluent in his sister language, it was still an added strain to have to speak at length in it, especially in a meeting that already strained his patience quite enough, thank you very much.

He sighed discreetly as he mastered his frustration over the subjugation of his mother tongue to its gruff Germanic neighbor. In more forgiving moments he had often been amazed at the vast array of words that English had at its disposal, and in fairness it was an extremely nuanced and versatile language. A word for the thousand variations of any given emotion. If he hadn’t been essentially forced to speak it by its pan-global usage François-Xavier might have had some small respect for Shakespeare’s mother tongue. But he was forced to speak it, and often.

As they sat in relaxed silence, François-Xavier glanced at the report he had just received, raised his eyebrow and smiled.

“I don’t know if you have heard about it but apparently there is to be a meteor shower this evening.” he said.

“Yes?” Stephen thought a moment and then memory of the report he had read a week beforehand came to him, “Yes, yes, I remember now. I received the same news. From what I have heard it is to be quite the show. They say some of the debris may even touch down … though not on land, I understand.”

The Frenchman looked questioningly at his companion, “Oh, you have heard about it too? Good, I had assumed that you would not have had a chance to read anything since the meeting today.” François-Xavier smiled and handed the report on the shower to the Englishman. It was in French but unlike most of his compatriots Sir Stephen’s grasp of the French language was passably good.