Paris whispers: The president gave Bokassa’s diamonds to his lover

Paris whispers: The president gave Bokassa’s diamonds to his lover

Throughout the unfolding of the affair of [illegible] the diamonds received by President Giscard d’Estaing from the Central African emperor Bokassa, no clear answer was given to a very central question: Where were the diamonds?

From Giscard’s lukewarm response, it was possible to understand that even if he admitted receiving a gift, he had no way to return it. And that, it seems, is also the reality.

Those readers were, then, the first to learn what reliable sources in Paris were whispering. In the year in question (1973), Giscard was the lover of a fairly well-known dark-skinned actress in Paris. One of the gifts he gave her was Bokassa’s diamonds. Some time later, the lady married a famous playboy from an even better-known French family, and took her diamonds with her. The rest of the chain: the unfortunate husband drowns at sea; his family (very well-known, as mentioned), which had looked askance at his marriage to the actress (dark-skinned, as you will recall), searches his apartment and takes everything it suspects was a gift he gave his wife. Among them, you guessed it: Bokassa’s accursed diamonds.

Now, if the jewels had been in the hands of Giscard’s black ex-lover, perhaps he could still have got them back and donated them to some charitable cause. It is much more complicated to get them out of the hands of the family in question.

That is all. Word for word from very reliable sources. Whatever the case: the story sounds very French.

James Bond’s victim

These days, a sad compensation-claim case was brought before the court in Nice.

The plaintiff is Isabelle Moyot, 25, formerly a ground attendant with Air France. She was transferred to another job in the company. The reason: it is difficult for a young woman who has lost an eye, whose face has been disfigured and who has difficulty walking to work in a public-facing hospitality role.

On April 7 of this year, Isabelle’s car, driven by Maurice Moyot, collided with a car that came from the opposite direction after veering off course, while the two of them were on a pre-wedding trip on the French Riviera. After four months in hospital, the two married as planned. A bouquet of flowers arrived at her wedding from a very famous man: British actor Roger Moore, otherwise known as James Bond. Moore is not a longtime acquaintance of the two; rather, they once had a very fateful encounter with him: he was the man in the car coming from the opposite direction.

But flowers were not enough to compensate James Bond’s real victim. In the films, they fall at his feet, ready to do anything for him. In real life—he is being sued for damages.

Stay 80 forever

They performed in the Orsay Theater Hall, at the old railway station on the banks of the Seine, and thrilled the audience, who marched after them down the aisles as they played “When the Saints Go Marching In...”

I first saw them about seven years ago at Preservation Hall in New Orleans, and they certainly have not changed. All are around 80 years old. All are excellent jazz musicians, and each one is a charming personality in their own right.

Everything is the same, except for one small detail. They are not the same people. That is, even with the best will in the world, it is hard to keep a group together forever when its average age is, as I mentioned—80.

Where are you, “Sweet Emma,” with your thrilling voice and enchanting piano? Where are you, “Big” Jim Robinson? The answer, most likely, is simple and sad. But the new old-timers are full of strength, talent and life. So nothing has changed.

Perhaps this is the secret of eternal life. Always be old.

White flesh for the black continent

That Giscard took upon himself the role of Africa’s policeman has been known for a long time. However, France’s deep connection to the black continent is expressed through flourishing commercial exchanges in a field that is not talked about very much.

In the “Goutte d’Or” district in northern Paris, brothels are flourishing in old hotels slated for demolition. But the place of the classic “French prostitute” of our youth is taken specifically by a black import from Ghana, brought straight to the place and the profession by nimble agents. So where are the French women?

Abroad.

More than four thousand French prostitutes practice their profession throughout Europe: in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany—and recently, to balance the flow of international trade, in Africa as well. Mainly in the Ivory Coast and Senegal.

French women in the profession are “exported” after they have gone through a “preparatory round” all over France. That is how they get rid of the “roots” problem. The psychology of prostitution. After that, they are ready for anything.

Actually, they are less ready to go to Africa. Work on the black continent is still regarded as a “punishment” in the circles of the oldest profession in—

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Régine versus the Merry Widow

An interesting trial is taking place in Paris these days. The defendant is the renowned queen of nightlife, Régine. The plaintiff—none other than Dewi Sukarno, the widow of the man who was Indonesia’s sole ruler, who has lived in Paris for several years and leads a fairly merry life there.

One evening in July last year, Régine refused to let Mrs. Sukarno into the well-known, snobbish club of which she was a member. She was sued for “insult and emotional distress.”

Régine claims that the widow of a Third World leader does not tend to pay her club dues and, on the other hand, often runs riot and hands out slaps to peaceful guests.

In any case, Paris nightlife enthusiasts can look forward to an appetizing trial.