If diplomacy is an art, it is an art of nuances. One can admire many things in Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president. His energy, his determination, his imagination are exceptional, but nuances are not necessarily his forte. He is naturally closer to Bonaparte than to Talleyrand. There is in Mr Sarkozy’s actions a tendency to do too much when restraint would be more appropriate.

His phone call to Vladimir Putin to congratulate him on his victory in the widely criticised Russian parliamentary elections – he was the only western leader to do so – and his controversial reception of Libya’s Colonel Muammer Gadaffi in France are representative of this hyperactive diplomacy. There is nothing wrong in reawakening France’s sleeping beauty even if, diplomatically, France was far from asleep. Remember Dominique de Villepin’s flamboyant speech at the United Nations on the eve of the war in Iraq? From Charles De Gaulle’s independent diplomacy to Francois Mitterrand’s surprise visit to Sarajevo in the midst of the war in the Balkans, French leaders have a tradition of acting differently. It is as if they had made theirs the motto of the French poet Jean Cocteau: “Keep surprising me.”