"France is perfect" illusionists please be honest. With national insurance at 22%, the highest income taxes in the EU (except Sweden), VAT at 19.5% on everything including kiddies' clothing, food and books, its shanty towns of municiple workers, tens of thousands of rough sleepers, means tested council housing, mass unemployment (real rate 14% including those living on income suppport, mysteriously not counted in the official figure), high death rate in Paris slum "DSS hotels", frequent riots, multi speed health care system (depending on how much, if anything, you can afford to pay to top up the meagre state provision which only covers 70% of medical costs), over 17 years of economic "growth" under 2%, national debt at 74% of GDP (including unfinanced pension liabilities payable presumably by as yet unborn babies ).......have the French got anything right? No! The OECD, the Economist and France's own stressed workforce may all be wrong and need to switch to your rosé tinted view.

Pierre, Paris, France

The French have got it right. It's us who have it wrong. We end up chasing our tails striving for more more & more. Surely life shouldn't be about this. If we all took our feet off the accelerator and accepted the need for less we would all be better off in the best possible way.
All power to the French people I say and I hope we see sense and take a leaf out of their book one day.

Steven, Southampton,

I love working 35hrs a week. It enables me to be there for my children after school, not to get overly stressed at work and take Wednesday afternoons off without too much trouble making up the hours elsewhere.

I would not want to change my work pattern, but the problem lay for those who wanted to work more - they couldn't. If Sarko can sort out the 'work if you want to' issue rather than forcing us all down the mine shaft of 40hrs per week, then he'll have done something positive. Isn't it supposed to be all about choice in this day and age?

Sarah Hague, Montpellier, France