The young man on the podium was flogging the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestra at a dead run through Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony when a handclap sounded from the raised .
The Republic is still worth a handclap, and 76-year-old President Coty, typifying today's worried "ordinary Frenchman," is worth several.
Another handclap starts his radio blaring again when he thinks the plug is ended.