February 17, 2003

"No question" of France's aircraft carrier going to Gulf

France's only aircraft carrier, the nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle, will return to its home port next week "as planned", after a tour of the east Mediterranean that included exercises with a US carrier, the French navy said Monday.
"There is no question at all about us going to the Gulf," a spokesman for the Charles de Gaulle's battle group, Lieutenant Commander Bertrand Bonneau, told AFP by telephone.

This is way better news than it sounds: apparently this French vessel has trouble getting anywhere under its own power and thus is more of a handicap than an asset.
A waggish Lucianne poster named "amereagle" summed up our esteem for Charles de Gaulle in just this way:

"Francois, do you think zee aircraft carrier's propeller eees feexed yet?"