Last Friday was the 70th anniversary of General Charles de Gaulle’s famous 1940 “Appeal of June 18” from London calling on the French to resist the German occupation of their country. An excellent occasion for a party to celebrate that France is (currently) unoccupied and free, ce n’est pas?  Except that it isn’t.

The currently occupying forces decreed that a party in Paris scheduled for last week couldn’t be allowed:

A giant “sausage and wine” party planned later this week in a Paris neighbourhood with many Muslim residents risks sparking disturbances and will therefore be banned, police in the French capital announced on Tuesday.

The French have weighed up their competing traditions of food’n’wine versus surrender, and gone with the second one.

The event, announced on the social networking site Facebook late last month, had drawn growing criticism from politicians and civic groups in recent days as its page containing barely disguised anti-Muslim slogans attracted over 7,000 members.

Let’s put aside Reuters’ definition of ‘slogans’ for a second and ask – why the idea for a street party?

The main organiser, Sylvie Francois, wrote that she wanted the event to be “a joyous protest” against the closing down of roads in the Goutte d’Or neighbourhood every Friday by Muslims praying in the street outside the overcrowded mosque there.

So how is this mini-reclaiming of the streets going to be sustained? In some outrageous way? No, with traditional local food.

The Facebook page also appeared to signal the party’s thrust with appeals to “native Parisians” and complaints about “the resolute foes of our local wines and pork products.”

Ah, those will be what Reuters call “barely disguised anti-Muslim slogans”. They were too well disguised for a casual reader, to be sure. So a glass of Sancerre is unacceptable in France nowadays, it appears.

The event, called an “apero geant” (giant cocktail party), was due on Friday, a date seen as highly provocative because that will be the day of the weekly Muslim prayer and the World Cup soccer match between England and majority Muslim Algeria.

So now no parties are allowed in France on prayer days or days when Algeria plays a game of football, it seems. Let’s hope that if you live there that your birthday doesn’t fall on a Friday this year

C’est des conneries! And for the insulte finale…

In a statement before the ban was announced, Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said the party was “clearly inspired by extreme right-wing movements” and seemed to be “designed to degenerate, possibly into violence.”

Violence with sausages. On the plus side, there’s always the possible spectacle of Franceistan resuming its tradition of public beheadings.