Chirac jokes about British food
Vladimir Putin, Gerhard Schroeder and Jacques Chirac
The three leaders seemed to enjoy themselves in Kaliningrad
French President Jacques Chirac is reported to have cracked jokes about British food at a meeting with the German and Russian leaders.
French newspaper Liberation says Gerhard Schroeder and Vladimir Putin laughed and joined in the banter.
"One cannot trust people whose cuisine is so bad," it quotes Mr Chirac as saying, within earshot of reporters.
A French government spokesman declined to comment on the report, which comes days before the G8 summit in Scotland.
       
The three men met on Sunday for celebrations to mark the 750th anniversary of the founding of Kaliningrad, formerly known as Koenigsberg, an exclave of Russia surrounded by Poland and Lithuania.
"The only thing they (the English) have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow disease," Mr Chirac said, according to the newspaper's report. :lol
"After Finland, it is the country with the worst food."
A spokesman for Number 10 said: "There are some things that it is better not to comment on."
Problems with Nato
Mr Chirac is also reported to have reminisced about an occasion when Lord George Robertson, the former Secretary General of Nato, had made him try a Scottish dish.
"That is where our difficulties with Nato come from," he said.
The comments come as France and the UK compete to hold the Olympic games in 2012, and are at loggerheads over the EU budget.
On Wednesday Mr Chirac will be flying to Gleneagles for a dinner hosted by Queen Elizabeth II to open the G8 summit.
The menu has not been published, but most of the food, provided by the Gleneagles hotel, will be locally sourced.
"The Taste of Scotland is always to be enjoyed at the Gleneagles Hotel, from morning kippers or a fresh egg from a nearby farmhouse; scones and cream or Dundee cake for afternoon tea in The Bar to Angus beef, Scottish salmon, venison or Highland grouse for dinner," the hotel's website says.
It adds that the hotel's kitchens "benefit from the finest, freshest produce available from Scotland's larder, and from specialist suppliers around the world".
Hamburgers OK
US President George W Bush said in an interview with the Times newspaper that he would not eat haggis at the summit, or wear a kilt.
Liberation says Mr Putin tried to egg Mr Chirac on at the Kaliningrad meeting, asking him what he thought of hamburgers.
Mr Chirac replied that hamburgers were far preferable to British food. :lol
In an interview with Time magazine two years ago, he said he had been a fan of America since spending a summer at Harvard University in 1953, and that he loved "junk food".
France came close to being fined in 2002, for refusing to lift a ban on British beef, in the wake of the BSE crisis.
The European Union issued a worldwide ban on British beef exports in 1996, but lifted it in 1999.
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Well I just had fish and chips and peas -- it was not too bad
Vladimir Putin, Gerhard Schroeder and Jacques Chirac
The three leaders seemed to enjoy themselves in Kaliningrad
French President Jacques Chirac is reported to have cracked jokes about British food at a meeting with the German and Russian leaders.
French newspaper Liberation says Gerhard Schroeder and Vladimir Putin laughed and joined in the banter.
"One cannot trust people whose cuisine is so bad," it quotes Mr Chirac as saying, within earshot of reporters.
A French government spokesman declined to comment on the report, which comes days before the G8 summit in Scotland.
       
The three men met on Sunday for celebrations to mark the 750th anniversary of the founding of Kaliningrad, formerly known as Koenigsberg, an exclave of Russia surrounded by Poland and Lithuania.
"The only thing they (the English) have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow disease," Mr Chirac said, according to the newspaper's report. :lol
"After Finland, it is the country with the worst food."
A spokesman for Number 10 said: "There are some things that it is better not to comment on."
Problems with Nato
Mr Chirac is also reported to have reminisced about an occasion when Lord George Robertson, the former Secretary General of Nato, had made him try a Scottish dish.
"That is where our difficulties with Nato come from," he said.
The comments come as France and the UK compete to hold the Olympic games in 2012, and are at loggerheads over the EU budget.
On Wednesday Mr Chirac will be flying to Gleneagles for a dinner hosted by Queen Elizabeth II to open the G8 summit.
The menu has not been published, but most of the food, provided by the Gleneagles hotel, will be locally sourced.
"The Taste of Scotland is always to be enjoyed at the Gleneagles Hotel, from morning kippers or a fresh egg from a nearby farmhouse; scones and cream or Dundee cake for afternoon tea in The Bar to Angus beef, Scottish salmon, venison or Highland grouse for dinner," the hotel's website says.
It adds that the hotel's kitchens "benefit from the finest, freshest produce available from Scotland's larder, and from specialist suppliers around the world".
Hamburgers OK
US President George W Bush said in an interview with the Times newspaper that he would not eat haggis at the summit, or wear a kilt.
Liberation says Mr Putin tried to egg Mr Chirac on at the Kaliningrad meeting, asking him what he thought of hamburgers.
Mr Chirac replied that hamburgers were far preferable to British food. :lol
In an interview with Time magazine two years ago, he said he had been a fan of America since spending a summer at Harvard University in 1953, and that he loved "junk food".
France came close to being fined in 2002, for refusing to lift a ban on British beef, in the wake of the BSE crisis.
The European Union issued a worldwide ban on British beef exports in 1996, but lifted it in 1999.
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Well I just had fish and chips and peas -- it was not too bad
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