Sacre bleu!

I like the French - as a general rule - even if sometimes they are unbearably rude, particularly the jumped-up denizens you sometimes come across in parts of Paris.

So I was disappointed to read that a prestigious online French magazine - Terrafemina - has voted for the wife of Dominic Strauuss-Khan - Anne Sinclair - as their 'woman of the year'.

Apparently a majority of Terrafemina's readers chose DSK's wife - over other possible candidates.

Because of the "tenacity and unwavering support" and the "loyalty and courage" - Anne Sinclair showed towards her husband.

The magazine said that Anne Sinclair was - "both a heroine and a kind of anti-heroine for women in France. Women look at the problems they face in their own lives and seem to identify with her."

Pass the sick bag was my first reaction - because this intelligent, wealthy woman has put up with her husband's sexual shenanigans and bad behaviour for years.

So why she should be admired by other seemingly intelligent French women is incredible - to me anyway.

You would have thought that a feminist magazine - which portrays itself as a magazine for thinking French women - would have celebrated the achievements of someone like Christine Lagarde.

Who succeeded the old hound-dog - DSK - as the first woman to act as Head of the International Monetary Fund - building on her success on becoming the world first female finance minister in 2007.

But no they chose Anne Sinclair instead - which is so terribly bourgeois, depressing and  - to coin another old French phrase - simply gauche.