Page 49 - The Cormorant Issue 14

The École de Guerre, Paris
respective Estimates, and less on the process itself? Then again, it may be that the crux of our difficulties is simply that deciding how to solve complex problems is jolly hard. Or as Napoleon put it, rather more eloquently, “Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.” Of course, our learning experience was not just limited to crunching out staff work in a classroom, and our free time was used to good effect too.
During our leisure time we were looked after most generously by our French hosts, being treated to a guided tour of the Musée de l’Armée, dinner at the War College and a spot of light social- ising known as Jolie Jeudi. The former was undeniably the cultural highlight of the CJEX. Comprising a whistle stop tour around the French equivalent of the Imperial War Museum, and set within the Hôtel National des Invalides - their version of the Royal Hospital Chelsea and still in use today - it finished most fittingly at Napoleon’s Tomb. Jolie Jeudi, on the other hand, saw us rack up a record breaking bar bill, before many descended on the highlights and lowlights of Paris until dawn. Once the weekend came around, the pace was cranked up and we seized every opportunity offered to sample the city’s delights. Many took the chance to bring their wives out for a romantic weekend, some explored the city by Metro, while others hired ‘Boris Bikes’ and pedalled round the boulevards and tourist spots. Most returned with stories of friendly little bistros and wonderful food, of impromptu picnics by the Eiffel Tower, of fantastically dodgy
Isn’t this the same as Blackpool Tower?
nightclubs, or of generous French strangers buying rounds of drinks. Undoubtedly, the myth of Parisians being rude and cold was thoroughly debunked during our time there. Sadly, the pros- pect of the MA exam loomed for the morning after our return, so for some the weekend also saw revision in hotel rooms, laun- derettes and on park benches...interspersed with an occasional glass of light refreshment of course. Well, you know what they say about Jacques being a dull boy...
Of course, no trip abroad would be complete without cultures clashing somewhere along the way. Inter-service differences arose when an RAF officer commented of his Army roommate, “It was like trying to sleep in a room full of buffaloes wielding chainsaws.” The French seemed obsessed by British cuisine, frequently observing, “English food is terrible, n’est ce pas?” and then feeding us on tripe, boudin (black pudding) and andouil- lette (tripe sausage), without the slightest hint of irony! The final word has to go to the member of the French directing staff who baffled everyone - French, English, German, Spanish and Italian alike - with a bizarre proverb about Swiss cheese: apparently the more cheese you have, the more holes you have, so the less cheese you have... or something?! Well it was to do with cheesy holes anyway. But frankly who needs to know? As CJEX Paris proved, the French do it their way and we do it ours, and I say, “Vive la différence!”
Napoleon’s Tomb, in the Hôtel National des Invalides
Hôtel National des Invalides
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