I was just watching the 8pm news and the top story is the big French humiliation at the hands of those ‘back stabbing’ Americans and Australians, who made a secret deal behind France’s back and now we can’t sell any submarines to the Aussies (and the Americans can).

Laurent Delahousse just asked France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs if France and Europe shouldn’t ‘changer de braquet‘ in terms of their naivety in their alliances with the dreaded ‘Anglo-saxons’.

Changer de braquet is a cycling idiom that is probably used much more figuratively in regular life than literally in cycling. It simply means to ‘change gears’ (to go faster). France is in the middle of a hissy fit and has recalled ambassadors to both the US and Australia, which is unprecedented, but not really changing gears, so we await to see what will be next. I will be ready if any more cycling jargon pops up. Promise.