Despite all the gloom and despair, French industry is still prospering -by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
Fifty yards down the road from Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign headquarters on Rue d'Enghien, a thriving start-up company is proof that France's entrepreneurial spirit has not yet been broken by an overweening state.
France boasts an impressive array of world-class companies, many number one in their field. They include: cosmetics (L'Oréal), luxury goods (LVMH), water (Veolia, Suez), transport (Air-France-KLM), materials (Saint-Gobain, Lafarge), tyres (Michelin), industrial gas (Air Liquide), nuclear power (Areva), dairy (Danone), razors (BIC), infrastructure (Vinci, Bouygues), jets (Dassault), spectacles (Essilor), insurance (AXA), restaurants (Sodexho) and retail (Carrefour), to pick a few. In luxury goods, they are super-champions with one third of the global market, making €75bn a year in profits. Louis Vuitton's earnings were 44pc of turnover in 2005, a world record for a company its size.
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