France has lots going for it. I’ve been here 12 years, and it’s a beautiful, fairly well-off country with good food and a life expectancy of 82. Yet as the therapists would say, it’s “not in a good place right now”. Only 30 per cent of French people polled by Ifop in January felt “optimistic” about the future. This is the worst level in 19 years and represents decline from a low base. The French were already less optimistic than Iraqis and Afghans.

At this point it’s conventional for us “Anglo-Saxon” pundits to tell the French to slash the state, face up to globalisation, etc. But obviously that’s not going to happen. Here instead is a realistic set of proposals.

1. Accept that you are a small country. As a Briton married to an American, I know about national decline. The key is to embrace it. French speakers at international meetings should say things like, “You may not have heard of my country. It’s near Belgium and has almost three-quarters the population of Ethiopia. Our language is very like Spanish.” Once the French absorb the fact that France is just an ordinary country, hardly better than Britain, then its role in the world will suddenly make sense and feelings of lost grandeur will go away.