The French press is particularly French this morning, bristling with pride over the victory of Alsatian cyclist Thomas Voeckler in yesterday’s leg of the Tour de France. “Cocorico à Perpignan,” screams the headline of l’Indépendant. Cocorico is the French equivalent of Cock-a-doodle-do and is a nationalistic slogan, given that the cock is a French national symbol. Les Dernières Nouvelles d’Alsace a local paper in the Alsace region where Voeckler is from celebrates the victory – “Voeckler, quel Bonheur!”

Le Parisien reports that yesterday in the National Assembly, the Socialists proposed a motion of no confidence in the Government. There were accusations of an increasingly “Putinised” regime – comparing the hyper-Presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy to Vladimir Putin’s style of leadership. Not surprisingly the motion failed to rally the required 289 votes to overthrow the government. Laurent Fabius, one of the many pretenders for the Socialist Party presidential ticket in 2012, criticised Nicolas Sarkozy for claiming to be a President who would lower the cost of living. For Fabius, Sarkozy is “Mister Unemployment and Mister Deficit”. The Prime Minister François Fillon went on the counter-attack - while his government wants to open up to the Left, the Socialists “see everything in black and white,” he said.

Libération, for its part, says the Socialists need the head of the IMF Dominique Strauss Kahn if they want to win the next Presidential election. Since Lionel Jospin was knocked out of the first round of the 2005 election leaving Chirac and far-right leader Jean Marie le Pen to battle it out, the Socialists have not been a real alternative, says the paper.

It goes on to say that the curse of the Socialists is that there are too many talented candidates for the Presidential ticket and the selection process is a mess. As for the other possibilities – Martine Aubry, the current leader has been considerably weakened after the European elections; Ségolène Royal’s star seems to be fading, Bertrand Delanoe, the mayor of Paris lost the leadership battle last year…

The only one who really seems credible is Strauss Kahn who has two major advantages as Libération sees it. He has all the gravitas and credibility necessary for the race given his role as head of the IMF. He can also escape any blame for the party’s current crisis seeing as he is absent from the political scene. This however means he has few allies in the party. It would require his enemies’ foresight to call him back from the IMF to contest the Presidency. They would have to put the interests of the Party ahead of their own.

Rue89, an online news website, has an article about Chrome OS, Google’s new operating system which will be launched in 2010 to compete with MS Windows. They give a granny’s guide to Chrome, assuming that grannies everywhere can’t figure it out for themselves!

It asks the basic questions such as what is an operating system. Well grandmother, the article says, it’s what comes up when you turn on your computer, it manages and coordinates all of its software and programs whether it be writing emails, filing photos of your grandchildren, noting granddad’s birthday in your calendar…Google promises it will be fast and secure with fewer viruses than on Window.

The editorial inLibération notes the extent to which Google has become a part of our lives: Gmail, Google Maps, Google News, and even YouTube. Its reputation is still that of a young, dynamic company. There are some caveats though – copyright infringements and privacy issues such as photos it makes available on Google Images, pictures of your home and neighbourhood on Google Streetview… The increased power it is amassing must be kept under surveillance, says the paper.

Finally, le Figaro reports that the French have been making a massive faux pas for the entire history of camembert cheese. An article written by the world’s best wine taster in 2004, Enrico Bernardo, says it’s better to drink white wine with Camembert. The received wisdom was that you should guzzle back some red wine with the soft, gooey cheese.