Hardly is the blood dry on the Brexit deal than the naughty French are making fools of us. The “Fizz de Provence” made with Noilly Prat and “local flavours” from the “pretty seaside village of Marseillan in Provence”, concocted by the founder of a Paris cocktail bar (Cocktail of the week: fizz de Provence – recipe, 25 December) was clearly a mean joke. Marseillan is in Hérault, not Provence, and most of it is on a lagoon, not the sea. Lemons and tinned olives are not local to the neighbourhood, as any French cocktail expert would surely know.
Brian Smith
Berlin, Germany
• The “single hedonistic mouthful” that is a roast ortolan was the centrepiece of François Mitterrand’s last meal (Foie gras, truffles, birds drowned in brandy: a menu fit for Queen Victoria, 29 December). He is said to have followed convention and covered his head with a white napkin as he ate, whether to capture the unique aroma or to hide in shame is not recorded. The former French president ate nothing more until his death a few days later on 8 January 1996.
Suzy Powling
Leiston, Suffolk
• You publish a daily update on Covid cases and deaths. How about publishing figures on the cumulative numbers of people vaccinated? That would lighten the gloom a little.
Roderick MacFarquhar
Edinburgh
• While I am used to seeing letters to the Guardian in early spring confirming the first daffodils or first bumblebee etc, imagine my surprise to notice that on Christmas Day my pink camelia bush is in flower! I shall put this down to global warming unless anyone has a better explanation.
Sally Haylock
Horsted Keynes, West Sussex
• Once widowed, there was hoovering, changing sheets, washing the kitchen floor, only to find they all had to be done again six months later (Letters, 29 December)!
Roy Arnold
Tenterden, Kent
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