Sandcastle Sheikh

‘ALL hail and tidings glad be with you as his immortal majesty the King of Bahrain welcomes you to read his sensational new column in the Independent.

‘Life is, how do you say it, a beach’

Also syndicated in the Times, exciting new writer Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa tells the news like it is, challenging the old ways in his indomitable style.

Or rather his ghost writers do, taking an entire page to applaud the King’s work in championing democracy in the Gulf, creating improved conditions for the Gulf’s women and saying how he thinks Jade is more lovely that an eagle flying into the setting sun, and she WILL win Big Brother.

The King is in Britain for just a few days, and we should try and do more to make him feel at home, and copying the French has never looked so appealing.

The Guardian sees les Francais cover an area of Paris beneath tonnes of sand, thus moulding the city’s first beach resort, Paris-Plage.

A dip in the nearby River Seine might turn the Sheik’s robes an odd shade of green, but he could surely feel right at home among the rolling Parisian dunes, the 80 palm trees, beach huts, bars and boules pitches.

The oasis of sand is the brainchild of Jean-Christophe Choblet, Paris city hall’s ‘creator of events’.

And he plans more. Next year, the beach will come with two swimming pools, some floating scenery and an area reserved for Les Touristes Anglais – a large pen containing a space for 70-a-side football matches, synchronised German baiting and kiosks selling edible Pastisse-sun-cream-jelly.

‘Luv-er-ly,’ as they will soon be saying in Paris.

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Posted: 22nd, July 2002 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink