«Well, who would have thought it? On Wednesday this column celebrated its 10th anniversary. The very first rubrique entitled, “Breaking the Ice” was published on the 20th February 2009.
This was the opening paragraph: “The snow is falling as I write this and the temperature outside is at – 4 degrees. So it seems appropriate to start this new weekly column with a weather-related title. Not only do the British love to talk about the weather, (it seems to be our national pastime), but the expression to “break the ice” means to make the first steps to help strangers get to know each other, usually through conversation. So that is what the column is going to be about”.
When that column first appeared, there was a little bit of trepidation at La Côte. Both Isidore Raposo (the chief editor back then) and Philippe Villard (my editor) knew they were taking...