They have spent a lot of money to this end, and it has been fruitful in the sense that animosities have vanished, although it has not been a total success. The Germans have not become seriously interested in French (as opposed to American) culture, and have virtually stopped studying French at school.We should learn from that, and aim for an entente between Britain and France that is more ambitious. In contrast, France and Germany, who have fought against each other in three wars since 1870, have managed to forget their hatred. After a century of Entente Cordiale, we have not made much progress.The fact that Britain and France have since fought on the same side in two world wars has not been enough to forge a deep friendship between the two nations.

There was also a recent poll in which British people were asked about their level of faith in various public institutions such as judges, the police, politicians – and nations Just one third felt they could trust the French. The traditional animosities between the two nations have continued in varying forms and, since the Iraq war last year, we have sunk to almost the same state of mutual suspicion as existed 100 years ago.Why? A poll in France, due to be published next week, asked: “Which country do you feel particularly close to?” Germany came top with 25 per cent and Britain bottom with seven per cent. For that reason this limited agreement ought to be celebrated – as it will be, extensively, during the next month. But the Entente Cordiale has been far from cordiale over the years. Since then the two countries, in conflict for so many centuries, have not taken up arms against each other. Under the deal, France allowed Britain to dominate Egypt, while Britain agreed France should be free to do what it wanted with Morocco. How many of the French or British know what the Entente Cordiale is? This agreement, signed in April 1904 between the foreign ministers of Britain and France, put an end to the tension between the two countries which had been on the brink of war because of their colonial rivalries.

And the French? They called it Italian kissing.The moral of this is that it is time to stop attributing stereotypical and permanent characteristics to nations which constantly borrow ideas from one another, but never acknowledge it. The Victorian rejection of this habit is marked by a lawsuit in 1837, when a Mr Savernake sued a woman who had bitten off his nose when he tried to kiss her. The judge ruled that when a man kisses a woman against her will, she is entitled to take such drastic action So social kissing moved to France “French” kissing became the new secret British vice. But in Shakespeare’s time what foreign visitors found extraordinary about England was that there was more social kissing here than in France and Italy put together, and it was often kissing on the mouth. Not so long ago it used to be a source of wonder in this country that the French kissed people so readily as a social greeting; although more recently the practice was adopted in some middle-class circles over here. Flaubert’s Madame Bovary “said goodbye in the English way” by holding out her hand.