On a rainy Sunday afternoon in September, France’s freshly appointed finance minister, Antoine Armand, received a curious welcome gift from his predecessor.
Bruno Le Maire presented 33-year-old Armand, the youngest finance chief in France’s post-war history, with a traditional Basque walking cane. A person’s worth clearly no longer depends on their age, the former minister remarked, but the stick might still come in handy as an aid for climbing mountains and for defending against enemies.
