Whilst queueing for a famous crepe from Le Creperie de Hampstead with colleagues, we played the game of Paper, Scissors, Rock to see who got to go to the front of the line to view the menu. In the first round I threw a rock, the Spaniard too, and la Francaise something that looked like a circle made by her fingers and thumb.

 

"What is that?" we cried.

 

"It's ze well? You know, don't you 'ave ze well?"

 

"NO!" we replied in unison. "What strange thing is the well? What does it beat?"

 

"It swallows everything. Because it is a deep hole. But it can be beaten by the magic baguette."

 

"The magic baguette??" we cry out.

 

"Yes," she says, making sign with her index finger pointed and the thumb curled on the base. "The magic baguette stops ze well. But it can be cut by the scissors, crushed by the stone and wrapped by the paper."

 

Who would have thought that the French have a Well and Magic Baguette to add to their Paper, Rock, Scissors arsenal.

 

Since writing this, I googled Magic Baguette - it actually translates into Magic Wand; the French word for "wand" must be "baguette".

According to my French colleague, his grandfather told him that to be a man one has to: