Every year on Bastille Day, the Turtle is overcome by a wave of enthusiasm for all things French. This time around, it takes the form of our Monthly Salute to M. José Bové, the leader of the Confédération Paysanne, to wish him luck as he awaits the verdict of the French courts on charges of trashing a half-built McDonald's "restaurant" with his tractor. We are not the only people to commemorate his achievement: our ideological opponents at Business Week magazine are of the same mind, having elected Comrade Farmer José to its pantheon of the fifty "Stars of Europe", calling him in an unexpectedly Gallic turn of phrase, a "sophisiticated militant". His activities immediately catapulted him to global fame and visits to Seattle and Davos, his status as a popular hero immeasurably assisted by his memorable facial hair, a moustache which makes the comparison with that other indomitable anti-imperialist Astérix the Gaul almost inevitable.

The Bové story is pretty irresistible. On 12 August 1999, while awaiting trial on charges of destroying genetically-modified maize earlier in the year, on 8 January in the Novartis silos at Nerac, Bové attacked the McDonald's being built in Millau, in the part of Southern France where Roquefort cheese is made. France had, sensibly enough, slapped a ban on hormone-injected American beef, and the Americans retaliated with a big new tax on Roquefort cheese. Bové, a sheep farmer whose ewes' milk is made into Roquefort, took the battle to the hamburger giant with his tractor and around a dozen companions. He was locked up for three weeks, and stood trial on 30 June this year (the verdict will be handed down later in the Summer), facing a possible five years in prison or -- more likely, given that McDonald's is no longer pursuing him for damages and French politicos are lining up to praise his fight -- a gentle slap on the wrist and an admonition not to do it again any time soon.

The festivities surrounding the trial have led to Millau being dubbed Seattle-sur-Tarn. Bové and his co-defendants arrived at court in a cart towed by a tractor. Fifteen thousand activists descended on the town for a big party and -- as they had done in Seattle and Washington DC -- they proceeded to set up a special Indymedia website to cover the goings-on at and around the trial, complete with RealVideo interviews in English and French with the Turtle's favourite French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu, with Susan George and other leaders of the anti-globalisation movement -- several of whom had been summoned to appear in court as expert witnesses for the defence. Bové remains upbeat: "The party is wonderful, we must continue our fight this weekend with joy".