The Chinese have a character for "double happiness." The French would benefit from a similar character of "double sadness" for the events of December 2017, when two giants of French culture, dissimilar in every way, died on successive days. This is not the first time this has occurred: Edith Piaf and Jean Cocteau died on successive days in 1963. However, in December 2017, two striking figures died and were honored on successive days, Johnny Hallyday, the champion of French rock, aged 74, by an elaborate tribute at the Madeleine Church in Paris, and the writer and philosopher Jean d'Ormesson, embodiment of the French classical tradition, aged 92, at a less elaborate function at the Cathedral of the Invalides. Curiously, though both men were national treasures, if not as symbolic as the Eiffel Tower or Mont-Saint-Michel, in their own country France, they were essentially unknown abroad. In a sense, the two men illustrated complementary aspects of French...(Read Full Article)