Gavin Mortimer

Friday morning's attack in Paris in which a machete-wielding man was shot and wounded in the stomach by a French soldier after he injured another soldier near the Louvre museum is the first terrorist incident in France since July. Then two teenagers murdered an elderly priest in his Normandy church, an attack that shocked and repulsed in equal measure. While the full details of Friday's incident are still to emerge, it hasn't the hallmarks of a determined and well-organised attack. There were no explosives in the two backpacks recovered at the scene and launching oneself at two armed soldiers holding just a machete is frightening but foolhardy. Nonetheless, interior minister Bruno Le Roux rightly lauded the 'sangfroid and professionalism' of the soldiers involved.

The reaction in Europe to Donald Trump's recent remarks critical of the continent was all too predictable. It was an echo of the response when, following the Islamic terror attacks in November 2015 that left 130 Parisians dead, Trump said: 'Paris is no longer the same city it was....they have sections in Paris that are radicalised, where the police refuse to go there. They're petrified.' On that occasion the liberal media and the French Establishment reacted with outrage, rejecting the idea that the Republic had lost control of parts of Paris. The mayor, Anne Hidalgo, even threatened legal action against Fox News when they repeated Trump's assertion. Now it's Angela Merkel who is up in arms.

It strikes me that it's not much fun being a Catholic in France these days. Strolling back to my apartment in Paris on Christmas Eve, for example, I passed my local church. Inside a midnight Mass was in progress; outside a policeman stood guard. It was the same across France, an army of gun-toting men and women protecting the nation's cathedrals and churches. They'll be back at Easter, and on the Ascension and the Assumption. For how long? Who knows how long the country that is known as 'the eldest daughter of the church' because of its Christian heritage will need to protect its flock. There's been just one fatal attack on a church in France since the Islamists began their terror campaign, the brutal slaying of an 84-year-old priest in his Normandy church last July.

When Christine Lagarde stood before the Court of Justice of the Republic last week to defend herself against charges of criminal negligence in her handling of a long-running fraud case in France, the head of the IMF concluded: 'I have acted in conscience, in confidence and guided by the general interest.' But today, the court decided otherwise and announced a guilty verdict. The 60-year-old need not worry about going to prison or even paying a fine - and she won't even receive a criminal record. Yet nonetheless the verdict is a serious blow for Lagarde, and the IMF.

Forgive me if I sound a touch complacent at the news that Francois Hollande has fallen on his sword. In announcing on Thursday night that he won't be seeking re-election in the spring, Holland has become the first president in the 58-year history of the Fifth Republic to make such a decision. It was the right one. The wrong one was made by all those millions of French men and women four and a half years ago who gave Hollande their vote. I remember well the evening of 6 May. I went out for supper with a friend and on the metro home I passed through Solferino, the station closest to the Socialist HQ in Paris. Hordes of exultant young Socialists boarded the metro, intoxicated with victory, their eyes bright with triumph.

Yassine was one of the most popular teaching assistants at his primary school in Strasbourg. What is known in the French school system as an 'animateur', Yassine supervised the kids during their lunchbreak and in after-school activities. 'Nice,' 'sociable' and 'attentive' have been some of the words used by parents this week to describe the 37-year-old. Yassine had worked part-time at the school for a decade before he was taken on permanently in 2014 because of his popularity with the kids. Last weekend Yassine B [his surname hasn't been disclosed] was arrested by the French security services after an eight-month surveillance operation. When police raided his flat they allegedly discovered a letter of allegiance to Islamic State and two handguns.

France's centre-right newspaper, Le Figaro, is running a poll on its website asking readers if they're happy to see Donald Trump in the White House. At the last count 56 per cent of the 131,954 respondents said they were. One person who most definitely is delighted is Marine Le Pen, leader of France's National Front, who said the election result was 'good news for our country'. That's because, as she went on to explain, Trump would end 'wild globalisation', improve relations with Russia and, most importantly, rein in 'the warlike interventions that are the source of the huge migratory waves that we are suffering'. But what will it do to her own chances of winning next May's presidential election?

My daughter started secondary school on 1 September. She was very excited. I wish I could report that she skipped through the gates on her first day, but this is France, and no child skips through school gates in 2016. Instead she stood in a queue outside the entrance, as one by one she and her new classmates had their satchels searched by a pair of security guards. Not that I'm complaining. In fact if I did have a gripe it was that the security was too light. According to Bernard Cazeneuve, France's interior minister, 50m euros has been provided to tighten security at schools and colleges, and more than 3,000 police reservists were mobilised when French children returned en masse on the first day of September.

May I interrupt, for a moment, the howls of anguish from those liberals in uproar at the news that authorities in France are banning burkinis on their beaches? I'd like to relate an incident that occurred earlier this month in France. It involved my girlfriend, who was on her way from Paris to visit her grandmother in eastern France. An hour into her journey she pulled into a service station to fill up with petrol. On returning to her car she made a small sign of the cross as she slid into her seat. Navigating one's way on a French motorway during the height of summer can be a fraught experience, particularly for the nervous driver. Suddenly there was a violent thump on her window. She jumped with fright. A man stooped so his face was level with hers. 'Why do you make that sign?

In Saturday's Guardian, Natalie Nougayrède, the former managing editor of Le Monde, wrote that in the days following the slaughter of 84 people in Nice by an Islamic terrorist 'incidents of open, blatant, anti-Muslim hatred have sparked a new, worrying phase' in France. She didn't elaborate on what form this hatred took, nor come up with any examples, but Madame Nougayrède was adamant that intolerance among her compatriots was on the rise following four years of bloody religious mayhem that has left more than 200 dead in terrorist attacks on French soil. Then today comes a new attack, the brutal murder by two Islamic terrorists of an elderly priest as he conducted mass in his Normandy church.

Living in France is a lottery. The chances of getting a losing ticket are very slim, but a chance it is all the same. Twenty four hours before the slaughter in Nice, I took my daughter to the Bastille celebrations in the southern suburb of Paris in which we live. The centrepiece of the celebration was a parade through the town centre finishing in the town square. On arrival the kids in the parade leapt up on stage and sang La Marseillaise before trooping off into the embrace of their parents. Next up on stage was a pop band, and as they launched into their first number my 11-year-old daughter began dancing with her friends. I sat on the other side of the square, outwardly relaxed and at ease, but vigilant all the same.

The new year has not started well for France. On the last day of 2015 - the most traumatic year for the French in decades because of the twin attacks in Paris - president Francois Hollande warned the nation in his traditional New Year's Eve address: 'France is not done with terrorism... these tragic events will remain for ever etched in our memories, they shall never disappear. But despite the tragedy, France has not given in. Despite the tears, the country has remained upright.' Hollande's warning was borne out within 24 hours. On the first day of 2016 a lone motorist - inspired by Islamic State - drove at a group of soldiers guarding a Mosque in Valence.