Arena designer Simon Helyar wouldn’t shut up about cult TV show The Wire. So we told him to put his keyboard where his mouth is and explain exactly why it’s worth going on about for seven hours of valuable cutting, sticking and colouring-in time each day.

In the spirit of entente formidable fostered during Nicolas and Carla Sarkozy’s state visit to Britain, Arena felt it timely to celebrate all things Gallic. For, let’s be honest, there are many things le French do better than us (football, political wives and shrugging are taken as read, obviously). Like these five, for hors d’oeuvres…