Le Mal napoléonien and the Global Malaise. A Jospin Festival in Melbourne

In an isolated nation continent like Australia there is still something important about welcoming a distinguished international visitor.2 There is also something special about a French cultural occasion, where ideas meet diplomacy, both fuelled by hors d'oeuvres and a French drop. Australians going to France for international and European Australian Studies conferences, and French Studies conferences, have strong sensory memories of their experience-the receptions, the savouries, the cheeses as well as the conferences. While the 19th century colonies feted visitors, from English royals to travelling writers and performers, as in Jana Verhoeven's account of Max O' Rell's tours, does such colonial deference, also known as 'small country syndrome', continue (Verhoeven 2008)?