The Salon is not only a huge attraction for families who swarm the enormous expo centre that is turned into a mega-farm this time every year to see animals they would never encounter in the city: It is also an annual rite of passage for French presidents and leaders from across the political spectrum.
Among the political highlights was the 2008 visit of then president Nicolas Sarkozy in the first year of his term, when he was caught on camera telling a farmer who refused to shake his hand, “casse toi, pauvre con,” (for which “Get lost, you jerk” is a polite translation).
