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France is a country of rigid rules, apart from all the exceptions. Looked at another way, it is a country where the exception is the rule. Since that is the rule there are, of course, many exceptions. Pity, then, President Nicolas Sarkozy as he tilts, Don Quixote-like, against the French ban on Sunday trading which has existed since 1906.

Ban? What ban? If you enter any small French town or large village on a Sunday morning, there will be at least one bakery and at least one butcher's shop open (something unthinkable in small-town Britain). French cities and large towns have dozens of such shops to choose from. The variations are endless.

Today, the French national assembly, the lower house of parliament, will almost certainly approve a new draft law which seeks to give clarity and common sense to this jumble

But in order to gain the support of rebellious members of his own party, the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP), M. Sarkozy's new law has been peppered with exceptions of its own. It would be foolish to expect anything else. This is, after all, France. No one can be expected to eat day-old bread; or paté; or lamb chops. Food shops and markets already have a complete exception from the Sunday-trading ban, except for large supermarkets, except in some areas where (as an exception to the exception), they are allowed to open (but not usually in the winter, spring and autumn.)

If you go to the inner suburbs of Paris or Lille or Marseilles on a Sunday (but not to Lyon) you will find many large stores and malls open which are covered by local exceptions, which may or may not be entirely legal. These exceptions apply mostly to "leisure activities", which include, for some reason, buying furniture. There are also exceptions for "tourist areas" which means that some parts of Paris – the Marais area for instance – are a hive of commercial activity on a Sunday and others are not.

President Sarkozy likes to complain that the Sunday-shopping ban applies to the southern side of the Avenue des Champs Elysées but not to the northern side. This is, unfortunately, a myth. The ban applies to both sides of the most beautiful avenue in the world (except those shops with exceptions, which happen mostly to be on the northern side.)