Arnaud Suquet may be a diplomat by contract, but travelling is his true profession. He became a diplomat because he loves to travel. Well, obviously that’s not the only reason. There’s also the education, the political capital, the savoir-faire, and the art of schmoozing between the state of affairs and affairs of the state. “I got attracted by a very romantic vision of what being a diplomat was,” he says. “Travelling in a good suit. Having a Panama hat. Riding in a fancy car.”
Now, as Ambassador of France to Kenya and Somalia, he wears more suits than Panama hats, rides in a fancy car, yes, but mostly to shake hands, kiss babies, and work the room. He won’t be in Kenya for very long, he concedes; this job demands that he changes stations often. Till then, he wants to leave a small piece of himself on the slopes of Mount Kenya, and in so doing, conquer his own personal mountain. “I want to do it with my daughter,” he says. Before that, he has to settle a diplomatic squabble: croissant or mandazi, the most pertinent diplomatic tiff of our time. How does he plead? “Well,” he says, “Why can’t it be both?”
