A few days in northern France last week gave me blessed relief from the banality and unfunded promises of the UK election campaign which in the French press merited one paragraph, on the nom-dom tax.

Very quickly however, my mind turned to local government reorganisation – not because I am an anorak, but because it was all over the French media.

In England while devolution is very much on the agenda but still at discussion level, in France a drastic reorganisation of regional administration is well underway. France’s 22 regions are to be reduced to 13 from January 2016, although only seven are actually merging. The battle now is to which cities will become capitals.

For in addition this year ten new city metropoles have been created with strategic powers more akin to England’s combined authorities, covering all of France’s cities with over half a million population. Furthermore, from next year the three biggest cities covering Paris, Lyon and Marseille will have even more powers devolved from the regions. The tier of government below, the departments, remain unchanged for the moment, though their future is under question.