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Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers.

Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world.

From Our Own Correspondent: Iceland and France

Iceland and France

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Iceland and France

Alan Johnston with analysis and wit from correspondents Justin Rowlatt and Christine Finn

Alan Johnston with despatches from correspondents around the world. Today, Justin Rowlatt sees how Iceland toughed out its banking crisis and Christine Finn visits Caudry, France's home of lacemaking.

Alan Johnston introduces insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world. In this edition, Justin Rowlatt on how Iceland chose to deal with its financial crisis and Christine Finn on a secret world of skill in Caudry, France's home of lacemaking.

A nation in arrears?

All of Europe is deeply worried by the economic straits of places like Greece, Ireland and Portugal. But before all those countries ran into so much trouble, there was Iceland. Nearly three years ago it endured one of the the worst-ever banking collapses. Since then, it's been trying to take an unorthodox route to salvation.

Justin Rowlatt has been to Reykjavik to ask whether the country really has managed to solve its problems. 

Fabric of dreams

The Duchess of Cambridge's wedding dress was seen as a complete triumph. People from all around the world are currently queuing up to see it on display in Buckingham Palace in London. Kate Middleton's elegant, ivory gown was described as "a very British creation" - and it was indeed the work of some of this country's most celebrated designers. 

But as Christine Finn has been finding out, laced into that dress was a link to one of France's best-kept secrets of fashion.

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