Yes, I pointed out in the previous thread that priests are still on the government payroll there; this being a historical oddity (there are also differences in the social welfare regime) related to repeated 19th and 20th century border adjustment. In general I'm all in favour of colourful regional specificities, but if the 21st century turns out to be religious, as Malraux allegedly predicted, then it's more of a worrying precedent.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

Don't talk about the "French part of France" in Alsace-Moselle. People there feel French, have fought to be French, and don't like it when it looks like they are being called traitors and inferior citizens as their Frenchness is somehow contested...

Wind power

Speaking of Germany, the back-and-forth development with regards to the separation of state and church there has to do with multiple religions (or sects if you will). Bismarck's Prussia was dominated by Lutherans, and as Prussia and its power grew, there was conflict with the ever more Catholic subjects and, more importantly, the Vatican. So the separation of state and church was launched by the Lutherna conservative elite to curb the Vatican's influence (this was the original Kulturkampf). However, eventually, the Catholics won overhand on the conservative side (Hitler came from the Catholic south too), and their party, the Centre Party, which started as Bismarck's most potent opposition, was then the main root of the West German CDU, which did it best to lessen the separation of church and state.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}