It was unintended. But an aircraft carrier without aircraft was all too accurate a metaphor for the European defence policy which the French navy had brought us to see. The Charles de Gaulle's aircraft were still grounded at Landivisiau base near Brest. If navy engineers ever work the kinks out of their over-designed carrier, the Super-Etendards should come swarming on to the flight deck.
Equipping an aircraft carrier is almost as complicated as creating a European rapid reaction force, a task that France has pursued assiduously during its EU Presidency. At a pledging conference in Brussels on November 20th, the French Defence Minister, Alain Richard, will be looking for 80,000 men (200,000 including back-up), 350 combat aircraft and 80 warships, all in the name of Europe. France will provide around 20 per cent of the total, Mr Richard has promised.
The French have long argued that Europe cannot rely on the US to defend it, and that Europe must have the ability to say non to Washington when they disagree, for example, on the Middle East. French naval officers in Toulon pointed out that Washington refused to send ships to East Timor last year, and that the US bombed some targets in Serbia without consulting its NATO allies.
Now, Governor George Bush's security adviser is advocating that Europe assume responsibility for its own security. If Mr Bush wins the US presidential election, Mr Richard will have a much stronger hand in Brussels.
The US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, had said Washington would allow a European defence system only if what she called the "three Ds" were excluded: no decoupling of Europe and NATO; no duplication of Alliance and European forces; and no discrimination against non-EU members of NATO such as Turkey.
So will France pledge its brand-new £2.4 billion nuclear-powered Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to Europe, and would the other Europeans want it? "It's an option," Vice-Admiral Jean Moulin, who is in charge of all 117 surface ships in the French navy, said as he drew on his pipe in the officers' mess. "We envision all our means within a European framework and dynamic."
Without military strength proportionate to its population and economy, Paris believes, Europe's voice will never be heard in world affairs. Capt Edouard Guillaud, commanding officer of the Charles de Gaulle, referred to his ship as "40,000 tonnes of diplomacy and might".
The French military are convinced that Europe needs the Charles de Gaulle for "power projection", the justification for a behemoth conceived as a Cold War weapon. "Sending an aircraft carrier is an eminently political gesture," Admiral Moulin explains. "It says: `I have the means to do it'."
Britain stopped building large aircraft carriers decades ago, choosing small carriers for its very short takeoff and landing Harrier jets. That system has served its time, and London now plans to build two aircraft carriers for 2012. Because the Charles de Gaulle is nuclear-powered, it must spend 35 per cent of its time in refit. This, the admirals say, means France must have a second aircraft carrier.
To justify their spending on aircraft carriers, nuclear attack submarines and amphibious assault craft, the US, British and French navies subscribe to the new "maritime manoeuvres" doctrine.
"Conflicts no longer take place at sea," Admiral Moulin explains. "But a maritime capability gives you extraordinary means of pressure, and of lowering tension. You can deploy it permanently and without asking anyone's permission. You can move it discreetly; it's much more subtle than landing troops."
Their future aircraft carriers are an obvious case for Franco-British co-operation. Talks have started, but many details - with or without catapults, nuclear or diesel powered? - must be worked out.
It's too soon to imagine a jointly-owned carrier, Admiral Moulin says. But London and Paris might build identical ships for their navies. The project could smooth ruffled feathers over Britain's abandonment of the Horizon frigate project with France and Italy.
European defence projects work best when they are modest and involve few parties; one reason Paris is so anxious to simplify rules for "flexibility" or "enhanced co-operation" at the Nice summit in December.
In what could be the core of a future European airlift capability, the French and German air forces have already pooled their air transport facilities. When a French officer asks Villacoublay for an aircraft, the Luftwaffe often shows up. French and British officers alternate command at the European Air Group based at High Wycombe, which could in theory organise air raids on behalf of Europe.
Capt Jean-Marie Lhuissier, who commands the Siroco Landing Platform Dock, has no doubt that his ship, along with three similar vessels, will be pledged to the European rapid reaction force. The roll-on, roll-off Siroco has loading space the size of a football pitch and is ideal for transporting large numbers of soldiers, weapons or refugees. It carries only defensive weapons, and lacks the glamour and destructive power of the Charles de Gaulle. Which is exactly what makes it appropriate for Europe.
"The Europeans could pool their transport means easily," Capt Lhuissier explains. "It's less politically charged than a carrier battle group."
Admiral Moulin had plausible explanations for all of the Charles de Gaulle's woes - its five-year delay in deployment, the initially inadequate insulation around its nuclear reactors, the short flight deck which meant that US-built Hawkeye reconnaissance aircraft had to be towed away, the vibrations in its rotors, the fire in the ship's electrical circuit board, the tiny crack leaking salt water into a condensation tube which prevented our going to sea . . .
All normal for a prototype that the politicians funded in drips, the navy says. But the sheer accumulation of mishaps has turned the flagship of the French navy into a joke. The puppets on the TV show Guignols de l'Info regularly mock it. After the condenser leak that blighted our visit, the Canard Enchaine published a cartoon of de Gaulle's family discussing a lawsuit against the French state for using his name.
The ship's 2,000 crew have taken umbrage. "People are sensitive," admitted Cdr Louis Despretz, who is responsible for the still empty flight deck. "They're fond of their aircraft carrier."