The row surrounding it could surpass even that over the right to abortion, fought 20 years ago.As a curtain-raiser, demonstrators for and against the Pacs gathered in assorted towns and cities last weekend. There was a lot of shouting and banner-waving, and some violent incidents in Orleans. Discussion of the proposal has been raging in the press and on television for weeks and has ranged far beyond the very limited scope of the Pacs to address the whole issue of the family's future in a modern society. All opponents agree that the new contract would betray family values, and somehow undermine what remains of family life.The Pacs idea grew out of the campaign for homosexual marriage, but has been amended and diluted along its six years of gestation until it is a contract open to virtually any two people sharing a home - brother and sister, even "a priest and his housekeeper".It offers tax benefits - a couple who sign the Pacs will have the right to be taxed together after two years, and protection from France's draconian inheritance laws, which favour the blood family over all other associations and affections. Many gay cohabitants, for example, had found themselves out on the street following the death of the partner who owned or rented the shared home. A Pacs couple would be able to affirm solidarity with each other, inherit from each other, and agree to take responsibility for each other's debts.However, the Pacs makes no mention at all of children and offers no right of adoption - something that the gay rights activists have been campaigning for very vigorously.

Quite traumatic - but it is the continuum of life.One morning at Tree Tops, the hotel where the present Queen heard her father had died, I had this wonderful moment. Not only have I become a British citizen and lost my accent, but my work as an actor has been specifically classical, and the most British of British Theatre.I returned home only three times in the next 20 years It was particularly difficult in the Eighties. The political situation looked entrenched, heading for a bloodbath that could never be solved. Therefore, in 1988, after a particularly heavy season at the RSC, when I wanted to indulge my passion of viewing wildlife, I booked a holiday in Kenya. (Beyond a brief spell of national service in Namibia, I'd never explored the rest of the continent.)It was also the beginning of one relationship and the end of another. I was about to go travelling with my then partner, Jim, but I'd just met Greg Doran, my current partner, who was an actor with the RSC, which is quite interesting because the revelation is about two places, as well. Everything about my character seemed too reserved, too private and closed in for the white South African outdoor lifestyle of sports, hunting, shooting and swilling beer.

I was very nourished by my first few months of theatre-going: to sit at the front of the stalls and watch Olivier at the National was very difficult to get my head around. London was a mythical place - I'd heard and read so much about its culture that it felt like walking through somebody else's wonderful dream England suited me temperamentally. Since I'm uncomfortable about my identity as a white South African, it has been very tempting to say I'm not from anywhere. I arrived in England in 1968, determined to become British in every way I even found the low grey skies rather romantic. My grandparents were born in Eastern Europe, my parents in Africa, while I've moved on here. YOU CAN'T deny where you are from, but I have tried very hard. My family had such a strange, wandering existence - talk about wandering Jews. She is the current "face" of the Citroen Xantia, and has appeared in a couple of straight-to-video films, one of them The Blackout by Able Ferrara was instantly forgettable.In the unlikely event that Claudia holds to her threat to abandon the catwalk, we shouldn't mourn her passing - she certainly won't.

Last year, while on assignment in Lima, Peru, she told reporters she would like to be cloned, as "I could send them out to work instead, and have more time to myself".. Lagerfeld's attitude toward Schiffer was summed up perfectly when he said of her: "Claudia would have been a wonderful Hollywood silent star."In a curious twist of fate, Schiffer has assumed this mantle. In 1996, after several years as the face of Chanel and bosom buddy of fellow German designer par excellence Karl Lagerfeld, she was dumped by the fashion house in favour of British aristocratic model Stella Tennant, a woman known for her realistic attitude towards fashion and modelling. From that moment Schiffer tumbled from the hot seat.The downward spiral had begun. In its place was a ruthless businesswoman who in 1990 launched an on-running swim-wear calendar. Shortly afterwards she popped up first on the arm of Prince Albert of Monaco - many called her the new Grace Kelly - and then as the fiancee of millionaire magician David Copperfield.Well-informed gossip-mongers took great delight in claiming that Schiffer was engaged to Copperfield as part of a deal to improve his kudos. Throughout her career she has appeared on more than 600 magazine covers, notably Vanity Fair, the only magazine with an editorial policy that generally refuses to place a model on its cover.

She is also the first, and only model to have a wax likeness placed in the Grevin Museum in Paris.Once Schiffer had wised up to the world of modelling, her girl-next-door appeal vanished. Months later she gained notoriety when Von Unwerth shot her for the Guess? campaign, in which she looked like a young Brigitte Bardot. She is part of the breed of model who found fame in the late Eighties alongside Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista and Cindy Crawford and was given the term "super". Only problem is, the original supers are too perfect in today's climate.As one fashion insider put it, "Claudia is one of the original blonde divas. Her look is completely different to the current breed of girls. In their heyday, the supermodels were treated like princesses, but today's successful models are better known for their personalities, and are treated as part of the team The modern model does not want to be pampered.