French blogger sues employer after being fired

The 33-year-old British expat in Paris who writes under the pseudonym "La Petite Anglaise" and tells of love affairs, single motherhood and office bloopers, has filed a lawsuit against her employer after the company fired her, an Associated press report said.

The report said she kept her popular blog anonymous, never revealing her full name or workplace, but despite her attempts at secrecy, her employer found out and fired her, unusual in labor-protected France, where workers had strong legal protections.

Now she's suing her employer in a case generating buzz on both sides of the English Channel.

The lawsuit is seen as a test case in France, where there have been few cases of bloggers getting fired.

The expat in Paris went only by the name Catherine and declined to reveal her last name because of the personal tales she recounted on the site, http://www.petiteanglaise.com.

She said she was careful never to reveal online the name of the British company she worked for as a bilingual secretary, according to the report.

Her employers, the accounting firm Dixon Wilson, cited "loss of trust" and said they felt she had damaged their reputation, Catherine said. Though her name was never used online, her photograph appeared in a French newspaper article about her blog, the report said.