France, Feb. 29 -- French administration has not always made it easy for those born on 29 February, but one entity has embraced - and lives for - the date: the Bougie du sapeur, a bissextile publication that takes a long view of the news, every four years.

"For four years we read newspapers, we listen to the radio and watch television, and we take notes, and put ideas in a box and say perhaps this will be a good subject for the next Bougie du sapeur," explains Jean d'Indy, the paper's editor and self-described Jack-of-all-trades.

He took over the publication in 1996, the fourth edition of the satirical paper that was started by two friends in 1980.

It continues today as a labour of love every leap year for about a dozen writers headed ...