Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef received France's highest national award while on an official visit to Paris over the weekend in a discreet ceremony that has nonetheless raised an outcry.

Prince Mohammed bin Nayef was given the Legion of Honor by French President Francois Hollande in recognition of "his great efforts in the region and world for combating extremism and terrorism," according to the Saudi state news agency SPA .

Hollande's office did not publish a statement about the meeting, and a senior aide downplayed the event, telling AFP that Bin Nayef received the honor as a "foreign individual, a common protocol practice."

But if Hollande's office was hoping to avoid any controversy over its close relations with Saudi Arabia, which is a major customer for French military equipment, it failed.

Human rights advocates were quick to criticize France for honoring Bin Nayef, who is also the Saudi interior minister.

Much of the criticism revolved around Saudi Arabia's prolific use of the death penalty.

On Sunday, Saudi Arabia executed its 70th person this year – an average of more than one person a day, according to AFP.

The French hashtag #honte (shame) is trending on Twitter.

The National Order of the Legion of Honor was established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, a tyrant who led France through a series of destabilizing wars that left millions dead across Europe before he was exiled.

In our weekly installment of Clients from Hell, a hilarious collection of anonymously contributed client horror stories from designers, we present “When they expect the impossible.” For previous posts, click here .

At my old job, I used to have to help people print their photos. One customer had a 4x6 photo that she wanted to expand to an 8x10 print.

Client: I can’t have this be cropped.

Me: I understand that, but this 4x6 doesn’t have the same dimensions as 8x10. There has to be some slight trimming because 4x6 is equivalent to 8x12, not 8x10.

Client: I don’t want them trimmed, I want the whole image. Can’t you just make the photo fill the whole 8x10 space?

Me: Are you asking me to stretch it? Because if I stretch the two remaining sides to meet the edges, the photo is going to be distorted.

Client: No, I don’t want the image to be warped.

The only other possible option was to include a white background so that the edges of the photo would have a white border. I went with that.

Client: No, this won’t do. I don’t want it to have two white strips. I don’t want it to be stretched. I don’t want it to be cropped at all. I just want this 4x6 to be printed exactly as it is in 8x10. Why can’t you just do that for me?