Latest news with #InsideFrance
Local France
21-06-2025
- Politics
- Local France
Inside France: Dodgy French politicians, fast trains and fun soldiers
Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It's published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article. Slippery politicos It's been a bad week for dodgy politicians in France - ex PM François Fillon was finally sentenced over the fake jobs scandal that torpedoed his 2017 presidential bid, while ex president and convicted criminal Nicolas Sarkozy was stripped of his Légion d'honneur . These two very much represent the past in French politics, but the woman who hopes to be the future also suffered a legal setback the previous week - a Lille court denied Marine Le Pen's appeal against the loss of her role as a local councillor in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais area, following her conviction for embezzlement. The fact that these things are all happening in the same couple of weeks is pure coincidence - Fillon and Sarkozy have both been dragging out the legal process for years - but it does highlight the issue of corruption in French politics. The reaction in France from many has been to worry that this paints a terrible picture of their country - but among foreigners I notice that the response is often the exact opposite; they see it as a positive thing, and proof that France is willing to prosecute corruption in high places. I wouldn't get over excited about the powerful getting their comeuppance - all three have access to the sort of lawyers who can and do drag out cases for years, and ensure that their clients get sentences at the lower end of the spectrum. But it does at least send a message that no-one is above the law. On track for growth This week - the week when the UK's latest high-speed rail project was delayed for what feels like the millionth time - we're also looking at how France got so good at high-speed rail, and how it manages to keep build costs comparatively low. One French expert said that France's 'authoritarian streak' is a key component. READ ALSO : How France became a world champion of high-speed rail✎ Advertisement I find that whenever you mention French rail success, anglophones tend to respond that France's frequent rail strikes put them off - that may be the case for them, but data suggests that the French don't feel the same way, with more and more people taking the train each year , and more people choosing high-speed rail over flying. It's the same with tourism - the anglophone reaction to French strikes or social unrest that takes place over the summer is often to suggest that it will damage the tourism industry. That's not born out by statistics either, with France retaining its crown as the world's most visited tourist destination and on course to break its own records in 2025 . I feel that it's worth digging in to this data, because it gives the lie to the assumption that you can either have an engaged and militant workforce or you can have economic growth, but you can't have both. France's rail and tourism industries would suggest that these are far from being mutually exclusive. Advertisement Talking France We talk about both dodgy politicians and rail in the latest episode of the Talking France podcast, before having some fun with a segment on French swearing - and why it is both cool and elegant. Listen here or on the link below. Oldie but a goodie I saw this clip being shared a lot in response to Donald Trump's somewhat underwhelming military parade last weekend - from the Paris Bastille Day event in 2017, it's a reminder that military parades can also be fun. The French military displaying a sense of humour was perhaps also a foreshadowing to one of my favourite bits of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony - the very serious Garde Républicaine soldiers suddenly morphing into a backing band for Aya Nakamura. Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It's published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.
Local France
14-06-2025
- Local France
Inside France: Border woes and the bickering flatmates of French politics
Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It's published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article. No easy answers This week France is reeling from the killing of a teaching assistant by a 14-year-old pupil at a school in eastern France. Mélanie, 31, mother of a toddler and step-mum to an older child, was attacked as she supervised a routine bag search at the beginning of the school day. The details that have emerged about this case so far are distinctly disquieting, since the attacker - a teenager with no record of legal or health troubles - has told police that he decided in advance to kill a member of the school staff, apparently in response to being told off the previous week. It's clear from the response from France's teaching unions and politicians that no-one really knows how to respond to this kind of attack, and several of the suggested responses - a social media ban for under 15s , metal detectors in schools - would have made no difference to this case. The sense of puzzlement at an apparently senseless crime reminds me of the British Netflix drama Adolescence which - it was announced before the attack - is to be screened in French schools . Although it has a lot of topical talking points, Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham's four-parter carefully avoids blaming any one thing for the shocking actions of its lead character which is, for me, one of its great strengths as a drama - a reminder that sometimes there are no easy answers. Advertisement Talking France We discuss the attack, and the general issue of violence in French schools, in the latest Talking France podcast . We also had some fun looking at some world-changing French inventions, plus a few 'French' things that were actually invented elsewhere. Listen here or on the link below. Violent flatmates Prime minister François Bayrou is celebrating - if that's the right word - six months in his job this week. While that might not sound especially impressive, there were people offering odds that he wouldn't even last six weeks when he accepted this cadeau empoisonné . Not only is his job security practically non-existent, but Bayrou has a tense relationship with his ultimate boss Emmanuel Macron, who has been forced to nominate two prime ministers from rival political camps since his party lost its majority in parliamentary elections last year. An insider this week told Le Parisien newspaper : " Entre eux, c'est quand même violent " - it's still violent between them, although they presumably mean violent in the verbal sense, rather than revealing that the two of them engage in fisticuffs in the office. Although not quite a cohabitation in the classic sense, this is still something of a forced pairing. Although I know the meaning of the political term - when a president is forced to appoint a PM from the opposition party - whenever I hear the word I can't get rid of the mental image of the two of them forced into a flatshare (which would in fact be a colocation ), endlessly bickering over bathroom time and who ate the last bit of cheese. I still can't believe no-one has made a French comedy about this. Advertisement Typo of the week A very unfortunate single misplaced letter in this job advert turns UK-France 'border' control into ' bordel ' control - bordel being the French word for a fuck-up or general chaos . This might be sadly apt for the UK-France border which ever since Brexit has seen chaotic scenes at ports like Dover during peak travel times, meanwhile remaining a source of political tension over migrant/asylum seeker boat crossings from France. READ ALSO : EES: Why is the UK-France border such a problem?✎ Still, at least this job advert's intended audience of interpreters will get the joke. Maybe authorities can save face by pretending that it's a translation test? Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It's published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.
Local France
07-06-2025
- Business
- Local France
Inside France: Paris' in-Seine plan and the adventures of wax Macron
Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It's published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article. Loopholes Can you really have the butter and the money to buy the butter, as the French say? Anti-fraud officers used to use the phrase 'if it seems too good to be true, it probably is' as a way to warn people about scams, and I think we need to create a new version of this - 'with French admin, there are no loopholes'. While it's possible to benefit from gaps in the French residency and tax system, almost without fail, this ends up causing further problems down the line. For example, if you claim French residency while really being a second-home owner, you'll find yourself ensnared by the tax requirements for French residents. Conversely keeping yourself as a non-resident in order to avoid French taxes means that you won't see any of the benefits that French residents enjoy. Here at The Local we often deal with people who have found themselves in a French admin tangle by trying to exploit some loophole - in almost all cases it's simply not worth the hassle. That's not to say that there aren't aspects of the French system that are genuinely confusing, contradictory or a legal grey area - one of these is remote working for foreigners, although this became a little clearer this week after clarification from the French tax office . READ ALSO What you need to know about remote working in France Advertisement Talking France We discuss how to move to France as a remote worker in a way that won't create residency or tax problems on this week's Talking France podcast, plus smoking on café terraces and how Uber changed France (via an anecdote about a foul-mouthed Courtney Love tirade to president François Hollande). Listen here or on the link below. Good goddess Paris city hall announced this week that it is seeking 'legal personhood' for the River Seine . While this might sound like an in-seine idea (sorry), it is part of a coordinated international environmental campaign to gain more protection for natural sites. Advertisement It's an interesting plan, although not certain to succeed - but let's not forget that the Seine already has a personification. Remember the rider on the ghostly horse galloping down the Seine during the Olympics opening ceremony last summer? That was Sequana, the goddess of the river. I hope she approves of the mairie 's plan. Floriane Issert, a Gendarmerie non-commissioned officer of the National Gendarmerie, rides on a metal horse up the Seine river during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on July 26, 2024. Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP And talking of rivers, Paris in fact has not one but two - although the other is underground. The Bièvre river was covered over in the 19th century, mostly because it had become so polluted it was judged a health hazard, but there are plans , albeit at an early stage, to open it up again. Skulls, beer and a river: Discover the secrets of underground Paris Kidnap victim Also in France this week we've been following with amusement the kidnapping of president Emmanuel Macron. In case that sounds slightly flippant, it was actually his waxwork that was snatched from the Musée Grévin, Paris' equivalent to Madame Tussauds. Advertisement Wax Macron joined a protest at the Russian Embassy and then popped up protesting outside the Edf headquarters before his kidnappers - who turned out to be Greenpeace activists - returned him safely to the museum. No ransom was demanded - and it might have been an expensive one since wax Macron is apparently worth €40,000, due to his painstaking and labour-intensive production methods. The wax statue of French President Emmanuel Macron was delivered back to the Grevin Museum in a flight case. Photo by Xavier GALIANA / AFP Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It's published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.
Local France
31-05-2025
- Politics
- Local France
Inside France: A smoky surprise and the Macrons' marital moment
Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It's published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article. Le slap I've been very amused at the cascade of articles, especially in the anglophone press, on what the Macron slap/shove tells us about the couple. In truth it tells us nothing about them unless you a) know exactly what happened - which isn't possible from viewing the video - and b) have personal knowledge of their relationship. These articles do, whoever, tell us a whole lot about the authors and about their notions of France and French clichés. I've seen several British and American journalists contend that the video 'barely raised comment in France' and er, no. At one point Le Parisien had five separate articles on this topic on their homepage while other news outlets had multiple articles, analysis and comment pieces. The French, like everyone else, love a good gossip and the fact that many people strongly dislike the president means that there was a fair amount of glee at the thought of him getting some kind of comeuppance. Talking France We discuss the Macron's marital moment - and what it tells us about France and Russia - on the latest episode of the Talking France podcast, along with farmer and taxi driver strikes, the worst French cities to be in during a heatwave, plus some Paris expo recommendations. Listen here or on the link below. Advertisement Stubbing it out We also had a little bit of speedy policy making this week - with not much in the way of debate or discussion, the health minister has announced a ban on smoking in outdoor areas "where children may be" such as beaches, parks and bus shelters, effective from July 1st. In truth this is perhaps less radical than it appears, since many local authorities have already enacted such a ban, but the law standardises the rules across the country, and introduces the idea of smoking bans in outdoor spaces, albeit only some. Specifically excluded from this rule, however, are café terraces , almost certainly due to lobbying from café and bar owners who fear that such a ban would damage their business. Café terraces have been something of a smoking battleground since the indoor smoking ban was introduced in 2007, especially in winter when many café owners erect temporary walls and a roof to create a sheltered smoking area for their customers. Such spaces are sometimes hard to distinguish from a fully indoor space, but this is the working compromise that has crept up in the last 20 years, although the recent ban on terrace heaters (albeit for environmental, not health reasons) is the latest blow to the indoor/outdoor smoking space of the terrace. I think that the ubiquity of smoking on café terraces is the reason that many foreigners think that France is smokier than it really is - although it remains above the European average, the number of smokers has in fact declined quite drastically in recent years and there are significant regional variations . Advertisement Another thing that I notice often surprises foreigners, especially Americans, is how common it is to see characters in a French film or TV show light up. Unlike widespread bans from Hollywood studios, French film has no restriction on the depiction of smoking. Having said that, I'm not sure that French TV would today screen this completely bonkers Serge Gainsbourg tribute from a group of schoolchildren - all dressed up as the iconic singer and puffing away at fake versions of his ubiquitous cigarette. Advertisement Party of the week There was only one place to be in France this week if you like days-long celebrations - Bordeaux where the Bordeaux-Bègles rugby club won the Champions Cup for the first time in the club's history. The party - both in dressing room at Cardiff after the match and on the streets of Bordeaux in the following days - threw up a lot of very fun images, but I think my favourite is this one, in which the prop Ben Tameifuna finds himself down a side street cradling the trophy and also somehow wearing a police stab vest (which looks like a crop top on his massive frame). 🗞️ BREAKING NEWS 🇹🇴🍇 Hearing reports that Big Ben Tameifuna will be unavailable for UBB for the rest of the season. He is said to have retired with immediate effect and has joined the Bordeaux Police Force 👮♂️ [image or embed] — Rosbifs Rugby ( @ ) May 27, 2025 at 11:16 AM Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It's published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.
Local France
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Local France
Inside France: Taxi strikes, translation fails and Napoleon's code
Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It's published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article. Boiling point Sometimes in France you get disputes that simmer away in the background for ages and then suddenly erupt onto the national stage. Last year's farmer protests were one example - suddenly going from turning village signposts upside down to nationwide roadblocks and calls to 'besiege Paris' - and this week's taxi protests are another. Taxi drivers have been protesting for more than a year about plans to lower the fares they can charge for medical transport; taking patients to and from medical appointments in trips that are reimbursed by the state . This week, however, their grievances exploded into the public consciousness via a series of rolling roadblocks, blockades of sites like airports and highly photogenic confrontations with police . PM François Bayrou has now said he will meet with them to discuss their grievances. At the opposite end of the spectrum are strikes that are billed as likely to cause absolute mayhem, and end up being quite underwhelming. These are often public sector strikes, especially transport strikes, which are talked up in advance by union chiefs - predicting une semaine noire is a standard part of the negotiating process. There are a whole group of strike/protest soothsayers in France who try to predict where the next disruption will come from, but it's far from a precise science, although there are signs you can learn to read . READ ALSO How I learned to stop worrying and love French strikes Advertisement Talking France In the latest episode of the Talking France podcast we discuss hospital waiting times, the UK-EU reset and the best place to buy a second home in France (plus Smurfs). Listen here or on the link below. Napoleon is complex Here at The Local we're used to slightly left-field questions from readers, but this one was unusual: Why does France still have the Napoleonic Code? The answer is that it doesn't, really - the civil law code introduced by Napoleon in 1804 has in many areas been revised or rewritten, or superceded by more recent laws or international treaties like the European Convention on Human Rights. Some parts of it remain in place, however, especially France's strict laws on inheritance rights (which, it turned out, this reader was referring to) which forbid parents from disinheriting their children and give kids equal rights to a parental estate, regardless of where they are in the birth order. At the time this was quite radical, moving away from the previous 'oldest son inherits all' system, and in fact there are several parts of the Napoleonic code that remain the basis for modern French law. In many areas, however, the Napoleonic code reversed laws passed after the French Revolution. But to modern sensibilities, it was the legal changes of the Revolution that seem more palatable; legalising homosexuality, outlawing slavery, giving women legal and property rights. Even the machine that became the symbol of the nightmare that the Revolution descended into was introduced for humanitarian reasons. The guillotine was intended as a humane method of execution and its introduction was part of a legal code that ended barbaric practices like boiling people to death or having them torn apart by horses and ensured a single execution method for all, regardless of class. It also ended the practice of confiscating property from the families of executed criminals. Advertisement Offaly unfortunate And is this France's least appetisingly named restaurant? Paris restaurant Bowel Kitchen. Photo: The Local A close look at the menu reveals it serves various types of Bowls, so I am persuaded that its name is just an extremely unfortunate spelling mistake. Although I'm not confident enough to back when it's open and try its cuisine (if anyone has eaten at the Bowel Kitchen, do get in touch and tell me what it was like!) Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It's published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.
