France

Has Marine Le Pen changed her politics, or is it that France has shifted to the right? Respectable France is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, again. In less than a year the country could have a far-right government. The fear is not new. The Le Pen family –Jean Marie and then more his user-friendly […]

Marseille’s music is as self-assured as the city itself, says SOPHIA DEBOICK  Marseille is a proud and ambitious city. Founded by the Greeks around 600BC, France’s second city’s ancient origins have been no bar to striving for the modern, and it is known for its ground-breaking 20th and 21st century architecture. Le Corbusier’s revolutionary La […]

The anniversary of the Brexit referendum will barely register a ripple in Europe, where Britain was once seen as a place of dynamism, excitement and promise It is obviously a very subjective generalisation, but no European nation really cares that much about how they are being perceived by the rest of Europe. In the UK, […]

He was sitting on one of the iron-framed and wooden-bottomed chairs there are dotted about beneath the chestnut trees lining the Esplanade des Feuillants, and as I recall – although, I concede with such a brief encounter, my memory may well have embellished – he was tilted back on its rear legs. His then-wife and […]

French president Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen have both faced a crushing defeat in the nation’s regional elections. Their respective parties, Macron’s centrist La République en Marche (LREM) and Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN), secured fewer votes than hoped and instead saw incumbent conservatives surge ahead in the first round. An IPSOS […]

Parisians are angry at the state of their city, from the rubbish in the streets to unsightly cycling schemes and fears of crime. Long-term resident JOHN LICHFIELD asks what hope there is for perhaps the greatest city of all When I visited Paris for the first time in July 1964, aged 14, I was shocked. The […]

Victory for France in the Euros would give Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante the kind of trophy cabinet that even Messi and Ronaldo would envy Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are on opposite sides of the world preparing to lead their countries in tournaments that represent their last chance to win major honours. No-one of sound mind […]

Plans are being drawn up to replace English with French as the main “working language” of the EU during France’s presidency, with meetings and documents to become “French-first” next year.  The French are set to take over the Council of the European Union presidency in 2022, with France planning to use its first presidency since Brexit […]

The life of Rosa Bonheur, often considered the most famous female painter of the 19th century Rosa Bonheur might have been one of the greatest artists of the 19th century but you probably wouldn’t have wanted her living next door. Having moved from Bordeaux to Paris in the late 1820s when she was six years old, […]

Often seen as serious to the point of greyness, former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has surprised many with his incendiary comments on immigration. So what lies behind them? He seemed to be everything Brexiteers disliked about the EU. A serious-minded bureaucrat steeped in the smooth workings of Europe’s capitals and chancelleries and adept at relentlessly channelling the orthodoxies of […]

Britain finds itself on a collision course with France over fishing and access to the EU single market as forms and fees on UK visits to friends and family in France begin to bite It has been a gloomy week on the sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain as various Brexit chickens continue to come home […]

Dark threats about a looming civil war and a coup involving senior military figures have electrified France and made the race for the Élysée Palace all the more febrile. An intemperate and inaccurate open letter was published last month by 20 retired French generals and 100 other officers, some of them still serving. It was apocalyptic in tone. It […]

Michel Barnier has told a French broadcaster the country must suspend all non-EU immigration for up to five years, in what is being seen as a tilt at the French presidency. Barnier told public broadcaster France 2 that the EU’s external borders had become a “sieve”. “I think we have to take the time for three or five years […]

A round-up of some of the weirdest stories from Europe. Napoleon fans eager to mark the 200th anniversary of his death can now buy replicas of the emperor’s socks for 250 euros (£215). The idea is the work of Parisian clothing company Mes Chaussettes Rouges, who have based their designs on an antique pair of […]

On the 40th anniversary of the election of François Mitterrand, former Europe minister DENIS MacSHANE considers his immense role in European integration and how he enlisted Margaret Thatcher in this project. Forty years ago France woke up to its first socialist president. The election of François Mitterrand, which came two years after Margaret Thatcher’s victory and one year after Ronald […]

Marine Le Pen is successfully convincing French voters that Emmanuel Macron is out of touch… could she succeed in 2022? Earlier this month thousands of people joined the May Day protests across France. Trade unionists and workers marched to demonstrate against coronavirus restrictions and their impacts, particularly on the working class. This comes less than […]

France has always prided itself on its great thinkers. But the current crop are embarrassing and increasingly irrelevant. What happened? There must be some lesson to be drawn from the fact that today’s woke crowd insults France and the French while name-dropping French totems from a great height. As the country is repeatedly condemned, Merleau-Ponty, […]

Diplomatic efforts with France will be stepped up to prevent a repeat of the Jersey fishing dispute. The Royal Navy will continue to keep a watch on events but the two vessels deployed to the Channel Island were ordered back to port after the French protest ended. The UK government will now work with France […]

CHARLIE CONNELLY on Dalida, the French superstar singer who endured a catalogue of personal catastrophes They made an unlikely couple arriving at the Sanremo Music Festival in January 1967, the young protest singer some called the Italian Bob Dylan and the elegant, older chanteuse from Paris with a glittering decade of mainstream chart success behind […]

In both war and peace, a love of reading made Napoleon history’s biggest bibliophile.  When you’re an enthusiastically expansionist autocrat and visionary military leader building an empire that will cover almost an entire continent your work doesn’t, it’s fair to say, leave much time for hobbies. Julius Caesar produced no macramé of note; Alexander the […]

For a man with a celebrated line of fragrances, it’s no surprise that Pierre Cardin comes out of a new documentary smelling of roses. “We kept digging for dirt,” concedes one of the film’s directors, Todd Hughes. “But we kept striking gold.” So, adorned by celebs including Dionne Warwick, Naomi Campbell and Sharon Stone, House […]

Napoleon’s role in shaping the continent we know today makes him a subject of fascination across Europe. So, on the bicentenary of the emperor’s death, why does he not occupy a central place in the French psyche?  A Frenchman must necessarily be arrogant.  For he can be nothing other than the heir of Napoleon Bonaparte. His commitment to […]

French fishermen have blocked lorries of UK-landed fish arriving in Boulogne-sur-Mer in protest at the slow granted of fishing licenses in UK waters by the government. Under Boris Johnson’s post-Brexit deal, EU fishermen could continue to fish in British waters, but only once they had received a license. But almost four months since the deal was […]

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has the profile and ambition to run against Emmanuel Macron for the French presidency. But her greatest strengths might also be what prevents this ‘Queen of the Bobos’ from reviving the country’s moribund Socialists Despite not yet having declared her candidacy for next year’s presidential elections, mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo […]

The city of Paris has mislaid two 10-tonne art deco fountains that stood near the Port de la Chapelle metro station. The landmarks were built in 1935 but were moved temporarily in 2014 to clear a new tram route for the 2024 Olympic Games. However, no-one now seems to know where they were put. Local […]

Flags have dominated the news agenda in recent weeks as debates about national identity rumble on. If you’ve only been casually checking into the news – and after the few years we have all had, who could blame you? – you might be forgiven for thinking that the world is suddenly quiet. What other possible reason […]

The European Commission president has warned AstraZeneca that it must “honour” its vaccine contract with the bloc before exporting doses elsewhere in the world. Ursula von der Leyen urged “transparency” from other countries, but did not confirm if the EU would bring in tougher export restrictions on coronavirus jabs, amid a row over supplies with […]

Another look at the continent’s weirdest stories, selected by Steve Anglesey. Paris police who boasted about busting a 1.2million euro (£1.03million) haul of MDMA and ecstasy turned out to have seized Haribo sweets instead. The gendarmes wrote on Twitter that after a “fruitful investigation” they had found a “large quantity of drugs to be sold […]