France

JAMES BALL on Europe’s very uneven vaccine rollout. With so much riding on the vaccine rollout across Europe, it is perhaps unsurprising it has been quite so tempestuous and bad-tempered. Governments have been accusing one another of irresponsibility, of cheating on supplies, or botching their rollouts. Last week, Italy even stopped a shipment of vaccines destined for […]

Few politicians have fallen quite as far and quite as fast as Nicolas Sarkozy. Nicolas Sarkozy marked his finest political hour in characteristically brash style. The night of his election victory over Socialist rival Ségolène Royal on May 6, 2007, he spent celebrating at a private bash at the exclusive Le Fouquet’s restaurant on the Champs-Elysées. It was a select gathering […]

Former French ambassador to the UK Sylvie Bermann made recent headlines with her very undiplomatic comments about Boris Johnson. She talks to TIM WALKER about how the country changed in her time here, and what she sees for its future. Almost a month after the EU referendum, the newly-appointed foreign secretary Boris Johnson bounded into the opulent residence […]

The French president is a politician like no other: neither from the left, nor the right; bold and decisive, yet the antithesis of a populist. And if he can win re-election next year he will shape not just the future of France, but of Europe. By ALASTAIR CAMPBELL  The first time I met Emmanuel Macron, he […]

A French court has found Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of influence peddling, as the former president was sentenced to three years in prison. Sarkozy’s trial was the first time a former French president has stood trial over corruption charges as he was accused of using his political influence to bribe a judge. The ex-head of the […]

The news you might have missed from around Europe, selected by Steve Anglesey. A group of hapless would-be thieves were arrested in Nancy, north-east France, after a disastrous attempt to rob a friend’s stash of several thousand euros. Two men, one armed with a hunting rifle, aborted their first raid when a woman they did […]

Following the announcement that the Pompidou Centre is to close from 2023 until 2027, BENJAMIN IVRY explores the history of the controversial building and its complex place at the heart of French culture and identity. Often referred to in French as Beaubourg, after the area in central Paris where it is located, the Pompidou Centre – with […]

The French response to Brexit has not quite been a Gallic shrug. But it’s not been far off. PAULINE SCHNAPPER explains the view from Paris. The Brexit deal reached on Christmas Eve was a relief for France as much as for the rest of the EU, both because a deal (any deal!) was better than no-deal […]

JASON WALSH reports on Europe’s varying fortunes on vaccination roll-outs. The European Union performs many roles for its citizens. The most important – if one of the least-discussed – is to keep them safe from harm. And that is the issue causing grave concern across the continent right now, as the EU and its member states try desperately […]

Stanley Johnson, the father of British prime minister Boris Johnson, has admitted he is in the process of applying for a passport that will give him all the benefits of EU membership after Brexit. Johnson, a former Conservative MEP, told RTL Radio in France that he wants to become a French citizen to keep his […]

An EU official has confirmed that the bloc rejected a request from Boris Johnson to allow him to involve German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Emmanuel Macron in Brexit negotiations.  The senior official said the request for a three-way call on Monday was rejected because negotiations were intended to go through the European Commission and not […]

Denis MacShane on the late Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, a man who helped modernise France and Europe, and relished an argument and a rivalry. “Your friend, Tony Blair, who does he think he is. He’s now calling for Albania to be let into Europe?” Valéry Giscard d’Estaing stretched out his long legs in the French embassy in […]

A French MEP has accused Boris Johnson over ‘underestimating the determination’ of the European Union during Brexit talks. Mireille Clapot claimed the prime minister had miscalculated the EU’s ability to negotiate and remain united, claiming he was paying the price by risking a no-deal Brexit. She told the BBC’s Newsnight: “Somebody said that strength comes from […]

The country might consider itself the cradle of liberty, but, says CONSTANCE KAMPFNER, a controversial proposed ‘security’ law has emphasised the uneasy relationship between the state and its citizens. A policeman is kneeling on a man’s neck. He tries to tell the officer that he can’t breathe while passersby look on, horrified. They shudder. And then […]

Joe Biden is expected to call European leaders Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron early on as he speaks with politicians across the world in the coming days. Johnson is hoping to build bridges with Biden after a Democratic source claimed that there was “no special relationship with Boris Johnson” following the election win. But sources close […]

As cinema enters dark times, the 60th anniversary of À bout de souffle offers a much-needed reminder of film’s ability to revive itself, says JAMES OLIVER. The irony is almost too bitter. This is the 60th anniversary of Jean-Luc Godard’s À bout de souffle (Breathless, as it was translated, as it shall be hereafter), one […]

While all countries are grappling with coronavirus, France is also facing another profound crisis. JASON WALSH reports As France hunkers down for its latest coronavirus confinement, or lockdown – announced last week by Emmanuel Macron – the country knows it is heading into a period of unease, angst, economic devastation and death. And yet the […]

France and Germany have both taken the decision to go into national lockdowns to last throughout November as part of an attempt to slow the growth of coronavirus. President Emmanuel Macron has confirmed the “stay at home” order which will see non-essential shops, restaurants and bars close from Friday until 1 December with external borders […]

A quiet town perched on the banks where the Seine and Oise rivers meet, Conflans-Sainte-Honorine is not one of Paris’s notorious banlieues. Around 20 miles northwest of the capital, it is certainly in its orbit but the quiet streets and restrained, low-rise buildings mean it feels more provincial French than Parisian. Pleasant, and rather unremarkable. […]

France’s is bailing out its wine industry, which has been hit hard by the pandemic. But, says JASON WALSH, long-standing social trends in the country could be even more troubling for the sector. The scene outside Le Ballon Vert in the trendy 11th arrondissement of Paris: forced outdoors by post-coronavirus regulations and unseasonal autumn weather, […]

As the Mamoudou Gassama incident adds to Emmanuel Macron’s accumulation of glowing publicity, BARNABY TOWNS challenges some Brexit myths about the UK’s supposed superiority to our southern neighbour Another day, another picture-perfect photo opportunity for President Emmanuel Macron, this time thanking Mamoudou Gassama — the undocumented immigrant who saved a child dangling from a balcony […]

Images taken by a pioneering balloonist more than 100 years ago lay bare the impact of climate change on France’s biggest glacier, KIERAN BAXTER reports Like a one-man Google Earth, Swiss aviation pioneer Eduard Spelterini flew a gas-filled balloon from the French town of Chamonix to Switzerland on August 8, 1909 – a distance of […]

Alex Taylor, a British broadcaster working in France, was so angered by Brexit he decided to become French, a process which ended in a ceremony at the country’s Pantheon. Vanity Fair’s MARION VAN RENTERGHEM was there to watch it happen One day, earlier this autumn, Alex Taylor entered the Pantheon, in Paris. This is not […]

A refusal to confront its past leaves France facing an uncertain future, argues MARTIN EVANS All countries have difficult chapters from their past, which continue to cast a shadow on the present. For France, the Vichy period certainly fits into that category. But, as the country has lately been considering, its colonial past is every […]