France
I was relishing the lockdown a week ago, but now I need urgent hospital treatment
In France the rule for going for a walk stipulates an hour in duration or a kilometre in distance. We…
Could coronavirus lead to Frexit?
Is France flirting with the idea of Frexit again? Coronavirus is currently provoking a chorus of ‘reprendre le contrôle’ (take…
Had the entire village population been wiped out since last week?
With my signed and dated laissez-passer in my pocket, I trotted down to the village to see if I could…
Annie Ernaux looks back at her teenage self – and sees a stranger
How can you recover the teenage girl you were? Not just recall the memories and recount the events — this…
Liberté, égalité and fraternité are being put to the test in France
When I left my apartment for my morning run today I saw that someone had scrawled on the courtyard in…
Is France being pushed to breaking point?
As France prepares to enter its third week of confinement the Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, has warned that ‘the fight…
France’s downward spiral of coronavirus repression
In France there is a palpable sense of administrative and political panic in how to deal with the coronavirus epidemic.…
Catherine Deneuve is at her most Deneuve-ish: The Truth reviewed
To tell you the truth about The Truth, even though it stars Catherine Deneuve at her most Catherine Deneuve-ish (i.e.…
My love affair with Hannah Arendt
The three of us — me, Catriona and her daughter Skye — were having a wash and brush-up before going…
Shrieks, shots and broken china: a visit to my rural French GP
On a hard chair next to the waiting-room door, I sat for an hour defusing thoughts of my own demise,…
British police must learn from France in dealing with Extinction Rebellion
I’ve always been a fan of the French police, in part because when I lived in the south of the…
Le bromance: Macron has fallen under Boris’s spell
Macron has fallen under Boris’s spell
All forecasts are off if Iran shuts the Strait of Hormuz
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water… Late last year, a range of forecasts…
Islamists have opened a terrifying new front in their war with France
France has endured an appalling series of Islamist terror attacks in recent years. One might feel a sense of relief…
Hell is an expat dinner party
I just don’t understand it. Emigrating from Britain to France is a big step. Shifting from one culture to another…
Trump is saving Nato
It’s almost Nato as usual when Emmanuel Macron calls Nato ‘brain dead’. It’s Nato as usual, and Donald Trump as…
Meet the unrivalled Sun King of early music, William Christie
It’s morning in the garden of William Christie, and he’s talking about home improvements. ‘I planted three pines up there…
Could this self-made billionaire become France’s first Muslim president?
The French writer Michel Houellebecq has a disconcerting habit of correctly predicting unsettling events. In 2001 in Plateforme he predicted…
Emmanuel Macron will regret his failure to crack down on Islamists
It beggars belief that Mickaël Harpon was employed as a computer expert in the intelligence department at police HQ in…
Labour is following in the doomed footsteps of the French left
The left no longer exists as a coherent political force in France. Embarrassed in the 2017 presidential election, the Socialist…
The French city zones where police rarely escape unscathed
In December 2015, Donald Trump claimed parts of the French capital were no-go zones for the police. ‘Paris is no…
The mysterious ways of the French
These new tablets that will save or at least prolong my life have unpredictable side effects which only now, a…
Trump’s yin and yang game with China
It should be obvious by now — but somehow isn’t. Whenever @realDonldTrump says something wild, you can bet the real…
Why you can’t let Brexit affect your life
A couple with a first baby sought my advice: they had accepted a low offer for their cramped London flat…
Will the Mistral drive me to murder?
So far this latest Mistral wind has blown for two and a half weeks. The Mistral is said to blow…
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