France
The French sculptors building the new Statue of Liberty
At a miserable-looking rally for the centre-left Place Publique in mid-March, its co-president, MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, made international headlines calling…
What history doesn’t tell us
The trouble with history is that it is topiary. History is what’s left after the unwanted foliage has been clipped…
Britain is heading the way of France
The backlash against Keir Starmer has begun. Some senior figures within the Labour party have criticised the Prime Minister’s warning…
Why it might be best if US stock markets go on falling
It gives me no pleasure to say I told you so. ‘If [Donald Trump] is prepared to cause mayhem in…
Is Britain ready for a patriotic theme park?
It is the early 9th century. Peace reigns in a small French village as they prepare for a wedding. Garlands…
How the French right can still win
Dixmont, Yonne It has been a terrible year for the Le Pen family. Jean-Marie died in the first week of…
I’m ready to defend my Tesla from the mob
Occitanie, France In France, burning cars is practically a national sport. Almost 1,000 were set on fire on New Year’s…
The unfairytale life of two European princesses
Wounded by their husbands’ infidelity and shattered by the deaths of their only sons, Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France defied court protocol in a bid for independence
More booze won’t save France’s dying village life
Reach for the pastis, Jacques. A law is making its way through the French parliament to relax alcohol licensing, to…
Donald Trump humiliated Emmanuel Macron
The orca killer whale is known for playing with its prey before killing it, always with a smile. An image…
The case for ‘Areas of Outstanding Natural Ugliness’
I was leaving the car park of my local shop yesterday – a manoeuvre which involves a hair-raising reverse on…
Immigration’s theatre of the absurd
On the cusp of an almighty row over Trump’s planned mass deportations, let’s look to Europe for light relief. Last…
There’s something hypocritical about Macron attacking Musk
Europe’s leaders rounded on Elon Musk on Monday as the American tech billionaire continued to air his views on the…
How French absolutism powered a techno-progressive revolution
The Enlightenment is back. Despite the best efforts of the past decade of handwringing about cultural imperialism and wailing over…
Macron governs only for himself
Emmanuel Macron will this afternoon host the leaders of France’s political parties as he searches for his fourth prime minister…
Macron is the author of his own despair
‘Notre-Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so,’ said the President-elect Donald J. Trump…
The good soldier Maczek – a war hero betrayed
After fighting for the Allies in Hungary, France, Belgium and Holland, Stanislaw Maczek finds himself stripped of his Polish citizenship as a result of the Yalta conference
Banning Marine Le Pen from politics would be a grave mistake
Paris prosecutors last week recommended that Marine Le Pen be jailed and banned from public office for five years. The…
It’s rich of the French to call Trump ‘vulgar’
There has always been a touch of snobbery in the way the French elite regard American politics. The word one…
Small-town mysteries: A Case of Matricide, by Graeme MacRae Burnet, reviewed
The gifted writer Graeme Macrae Burnet makes a mockery of the genres publishers impose on credulous readers. The author of…
A fashion series made by people who hate fashion: Apple TV+’s La Maison reviewed
I’m a bit disappointed – déçu, as we Francophiles like to say – with La Maison. When French TV drama…
Move over, Mrs Bennet – I’ve seen two daughters married in less than a month
Provence A few days before my middle daughter’s Oxfordshire wedding this summer, my youngest announced that she and her fiancé,…
Pornography and the truth about the Pelicot case
There have been protests in 30 cities across France, people marching in outrage over the case of Dominique Pelicot who…
Why French students want English uniforms
Béziers, France The École Mairan in Béziers in southern France is a happy neighbourhood elementary school housed in a superb…
The joy of hiring an old banger
There is always much to look forward to on a holiday with friends in France (the day one supermarket sweep,…
