France
My poolside revelations
Lying by the rooftop pool of the Hotel Sun in downtown Lefkosa, I felt like a cowboy about to stir…
The Bayeux Tapestry must never be returned to France
The Norman Conquest is a crime against humanity that remains, over a millennium on, entirely unsettled. The French still refuse…
My midnight naked swim
Provence The tiny village of Correns, two villages along, suffered more in the recent fires than we did. Even the…
Why were women banned from the Eiffel Tower?
The French are accustomed to rancorous debates about the threat to women’s rights posed by religious orthodoxies – especially Islam,…
My dog’s an accident waiting to happen
‘My apologies again for you nearly losing your leg,’ I said to the young Frenchman as he and his family…
Why are French kids’ school bags so heavy?
It’s that time of year again in Paris, when the cool breeze and light rain announce the arrival of the…
My cave house’s wonderful history
Provence Looking back on it, apart from this year’s wildfires, the stultifying heat of high summer in Provence isn’t so…
How to do a salade Lyonnaise justice
Salade Lyonnaise is often translated as ‘bacon and egg salad’ and I can’t stand it. Not because it’s inaccurate –…
Emmanuel Macron is an embarrassment to France
France’s under-15s can carry on using social media after a parliamentary ban was struck down by the Republic’s constitutional council…
A toast to the heroic French firefighters
Provence ‘Imbeciles! I told them! When the fire comes on the hill there, it always goes that way… did they…
Farming today: field fires and food price hikes ahead
I report from FTSE boardrooms and City bars, but I also spend time – mostly in Yorkshire, currently in France…
Tears and terror on the front line of the French wildfires
Provence As soon as I opened my front door I could smell it. Along the path, flakes of white ash…
Won’t someone please think of the French wine?
There was something surreal about my visit to La Cité du Vin, Bordeaux’s wine museum, last Saturday. From the top…
Legal organ harvesting is just a PR campaign away
Summertime, and the living isn’t as easy as it used to be. The dying, though, is getting easier, especially if…
Patrick Bruel and the death of French seduction
Patrick Bruel was once a heartthrob pop star whose dark brooding looks fuelled a ‘Bruelmania’ fever that swept through France…
Macron could’ve done more to stop the Bordeaux fires
Firefighters in France have spent the weekend trying to save Bordeaux from an immense conflagration. On Monday morning, the city’s…
Trapped with the plane passengers from Hell
Provence Under late June’s ferocious heat dome, during what turned out to be an almost eight-hour drive to join Martin…
Why is Giorgia Meloni courting Emmanuel Macron?
Emmanuel Macron has lost a friend in Keir Starmer. The French President paid tribute to the outgoing British Prime Minister…
Storm warnings for Burnham from the weathermen of Basel
Reading the annual economic report of the Bank for International Settlements while lying beside a pool with an Aperol spritz…
France’s ideological war on air conditioning
America is to blame for the heatwave that has caused so much misery in France in the last fortnight. Audrey…
Nagging doubts: Twenty Minutes of Silence, by Hélène Bessette, reviewed
In a luxurious French villa, a man lies dead, shot with his own gun – and his wife and son become suspects. But new information emerges every time the scene is reviewed
Reading Jeremy’s words only gets harder
Provence In the hope of renting out the main cave house during the summer, I’ve been clearing to make room…
What do the French see in Ireland?
As the eco-tourism season got under way, the confused-looking French people began to arrive. They come to see ‘la nature’,…
France is throwing a tantrum at Trump
France is intensifying its counter-offensive against what it calls misinformation. Earlier this month, Paris prosecutors confirmed they have opened a…
People who say it’s no good throwing money at a problem have never been poor
It started during the bus journey from Glasgow to Edinburgh airport on the way home to Provence. Saying goodbye is…
