France

Macron is playing Eric Zemmour’s tune

16 September 2021 3:10 am

In a big speech yesterday, Macron presented himself in almost Nixonian terms as guardian of law and order. He said…

Hidalgo has trashed Paris. Can she do the same for France?

14 September 2021 4:00 am

Anne Hidalgo, the socialist mayor of Paris, whose reign has submerged the city in debt and rubbish, is the latest…

Low Life

11 September 2021 9:00 am

In the New Year I was introduced to a couple who had fled Britain impulsively on New Year’s Eve with…

The West’s Islamist capitulation

9 September 2021 8:12 am

On Monday, Tony Blair addressed a military think tank in London and stated that the West should continue to intervene…

Low life

4 September 2021 9:00 am

Not long after Catriona and I first met, her husband painted my head and shoulders portrait in oils as I…

France’s provocateur is coming to London

3 September 2021 7:34 am

Five years ago, London’s affluent French poured their dosh into the campaign of Emmanuel Macron. This time around, supporters of…

Is the EU trying to hamstring the French military?

1 September 2021 4:30 pm

Much recent discussion has focussed on the collapse of Afghanistan and the decline of the West. The humiliating American-led Western…

Anne Hidalgo’s socialist reign of error in Paris

30 August 2021 3:31 am

A photograph, taken in June 2014, has become emblematic of Anne Hidalgo’s Socialist rule of Paris. In the picture stands…

France is nervous about welcoming a wave of Afghan refugees

20 August 2021 5:13 pm

Emmanuel Macron has once more infuriated many in France, but this time it has nothing to do with Covid passports…

Liberté, égalité, vacciné

14 August 2021 9:00 am

France’s revolt against Covid passports is just beginning

Low life

14 August 2021 9:00 am

I was sitting quite still at the typewriter when a plump mouse emerged from under the fridge and crossed the…

Macron’s vaccine passport is uniting French anti-fascists and nationalists

2 August 2021 5:52 pm

Saturday was what is known in France as the Chassé-croisé, the busiest day of the year on the roads, when…

Turning the tide

31 July 2021 9:00 am

How Britain can stem the stream of illegal arrivals

The chaser and the chaste

31 July 2021 9:00 am

Consider the hare and the hyena. The hare, Clement of Alexandria told readers of his 2nd-century sexual self-help manual Paedagogus,…

Macron’s war on Covid meets resistance

28 July 2021 6:00 pm

A manager of an attraction park in France was reportedly assaulted on Sunday after he denied entry to a customer.…

Emmanuel Macron’s dangerous infantilisation of the French

26 July 2021 5:23 am

From St Tropez to La Rochelle to Deauville, there is a familiar sight this summer in many of France’s most…

Macron’s vaccine passports are a betrayal of French values

19 July 2021 5:24 pm

What a celebration of diversity I witnessed in Paris on Saturday as tens of thousands of demonstrators marched through the…

A rosé future

17 July 2021 9:00 am

Some time ago, I wrote that rosé should only be drunk south of Lyon, but one could start on the…

How Macron was outfoxed by a dead Napoleonic general

14 July 2021 9:16 pm

Skeletons don’t always lurk in cupboards, some of them hide under dance floors waiting for a particularly rousing party to…

Macron’s Covid crackdown is a risky bet

13 July 2021 5:28 pm

Will the French accept compulsory vaccination against Covid? Health passports to get on a plane or train? Children of 12…

Low life

3 July 2021 9:00 am

The village square is a long and pedestrianised oblong shaded along its length by massive pollarded plane trees. It’s known…

The growing extremism of France’s Green party

29 June 2021 5:16 pm

On Sunday evening I met three left-leaning French friends for a picnic in a Parisian park. We’d hardly begun the…

Is Marine Le Pen’s presidential bid doomed?

28 June 2021 11:27 pm

Nothing went as predicted in France’s regional elections. Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National did not win a single region and…

The electoral humiliation of Macron and Le Pen

28 June 2021 4:22 pm

Five years ago, Emmanuel Macron was ‘en marche’ to his improbable ascent to the presidency of France. Last night, having…

Boris is in danger of becoming Britain’s François Hollande

27 June 2021 4:53 am

Last week’s by-election result in Chesham and Amersham was a slap in the face for Boris Johnson. Fortunately it was…