France

France is paying a heavy price for Macron’s vaccine catastrophe

29 May 2021 12:30 am

The United States is growing at such a blistering pace the Federal Reserve may have to raise interest rates. In…

Low life

22 May 2021 9:00 am

On the Saturday morning of the Ascension Day bank holiday, I swung down the stairs and ladder to the little…

The BBC’s shameful smearing of the French police

21 May 2021 10:27 pm

I had my first jab on Wednesday, at a vaccination centre in the south of Paris, run by the fire…

The rapid rise of Pascal Blanchard, Macron’s favourite diversity tsar

17 May 2021 11:47 pm

In October last year Emmanuel Macron had a long list of around 300 to 500 names drawn up. These were no…

The liver birds

15 May 2021 9:00 am

In his excellent, brief chronicle of foie gras, Norman Kolpas lists Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, Thandie Newton, Ricky Gervais and…

France needs Britain more than ever

12 May 2021 3:37 pm

‘What is grave about this situation, Messieurs, is that it is not serious’, was how General de Gaulle addressed his…

Why French soldiers are moving against Macron

10 May 2021 7:04 pm

Emmanuel Macron was in Strasbourg on Sunday where he addressed the Conference on the Future of Europe. This is where…

Return to Alsace

8 May 2021 9:00 am

Freedom approaches. Should we be humming ‘Va, Pensiero’ or ‘O Welche Lust’ — perhaps both. Thinking of Fidelioreminds me of…

Low life

1 May 2021 9:00 am

‘Willie or bum?’ I said to Catriona on the motorway. Everything in my recent medical career has been introduced via…

Is France losing its war on terror?

28 April 2021 4:44 pm

A political storm has swept France in recent days. It follows the publication of an open letter by twenty retired…

The banalisation of Islamist terror bodes badly for the West

25 April 2021 7:54 pm

Another day, another Islamist murder in France – this time, a 49-year-old policewoman fatally stabbed in the neck by a…

Low life

17 April 2021 9:00 am

For EU nationals living in Britain and wanting to legally remain after Brexit, a letter or an email was enough…

Starmer’s Labour is following the French Socialists into oblivion

9 April 2021 6:27 pm

Why does Keir Starmer seem set on following the example of the French Socialist party, and leading Labour into electoral…

The real problem with Macron’s elite school

9 April 2021 1:56 am

President Emmanuel Macron announced today the closure of the notorious École Nationale d’Administration, the elite finishing school for the senior…

Macron’s Napoleon complex

4 April 2021 4:15 pm

May 5th this year will be the two hundredth anniversary of Napoleon’s death on Saint Helena, the tiny island in…

New-found freedom

3 April 2021 9:00 am

In 2018 David Hockney went to Normandy to look at the Bayeux Tapestry, which he had not seen for more…

So damned French

3 April 2021 9:00 am

For the past few weeks I have been binge-watching the Netflix series Call My Agent! (or Dix pour cent, as…

France accuses Britain of vaccine ‘blackmail’

27 March 2021 3:17 am

In some ways you have to admire the sheer shamelessness of the French government. To spend the start of the…

Low life

20 March 2021 9:00 am

One day last week we did a wine run up to Manosque in the foothills of the Alps, leaving early…

Is the US to blame for the far-left takeover of France’s universities?

19 March 2021 10:46 pm

There is a belief in some quarters of the Anglosphere that the French are too wise to succumb to what…

We’ll always have Paris

13 March 2021 9:00 am

Some friends claim to be making marks on the wall to count the days until liberation. Ah, the forgotten delights…

Truckload of trouble

13 March 2021 9:00 am

A father and his estranged 20-year-old daughter set off across France, sharing the driver’s cabin of a long-haul truck. This…

Low life

13 March 2021 9:00 am

Around the time that poor M. Macron was casting televised aspersions on the AstraZeneca jab, I was offered one by…

Are Switzerland and France really ‘Islamophobic’?

11 March 2021 5:30 pm

Is Switzerland ‘Islamophobic’? Critics of the country’s decision to outlaw face coverings think so. The ‘Burqa ban’, which passed into law this week…