France
What’s gone wrong at the National Theatre?
Now we have a Labour government, it would be nice to feel repertory will return to the National Theatre. It…
Do I have too many friends?
Can one have too many friends? I asked myself this question as we prepared yet another dinner party for ten…
Who will stand up for France’s aristocrats?
When it was recently announced that 40,000 people, the great majority civilians, have been killed in the Gaza conflict, I…
Does France need a government?
France has been without an official government for seven weeks, the longest in the history of the Fifth Republic. A…
The ‘Clooney effect’ hasn’t touched my corner of Provence
Provence My eldest daughter’s husband is from Como. In the early 2000s George Clooney caused a stir in the town…
Market apocalypse? No, a welcome correction
A bout of global stock-market turmoil and an outbreak of UK street violence as adjacent news items gave an apocalyptic…
Europe is worried that Britain’s riots might spread
The riots that have erupted across England in the last week have been splashed across Europe’s newspapers and broadcast on…
Welcome to the new global theocracy
I had a revelation while watching the Olympics opening ceremony. It was during the infamous section that I (and almost…
Will we always have Paris?
There are times when you might be fooled into believing all is well. I had a moment of such weakness…
Why can’t French progressives be more civil?
There was a muted reaction among the French political class to the attempt on Donald’s Trump’s life. Keir Starmer sent…
Portrait of the Week: Starmer’s first steps, Biden’s wobble and Australia’s egg shortage
Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, appointed several ministers who are not MPs, but will be created life peers.…
Le Pen is still the biggest winner in France’s elections
Ignore most snap verdicts from last night – the big winner in the French parliamentary election was still Marine Le…
How Marine Le Pen rebranded herself
Marine Le Pen was called a ‘bitch’ this week and threatened with sexual violence. It’s what passes for rap music…
My nights with the eagle owls
Provence Summer has arrived. The evenings are warm enough to sit out on the balcony terrace and watch the lights…
Let’s start the new era with a glass of champagne
‘I drink champagne when I’m happy and when I’m sad,’ Madame Lily Bollinger (1899-1977) remarked. ‘Sometimes I drink it when…
What the National Rally means for France’s foreign policy
The electoral turmoil in France threatens its status as a world power. Friendly nations are despairing; rivals and enemies are…
Macron’s power in Europe is draining
In Brussels over the last two days EU heads of state and government have been carving up the ‘top jobs’.…
France’s ‘Somewheres’ want revenge
The builder who has been working on my house in Burgundy will be voting for Marine Le Pen’s National Rally…
The shooting of Nahel Merzouk still haunts France
One year ago today, a 17-year-old called Nahel Merzouk was fatally shot by a policeman as he sped away from…
Starmer and Le Pen’s similarities
Emmanuel Macron’s decision to call a snap election in France is turning out to be a blunder of Sunakian proportions.…
Meet the musicians trying to revive French-language pop
The other day, I went to see a nouveau riot-girl band called Claire Dance play in a disused factory in…
France under Macron keeps getting worse
The warnings continue to come thick and fast in France about the disaster that could befall the Republic on 7…
Is France’s left-wing coalition more dangerous than Le Pen?
French and international media cannot break their fixation with the ‘extreme right’. They continue to target the Rassemblement National (RN)…
My dreams of Jeremy Clarke
The other week my eldest daughter and I were staying with friends in Richmond for the launch of Jeremy’s third…
