France
A gentleman of Bordeaux
There was a moment during the war when De Gaulle was being more than usually impossible. Roosevelt, furious, asked Churchill…
Low life
While I was in Provence, my hostess and I went out one day for a walk in the hills. We…
Why we need migrants
It’s not about economics. It’s about our snobbish, slobbish culture
The Spectator’s notes
Surely there is a difference between Mark Carney’s intervention in the Scottish referendum last year and in the EU one…
Courchevel
The last time I stayed in Courchevel it was in a tatty roadside chalet a long way down the mountain.…
Low life
Before we left for Sunday lunch at the Les Deux Garçons restaurant, Aix-en-Provence, I checked the reviews on Tripadvisor. I’m…
Low life
In the Foreign Legion’s Museum of Memory at Aubagne, near Marseilles, I examined the kit, weapons and uniforms from the…
Portrait of the week
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that if Britain left the European Union, France could stop allowing British officials…
Game show
A few years ago, a distinguished cove in the diplomatic service was made High Commissioner to Australia. To prepare himself…
Hollande’s own emergency
His response to the Paris terror attacks has left the French president increasingly isolated and unpopular
Wild at heart
Delacroix’s frigid self-control concealed an emotional volcano. Martin Gayford explores the paradoxes that define the apostle of modernism
Another banking review is pointless: just carry on naming, shaming and jailing
Was the Financial Conduct Authority leaned on by the Chancellor to scrap its ‘review of banking culture’? Or did it…
Eurovision
Before cheap flights, trains were the economical way to discover Europe and its foibles. Personally, I enjoyed the old fuss…
France: #ToutsAuBistrot!
Julie Burchill hymns the joys of post-attack Paris
Why would a dissolute rebel like Paul Gauguin paint a nativity?
Martin Gayford investigates how this splendid Tahitian Madonna came about and why religion was ever-present in Gauguin's art
There will be blood
It was a stroke of genius to invite Glenda Jackson to make her return to acting as the star of…
It is political correctness, not maniacal bigots, that will end civilisation
What does one do, attend or refuse a party after a tragic event such as the recent Paris outrage? My…
The pretend war: bombing Isil won’t solve the problem
Britain, France and America are in a protracted fight against Islamic radicalism. Pity our leaders have no idea how to win it
The GP charged around to my side of the table and roved her hand all over my pubic area
On Friday morning I was peeing razor blades so I rang up the doctor and was given an appointment after…
France’s civil war…
...and the struggle facing Europe
Low life
The car: a ’06 rosso red Seat Ibiza 1.9 TDI Sport, bought three weeks ago from a man who had…
Portrait of the week
Home After the killings in Paris, David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that seven terrorist attacks on Britain had been…
The politics of terror
Hollande isn’t seizing his chance. Marine Le Pen might
Death watch
At the beginning of the summer of 1715 Louis XIV complained of a pain in the leg. In mid-August gangrene…
How they tried (and failed) to make ‘La Marseillaise’ nicer
Friendly words England football fans sang ‘La Marseillaise’ in a friendly match at Wembley. The anthem has not always been…
