France
Deep Burgundy
‘There lies the dearest freshness deep down things’ — and also the dearest Frenchness. It is easy to be rude…
Portrait of the week
Home Tens of thousands took part in a demonstration in London against austerity, and thousands more in other cities. Russell…
Guardians of an ideal
The French have always favoured grand, elegant abstractions about the human condition, says Ruth Scurr. It’s part of their national identity
Facing their Waterloo
The French would still prefer to think of Napoleon’s last defeat as a moral victory
Normandy
I am compiling a list of the best black puddings. It began in Spain when I encountered my first morcilla…
Diary
I have escaped this rather depressing election campaign by retreating to my home in la France profonde — to be…
Marseille
If you haven’t been lost in Marseille then you can’t have been there. As Alexandre Dumas wrote, this is a…
Low life
Two stylists work at this deeply rural French ladies’ hairdresser. Christelle is a gorgeous 17-year-old point-of-lay pullet, so lithe and…
Indulge your inner reptile
What do you get if you cross renegade psychoanalyst Carl Jung with lizard-men conspiracist David Icke? It is a question…
Did the £20 million Norwegian’s pay row make BG cheaper for Shell?
Helge Lund was widely expected to go into domestic politics when he ended his successful tenure as head of Statoil,…
Mob rules
Would-be leaders of the left are harnessing the mood of angry populism
Sonia alone
In 1978, shortly before she died, the artist Sonia Delaunay was asked in an interview whether she considered herself a…
Brought to book
Suite Française is being billed as a second world war romance about ‘forbidden love’ and, in this regard, it is…
A divided inheritance
When we consider poets who perished before their day, thoughts turn to the Romantics or the war victims: Burns, Keats,…
Gay right
Marine Le Pen’s unlikely rainbow coalition
Let there be light
It’s time to reclaim Islam from the Islamists
Burgundian battles
There is only one answer to the question ‘Burgundy or claret?’ ‘Yes, but never in the same glass.’ Yet I…
This time round, the eurozone looks robust enough to get rid of its Greek problem
Ever since European Central Bank president Mario Draghi declared himself ready, in July 2012, ‘to do whatever it takes to…
Flying shame
The charming little airport that ruins thousands of skiing holidays
Le French bashing
The popular sport has spread to France. Are things really that bad, wonders Jonathan Meades
The heroes of Cognac
The chestnut trees were still resplendent in yellow leaf along the banks of a misty autumn river on its glide…
President or prisoner?
Destiny is calling Nicolas Sarkozy. But it’s not clear whether he’s heading back to the Elysée – or to jail
Hotels for dogs
The first time I checked in to a French hotel with a golden retriever — his name was Gregory, predecessor…
The real French embassy
Semper eadem. There is some basement in a Mayfair street that is forever France. It is not far from the…
I don’t care what you wear. I care what you believe
What sort of clothing do you wear when you go to the opera? I assume some of you do go…
