France
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…
How Miss La La captured Degas’s imagination
‘Can you come Saturday morning to my studio, 19 bis rue Fontaine?’ Degas wrote to Edmond de Goncourt in 1879.…
The 28-year-old who legitimised Marine Le Pen
Marine Le Pen’s National Rally – formerly the National Front – is expected to triumph for a third time running…
Second life: Playboy, by Constance Debré, reviewed
Having abandoned her marriage and her career as a lawyer, Debré re-emerges as a lesbian, a writer, and a seducer equal to Casanova
Who will my wife marry next?
Since I had a brush with death a couple of years ago, I have often wondered who my far younger…
Why are French politicians obsessed with world war two?
War talk is all the rage in France. The conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza are often cited, but the war…
France has become Europe’s Wild West
New Caledonia must not become the ‘Wild West’ declared Emmanuel Macron last week during his flying visit to the Pacific…
Must Paris reinvent itself?
Muriel Zagha 27 April 2024 9:00 am
The beautifully preserved, elitist metropolis now looks increasingly out of step with neighbouring capitals and may be forced to become more multicultural