France
What we owe to the self-taught genius Carl Linnaeus
Bumptious, uncouth and the despair of his schoolmasters, Linnaeus died almost forgotten. Yet he established a system of taxonomy that we still use two centuries later
The plot to bring down Emmanuel Macron
Last week Emmanuel Macron inaugurated the Olympic aquatic centre that will host the swimming and diving events at this summer’s…
Why Thames Water is the pariah of post-privatisation capitalism
‘It would have been ideal not to have so much poo in the water,’ said Oxford captain Leonard Jenkins after…
Fin du jeu
The death of Françafrique
Letters
Murder mystery Sir: I once made a diagnosis of a very rare condition too late to cure the patient. She…
Should all western businesses follow Heineken out of Russia?
The news that Heineken, the Dutch brewer, has sold its business in Russia to a local buyer for a token…
Feasts and fabrications
Japan’s ramen ‘tradition’ was created in 1958 to use up surplus imported flour, while Pizza Margherita’s specious royal connection helped boost Naples’s tourist trade
Enforce the borders, stop the boats, save lives
Rishi Sunak has failed in his pledge to ‘Stop the Boats’, and the £480 million deal he signed with France…
Dangerous liaisons
In an atmosphere of languid torpor on a French family estate, an unfortunate relationship develops between a son, a father and a mother-in-law
Marseille haze
Watching the kids and police play hide and seek
Boiling point
What’s behind the rise of gang violence across Europe?
French racism is not the problem
Last week we learned that a woman in a park in Skegness was dragged into the bushes and raped by…
The French riots threaten the state’s very existence
How dangerous are riots to the very existence of the French state? Most commentators avoid the question and concentrate on causes.…
Rosé and roses
What an idyllic setting. We were amidst the joys of high summer in England, with just enough of a breeze…
The war that changed the map of Europe
Rachel Chrastil describes how Bismarck, relying on Gallic pride to provoke the war he wanted, ensured that France would fight without a single ally
False notes
Chevalier is a biopic of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, whom you’ve probably never heard of, as I hadn’t. He…
Discovering St Julien
Burgundy or Bordeaux? We were discussing that unending question during dinner over the weekend. I think that there is only…
Discordant times
Exiled from Russia and often denigrated in America, Rachmaninoff lived in a fug of unbearable, impenetrable sadness, says Paul Kildea
Can Macron get through the day without insulting the Brits?
The editorial in today’s Le Figaro heralds the dawn of a 21st century Entente Cordiale and the newspaper carries an interview…
The murder of Lola and the failure of Marconism
Last Friday, a beautiful 12-year-old Paris girl named Lola failed to come home from middle school. Later that evening, her…
Low life
At eight o’clock in the morning a nurse injected me with a radioactive marker and told me to go away…
Low life
We were four round the little table in the nunnery kitchen: a 90-year-old German lady and her man; a nun…
Marine Le Pen wants France to become the next Sweden
While Emmanuel Macron spent Sunday in London honouring the memory of the late Queen Elizabeth, Marine Le Pen marked her…
