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INSIDE FRANCE

Inside France: Diet coke, disinheriting kids and the liberation of Paris

From political infighting to disinheriting children, via a very special 'Diet Coke break', our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week.

Published: 26 August 2023 10:09 CEST
Inside France: Diet coke, disinheriting kids and the liberation of Paris
Picture dated 24 August 1944 showing a Parisian woman kissing French General de Gaulle during a parade on the Champs-Elysees after Paris' liberation. Photo by AFP

Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.

September blues

Although it’s still another two weeks before the schools go back, France’s ministers are back from holiday and the government is laying out its ideas for the year ahead.

Emmanuel Macron seems as full of plans as ever, judging by his pre-rentrée interview with Le Point. But having ideas is one thing – putting them into practice without an overall parliamentary majority in a country that appears increasingly divided and while your own ministers are jostling for position ahead of the 2027 election is quite another.

READ ALSO: 8 of the biggest problems facing Macron this September

Diet Coke break

Like many other people, I started off laughing at this video of an American influencer who brought an entire suitcase full of Diet Coke with her on holiday because “they don’t sell it in Europe”.

But then I ended up down a research rabbit hole – is it true that Coke tastes different in the US and Europe? Are Diet Coke and Coke Light the same thing? And why do American bloggers confidently proclaim that Diet Coke is “banned by the EU”?

Is Diet Coke really banned in Europe?

The Local’s Genevieve Mansfield also put together this great piece about the most popular American misconceptions about France (yes, you can drink the tap water. Yes, we have ice and clothes dryers too. No, your apartment probably won’t have air-conditioning).

Liberation

Friday marked 79 years since the liberation of Paris – a chaotic and bloody time that began with a strike and ended in pitched battles in the street. It was followed by the brutal period known as the épuration sauvage – or summary justice when people suspected of collaboration with the Germans were beaten up, shot or – in the case of an estimated 20,000 women accused of ‘horizontal collaboration’ – publicly humiliated and had their heads shaved. 

I always recommend that anyone interested is this period checks out the Musée de la Libération in Denfert-Rochereau, which tells the story of the occupation of Paris and its liberation, with a particular emphasis on what life was like for the ordinary residents of the city during this extraordinary time.

Legal LOLs

It’s not often that advice on inheritance provides a laugh, but many people made the same joke about this article in Le Figaro on how to disinherit your children – assuming that the journalist’s family holiday hadn’t gone exactly to plan.

Maybe I should say it’s more about minimising your children’s inheritance, as disinheriting your kids is practically impossible under French law, however much they might have annoyed you over the two-month summer break.

Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.

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INSIDE FRANCE

Inside France: Violence, QR codes and stuffed animals

From violent unrest in a French territory to the QR codes required at the Paris Olympics, via D-Day and weird taxidermy, our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week.

Published: 18 May 2024 07:38 CEST
Inside France: Violence, QR codes and stuffed animals

Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.

High tension

After a relaxed week with a double holiday and most of the country taking a break, it seems that the news has come roaring back this week – first a highly dramatic jailbreak that left two prison officers dead and a fugitive at large, then the worst rioting in 30 years on the French island of Nouvelle Calédonie which left five people dead, and finally a man shot dead by police while apparently trying to set fire to a synagogue in northern France. It seems that there’s barely been time to breathe. 

These three things are, of course, not connected and in the case of Nouvelle Calédonie have followed years of political and ethnic tensions on the Pacific islands.

But it’s not surprising that people feel a bit punch-drunk at this series of events. Already right-wing parties are attempting to make capital out of this ahead of the European elections – a favourite tactic of the far-right in recent years has been trying to portray France as in the grip of an uncontrolled wave of crime and violence.

While no-one would deny that France has crime and that there are problems with violence, the statistics do not bear out this image of a ‘lawless’ country’. 

QR codes

Talking of security, the big topic in Paris this week has been whether we need QR codes to get around the city during the Olympics, after the security plan for the Games was unveiled in detail.

For many people this will bring back bad memories of Covid restrictions, attestations and health passes – although once you dig into the detail of the Games QR codes you realise that they won’t actually affect all that many people.

The areas that they cover are limited and the most onerous restrictions are only in place for the week leading up to the Opening Ceremony. You can find a complete guide to whether you need a code, and how to get one if you do, HERE.

Talking France

We look at the QR code situation on this week’s Talking France podcast, as well as France’s economic reality, the quirks of the French health system and the new ‘drive like a woman’ campaign.

Plus John Lichfield talks about his involvement in projects to commemorate D-Day in his Normandy home, and why the 1944 landings still hold such a special place in French hearts. Listen here or on the link below. 

Get stuffed

But my biggest question about France remains unanswered – why is weird taxidermy furniture so popular? If you’ve spent time at a French brocante you will likely have come across stuffed animal parts made into a variety of items from coathooks and ashtrays to – as below – chairs or stools.

Answers on a postcard, please.  

Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.

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