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INSIDE FRANCE

Inside France: Budget airlines, cowbells and lunch

From headline-grabbing ideas on cheap flights to the future of Alpine tourism, via celebrations at France's winning way with lunch, our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week.

Published: 2 September 2023 06:36 CEST
Inside France: Budget airlines, cowbells and lunch
Photo by JEAN-PIERRE CLATOT / 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.

Eating champions

Everyone loves topping a league table – and I’ve especially enjoyed the reaction to this OECD one, which reveals that the French are global winners when it comes to time spent eating and drinking – spending double the amount of time at the table as the poor old Americans down in last place.

It probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone who has spent time here that meals are prioritised in France – it’s common for workers to take at least an hour break for lunch, sometimes two, and there’s virtually no culture of snatching a sandwich as you work (in fact, eating at your desk is technically illegal).

This is also reflected in one of the things that visitors to France frequently complain about – slow service in restaurants. Yes, service in France is slow, but that’s intentional. The idea is that you relax and take your time, enjoying the experience of a good meal with friends or family – it’s not a competition to bolt your food and get out as quickly as possible. 

Mountain summer

An alarming new report in the journal Nature Climate Change predicts that 90 percent of European ski resorts will face a critical shortage of snow in the years to come, due to ever-warming temperatures.

This is already happening in many of France’s lower-altitude resorts and there’s a push towards making areas like the Alps and the Pyrenees year-round destinations, so that tourism revenue no longer relies on snow.

Having just returned from a weekend in the mountains in Savoie, close to the historic spa town of Aix-les-Bains, I can confirm that summer tourism in the Alps is certainly no hardship (even if the noise of the cowbells distracted me from my book and forced me to open a bottle of local wine instead). 

Ticket to fly

Talking of environmental issues, France’s transport minister Clément Beaune (a man who knows how to grab a headline) has called for an EU-wide minimum price on plane tickets, saying that €10 flights ‘are no longer possible’ during a climate crisis.

Like anything involving the EU, this will not be a quick or simple process, but it follows a consistent line from France which has already limited domestic flights and plans to increase the tax on plane tickets in the 2024 budget.

Factcheck: Is France really banning cheap flights?

Residents in France are of course fortunate to have a great train network as an alternative – apart from the environmental considerations, going by train really makes the journey part of the holiday, rather than something to be endured as you cram yourself like a pretzel into a Ryanair seat and contemplate whether to pay €7 for a glass of dodgy wine. 

French TV recommendation

If you haven’t already seen it, I really cannot recommend highly enough the French series Le Bureau des Légendes. A Canal Plus production, it’s only available via the pay-TV channel or on DVD but I was lucky enough to get the box set for my birthday.

I finally finished it this week and I’m still processing just how stunningly good it is – smart, sexy, emotional, intelligent and with plot twists galore.

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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