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INSIDE FRANCE

Inside France: Rain, strikes, carrots and Napoleon’s love life

From new legislation aimed at making strikes less disruptive for airline passengers to storms, via the latest Napoleon controversy to hit France and a terrible carrot pun, our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week.

Published: 18 November 2023 09:32 CET
Updated: 18 November 2023 11:16 CET
Inside France: Rain, strikes, carrots and Napoleon's love life
The premiere of the new Napoleon film. Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / 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.

Right to strike

Some good news for travellers – the French parliament has adopted a new law aimed at making air traffic control strikes less disruptive.

The bill doesn’t limit the right of air traffic controllers to go on strike (it couldn’t – the right to strike is in France’s constitution) but it does require individual staff members to give 48 hours’ notice to their boss if they intend to join a strike. This will enable the Civil Aviation Authority to cancel fewer flights, since they will know exactly how many people will be off work.

It’s the same system already used for SNCF staff and workers on the Paris public transport network – it’s not like those two don’t strike of course, but it does mean that transport bosses can usually guarantee at least a skeleton service on strike days. 

READ ALSO How I stopped worrying and learned to love French strikes

The ‘little’ emperor

It’s quite hard to walk down a Paris street at the moment without seeing a billboard for Ridley Scott’s new Napoleon film – the studio have clearly got a big marketing budget for the Emperor’s homeland. 

But what surprised me when I first moved to France is just how complicated Napoleon’s legacy is – I had previously assumed he would be seen as France as a great national hero, somewhat in the mode of Winston Churchill in the UK, but for many French people the war-monger who reintroduced slavery is not a figure to admire.

The 200th anniversary of his death in 2021 was marked by a national argument over whether the event should be marked at all. But it’s also undeniable that ‘le petit caporal’ had a huge impact on the modern country, from laws still based on the ‘Code Napoleon’ to institutions such as lycées and the military and even public holidays.

In this week’s Talking France we’re trying to sort the facts from the myths about Napoleon, from his height to his sexual inadequacies and whether he ever banned people from naming pigs after him. Listen here or on the link below.

We’re also planning a special episode over Christmas that will be entirely based on listener questions – so if there’s anything you ever wanted to know about France or the French – leave your questions here.

My question would be the one that I have been asking repeatedly over the last few weeks (minus a few expletives) – When will it stop raining in France?

Cracking jokes

Humour is always one of the hardest things to translate as so many jokes are based on cultural context or puns – I enjoyed this fascinating article on how the translators worked on the Asterix comic books. Frequently they just wrote entirely new jokes if the original would not work in translation.

I’ve noticed that the French really do enjoy a terrible pun and I couldn’t help groan out loud at this one. 

(How do you cook carrots without heat? Put nine in the pan and take one out, then the carrots will be eight. Makes no sense at all in English, but in French les carrottes sont qu’huit – the carrots are eight – sounds the same as les carrottes son cuites – the carrots are cooked). I did warn you it was terrible. 

Be more French

And I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this before, but it remains funny and possible the Frenchest thing ever – a passenger on a local train in Burgundy preparing himself a little train picnic, using his carte vitale health card to slice the foie gras.

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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