The French may have a love-hate relationship with many of their close neighbours, but the greatest ire is often directed at their fellow citizens. These are some of the conflicts you should only wade into with caution.

Normandy and Brittany over Mont-Saint-Michel (and cider)

Not all of France’s rivalries are quite as violent as football brawls, but it would be a mistake to take them lightly. That’s the case for Brittany and Normandy, which between them account for a significant portion of France’s northern coast. And it’s a stretch of this coastline that has provided one of the key areas of contention between them. More specifically, the Mont-Saint-Michel, which has at times been a literal battleground between the two sides.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site is officially in Normandy, but Bretons also like to stake a claim to the island. The conflict came to a head in 2018, when the town’s mayor tried to erect a Breton flag alongside those of Normandy and France, but was forced to remove it following complaints.

Of course, this being France, the rivalry also plays out at the dinner table. Not only do the two populations disagree over who makes the best cider, they can’t even agree on how to drink it. While in Normandy, cider is usually served in a glass, in Brittany it comes in a traditional bolée (bowl).

Lille and Lens over football

Six people were injured in confrontations between supporters during the Derby du Nord opposing the Racing Club de Lens and LOSC Lille over the weekend. Lens supporters unveiled an insulting sign which spelled out “Lillois merda” (Shit Lille), before invading the pitch to confront the Lille fans, some of whom had been throwing projectiles in the opposite direction, according to La Voix du Nord.

While situated in different départements, Lens (Pas-de-Calais) and Lille (Nord) are separated by fewer than 40 kilometres, but their fierce antagonism is often portrayed as a clash of cultures – the working class town of Lens was hard hit by the closure of the region’s mines, while Lille is seen as a more middle-class, cosmopolitan city – even if that’s certainly a generalisation.

Incident et envahissement de pelouse en cours au Stade Bollaert, des incidents entre supporters lillois et lensois. #RCLLOSC pic.twitter.com/b5NJ3McWQA

— Remy Buisine (@RemyBuisine) September 18, 2021

The rivalry has been stoked by the two football clubs’ differing fortunes over the years, with Lille more recently gaining the ascendancy over their rivals after Lens dominated in the 1990s.

Lyon and Saint-Etienne also over football

There are 60 kilometres separating these two towns in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Their rivalry may be best known for the tension between their respective football clubs but, as with Lille and Lens, the acrimony has deeper, cultural routes.

After the French revolution, Saint-Etienne began to grow and to rival its larger neighbour. This created a certain amount of jealousy, “especially as there was a symbolic element of the dirty city beating the rich city,” sociologist and writer Jean-Noël Blanc told Le Progrès.

However, inequalities continued, particularly in Saint-Etienne’s textile industry, where “lots of purchasers were from Lyon, which wasn’t particularly well received,” he added.

There’s also a very long-standing football rivalry – according to Le Progrès, one match against Lyon Olympique Villeurbanne in 1936 ended in a brawl, with the referee having to be evacuated, and a director from Lyon running off with all the money from the game so Saint-Etienne wouldn’t earn a thing.

South-west and everywhere else over pastries

Speaking of food and drink, French pastries have long been fodder for perhaps the fiercest debate of all: pain au chocolat or chocolatine?

It can often feel like France is split down the middle over what to call the breakfast snack, but in reality it’s mostly only people from the south-west of France who prefer the term chocolatine.

Even so, for many the word has come to represent their regional identity, and people from either side of the debate will fiercely defend their camp. One thing everybody can agree on though is that they are delicious.

Toulouse, Carcassonne and Castelnaudary over cassoulet

What we have here is a rare, three-way rivalry between these towns in south-west France. Of course, it could only be a row over food. The reason? They all claim to be home to the best cassoulet: a hearty stew containing meat and beans.

Each area has its own traditional recipe: in Castelnaudary, goose or duck is used for the meat, in Toulouse it’s sausage or mutton, and when they’re in season, restaurants in Carcassonne will add partridge.

We’re not sure how the locals have the energy for all that arguing after eating a delicious, filling cassoulet, but some have tried to bring people together. French chef Prosper Montagné once attempted to reconcile the three towns into a holy trinity of cassoulet recipes: Castelnaudary the Father, Carcassonne the Son, and Toulouse the Holy Spirit.

Special mention here to the people of Burgundy and Bordeaux, and all those who have chosen a side, for carefully maintaining similar mutual resentment over who makes the best wine.

Alsace and Lorraine over history

You might think of Alsace-Lorraine as one entity, with memories of your history teacher telling you how the historical region was returned to France from Germany in 1918 as part of the Treaty of Versailles, but, like siblings who don’t get on, it’s often people with the most in common who hate each other the most.

The animosity between these two dates back hundreds of years, perhaps to 1525, historian Bernard Vogler told France 3, when the catholic Duke of Lorraine sent his army to crush a revolt of protestant peasants, killing 30,000 Alsatians. According to Vogler, the situation was reversed during the German annexation of the region between 1871 and 1918, when the Germans gave the best jobs to protestants, leaving those in Moselle in northern Lorraine “feeling like second class citizens”.

And nowhere was François Hollande’s 2015 regional reform more firmly opposed than in this part of the country, with Alsace, Lorraine and Champagne-Ardenne merging to become the new Grand Est region. In January 2021, the départements of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin merged to create the European Collectivity of Alsace, this recovering in a sense their historical region – while this is still part of the Grand Est, the move does show the enduring importance of regional identity in eastern France.

The ill feeling can also be seen on the football pitch during the “Derby de l’Est” opposing FC Metz in Lorraine and RC Strasbourg in Alsace.

Brittany and Pays de la Loire over Nantes

Over on the west side of the country, one département is at the heart of a conflict between two regions. Historically a part of Brittany, the Loire-Atlantique département was separated from the region during World War II by the Vichy government, and instead attached to what would in 1955 become the Pays-de-la-Loire region.

In Nantes and surrounding areas, pro-Breton voices have become increasingly loud in recent years, and in February the town council of Nantes voted in favour of organising a referendum to give locals a say over whether to rejoin Brittany.

While referendums over leaving a larger entity have proved, erm, controversial in recent years, 66 percent of those who live in Pays-de-la-Loire believe it would be legitimate for the people of Loire-Atlantique to decide their fate via a referendum, according to a survey from earlier this year.

Paris and Marseille over everything (and football)

This is perhaps the most famous rivalry in France, with football-related battles being just the tip of the iceberg.

Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique de Marseille regularly dispute “Le Classique” derby, despite being based at opposite ends of the country. As two of France’s most successful clubs they also have fans all over the country (president Emmanuel Macron is a long-term Marseille fan, despite being born in Amiens in northern France).

Pourquoi je soutiens l'OM ? Parce qu'ils m'ont fait rêver ! Ils m'ont fait pleurer parfois. Ils m'ont fait vibrer. #MacronMarseille #TeamOM

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 1, 2017

But the cultural battle goes much deeper – between north and south; between France’s two largest cities; between the rich capital and working-class port town; between chic Parisians and feisty Mediterraneans.

This conflict has also played out during the Covid-19 pandemic, with Marseille becoming a symbol of revolt against health measures decided upon in Paris, and controversial local microbiologist Didier Raoult establishing himself as a cult hero in the southern city.

Paris and, well, everywhere…

The culture clash between Paris and Marseille could be considered an extreme version of the relationship most of France has with the capital.

“Mistrust towards Paris is not the exception, it’s the rule, but people pay more attention to it when it happens in Marseille because it fits into their world-view,” Nicolas Maisetti, a political researcher at the Gustave Eiffel University Paris-Est, told The Local last year.

In other parts of the country, Parisians are often portrayed as cold, unfriendly snobs. This resentment was exacerbated during the Covid pandemic as many people from the capital rushed to their second homes in south-west France.

And if the rest of France hates Paris, it can often seem like the feeling is mutual.

In the 2008 Coupe de la Ligue final between PSG and Lens, the Parisian fans unfurled a banner reading, “Pédophiles, chômeurs, consanguins: bienvenue chez les Ch’tis” (Pedophiles, unemployed, inbreds: welcome to the North), in reference to the hit film Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis (Welcome to the Sticks) which had just been released.