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INSIDE FRANCE

Inside France: Summer drought, Macron’s lengthy chat and women’s rights

From the latest on political and health developments, via summer holiday plans and the best drinks options, our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week.

Published: 2 July 2022 09:34 CEST
Inside France: Summer drought, Macron's lengthy chat and women's rights
Les gorges du Verdon. Photo by MICHEL GANGNE / AFP

Inside France is our weekly look at 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.

The C word

It’s the topic no-one really wanted to talk about again, but we appear to be back in the world of masks, testing and daily infection rate statistics – yes, Covid’s back.

France appears to be firmly in the grip of a seventh wave as recorded cases soar, hospitalisations rise and all of a sudden we’re again hearing from friends, family and colleagues who have tested positive.

There are no new restrictions yet, although the health ministry is preparing a contingency plan, but masks are now ‘strongly recommended’ on public transport, and if you’re travelling by train or Metro, you’re likely to hear more public announcements urging passengers to put their masks back on for the sake of all travellers.

Summer 

Although there is still another week to go before the schools break up and les grandes vacances begin in France, the country has begun to take on a distinctly ‘holiday’ vibe as people look forward to their summer break.

Summer holidays are a big deal in France, and many people take at least a month off, while the kids get seven weeks off school and cities empty out as people decamp to the beaches and the countryside.

READ ALSO Rosé, spritz and pressé – what to drink in France this summer

But the summer has got off to a very bad start for one of France’s most spectacular tourist attractions, the Gorges du Verdon in south east France.

Usually a popular venue for water sports like rafting, authorities have been forced to issue a ban on water activities and close part of the park as the water runs dry. Temporary bans have been in place before in the Gorges, but never so early in the summer – another worrying sign as forecasters warn that the climate crisis means that France will face an unusually hot and dry summer with a high risk of drought and wildfires.

Wildfires already broke out earlier this week, while fires in the south of the country are not unusual during the summer months, this was another exceptionally early event. 

We discuss all aspects of the summer ahead in our latest episode of the Talking France podcast.

Women’s rights

You might have suddenly started seeing this lady’s face everywhere in France over the past week. 

If you don’t recognise her, this is Simone Veil, the politician behind the ‘Loi Veil’ which made abortion legal in France in 1975.

Her picture has been widely circulated as people shared their shock and anger at the decision of the US Supreme Court. In addition to many politicians, including president Emmanuel Macron, condemning the US decision to bar access to abortion for many millions of women, there are also proposals to enshrine the right to abortion in France’s constitution.

Changing the constitution is a complicated process, but it’s not impossible – 24 changes have been made since France introduced its current constitution in 1958 and France has had a total of 15 constitutions since the French Revolution, reflecting the many, many changes seen in society since the days when wearing a wig made of horse-hair was the height of fashion.

But while the right to abortion may become a constitutional right, abortion laws in France are more restrictive than several other European countries, with time limits meaning many French women need to travel to other EU countries to terminate a pregnancy.

In other feminism news, France this week elected the first female president of the Assemblée nationale, a mere 78 years since women were first given the vote. 

Sports fun

And I had a great night at the Stade de France last weekend, watching the final of France’s Top 14 rugby tournament. The 2020 final was cancelled and the 2021 played before a very limited crowd, so I and the other 79,000 spectators were thrilled to be back.

Also at the match was Emmanuel Macron, who spent such a long time on his pre-game, on-pitch chat to the players that kick-off was delayed by almost 15 minutes – there’s a time and a place for lengthy gossip sessions, Manu.

The Top 14 trophy is the enormous Bouclier de Brennus, surely one of the biggest sports shields in the world, and there’s a grand tradition of the winning team taking it on tour with them, surfing on it etc. Below is Guilhem Guirado, the captain of winning team Montpellier, having a little sleep next to the trophy after what was clearly a big weekend.

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: French lose the plot, sports stars speak out and Paris prices fall

From the latest on the increasingly crazy French elections to the powers of a president, the influence of sports stars and the lustre of the Olympics, our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week.

Published: 22 June 2024 10:54 CEST
Inside France: French lose the plot, sports stars speak out and Paris prices fall

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.

Losing the plot?

Welcome to another crazy week in French politics – I’m not saying that this election is getting to me, but the other night I dreamed I was having an argument with far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon. I think I need a holiday.

France might need a holiday too – the political discourse is getting increasingly wild, leading to our columnist John Lichfield to declare that the country has “taken leave of its senses”. 

Latest polling suggests that Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National party would take the biggest vote share at 33 percent, followed by the increasingly fragile leftist coalition Nouveau Front Populaire with 29 percent and then Emmanuel Macron’s centrist group with 22 percent. Those figures would give none of the blocks an overall majority, instead leading to a total parliamentary deadlock.

French election breakdown: All the latest from the campaign trail

Earlier this week ‘Article 16 of the constitution’ was trending on French Twitter; this is the one that lays out the powers afforded to the president versus the prime minister, as people tried to work out what – if any – decisions Macron would be able to take in the final three years of his mandate.

READ ALSO: What does a French prime minister actually do

The satirical magazine Le Canard Enchâiné perhaps sums it up best in its cartoon, showing a man about to shoot himself in the head with a gun labelled ‘Rassemblement National’ and saying “We never tried this before”.

The Canard Enchainé’s cartoon as posted on Instagram

Sports stars engaged

On a more positive note, it’s been nice to see France’s biggest sports stars use their platforms to encourage people to vote, and speaking out against hatred and intolerance and in favour of diversity and inclusion.

I could not disagree more with the Spain goalkeeper Unai Simon, who criticised Kylian Mbappé’s call for people to vote against the far right, saying that footballers should “leave politics to other people”.

The whole point of living in a democracy is that politics belongs to everybody. As Mbappé said: “The Euros are very important in our careers, but first and foremost we are citizens and I don’t think we can be disconnected from the world around us.”

And I admit I’m biased about this – I’ve been a fan ever since I saw him make his professional debut at the age of 18 in my then-hometown of Castres – but I was also pleased to see French rugby legend Antoine Dupont taking a stand on another social issue, appearing on the front cover of LGBTQ magazine Têtu to decry homophobia (although the cover photo did rather make him look like he had forgotten his shades and was squinting into bright sunlight).

Talking France

We of course discuss all the election latest with John Lichfield in the latest episode of the Talking France podcast – and in what was perhaps linked to my need for a holiday we’re also discussing places to visit in France this summer.

Amid warnings of over-tourism we’re taking a look at the places predicted to be most crowded this summer – and suggesting some alternatives. Listen here or on the link below.

Fun and Games

It was thought that people might avoid Paris this summer – but the combination of good deals on the Olympic ticket resale site plus travel and accommodation costs dropping back to seasonal norms has seen a flurry of people booking a last-minute trip to the Games.

Personally I always thought the ‘everyone fleeing the capital’ narrative was a little over-played, but it’s been interesting to see that attempted price-gouging has also largely failed – at the start of the year there were Airbnb listings for frankly insane prices (I saw one that was €7,000 for two weeks), while now costs are largely at the summer average.

Paris travel deals to take advantage of as prices fall ahead of Olympics

Wrestling 

If you’re a Games fan I highly recommend the temporary exhibition at Paris’ Musée de l’histoire de l’immigration (a strong contender for the capital’s best museum, in my opinion) on the history of Olympics and their politics.

It also includes this statue which we’re told depicts ‘wrestling’ at the Olympics in antiquity. If you say so . . .

Photo: The Local

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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