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INSIDE FRANCE

Inside France: Storms, stationery and pigs named Napoleon

This week there's been a lot of weather chat, plus some political watching and the start of 'stationery season' - our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week.

Published: 20 August 2022 11:01 CEST
Inside France: Storms, stationery and pigs named Napoleon
Storms lashed France this week as the heatwave broke. Photo by Valery HACHE / 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.

In a development  guaranteed to make Brits feel at home, the whole of France has been talking about the weather this week, specifically rain.

Rain storms over the weekend were welcomed with joy when they broke another scorching heatwave and brought cooler, fresher air.

But as the week went on the storms got heavier, leading to flash flooding in cities including Paris and Marseille until, on Thursday, an extremely violent storm hit the island of Corsica, claiming six lives.

IN PICTURES Flash-flooding hits Paris

While storms along the Mediterranean coastline are normal as the temperatures fall and autumn arrives – they’re known as épisodes cévanol – weather experts predict that they will be unusually intense this year, due to the extremely high temperatures recorded over the Mediterranean this summer.

Macron return

After a few weeks holidaying in Fort Brégançon, Emmanuel Macron stepped back into the limelight on Friday with an official visit to the Riviera town of Bormes-les-Mimosas to attend the ceremony marking its liberation in 1944.

The trip down to the Riviera villa of Brégançon is traditional for French presidents, since the property has been the official ‘holiday home’ of the holder of the office since the 1960s.

In previous years Macron has combined beach time with hosting meetings or foreign leaders, but this year his entourage let it be known that he needed a break and would be spending a couple of weeks ‘studying’ – a sign perhaps that even the famously hyperactive Macron was exhausted after two years of pandemic, followed by war in Europe and back-to-back presidential and parliamentary elections.

Pencil time

Have you ever wondered why French schoolkids have those enormous bags? It’s because schools insist on a ridiculous amount of kit – 29 items are stationery alone are apparently required for the start of each school year.

Although the kids still have a couple of weeks of holiday left, this week the back-to-school allowance was paid out to parents and supermarkets began filling up with the dizzying array of pens, pencils and geometry kit for la rentrée.

Cake, pigs and Napoleon

And I’ve been greatly enjoying researching our French History Myths series, where we delve into some of the widely-touted ‘facts’ about French history – did Marie Antoinette really tell the poor to eat cake? Has it ever been illegal to name your pig Napoleon? And does the French army always surrender? Find the full series HERE. 

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: Political farce, far-right fears and sharks under Paris

This week in France has been heavily focused on politics due to the surprise election, from the soap opera and the memes of the right-wing parties to grumpy faces among the Macronists, plus some light relief in the form of the weird stuff underneath Paris.

Published: 15 June 2024 11:41 CEST
Inside France: Political farce, far-right fears and sharks under Paris

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.

Ciotti chuckles

Anyone who says that the French have no sense of humour has clearly not spent any time on French social media this week as the jokes and memes came thick and fast in response to the ridiculous election shenanigans of the once-mighty right-wing Les Républicains party.

You can find the full details here but to cut a long story short, party leader Eric Ciotti announced an election alliance with the far-right, his fellow party bigwigs were horrified and attempted to expel him, Ciotti locked himself inside the party HQ and refused to allow anyone in, leaders held their meeting elsewhere and voted to expel him from the party, Ciotti refused to accept their verdict and posted a video of him showing up at work as normal the following day, insisting he was still in charge.

The whole thing was a gift for anyone with a Twitter account and a sense of humour. 

Sense of humour

The whole idea that ‘the French aren’t funny’ is an oddly enduring trope. I think it’s to do with the fact that French humour is often highly referential, making it hard for foreigners to get if they don’t understand the references.

READ ALSO 5 tips for understanding French humour and jokes

Far right

Funny as the whole Ciotti episode was, it didn’t quite distract from the widespread horror in France at the prospect of a far-right government, and bafflement over Emmanuel Macron’s high-stakes election gamble.

His announcement on Sunday night of a snap election took the country and the media entirely by surprise and seemed to catch plenty of his own party members off guard too.

The election is a gamble – un pari – Macron is banking on the country to reject the far-right at the polls and hand his party back an absolute majority in parliament. This could happen, or Marine Le Pen’s party could win and Macron would then go down in history as the man who handed the keys of government to the far-right. Or – and most analysts think this is the most likely scenario – no party could win an absolute majority and the parliament could be plunged into an even more messy deadlock.

READ ALSO What do the snap elections mean for France?

One of the most outspoken critics has been Gabriel Attal, the 35-year-old prime minister often described as a Macron protege. This photo of him with a face like thunder has become another meme, embodying all those who think that this election is a very bad idea. 

Talking France

We of course talk about the elections in a special episode of the Talking France podcast – listen here. During the election period we will be releasing the podcast on Mondays, and we will also be doing a bi-weekly election breakdown for anyone who wants to stay in touch with the latest – sign up here.

Sharknado

And if you want something to help you switch off from all the politics, I highly recommend the new Netflix film Sous la Seine (Under Paris). Not because it’s good – it’s not, in fact it’s terrible but it’s so bad that it’s actually hilarious. 

One thing that you might write off as dramatic licence is the idea of an enormous underground lake beneath Paris – but this is actually true. In fact, there’s a lot weird shit under Paris . . .

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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