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INSIDE FRANCE

Inside France: Energy crisis, the next holidays and chocolatines

In the week that France went back to work, our newsletter Inside France takes a look at energy rationing, climate plans, wine sales, cross-Channel chat and dodgy French jokes about pastries.

Published: 3 September 2022 10:21 CEST
Inside France: Energy crisis, the next holidays and chocolatines
France went back to work and school this week. Photo by LOIC VENANCE / 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.

Happy returns

France is now back at work after the summer break – shops have reopened, offices are fully staffed and the kids are heading back to school (staggering slightly under the weight of all that stationery the French government insists that parents buy).

Loving the vibes from broadcaster BFMTV, which is literally counting the days until the next holiday.

Sober start

The government has also gone back to work, with sobriété energétique (energy sobriety) the main focus – in other words how France can cut its energy use to get through a winter without Russian gas, and in the longer term tackle the climate crisis.

We don’t know the exact details of the plan yet, but Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne started the week with a speech to business leaders, in which she outlined how businesses will be expected to have their ‘sobriety plans’ – detailing how they will cut their energy use – ready for October 1st.

Although the fuel shortage following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is the immediate crisis – and householders have been reassured that there will be no power cuts this winter – the plan also looks to the future and the increasingly obvious need for all countries to cut their emissions to tackle the climate crisis.

Borne began her speech with a simple outline of the summer we have just had – record-breaking heatwaves, the worst drought in 60 years, raging wildfires and fatal storms – to underline the necessity for action. 

Exemplary Britain

It’s always exciting when your country is held up as an international example, right? Unfortunately for Brits, the UK is now being used in France as an example of what governments should not do in relation to the energy crisis, with politicians including government spokesman Olivier Véran reassuring the French that “what is happening in the UK [with soaring energy bills] will not happen in France”.

Wine

Other than la rentrée, the other thing that happens every September in France is both the wine harvest and the Foire aux vins – this is essentially a sale when retailers including supermarkets clear out their shelves ready for the new wines, and it’s a great place to grab a bargain, or maybe to get a deal on some wines that are normally out of your price bracket. 

The sex files

You might have heard the stories about Donald Trump having ‘secret intelligence’ on Emmanuel Macron’s sex life? Given that the only evidence that this exists is the word of notorious liar Trump we’re probably not going to dignify that with too much analysis, other than to flag up this seemingly quite relevant scene from one of our favourite French TV shows Au Service de la France (available on Netflix).

Podcast

For fans of our Talking France podcast there is some good news – it’s back from its summer break. We’re working on a new episode that will be out next week, and in the meantime you can catch up with old episodes HERE.

Blague de papa

And let’s finish with a terrible French joke, courtesy of the national police’s airborne unit.

“Did you know? At breakfast for the gendarmerie there is an exactly equal number of pain au chocolat and chocolatine, so as not to offend early morning sensibilities” – the joke being, of course, that a pain au chocolat and a chocolatine is exactly the same thing.

What you call the delicious chocolatey breakfast pastry, however, is the subject of fierce regional debate. 

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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