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INSIDE FRANCE

Inside France: Sexy films, protest blues and a British bromance

From a Frenchman's right to protest to rekindling the flame of the Franco-British relationship, via singing, birthdays and dodgy film titles, our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week.

Published: 11 March 2023 14:43 CET
Inside France: Sexy films, protest blues and a British bromance
This week we're all about rekindling romances when it comes to international relations. Photo by ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / 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.

British bromance

There were a lot of serious topics discussed at the meeting between Emmanuel Macron and Rishi Sunak on Friday, but for much of the French media this was about a chance to go back to normal relations between neighbours and historic allies after the chaotic and tense relationship during the Boris Johnson years and the Liz Truss weeks.

I particularly enjoyed the front page of leftwing daily Libération ahead of the visit. My gran had some very similar souvenir mugs from the weddings of Prince Charles and Diana and Prince Andrew and Sarah back in the 1980s – I hope that’s not a bad omen for the Macron-Sunak relationship

Protest

I’m afraid I had to laugh this week when a Parisian told me, with a completely straight face, that: “Since Macron, no-one can protest in France any more or you will be shot in the back. It’s unfortunate but that’s the way it is.”

On Tuesday an estimated 1.2 million people protested against the pension reform, so I think that statement is not quite true (although there is certainly a serious conversation to be had about police violence in France).

The pension reform bill continues to make its way through the parliamentary process, coming back to the Assemblée nationale next week ahead of a final vote on March 26th. It’s widely expected that strikes will reach a crescendo over the next two weeks with official actions such as walk-outs on the railways and unofficial ones like the rogue Edf workers cutting off the power to towns that elected ministers who back the reforms. 

Song of the week

As the country of my birth takes on the country of my residence this weekend in the Six Nations rugby match known as Le Crunch, I’ll have the opportunity to hear La Marseillaise as it should be sung – bellowed by slightly drunk sports fans.

The French anthem is undoubtedly a cracking tune, so much so that I also heard it sung by groups of distinctly convivial farmers in the wine tent at the closing at France’s biggest farm show last weekend. Can’t quite imagine that happening with God Save the King . . .

Thread of the week

We’ve written about this before at The Local, but French versions of English-language film titles are often a bit . . . weird. Especially when it comes to sex, as the below thread demonstrates.

Although the urban myth that The Matrix films appeared in France as Les jeunes qui traversent des dimensions en portant des lunettes de soleil (young people who travel in dimensions while wearing sunglasses) is sadly not true. In France it was simply Matrix, while in Quebec it was La Matrice.

Puns, sex and urban legends: How French film titles are translated into English

Birthday cake

And the Talking France podcast is back with a special first birthday edition.

Yes, it’s one year since we said ‘Let’s launch a podcast to cover the presidential elections, we’ll probably just do it for a couple of months’. We’ve branched out since then from politics to cover all aspects of French news and life in France – this week’s episode covers; strikes (of course), drought, Olympics tickets, France’s privacy laws and 3 French islands you really should visit.

Listen here or on the link below.

And if you want to hear even more of me talking, this week I am a guest on the Navigating the French podcast, discussing perhaps the most French word of them all – la grève (strikes).

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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