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INSIDE FRANCE

Inside France: Sextapes, lunch, mayors and a Frenchmen problem

From sextape scandals and problems with women via French mayors and predictions of a new Revolution, our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week.

Published: 15 April 2023 14:19 CEST
Inside France: Sextapes, lunch, mayors and a Frenchmen problem
Villagers of Lavare reenact the Storming of the Bastille. Photo by JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER / 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.

Sex and lunch

There have been two scandals involving French mayors that have hit the headlines this week – one involving a sextape and the other involving lunch. I honestly cannot decide which of these two is more stereotypically French, but their prominence in the headlines does attest to the importance of the role of the the mayor in France.

One of the oldest roles in the country (dating from the years immediately after the revolution) their role ranges from city mayors who handle multi-billion euro budgets and a staff of thousands to village mayors who have a more hands-on role. Stories from village-dwellers in France include the mayor turning up with a chainsaw to clear a fallen tree from the road and taking part in animal rescues.

Talking France

We’re sharing stories of French mayors on this week’s Talking France, as well as addressing that crunch Constitutional Council ruling on pension reform, the €150 million tree-planting scheme in south-west France, French town nicknames and what you need to know about this year’s tax declarations. Listen here or on the link below.

Man problem

An MP from the far-left La France Insoumise party returned to parliament this week, after a very short suspension after he was convicted of assaulting his wife. Party leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has been widely criticised for appearing to minimise the seriousness of the conviction and praising his MP’s “courageous” decision to stand down from a senior role within the party.

This brings back memories of Emmanuel Macron who, when criticised for appointing as his Interior Minister (the nominal head of the police force) a man who was at the time the subject of a rape investigation, responded that he had spoke to Gérald Darmanin “man to man” about the incident and was satisfied with his explanation. Darmanin was later cleared.

If we include Rassemblement National leader Marine Le Pen, who has always been extremely reluctant to say whether she supports a woman’s right to abortion (and consistently has urgent other business whenever there is a vote in parliament on the issue), that’s the leaders of France’s three largest parties (commanding 70 percent of the vote between them) who all appear to not really get it when it comes to women’s rights. 

Banner of the week 

I think two under-rated guides to understanding French life and politics are graffiti and protest signs.

They’re often funny as well as topical – frequently seen in Paris right now is “16-64 est une bière, pas une carrière”  – 16-64 is a beer [Kronenbourg 1664] not a working life.

But I love the sheer bonkers complexity of the below sign, predicting a new French Revolution on the basis that 64 (the proposed new retirement age) minus 49.3 (the Article of the constitution used to force the legislation through) equals 14.7, or July 14th, the date of the storming of the Bastille. Who knew!

Life inspo of the week

Let’s all get on board with this rather lovely priority list of things that people in France apparently want to do more of. Now, it may be that you don’t actually need to retire to do some (or all) of these, but really, who couldn’t do with a little more of each in their life?

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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