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INSIDE FRANCE

Inside France: Beer scandal, climate summit and naked tourism

From naked tourism to climate summits, via the 'scandal' of the presidential beer, our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week.

Published: 24 June 2023 08:30 CEST
Inside France: Beer scandal, climate summit and naked tourism
Photo by GEORGES GOBET / 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.

Down-in-one

This week began with perhaps the stupidest ‘scandal’ I’ve seen in France so far – furious criticism of president Emmanuel Macron for downing a bottle of beer with the Toulouse rugby team as they celebrated their crowning as French domestic champions. 

From being accused of promoting binge drinking to labelled as an ‘example of toxic masculinity’, this brief clip created quite a storm.

Surely there are many more genuine criticisms that one can make of Macron?

Climate

On a considerably more serious note, Paris is this week hosting a finance summit, which sounds dull but could end up being extremely important in tackling the climate crisis.

It’s a joint initiative between Macron and Barbados prime minister Mia Mottley and it looks at how countries in the global south can access the funds required to make the necessary changes to reduce emission levels, while also tackling the after-effects of climate-related catastrophes such as floods, droughts and landslides, which disproportionately affect poorer countries. 

It’s likely that there won’t be any big announcements immediately, but it’s the start of Mottley’s ‘Bridgetown Initiative’ to look at tackling the global catastrophe that is climate change on a global financial level. 

Body parts

I fell down something or a research rabbit hole while preparing this week’s podcast, when the question ‘are people actually buried in the Panthéon in Paris?’ turned out to have an unexpectedly complicated – and gory – answer.

As well as talking random body parts, we’re also discussing the real problems of rural France, off-the-beaten-track tourist spots, why France is so popular with naturists and recommending some books to help understand France and the French. Listen here or on the link below.

READ ALSO Naturism: Why France is the best country to get naked

The history of us

And if you’re anywhere near Paris, I really recommend the Musée de l’histoire de l’Immigration at Porte Dorée, which reopened last weekend after a three-year refurbishment.

It’s absolutely packed with fascinating stuff on the long history of migration to France, and also includes a playlist of pop music by immigrants in France – going right from Louis Armstrong and Josephine Baker up to the present day, which I’ve been enjoying listening to on my commute this week. 

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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