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.

September blues

Although it’s still another two weeks before the schools go back, France’s ministers are back from holiday and the government is laying out its ideas for the year ahead.

Emmanuel Macron seems as full of plans as ever, judging by his pre-rentrée interview with Le Point. But having ideas is one thing – putting them into practice without an overall parliamentary majority in a country that appears increasingly divided and while your own ministers are jostling for position ahead of the 2027 election is quite another.

READ ALSO: 8 of the biggest problems facing Macron this September

Diet Coke break

Like many other people, I started off laughing at this video of an American influencer who brought an entire suitcase full of Diet Coke with her on holiday because “they don’t sell it in Europe”.

unreal pic.twitter.com/Jjs1PZVANr

— tony (@queersofbravo) August 20, 2023

But then I ended up down a research rabbit hole – is it true that Coke tastes different in the US and Europe? Are Diet Coke and Coke Light the same thing? And why do American bloggers confidently proclaim that Diet Coke is “banned by the EU”?

Is Diet Coke really banned in Europe?

The Local’s Genevieve Mansfield also put together this great piece about the most popular American misconceptions about France (yes, you can drink the tap water. Yes, we have ice and clothes dryers too. No, your apartment probably won’t have air-conditioning).

Liberation

Friday marked 79 years since the liberation of Paris – a chaotic and bloody time that began with a strike and ended in pitched battles in the street. It was followed by the brutal period known as the épuration sauvage – or summary justice when people suspected of collaboration with the Germans were beaten up, shot or – in the case of an estimated 20,000 women accused of ‘horizontal collaboration’ – publicly humiliated and had their heads shaved. 

Today Paris marks 79 years since its liberation from occupying Nazi forces. Here in the Eastern suburbs several areas were liberated earlier by local resistants. The plaque at Les Lilas mairie proudly declares that it was one of the first in the Paris area to fly the 🇫🇷 flag pic.twitter.com/hfwyZVDD7U

— Emma Pearson (@LocalFR_Emma) August 25, 2023

I always recommend that anyone interested is this period checks out the Musée de la Libération in Denfert-Rochereau, which tells the story of the occupation of Paris and its liberation, with a particular emphasis on what life was like for the ordinary residents of the city during this extraordinary time.

Legal LOLs

It’s not often that advice on inheritance provides a laugh, but many people made the same joke about this article in Le Figaro on how to disinherit your children – assuming that the journalist’s family holiday hadn’t gone exactly to plan.

Les vacances en famille se sont manifestement mal passées au Figaro. pic.twitter.com/9xC7IBjHtp

— Anthony Leroi (@anthonyleroi) August 21, 2023

Maybe I should say it’s more about minimising your children’s inheritance, as disinheriting your kids is practically impossible under French law, however much they might have annoyed you over the two-month summer break.

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.