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.

Eating champions

Everyone loves topping a league table – and I’ve especially enjoyed the reaction to this OECD one, which reveals that the French are global winners when it comes to time spent eating and drinking – spending double the amount of time at the table as the poor old Americans down in last place.

On est là ! 🇫🇷 https://t.co/dxqgWSnbmO

— GRZ (@GuillaumeRozier) August 31, 2023

It probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone who has spent time here that meals are prioritised in France – it’s common for workers to take at least an hour break for lunch, sometimes two, and there’s virtually no culture of snatching a sandwich as you work (in fact, eating at your desk is technically illegal).

This is also reflected in one of the things that visitors to France frequently complain about – slow service in restaurants. Yes, service in France is slow, but that’s intentional. The idea is that you relax and take your time, enjoying the experience of a good meal with friends or family – it’s not a competition to bolt your food and get out as quickly as possible. 

Mountain summer

An alarming new report in the journal Nature Climate Change predicts that 90 percent of European ski resorts will face a critical shortage of snow in the years to come, due to ever-warming temperatures.

This is already happening in many of France’s lower-altitude resorts and there’s a push towards making areas like the Alps and the Pyrenees year-round destinations, so that tourism revenue no longer relies on snow.

Having just returned from a weekend in the mountains in Savoie, close to the historic spa town of Aix-les-Bains, I can confirm that summer tourism in the Alps is certainly no hardship (even if the noise of the cowbells distracted me from my book and forced me to open a bottle of local wine instead). 

Summer tourism in French Alps 😎 pic.twitter.com/Ss6ARiE60C

— Emma Pearson (@LocalFR_Emma) August 26, 2023

Ticket to fly

Talking of environmental issues, France’s transport minister Clément Beaune (a man who knows how to grab a headline) has called for an EU-wide minimum price on plane tickets, saying that €10 flights ‘are no longer possible’ during a climate crisis.

Like anything involving the EU, this will not be a quick or simple process, but it follows a consistent line from France which has already limited domestic flights and plans to increase the tax on plane tickets in the 2024 budget.

Factcheck: Is France really banning cheap flights?

Residents in France are of course fortunate to have a great train network as an alternative – apart from the environmental considerations, going by train really makes the journey part of the holiday, rather than something to be endured as you cram yourself like a pretzel into a Ryanair seat and contemplate whether to pay €7 for a glass of dodgy wine. 

French TV recommendation

If you haven’t already seen it, I really cannot recommend highly enough the French series Le Bureau des Légendes. A Canal Plus production, it’s only available via the pay-TV channel or on DVD but I was lucky enough to get the box set for my birthday.

I finally finished it this week and I’m still processing just how stunningly good it is – smart, sexy, emotional, intelligent and with plot twists galore.

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.