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FRENCH LANGUAGE

Museum of the French language to open in northern France

The first cultural venue entirely dedicated to the French language will open on November 1st - here's what you can expect.

Published: 23 October 2023 17:14 CEST
Museum of the French language to open in northern France
The "lexical sky" of the courtyard of the Jeu de paume at Cite Internationale de la Langue Française (Photo by FRANCOIS NASCIMBENI / AFP)

France will soon open the doors to the brand new ‘Cité Internationale de la Langue Française’ located at the Château de Villers-Cotterêts in northern France – between Paris and Reims. 

The Château is of symbolic importance to the French language, as it is where the French king François I signed an important edict establishing French – not Latin – as the administrative language for the kingdom in 1539.

Originally intended to open in mid-October, with French President Emmanuel Macron in attendance, the inauguration of the museum was delayed following the Islamist-inspired killing of a French school teacher in northern France.

The new opening is now scheduled for Wednesday, November 1st, following a €185 million revamp of the historic building.

What’s in the museum? 

In the first permanent exhibit, visitors will be able to experience ‘L’aventure du français’ (The adventure of French), which will explore the ups and downs of the language, its history and evolution, how and where it is used today, as well as expressions and iconic songs that have shaped it.

An employee stands near an exhibit at the Cite Internationale de la Langue Française (International French Language Centre) in mid-October, prior to opening. (Photo by FRANCOIS NASCIMBENI / AFP)

The museum will offer 15 rooms, with over 150 items on display, including works of art, historic documents, as well as over 50 visual and sound exhibits, RTL’s culture journalist, Bernard Lehut, wrote.

The museum has also transformed the former courtyard of the Jeu de Paume into ‘a lexical sky’, with 90 words with giant letters suspended from a glass roof. 

Future exhibits planned for 2024 include one on French-language songs that have become world-wide hits.

The symbolic nature of the Château

The Château was a favourite of King François I, who enjoyed hunting in the nearby Retz forest and over the years has witnessed many milestones of the French language – the poet François Rabelais stayed there, Molière presented his play ‘Tartuffe’, and the novelist Alexandre Dumas was born in the town of Villers-Cotterêts. 

The castle went on to become a barracks for the Republican army during the Revolution in 1789, and from 1808 a workhouse where beggars were confined before becoming a retirement home in 1889. It remained an EHPAD until 2014. 

The French government already has big plans for the site – it is due to host the Francophonie Summit, which will be held in France in autumn 2024, according to Le Figaro, citing the Elysée Palace.

France is notoriously protective of its language with laws specifying limits on the amount of non-French songs that can be played on the radio and banning English words or phrases in adverts, unless accompanied by a translation. 

Practical details

Guests will have the option of self-guided tours, with “all tour content available in French, English and German”.

A free mobile app will also allow foreign visitors to have content translated into either Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, or Dutch. You can download the app here.

The hours of operation will be Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6:30pm. The standard rate for tickets for adults will be €9. Entrance will be free for EU citizens under 26 years of age, with discounts for pensioners, job-seekers and children. 

The Chateau is accessible by car (off the A2) or by train, a roughly 10 minute walk from the Villers-Cotterêts station. The TER train takes around 45 minutes from Paris Gare du Nord.

Find more details on the museum’s website here.

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PROPERTY

French politicians agree on tighter Airbnb rules

The property rental platform Airbnb is the target of a new French law tightening conditions of use.

Published: 22 May 2024 11:40 CEST
French politicians agree on tighter Airbnb rules

France already imposes several restrictions on people who want to rent out their property via the holiday letting platform Airbnb, but new legislation making its way through the French parliament is set to tighten the rules further.

Across Europe, the platform is often blamed for housing shortages in tourist hotspots – with local leaders saying that locals are priced out of the market because landlords can make a bigger profit renting out property to tourists, with cities including Barcelona and Paris bringing in stricter controls.

Although France already imposes controls at both a national and a local level, a new law is now being debated which would, among other things, close tax loopholes for landlords.

The bill, proposed by MPs from Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party and the centre-left Parti Socialiste, has already been approved in the Assemblée nationale and is now being debated in the Senate. Senators are also broadly in favour but have added some amendments – that means the bill will have to go back to the Assemblée but with the overall agreement of politicians in both chambers it seems likely that the bill will be passed in something similar to its current form.

Tax loopholes

The biggest change in the bill will be closing a ‘tax loophole’ that makes it advantageous for landlords to rent out properties as a holiday rental.

Tax on income from property rentals is currently charged at a variable rate depending on whether the property is rented furnished or unfurnished and as a long-term rental or a short-term holiday let.

Politicians say that the current rates mean that landlords are rewarded with lower tax rates for letting on Airbnb, and want to change the tax system to incentivise landlords to let long-term to tenants who will live there (in France, most long-term rentals are unfurnished).

The exact tax rates are the subject of amendments between the two different houses of parliament, but it seems likely that the tax rates will change.

Communist senator Ian Brossat denounced “an absurdity which means that a landlord pays more tax if he rents his property year-round to a worker than if he rents his property to tourists”.

Local restrictions

At present most of the strictest restrictions on Airbnb rentals are at a local level – for example, the city of Paris has a total ban on second-homes being advertised on Airbnb, while people renting out their main residence are limited to 120 days per year.

Meanwhile, in Pyrenees-Atlantique, one commune is bringing in rules that require anyone letting a property full-time on Airbnb to show that they are also letting at least one property to a long-term tenant. 

Numerous other local authorities, mostly in touristy areas, have their own restrictions on rentals via the platform.

In many areas you are required to register with the mairie if you want to let out your property.

The bill aims at strengthening powers for local authorities to impose Airbnb restrictions, although the Senate rejected a proposal to further lower the limit for temporary rentals to 90 days per year. 

Tax declarations

Although tax rates may change, the bill does not change the current rules on declaring Airbnb income. Anyone who rents out a French property on Airbnb for even one day a year must declare the income to French tax authorities – even if they do not live in France.

READ ALSO What you need to know about renting out your French property on Airbnb

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