France

News that you might have missed from around the continent, selected by Steve Anglesey.

News that you might have missed from around the continent, selected by Steve Anglesey.

The small spa resort in central France which gave its name to Marshal Petain’s pro-Nazi regime carries heavy historical baggage. As the town tries to reinvent itself once more, JOHN LICHFIELD paid it a visit.

More weird news from Europe, including a fake Kanye West gig in a field near Paris, a cow-riding German and the Austrian punk singer who vaccinates his own fans

Lionel Messi’s signing for PSG completes a glittering attacking line-up, but an ageing one, says TNE football writer ROB HUGHES

Bernard Arnault and François Pinault, two of France's richest men and the powers behind some of the world's most glamourous brands, fell out in a business dispute 20 years ago.

The continent's strangest news, including a colony of rabbits winning a court battle against the French military and an alleged fraudster with a gold toilet

The daughter of a Tiller Girl from Oldham, Jeanne Moreau came to be considered "the greatest actress in the world"

The film festival defies the pandemic with plenty of touching, flesh and sex

Jason Solomons returns to the Croisette with movie reviews of Annette, Cow,  The Worst Person In The World, Everything Went Fine, The Souvenir Part II, Jane by Charlotte and more So much for the return of glamour. My Cannes started by spitting into a plastic tube in a makeshift Covid testing centre. Due to political […]

Long before Kraftwerk plugged in their synthesizers, the epic bike race has been an inspiration for musicians, writes SOPHIA DEBOICK

CHARLIE CONNELLY on a new book which offers a many-layered commentary on modern France and explores the malevolence that can lurk deep within communities  Sometimes it’s the tiny details that really get to you. A passing mention, an aside, something that should seem practically irrelevant but, wham, hits you right in the heart. In Samira Sedira’s […]

It might have had five years to sink in, but for those with deep roots on the continent, the pain of Brexit still feels raw – particularly at this time of year Before the apocalypse, this was the time of year when thoughts turned to the great migration from northern Europe south for the summer. A feeling […]

Six months after his role as chief Brexit negotiator for the European Union came to an end, Michel Barnier has told Euronews that he would “prefer not to say” what he thought of UK negotiators.  The interview coincides with the Frenchman releasing a book, My Secret Brexit Diary: A Glorious Illusion, documenting the arduous 1600 […]

A new book and exhibition focuses on the emperor’s appetite for the paintings and sculptures of the lands he conquered.

Due to a low vaccination rate amongst healthcare staff, the government is embarking on plans to require those working in the healthcare sector to take the jab.  Concerns also arose after residents of a nursing home in the Landes region of France were infected with the Delta variant of Covid-19.  In this nursing home cluster, […]

While ministerial sins make headlines here, ‘father of the EU’ Robert Schuman is on the path to canonisation. The founding father of the European Union may soon be getting a halo. Robert Schuman was the Luxembourg-born French statesman who founded the Council of Europe and masterminded the post-war plan for a single European steel and coal authority. It […]

Françoise Hardy helped create French youth culture. Now, as she nears death, she is starting a new national debate about ageing and euthanasia Françoise Hardy’s son would like it to be known that his mother – a pillar and adornment of French pop music for almost 60 years – is still alive. A few days ago, Hardy, […]

Has Marine Le Pen changed her politics, or is it that France has shifted to the right? Respectable France is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, again. In less than a year the country could have a far-right government. The fear is not new. The Le Pen family –Jean Marie and then more his user-friendly […]

Marseille’s music is as self-assured as the city itself, says SOPHIA DEBOICK  Marseille is a proud and ambitious city. Founded by the Greeks around 600BC, France’s second city’s ancient origins have been no bar to striving for the modern, and it is known for its ground-breaking 20th and 21st century architecture. Le Corbusier’s revolutionary La […]

The anniversary of the Brexit referendum will barely register a ripple in Europe, where Britain was once seen as a place of dynamism, excitement and promise It is obviously a very subjective generalisation, but no European nation really cares that much about how they are being perceived by the rest of Europe. In the UK, […]

He was sitting on one of the iron-framed and wooden-bottomed chairs there are dotted about beneath the chestnut trees lining the Esplanade des Feuillants, and as I recall – although, I concede with such a brief encounter, my memory may well have embellished – he was tilted back on its rear legs. His then-wife and […]

French president Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen have both faced a crushing defeat in the nation’s regional elections. Their respective parties, Macron’s centrist La République en Marche (LREM) and Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN), secured fewer votes than hoped and instead saw incumbent conservatives surge ahead in the first round. An IPSOS […]

Parisians are angry at the state of their city, from the rubbish in the streets to unsightly cycling schemes and fears of crime. Long-term resident JOHN LICHFIELD asks what hope there is for perhaps the greatest city of all When I visited Paris for the first time in July 1964, aged 14, I was shocked. The […]

Victory for France in the Euros would give Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante the kind of trophy cabinet that even Messi and Ronaldo would envy Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are on opposite sides of the world preparing to lead their countries in tournaments that represent their last chance to win major honours. No-one of sound mind […]

Plans are being drawn up to replace English with French as the main “working language” of the EU during France’s presidency, with meetings and documents to become “French-first” next year.  The French are set to take over the Council of the European Union presidency in 2022, with France planning to use its first presidency since Brexit […]

The life of Rosa Bonheur, often considered the most famous female painter of the 19th century Rosa Bonheur might have been one of the greatest artists of the 19th century but you probably wouldn’t have wanted her living next door. Having moved from Bordeaux to Paris in the late 1820s when she was six years old, […]

Often seen as serious to the point of greyness, former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has surprised many with his incendiary comments on immigration. So what lies behind them? He seemed to be everything Brexiteers disliked about the EU. A serious-minded bureaucrat steeped in the smooth workings of Europe’s capitals and chancelleries and adept at relentlessly channelling the orthodoxies of […]

Britain finds itself on a collision course with France over fishing and access to the EU single market as forms and fees on UK visits to friends and family in France begin to bite It has been a gloomy week on the sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain as various Brexit chickens continue to come home […]

Dark threats about a looming civil war and a coup involving senior military figures have electrified France and made the race for the Élysée Palace all the more febrile. An intemperate and inaccurate open letter was published last month by 20 retired French generals and 100 other officers, some of them still serving. It was apocalyptic in tone. It […]

Michel Barnier has told a French broadcaster the country must suspend all non-EU immigration for up to five years, in what is being seen as a tilt at the French presidency. Barnier told public broadcaster France 2 that the EU’s external borders had become a “sieve”. “I think we have to take the time for three or five years […]

A round-up of some of the weirdest stories from Europe. Napoleon fans eager to mark the 200th anniversary of his death can now buy replicas of the emperor’s socks for 250 euros (£215). The idea is the work of Parisian clothing company Mes Chaussettes Rouges, who have based their designs on an antique pair of […]