France

It is time to make friends with the EU

20 February 2021 9:00 am

On Monday morning, Clément Beaune, Emmanuel Macron’s Europe Minister, clipped out the section of his media interview criticising Britain’s vaccination…

My French lessons with Lord Nelson

20 February 2021 9:00 am

Every Friday afternoon the foreign correspondent and I attend a French lady’s home for our one-hour French lesson. The foreign…

Macron is using Islam to outmanoeuvre Le Pen

17 February 2021 6:00 pm

There was a rally in Paris on Sunday at which a couple of hundred protestors vented their anger at the…

The rise of Florian Philippot, France’s answer to Nigel Farage

13 February 2021 12:05 am

These are dispiriting times for France. The 6pm curfew and the closure of bistros and theatres have taken all the…

Macron eyes up a new career

11 February 2021 9:10 am

How is France dealing with its latest Covid wave? Not particularly well, if you listen to the director of epidemiological research…

In praise of the bacon butty

6 February 2021 9:00 am

I was tipped off to meet a white Hyundai at a French motorway toll rest area at 2.30 p.m. (I…

#MeTooInceste: has France’s code of silence finally been broken?

30 January 2021 9:00 am

The sex abuse scandal rocking the French elite

How Argentina conquered Malbec

30 January 2021 9:00 am

When Napoleon III proclaimed himself Emperor of France in 1852, he unwittingly kickstarted quality wine production in Chile and Argentina.…

My message to the log police

23 January 2021 9:00 am

Here, as in Britain, everyone is a log expert. The woodman leaves a heap at the bottom of the drive…

France's Covid response is a source of national shame

16 January 2021 6:15 pm

France is the only permanent member of the UN Security Council not to have developed a coronavirus vaccine, and it…

Orban and Macron, Europe’s new power couple

16 January 2021 9:00 am

The unlikely alliance of Orban and Macron

My future hangs on the result of this blood test

16 January 2021 9:00 am

A new year and another round of medical treatments in the French health system. On Saturday morning, needing a blood…

In praise of nuns

9 January 2021 9:00 am

Although I was ten minutes early, Vernon was there ahead of me, framed in the ancient chapel doorway, chatting up…

Macron’s vaccine ‘citizen panel’ is doomed to fail

8 January 2021 2:15 am

France has a problem when it comes to the coronavirus vaccine. Emmanuel Macron’s administration has so far only given out…

Brexit causes food shortages – in France

6 January 2021 4:14 am

Since leaving the EU on 31 December, Britain seems to have somehow avoided the apocalyptic scenarios outlined by those most…

Emmanuel Macron’s great Brexit gamble

15 December 2020 1:13 am

There is an intriguing pattern in our relationship with European integration. A Frenchman vetoed our attempt to join. A Frenchman…

What French women want

12 December 2020 9:00 am

Considering the subject of compatibility, experienced British expats in France maintain that a French man and an English woman might…

I found a confused elderly man in my bedroom

5 December 2020 9:00 am

There are several cave houses built into the cliff. Ours is the highest and can be reached only by a…

France would be foolish to veto a Brexit deal

5 December 2020 1:43 am

Britain and France are heading for an almighty bust-up over Brexit. This morning the French junior minister for European affairs,…

france american progressives

French republicanism confounds American progressives

29 November 2020 12:42 am

Can an entire country sue for libel? If so, France would have a strong suit against swathes of the American…

‘Bonjour, monsieur! Douleur?’: My night in a French hospital

28 November 2020 9:00 am

I regained consciousness on a trolley in a recovery ward. A masked porter wheeled me from there back to my…

My neighbour’s dinner party was a near-death experience

21 November 2020 9:00 am

At dawn, starving, I drove to a commercial laboratory in the town centre where five phials of blood were taken…

I was the only Trump supporter among the olive-pickers

14 November 2020 9:00 am

We bums find ourselves sought after at this time of year to lend a hand with the olive harvest. So…

Macron alone: where are France’s allies in the fight against Islamism?

14 November 2020 9:00 am

Where is the support for his fight against Islamism?

Churches are more Covid-secure than trains or takeaways

7 November 2020 9:00 am

Monday night’s murderous gunman in Vienna is officially described as ‘Islamist’. Brahim Aioussaoi, the man accused of murdering worshippers in…