Neat juxtaposition of headlines showing the 2 sides of Brigitte Bardot - a lot of campaigning for animal rights and a well-documented history of far-right views

It's time . . . for the Big French Quiz of the Year! I think this year's is quite hard 🤓

Profile: The Frenchman who took on tech giants and was banned from the USA

Thierry Breton is a law-abiding man who, via his job at the European Commission, was working on a tech regulation plan that Elon Musk didn't like. He is now banned from 🇺🇸. 'Un vent de McCarthyism' indeed www.leparisien.fr/internationa... - via Le Parisien

This is one of my favourite French words, it's got so much cultural baggage and mild suspicion of 'the anglo saxons'

Special podcast episode - what to expect in France in 2026 🇫🇷 Immigration changes (language tests, civics exam) 🇫🇷 Travel changes (new flights, sleeper trains, EES/ETIAS) 🇫🇷 Politics changes (er, frankly who the fuck can predict?!)

Me on this week in France

Happy last Friday before Christmas 🌲🎁🎅

France is a legally secular country, but on the other hand Christmas is popular and fun. The State therefore defines Christmas as 'secular' - having your cake and eating it? Or practical compromise for the 21st century?

Fantastic review of Nicolas Sarkoy's toe-curlingly awful 'prison diaries' observer.co.uk/news/interna...

New podcast! 🇫🇷 What are farmer protests all about and will they continue? 🇫🇷 The best and worst bits of 2025 in France, plus our French Word of the Year

France's largest farming union threatens more protests over EU treaty

🇫🇷🎄 book list Memoir of a man who staged the coolest Olympics ever? Or memoir of a self-aggrandising little weasel who spent 20 days in jail after being correctly convicted of corruption? Tough choice . . .

One for 🇫🇷 language nerds - a whole cartoon illustrating how hard it is to translate Brigitte's 'sale connes'. In English we mostly translated it as 'stupid bitches', but the cartoon illustrates how it can also mean idiot as she says 'Sorry you misunderstood me . . . because you're idiots'

Here's the latest on the farm protests for those who have travel plans this weekend

Roadblocks continue today, especially in south west France. Livestock breeder Cedric Baron, near Toulouse, said: "Leaving the motorway is out of the question. "We've put up Christmas trees and we're ready to celebrate."

Amazing detail; Shane McGowan was apparently staying at the Hotel Temperance in Malmö when he wrote Fairytale of New York - a ballad of extremely problematic alcohol consumption, and the best Christmas song ever (fact)

It's a rare politician these days who stands up for making the lives of immigrants easier, so let's hear it for Parti Socialiste's Colette Capdevielle. Her bill (sadly doomed to fail) combines compassion with practicality, since 99% of renewal applications for long-term CdS are already granted

No-one is denying that 🇫🇷 has had some issues in 2025. But from jailing dodgy politicians to Brets crisp flavours, there is still so much to love

Street art, but make it philosophy too

Is 'faire le pont' important in 🇫🇷 culture, you ask?

New podcast episode 🇫🇷 Why the Interior minister is mad about a board game 🇫🇷 Why dual nationals are back on the political agenda 🇫🇷 And what next for the PM after his budget 'win'?

This 🇫🇷 Christmas advert for the Intermarché supermarket is so charming and also pokes gentle fun at the French image as a nation of voracious carnivores . . . Made by a Montpellier-based animation studio

Breaking: French prime minister wins first budget battle as MPs adopt social security bill

From 'sale conne' to 'emmerder' the Macrons sure do like to pose translation problems for us poor anglophone journalists

I am brimming with holiday spirit

This policy is obviously nonsense, but in course of a wildly pointless conversation with the Home Office this year I found out that many people simply cannot conceive of the idea that people born British might subsequently gain another nationality and therefore be a dual-national

Calendrier de l'Avent des luttes féministes pour les droits des femmes et l'égalité femmes-hommes dans un joyeux désordre J1 : manifestation des suffragettes de la Femme nouvelle, qui multiplièrent les actions entre 1935 et 1936 (manifestations, fausses élections, lâcher de ballons, charivaris)

What a lovely tribute to the British photographer Martin Parr, who died over the weekend

One year ago I was writing this . . . this week we have another make-or-break week in 🇫🇷 parliament with a key vote over the budget. Déja vù all over again! www.thelocal.fr/20251208/fre...

Fascinating piece on the bizarre 🇫🇷 insistence on referring to the English-speaking world as 'Anglo Saxons'

A crisis of legitimacy, a questionable commitment to political neutrality, performances of varying quality, a random assortment of nations and an opaque voting process... it’s not the World Cup draw – it’s the Eurovision Song Contest. Me for this week's Observer: observer.co.uk/news/interna...

it might seem surprising that the people who said “look, let trans people live their lives, but i have Reasonable Concerns about sports and toilets” aren’t up in arms about this, but what you have to remember is that those people who said that are liars who were lying

Can't really explain why but the social media account pretending to be the British prime minister's cat doing the 12 Days of Christmas is my favourite annual festive tradition 🌲🤶🌟

Leaving this on a colleague's desk - so they get excited that there are biscuits and then realise that it's just an empty box - should be a matter for The Hague

Sounds like this would be difficult to legally enforce - but an interesting idea to tackle the very real problem of Parisians not being able to live in their own city because so many apartments are now second homes or tourist rentals . .

Forget Spotify Wrapped, today it's all about SNCF's 🇫🇷 train 'rétrainspective' 🚂 (and it doesn't make impertinent comments about your age)

Here's the new podcast episode . . . 🇫🇷 How gender equal is French society? 🇫🇷 Why one French mayor has created a 'street of silence' 🇫🇷 Why Jordan Bardella is washing flour and eggs out of his hair . . .

Actually addressing the long-standing problem of racist behaviour from some (not all) 🇫🇷 police officers? ❌ Complaining about a board game that features the character 'racist cop'? ✅

Paris mayor candidate Rachida Dati's campaign is the 'Wish version of Zohran Mamdani' - brutal! But also true, and shows how hard it is to create a campaign like his that connects and appears authentic

Newsletter #2 is out today. This week, the politics and psychology of the massive and gross road that encircles Paris, and why it's so hard to do anything about it millefeuilleparis.substack.com/p/should-we-...

Is 🇫🇷 rugby excited about the return of Antoine Dupont? Somewhat! (Not sure how the people of Toulouse feel about being depicted as some sort of Medieval peasants)

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Want to come and work at The Local? You'll be forced to pay attention to whatever the fuck is going on in 🇫🇷 politics, but other than that the job is a lot of fun - writing articles on a huge range of French subjects and being on Talking France podcast Paris-based, CDI, details 👇 #journojobs

Sorry Louis, I have a verruca and a note from my mum

Yes, 😴 Part of a long-running series that parodies the racist Great Replacement Theory by suggesting other things or people that could be replaced

The 🇫🇷 revival of the Orient Express by, among others, an Art Deco master craftsman looks *incredible*. I really, really want to go on it (Suspect tickets will be sell-a-kidney expensive)

Chilly day, but the sisterhood keeps you warm! At the Paris march for the day of the elimination of violence against women

France's new survival guide opens: "Every day, you witness a world in crisis - accelerating events, extreme weather, pandemics, wars in Europe and the Middle East, trade tensions, energy crisis, etc" Er, thanks, I guess?