The French have discovered Count Binface . . . "En Grande-Bretagne, les partis et candidats parodiques font partie intégrante du paysage politique"

BREAKING: France's Le Pen handed one year with ankle tag, putting presidential run in doubt

Marine Le Pen can run in the presidential election next year, but must wear an electronic tag.

Big day for Marine Le Pen, and for France, as she learns the outcome of her appeal against her embezzlement conviction, and whether she will be able to stand in the 2027 election . . .

Looking forward to the 2028 Olympics with new disqualification offences of running faster/jumping higher/throwing further than an American

In a bar in Paris and bloke next to us heard us speaking English and asked 'are you American?' before launching into a Trump/Fifa rant . . Never been so happy to be British! This bar is now 100% Belgium

I think football already looks like this! As a rugby fan I find it very weird that footballers can't use their arms in tackles and I'm afraid that every time I watch it I think of Irish dancers . . 💁‍♀️

Opens on Saturday 🥳🏊‍♀️

This is the 'willies and wine' episode of the podcast . . . 🇫🇷 The best French wines to drink in the summer 🇫🇷 Why naturism is booming in France 🇫🇷 Understanding the French air conditioning debate, and why it's not really a US v Europe culture war

I'd love to meet the 🇫🇷 person who decided that a bat should be 'chauve-souris' (bald mouse). Which beautiful lunatic looked at this and thought 'Ah oui, the main difference between this and a mouse is that it's bald'?

Recent heatwave smashing records all over the shop . .

So the 2nd round of the 🇫🇷 presidential election will be Sunday, May 2nd. May 1st in France is traditionally a day of left-wing protests and marches. With the strong likelihood of a far-right candidate in the 2nd round of the election, something tells me that May 1st 2027 will be, er, lively . . .

Being informed in a meeting that 'I used Chat GPT to create a presentation' = instant nap time If you can't be bothered to write it, I can't be bothered to listen to it 😴

Great piece on the relentless physical toll that a heatwave takes (I can't even imagine trying to do this while pregnant)

People in the UK seem to be having conniptions at Andy Burnham's idea of giving more powers to local authorities and I feel I must point out that even France, which is a highly centralised state, gives a decent chunk of power to local mayors

Wonderful 2nd part of the street art exhibition We Are Here at the Petit Palais in Paris (Celebrating the first day in almost 2 weeks when it's cool enough to move with instantly feeling like you're going to melt or die)

On the incredible French diaspora playing in the World Cup, and the sporting bonuses to being an immigrant www.thelocal.fr/20260627/ins...

Looking back at a brutal week in France www.thelocal.fr/20260627/ins...

Socca and panisse are delicious, but I had no idea they were also part of such a fascinating story

Remember this? Well the bees were collected by a local beekeeper who is now selling 'Louvre swarm' souvenir honey from them. The taste is apparently very floral www.leparisien.fr/paris-75/un-...

Cute video doing the rounds of a man cooking a crêpe on the scorching roof of his Paris apartment . . . which I have proceeded to suck all the fun out of by pointing out that people in rooftop apartments are 4 times more likely to die during a heatwave, thanks to pretty but energy-inefficient zinc

Breaking - Paris to ban sale of alcohol from Friday as hospitals face 'saturation' in record-breaking heatwave.

The expression on the face of this dog who has been caught fare-dodging 🤣💔 (Or rather, her owner has. Yes, dogs need a ticket on French trains)

Here's the new Talking France; 🇫🇷 Why is France so under-prepared for the new reality of hellish heatwaves? 🇫🇷 Why are there so many French players (99 of them!) at the World Cup? 🇫🇷 Taxes, learning French and visas - the biggest worries about moving to France

10 years ago today I was in a bar in Barcelona being taunted by a bunch of French rugby fans from Toulon, who could not believe what a ridiculously stupid decision the UK had just made. Their team lost though, so there's that

So 25.5C was as cool as it got last night in Paris (at 6am) which is somewhat not conducive to sleep . . . By 9am it was already 30C and this afternoon its forecast to get up to 41C. And it's not even July yet!

Perfect analogy for the current state of 🇬🇧🇪🇺 relations

Today was the hottest average temperature ever recorded in France and tomorrow is forecast to be . . . even hotter 🥵

An American friend kindly texts me 'Thinking of you and a head of lettuce . . . See you've lost another prime minister' Never not fun being the laughing stock country! 🫣🤦‍♀️

My least popular opinion, which I maintain even as I slowly dissolve into a pool of rendered fat 🥵 "Living & working with AC makes us feel impervious to the warming planet. But we aren't, and if we ignore the heat then sooner or later even more catastrophic events will make that clear to us."

Reminds me that back in 2019 Nathalie Loiseau, 🇫🇷 Europe Minister at the time, joked that she had named her cat 'Brexit' for this reason . . .

If football today is deemed “inauthentic,” corrupted by the pursuit of profit, does there exist an “authentic” football, anti-capitalist and socially emancipatory? The question points toward a largely mythical past. #FrenchFootball @drfrancescobelc.bsky.social substack.com/home/post/p-...

I know it's only Monday, but this - from AFP's Valentine Chapuis - is surely the photo of the week from France? From a 'Medieval sword fighting meets MMA' event in Aveyron, southern France

Colleague talked me out of my working title which was 'When will it end, when, when, please for the love of gods, when will this fucking heatwave end?'

Fucking hell . . .

This is the best €10 I have ever spent . . . Also met a Spanish friend last night and she had the Spanish version (puto calor)

If you are watching the terrifying, burning heatwaves sweeping the continent and your only takeaway is 'Europe needs to get air conditioning' then you have missed the point by so many milllion light-years that I don't know what to say . . .

France will be at the epicenter of the most significant heat anomaly on the planet over the next few days. The sheer extent of the country that could experience temperatures above 40°C is nothing short of astonishing.

It's so hot in Paris that leopards are indigenous now 🥵

Yep. Two heatwaves already and technically it's not even (meteorological) summer yet . . . 🥵

Right. A ftiend of mine is trying to find a junior developer role in an EU country for a 19yo trans woman with an EU passport who has to escape abusive parents. She's at the "Writes her own operating system" level, so not your average 19yo. Anyone hiring? Links to job specs or adverts appreciated.

French caption writers determinedly swerving the challenge of explaining to their readers why the likely next British prime minister is standing between a person dressed as a fox and another with a bin on his head. Cowards!

This is very cool (physically cool, as well as fun) - walk off a Paris street into a mountain cave, designed by street artist JR My photos absolutely do not do it justice

I was watching it in a bar in Montreuil, in the Paris suburbs. Most people supported France, there were also a few Sénégal fans. Everybody had a nice time. The end.

Paris is an expensive city, but the city authorities are good at providing cool free stuff to do, especially in the summer. Here are some of my favourites

Insiders say that the former Russia Today head Xenia Fedorova has become the de facto producer of CNews and a close friend of its owner, right-wing billionaire Vincent Bolloré

Here's the new Talking France; 🇫🇷 What's going on in Evian-les-Bains . . . 🇫🇷 Why the French go so nuts for roundabouts 🇫🇷 Does Lyon really deserve its title as the 'foodie capital of France'? 🇫🇷 And the latest on the Paris airport link

Every one one of those Macron/ Trump photos from the G7 is worse than the last . . . This one has extremely strong energy of someone trying to distract a toddler with a tantrum imminent "Look! A horsie!" Photo: Ludovic Marin/AFP

Yikes, what a photo . . .

This is a Fennec Fox, the insanely cute animal native to the North African desert that is the national animal of Algeria and the nickname of its football team, & the reason we get headlines like this; Pour les Fennecs, c’est nuit blanche (a sleepless night for Algeria football supporters)