France news

France news

Charles Baudelaire, the celebrated French poet of the 19th century, once wrote: Souviens-toi que le Temps est un joueur avide// Qui gagne sans tricher, à tout coup ! c'est la loi. The line, which appears in his a piece called L'horloge (The clock), translates as: "Remember that time is voracious player// That wins without cheating, every time! It's the law." Which maybe explains the plethora of French time-related phrases.

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This week's practical must-reads from The Local include common traps that catch out property hunters, what increasing the 'franchise médicale' means for your health bills, and the small town in south-west France that's up there with Europe's big cultural guns. Buying a house always carries a risk, but it can be harder doing it in a foreign country where you are unfamiliar with the sales process, tax regulations or local bylaws.

Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

France's lower house on Friday rejected a wealth tax proposed by the left, which has threatened to bring down the government if a levy on the super-rich is not in the budget. France is under pressure to pass a spending bill by the end of the year to rein in its deficit and soaring debt, but efforts have been hampered by a political deadlock.

From celebrating Halloween in France to giving your French friends a fright (with outdated expressions) and small, but mighty, French symbols, this week's La Belle Vie newsletter offers you an essential starting point for eating, talking, drinking and living like a local. La Belle Vie is our regular look at the real culture of France - from language to cuisine, manners to films.

The restored cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris is to feature on new €2 coins commissioned by the French national mint, it has been revealed. The Monnaie de Paris (national mint) has commissioned a new design for the €2 coin - the facade of the restored Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. Badly damaged by fire in April 2019, the cathedral reopened in December 2024 after a five-year restoration project.

Six people armed with military-grade weapons used explosives to break into a gold refining laboratory in Lyon, slightly injuring five employees in the latest high-profile daytime heist to hit France. The audacious raid in the eastern city took place on Thursday afternoon, with police quickly arresting the suspected perpetrators and recovering the loot estimated at €12 million, officials said. Five employees of Laboratoires Pourquery were "slightly injured in the explosion" and three were taken to hospital for checks, the regional prefecture told AFP.

Farmers in Dordogne, south-west France, have begun a series of undeclared tractor protests, targeting government offices. Farmers in Dordogne launched a series of tractor protests on Tuesday targeting the préfecture and sous-préfecture offices in Périgueux, Nontron, Sarlat and Bergerac. The protests, called by farming union Coordination rurale, began on Tuesday afternoon with tractors moving slowly in convoy along Dordogne roads before arriving at the government offices to hold demonstrations in the evening.

While some costumes are obviously socially unacceptable, in extremely bad taste or both, France has actual legislation on this matter and some fancy dress can be punishable by hefty fines and even prison sentences. If you are planning a costume party or trying to come up with your déguisement (fancy dress) then you should know that certain outfits, insignia and accessories are illegal in France.

Twenty years ago, a tragic event changed the direction of my life. Three teenagers from the banlieue of Clichy-sous-Bois, north of Paris, were returning from a football game one afternoon in late October 2005 when they were chased by police. Zyed Benna, Bouna Traore and Muhittin Altun had done nothing wrong (an inquiry later confirmed this) but were so disoriented by fear of the police, they hid in an electricity substation.

Four Bulgarians went on trial in France Wednesday accused of desecrating a Jewish memorial with red handprints last year, which prosecutors think may have been foreign interference linked to Russia. The vandalism was staged during heightened tensions in France over the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas that broke out in October 2023. The trial is the first of its kind in France, one of a series of similar cases suspected of having been orchestrated by a foreign power

The Paris criminal court gave two-year sentences to Georgi Filipov and Kiril Milushev, described as the perpetrators, and four years and three years respectively to Nikolay Ivanov and Mircho Angelov, considered the operation's masterminds. Angelov is still at large. All four were also banned from entering French territory for life. The trial was the first of its kind in France, one of a series of similar crimes suspected of having been orchestrated by a foreign power with the aim to destabilise.

The daughter of Brigitte Macron told a French court on Tuesday that unsubstantiated claims about her mother's gender had adversely affected the French first lady's health. Tiphaine Auziere, 41, spoke on the second day of the trial in Paris of 10 people accused of cyberbullying the 72-year-old first lady by amplifying rumours that she was assigned male at birth.

If your vehicle is missing, the first step is to check if it has been towed. Here's how to do so online in France. If you find that your car is missing, before filing a police report, you might want to check to see if it has been towed. Helpfully, the French government has a dedicated online service via the Service-Public website that allows you to do just that.

Franck Detcheverry, Miquelon's 41-year-old mayor, trudges up a grassy hill. The view isn't too bad, huh? he jokes. The ocean sparkles 40 metres below the empty mound. The sound of a man playing the bagpipes, as if serenading the sea, floats up from the shoreline. This hill will be the location of his new home and those of all his fellow villagers.