France

The optimism of last week has gone. In its place are polarised politics and deep frustration with the country’s powerful police force

Europe’s first celebrity is celebrated in a treasure trove of objects at Paris’ Petit Palais

Europe is once more witness to invasion, destruction and war. Can, or even should, we ever put such horrors behind us?

The phrase “once in a lifetime” is thrown around a lot. But this artistic experience lives up to the hype

The overriding atmosphere of Loti’s output is one of a lost innocence, a yearning nostalgia for a world before the corrupting influence of Europe

Last month, the city of Marseille lit up to celebrate 30 years since its club’s European Cup win – a victory overshadowed by disgrace

There was much to enjoy at Cannes – but the same old players doing the same old things hints that cinema may be due a shake-up

Russia’s supersonic airliner was a child of the cold war – but a fatal crash 50 years ago ripped through the veneer of Soviet tech superiority

Martin Scorsese, Steve McQueen and the late Martin Amis deliver the goods at an unexpectedly soggy Cannes Film Festival

The British Embassy Cricket Club has a star-studded past which, despite its name, has nothing to do with the British embassy

The rivalry and respect between Manet and Degas

Activism is a normal part of the French experience. In Britain? Not so much

Today, the first world war is far from forgotten in Flanders, and the English are always welcome

One of the greatest Impressionists, Berthe Morisot’s work offered perceptive, unusual glimpses of domestic life

The Dutch cyclist should have fallen to his death after tumbling into a 1,000-foot ravine during the 1951 Tour de France, but emerged in miraculously good shape

In Algeria and Polynesia, the shadow of French atomic and nuclear experiments in the 1950s and 60s still causes suffering and anger

How an unstarry, violent story of crime and redemption with echoes of the classic policiers cleaned up at France’s Oscars

Thirty years on, the key to the enduring legacy of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colours trilogy is creativity and love

The Breton language of northern France does not derive from Gaulish – it has its roots in migration from Devon and Cornwall

The protests about pension reform in Paris recently started calmly and cheerfully, but by nightfall the mood had shifted

At a rundown Paris fleapit in the 1950s and 60s, it didn’t matter if you had no money – you could pay the rent by using art

Emmanuel Macron refuses to realise people did not vote for his pension reforms – they voted against Marine Le Pen. Now France is on the verge of explosion

The skiing season and Europe’s winter sports culture are under existential threat from rising temperatures

Arguably the greatest footballer in the world has inspired a plethora of songs across Europe

The sight of tracksuit-wearing Brits entering one of the most beautiful brasseries on the Left Bank left me gasping and prostrated

The borderlands of Paris are home to great works of architectural modernism – and some terrible mistakes

The story of the Senegal-born boxer the IRA couldn’t knock out – and his fatal drift into dissipation

The language arrived in Wales much earlier than England thanks to links between Britons and ordinary Romans

How the jazz musician’s iconic soundtrack to Lift to the Scaffold still resonates today

From The Rolling Stones and The Cure to Jean-Louis Murat: How musicians excel at melding literature and song

Some credited him for paving the way for the nouvelle vague, but the Frenchman seemed to be content being known for his wives