France

The country is in a tunnel and there is no light at the end of it. But I still need to get my hair cut

Ridiculous borrowing, impossible promises and an unwillingness to face reality have led to budget deadlock and talk of a Greek-style financial crisis

Following a rise in politically motivated sentences after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, prisoners in Russia and Belarus have come to rely on letters from strangers

The 643 villagers of Oradour-sur-Glane were wiped out by the Nazis. Untouched by order of de Gaulle, the place where they lived and died is now a shrine

For Indochine and The Cure, two of the greatest bands associated with France and Britain respectively, pessimism is their signature sound

For well over a decade, Beaujolais Nouveau day was a British obsession. How did an unsophisticated bottle of plonk become big business?

The relationship between Jean Marais and Jean Cocteau was one of the great romances of 20th-century European culture

As arguments about Notre-Dame’s restoration rage on, a new exhibition gathers together stained-glass windows that caused their own controversy in the 1930s

One Leaver says she’s still glad she voted for it... but there’s a good reason for that

Our 2024 Person of the Year has changed the rules, reversed the language and given women permission to reject shame

The photographer’s extraordinary images of ordinary lives get a new showing in her centenary year

For an expat, French cuisine and culinary culture takes some getting used to

Europe's greatest ever treasure hunt is over, leaving thousands bereft

The Frenchman won seven Grand Slam singles titles in the 1920s before becoming an innovator in the world of sportswear and tennis equipment

The word repechage was heard regularly at this summer’s Olympics, but its modern usage bears little relation to its original meaning

Le Beaujolais, London’s oldest French wine bar, is a timeless haven of wit, warmth and wonder

Constable’s painting has become an icon of Englishness. But its first cheerleaders were French

The male film director who puts powerful females first

The French photographer took half a million pictures in his life. It took only one to restore his reputation and bring him wealth and controversy

A shocking case of mass rape has stunned France and started the MeToo movement’s second wave

Photographer Christoph Irrgang returns to the sites where masterpieces were painted to see how much they have changed

EU institutions have got into the nasty habit of making concessions to populists who have spent their lives railing against Brussels

The Frenchman relished each project with its opportunity for reinvention, presenting a new challenge each time

An intelligent and fearless French novel of clear-eyed anger digs deep into contemporary morality

At the Grand-Synthe camp on the French coast, people are risking everything to reach England. And it’s not for the benefits system

In 2023, we visited the Barniers at home. I would never have predicted that a year later he’d become Macron’s prime minister

This international jazz summer school has become a unique utopia for lovers of the genre

He was the future once, but now French voters are heading for the extremes

The French president’s new choice of PM shows that his political project has ended in failure

There are some foods that work to a near-unfathomable degree. This is that: a total, unadulterated masterstroke of a lunch

Fusion won’t arrive soon enough to solve global warming but it could become a commercial reality in the second half of the century