France

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

The photographer used his camera and the city of lights as a doorway to poetry

My relentless pursuit of French fluency and European belonging has had its ups and downs but I realise I am making progress

In somewhat grandiose fashion, the film star imagined his dog Loubo couldn’t continue to flourish in a world that no longer included him

The current chaos serves as a reminder that, on some fundamental levels, the constitutional settlement of the French fifth republic doesn’t really work

Delays for travellers to Europe are about to get much worse with the EU’s new entry/exit system

The brilliant, troubling Alain Delon was at his most electric when doing nothing other than staring blankly back at us

How a Frenchman in a ruined château poisoned western politics

Parisians embraced the Games – but it was a different story in one corner of rural France

All Olympics opening ceremonies that offer kulturkampf instead of pure spectacle suffer from the same regression to the tacky

More Belgian in its culture than French, the north has nothing on the western coast

If opera needs a way to entrance new, younger audiences, this production of Samson needs to get on the road

It is the utilitarian nature of crêpes, their accessibility and the fact they enjoy French ceremony that I adore

The opening ceremony felt like France reintroducing itself to the world, warts and all

Nude modelling has been an integral part of French art schools for centuries but now the models are demanding respect and status

He was only truly fulfilled when either in the air or writing about being in the air

Le Clarence trades in Parisian fine dining in its purest, truest form in matters of service and personality

The Olympic torch is ready to be lit. But this Games would not be happening without the efforts of undocumented, low-paid workers

The 1924 Olympics featured a future Tarzan, the men who inspired Chariots of Fire and a farewell to the man who created the modern Games.

French politicians promised the Games would benefit everyone but, once again, the Olympics are bulldozing over a city and its residents

Thanks to affluent tourists, the city’s heart and soul is being auctioned off

Nice is still celebrating Bastille Day in the shadow of the 2016 terrorist truck attack

Days after those election gains, squabbling over PM candidates makes it look as dysfunctional as ever