Culture

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

There are rumours that a Labour government may try to put an end to Westminster’s drinking culture by shutting down the bars on the parliamentary estate

When the rest of the world looks at Britain they see a country of systemic failures, dysfunction and absurdity. But it need not be like this

The city has problems with aggressive gulls and overflowing rubbish – and the two go hand in hand

In an edited extract, the author of a new book explores the eerie ruins of an abandoned resort in the island’s ‘forbidden zone’

After Covid, the job fits the employee’s life, not the other way round – how can we handle that shift?

As Keir Starmer tries to redefine what it means to be English, Tom Baldwin and Marc Stears ask what really lies behind our patriotic political myths

In 1974, Portugal had the lowest wages and highest illiteracy in western Europe. Then came the Carnation Revolution

From Catalonia to Cumbria, there are around 100 active separatist movements in Europe. What drives them, and how many are serious about full independence?

The youth movement of the 1950s was rooted in Britain’s working class, but its influence and notoriety spread across the continent

I have decided to grow a beard – my mission is to reconcile the two most antipathetic faith communities of London in the contours of my own face

As a new series of HIGNFY approaches, its comedy is now preaching to the converted, and feels toothless in an age of virtue signalling but no virtue.

In a subterranean game of cat and mouse beneath the streets of the French capital, cataflics hunt cataphiles in the city’s prohibited labyrinths

For centuries, the city has had an inclusive relationship what locals call the femminielli, celebrating the joy and glamour of the third sex

As Sunak’s ban on new smokers opens up another war within the Conservative Party, is our relationship with tobacco coming to an end?

The story of the fateful real-life race that inspired Michael Mann’s Ferrari movie

The farmer blockades show that Emmanuel Macron and the City of Light must put on a winning show this summer for a deeply divided country

In this extract from his new book, bestselling author and illustrator Oliver Jeffers suggests we start to focus on the kind of world we want, not the one we don’t

A thawing ice rink, frosty relations between some competitors and a distinct lack of fans couldn’t stop the success of Chamonix 1924

The biggest and most dangerous surf in the world lies off Portugal, just 90 minutes north of Lisbon

The opening of the International French Language Centre embraces the evolution of the language in a globalised world

Psychologically, absences felt in particular places matter to us. The gap left on Hadrian’s Wall will be felt by anyone who had visited the remarkable tree in situ

An 89-year-old German is bringing 24-hour gambling to Britain’s town centres. Can he be stopped?

Our pubs and restaurants can’t find enough employees, and the government is doing nothing about it

In Gagauzia, a former Soviet splinter caught between Ukraine and the EU, the pull of old bonds and certainties remains strong

The stereotype of hard-working Germans doesn’t hold up under scrutiny – no other country in Europe offers more paid time off

In the height of summer, Parisians flee the city as heat and holiday breaks transform the French capital

A seven-week, million-step pilgrimage through Spain brings solitude, extreme heat – and some unexpected hospitality

We should not be fooled by Sunak’s smiley cinema jaunt. The political world he inhabits is a place devoid of mercy, compassion or shame

Though authorities might deny it, La Liga and the country itself has a racism problem. Now one small club in Madrid has had enough

The Wetherspoon owner still believes we were right to leave the EU – but even he admits things have not gone to plan

Russia seems too tired and depleted to be able to resist tyrannical leaders