Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article. Games gloom The new ailment in France? JOstalgie .
Sometimes also known as 'les blues post-JO' or the post-Olympics blues. Is this something that we can shortly expect a remedy for on the shelves of French pharmacies? Perhaps alongside that seasonal favourite ailment that only seems to exist in France 'heavy legs'? While it's nice to enjoy the warm glow of the Games and a look back at the best bits (stunning sport, beautiful venues, that mascot and France proudly showing the world via its opening and closing ceremonies exactly how wonderfully weird a country it is), this is actually only a brief pause - the Paralympics start on August 28th. Largely held in the same wonderful Paris venues as the Olympics, they also have the advantage of tickets (starting from €15) still being available for many sports.
How to get Paris Paralympics tickets End of the truce? Probably contributing a bit to the generally cheerful and relaxed mood is that it's August, and much of France is on holiday. This could also explain why still no-one seems particularly worried about France's lack of government. The Olympic 'truce' is now over but while some politicians at least started talking about the situation again this week, any clamour to replace the caretaker government with a more permanent arrangement seems distinctly muted.
What's going on with the French government now the Olympics are over? This is probably aided by the fact that Thursday was a public holiday, giving Frenchies who are still at work the chance to 'faire le pont ' on Friday - the commute into work on Friday morning was very quiet indeed, although I did appreciate having a Metro carriage all to myself. Aux barricades Eighty years ago this week the city of Paris was not quiet at all - in fact battle was raging during the week-long fight for the Liberation of the city from Nazi occupation, which began oh-so-Frenchly with a strike. There are some incredible stories from that time of Parisians showing extraordinary courage, including that of 20-year-old Madeleine Riffaut; sprung from jail where she had been tortured and sentenced to death for killing a Nazi officer, she immediately headed to Buttes Chaumont park to derail a German train.
Upon capturing the train, she and her comrades partied with the Champagne and foie gras that the Germans were shipping home. "Let us say, we celebrated on that day: it was August 23rd. I was 20," she said.
READ ALSO 7 wild stories from the Liberation of Paris If this is a topic that interests you, I highly recommend the Musée de la Libération Leclerc Moulin in Paris - more info here . It's one of my three favourite museums/galleries in Paris (along with the Musée de l'histoire de l'immigration and the Petit Palais). Le bras long of the law And in a rather more unpleasant hangover from the Olympics, the Paris prosecutor's office has opened an investigation into alleged cyber-bullying of the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif.
The prosecutor's office has said only that it has launched an investigation, but Khelif's lawyer says that high profile figures outside France including British author JK Rowling, US-based Twitter boss Elon Musk and American presidential candidate Donald Trump - all of whom tweeted about Khelif - could be cited. But do the French courts actually have jurisdiction over people outside France? Well in this case things are complicated by the fact that none of those involved are French, while international cyber crimes are notoriously difficult to prosecute without cross-border co-operation. France does, however, frequently launch criminal proceedings over events that happened outside France which involve its nationals - from the Rwanda genocide to the murder in Ireland of Frenchwoman Sophie Toscan du Plantier .
September This newsletter will now be having a brief pause as I'm taking three weeks off work to do something a bit special. See you in September, when the Talking France podcast will also be returning. Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about.
It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article..
