Category Archives: Paris

‘I don’t want a Michelin star,’ says French chef in ‘Cheddargate’ row

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Marc Veyrat, who lost court battle to guide, in defiant mood as he opens new Paris restaurant

Marc Veyrat, the French celebrity chef at the centre of the “Cheddargate” scandal, has declared he never wants a Michelin star for his new Paris restaurant.

The flamboyant cook who took the red guide to court last year after he lost his third Michelin star for his celebrated flagship restaurant in the French Alps, has taken over a historic Parisian dining room previously owned by the equally colourful French actor Gérard Depardieu.

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French revolution? That’s news to me | Kim Willsher

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The conspiracy theorists’ claim that the media are playing down the Paris protests is nonsense

France is riven by civil war, president Emmanuel Macron is hiding in a castle surrounded by the army, and hundreds are dead. Britons know nothing about this because the UK government has issued a D-notice banning the media from reporting it, and the European Union has been buying up video footage of the conflict to bury it.

All of this is news to me – and it’s my job to know what is going on here. Perhaps because it is, in polite terms, utter nonsense.

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Diamond as big as a tennis ball makes Louis Vuitton debut in Paris

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1,758-carat Sewelô snapped up by luxury brand is world’s second-largest rough diamond

Louis Vuitton has made a splash as it showed off its latest purchase: the world’s second-largest rough diamond.

The LVMH-owned brand, which announced last week that it was the new owner of the 1,758-carat Sewelô, displayed the glinting, blackened stone at its Place Vendôme store in Paris.

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Rent rises force revered LGBT bookshop out of Paris’s gay district

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Les Mots à La Bouche’s move from the Marais shows loss of cultural heritage, activists say

In the window of France’s best-known gay bookshop, above the display of Lucian Freud art books, opera singer Maria Callas’s memoirs and a history of the Pride movement, a poster warns in giant red letters: “Cultural heritage in danger.” An urgent note on the door adds: “We need your help!”

Les Mots à La Bouche, a 40-year-old Paris institution, is the top LGBT bookshop in France and considered one of the best in the world – a focal point of Paris’s historic gay neighbourhood in the Marais district. But as property speculation in central Paris reaches dizzying heights – it is estimated that at certain times of year there are more Airbnb rentals than residents in the Marais – the bookshop is being forced out by rising rents.

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Notre Dame Cathedral ‘not saved yet’ and still at risk of collapse

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Head of restoration says removal of fused scaffolding may destroy vaulted ceiling

The French general appointed to oversee the reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral has said the iconic building is still at risk of collapse more than six months into the efforts to restore it.

Gen Jean-Louis Georgelin said the cathedral is “not saved yet” and has to undergo a delicate operation to remove fused scaffolding around the spire, destroyed by a devastating fire last April.

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Notre Dame Cathedral stays dark for first time in 200 years

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French Catholics go to nearby church in Paris for Christmas mass following fire in April

Notre Dame Cathedral was unable to hold Christmas Eve mass for the first time in more than 200 years after a fire ravaged its structure in April.

French Catholics instead gathered at the church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois, a few hundred metres away from the Paris landmark, for a service celebrated by the cathedral’s rector Patrick Chauvet.

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Alex Duval Smith obituary

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Foreign correspondent with a knowledge and love of Africa who worked for the Guardian, the Independent and the BBC

The journalist Alex Duval Smith, who has died of cancer aged 55, was a free spirit with a remarkable gift for connecting with others across social, language or cultural barriers.

For more than two decades she worked as a reporter and correspondent in European and African countries, for the Guardian, the Independent, the Observer, the BBC, Radio France International and France 24. She had a deep knowledge of and love for Africa and was a citizen of the world – with two nationalities and three languages; she had lived in almost a dozen countries.

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Striking rail workers clash with riot police at Gare de Lyon in Paris – video

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Striking French rail workers have clashed with riot police in Paris after holding a demonstration against pension changes despite Emmanuel Macron’s call for a Christmas truce. Hundreds of trade unionists and protesters gathered outside Gare de Lyon on Monday morning. The nationwide transport strikes have dragged on for a 19th day, causing what the state rail operator SNCF has described as 'ongoing severe disruption' to services

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No Christmas mass at Notre Dame cathedral for first time since 1803

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Mass to be held nearby as workers continue to repair Paris landmark eight months after devastating fire

Notre Dame cathedral will fail to hold a Christmas mass for the first time since 1803, French officials confirmed on Saturday, as workers continue to repair and rebuild the Paris landmark eight months after a devastating fire.

The cathedral’s press office said midnight mass would still be celebrated on Christmas Eve by rector Patrick Chauvet but it would be held at the nearby church of Saint-Germain l’Auxerrois.

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Violence in Paris amid nationwide pension reform protests

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As prelude to day of action, power to thousands of homes deliberately cut by workers

Police fired teargas and charged at demonstrators in central Paris as hundreds of thousands of protesters across the country staged a show of force against the government’s controversial pension reform plans.

The violence erupted at Place de la Nation, one of Paris’s biggest squares, as riot police attempted to disperse protesters. Police said they had charged after coming under a hail of paving stones and missiles. There were 27 arrests by late afternoon.

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France faces second day of travel chaos as strikes continue

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Transport stoppages to run into weekend amid protests against planned pension changes

France is facing a second day of travel chaos and school closures after unions said there would be no let-up in nationwide strikes against Emmanuel Macron’s proposed changes to the pensions system.

The far-reaching strike, which brought more than 800,000 people on to the streets on Thursday, is seen as the greatest test yet for the centrist president, who has promised to deliver the biggest “transformation” of the French social model and welfare system since the immediate post-war era.

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Black-clad youths clash with police as gilets jaunes mark anniversary

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Police forces fire teargas and water cannon against protesters in French capital

The gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement marked a year of weekend demonstrations with protests across France. In Paris, groups of black-clad youths caused damages at a central square, smashing bus shelters, a bank and torching vehicles.

Police responded by firing teargas and using water cannon against the protesters, only a few of whom were wearing the yellow vests affiliated with the movement. French media blamed “ultra radical” black bloc protesters for the violence.

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Notre Dame fire: row as general tells architect to ‘shut his mouth’

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Army general rebuked after lashing out at chief architect over cathedral rebuild plans

The French government has rebuked the army general charged with the rebuilding of the fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral after he told the chief architect to “shut his mouth”, in a sign of tensions over the cathedral’s future appearance.

Gen Jean-Louis Georgelin lost his cool with Philippe Villeneuve in a dispute over whether to replace the spire, which collapsed in the fire in April, with an exact replica or a modern alternative.

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Hundreds of migrants removed from makeshift camps in Paris – video

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French police officers have begun clearing more than 1,000 migrants and refugees from a makeshift camp in northern Paris, where they had been sleeping rough in squalid conditions for months. The move comes after the country’s centrist government set out Emmanuel Macron’s tougher stance on immigration this week and vowed to clear the camps

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French police begin clearing makeshift migrant camp in Paris

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More than 1,000 people have been sleeping rough for months in squalid conditions

Hundreds of French police have begun clearing more than 1,000 migrants and refugees from a makeshift camp in northern Paris, where they had been sleeping rough for months in squalid conditions.

Police arrived at the site near Porte de La Chapelle before 6am local time (0500 GMT) on Thursday, after the country’s centrist government set out Emmanuel Macron’s tougher stance on immigration this week and vowed to clear the camps.

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Biggest ever Leonardo da Vinci exhibition to open in Paris

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Louvre will host works of Italian artist after long-running political spats and legal battles

The most important blockbuster art show in Paris for half a century took 10 years to prepare and was nearly thwarted by the worst diplomatic standoff between Italy and France since the second world war. With days to go before the opening, there is still no sign of whether one of the major works will appear.

The Louvre’s vast Leonardo da Vinci exhibition to mark 500 years since the death of the Italian Renaissance master will finally open next week as the world’s most-visited museum prepares to handle a huge influx of visitors.

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Paris art scene roars back to life … with a little help from Brexit

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A reinvigorated contemporary art fair, opening this week in the Grand Palais, is one sign of a renaissance for the French capital

“If our generation did not reinvigorate the French art market, what would we be leaving to the younger people?” asks Jennifer Flay, director of the international fair of contemporary art in Paris. “So we decided to take ourselves seriously.”

As the 46th Foire internationale d’art contemporain (FIAC) prepares to open the doors of the Grand Palais this week, it is clear that not only did Flay and her colleagues achieve their goal, but they also created an environment in which artists and their work could flourish. The fair has gone from dusty irrelevance during a long sojourn in the suburbs to a glittering fixture on the art world calendar.

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‘A serious urban mistake’: why Paris went sour on the new Gare du Nord

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As developers aim to turn France’s busiest train station into a gargantuan airport-style mall, Parisians fear for the local neighbourhood – and the station’s soul

“When you tell people in Paris you live near the Gare du Nord, they usually grimace,” sighed Sarah, a French academic in her 50s who has lived on a narrow, traffic-choked street next to Europe’s busiest station for 30 years.

“Architecturally, the station building is superb. But neighbourhoods around stations are never easy, wherever they are in the world.”

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Paris police attacker a radicalised Islamist, says French prosecutor

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Police now believe stabbings were terrorist attack reveals Jean-François Ricard

A police administrator who stabbed and killed four people at Paris’s police headquarters on Thursday was a radicalised Islamist who slit the throat of at least one of his victims, the French anti-terrorist prosecutor revealed on Saturday.

Mickael H acted with premeditation, buying two knives shortly before the attack on Thursday lunchtime in the centre of the city, and exchanging more than 30 religious text messages with his wife.

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Anti-terror police take over Paris knife attack case

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State employee killed four colleagues at police headquarters before being shot dead

French counter-terrorism police have taken over the inquiry into an attack by a state employee who killed four colleagues with a kitchen knife inside Paris’s police headquarters on Thursday.

The assailant, named in the media as Mickaël H, 45, was a computer scientist in the intelligence branch at police headquarters, and had worked for the police for 15 years. He had full security clearance in an office that coordinated counter-terrorist intelligence-gathering in the capital.

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