To mark the 30th anniversary of the Louvre museum's famous glass pyramid, French artist JR (real name Jean Rene) created a 17,000 sq metre optical illusion around the building. Whilst the effect isn't visible from the ground, at an elevated angle the pyramid appears to extend deep into a quarry of white rock. It took JR and his team of 400 volunteers five days to create the artwork, using a total of 2,000-odd pieces of paper. However, it quickly began to disintegrate once visitors arrived, and some Parisians took to social media to complain about the paper debris spreading around the city's landmarks.
Continue reading...Category Archives: France
Garfield phone mystery solved in Brittany – 35 years later
Novelty handsets have been washing up on beaches for years – and now we know why
For 35 years, fragments of novelty Garfield telephones have washed up on the picturesque Iroise coast of Brittany almost every day.
Nobody has known why or where they come from; day after day, locals clearing up litter along the Atlantic beaches of the Finistère region, have stumbled across bright orange pieces of feline-shaped plastic.
Continue reading...Conmen made €8m by impersonating French minister – Israeli police
Three Franco-Israelis allegedly built replica of Jean-Yves Le Drian’s Paris office to aid scam
Israeli police have arrested three men accused of swindling a businessman out of €8m (£6.9m) by impersonating the French foreign minister and building a replica of his office.
The three Franco-Israelis are accused of passing themselves off as cabinet minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in emails and video calls to extract the money, claiming it was for cover operations and ransom money to release hostages held by Islamic extremists.
Continue reading...Greek tragedy prompts ‘blackface’ racism row at Sorbonne
Protesters picket French university, which says actors were wearing masks according to ancient theatre practices
A row over alleged racism and attacks on freedom of expression has erupted in France after students prevented a Greek tragedy featuring actors using black masks from being performed at the Sorbonne, claiming it was “Afrophobic, colonialist and racist”.
Demonstrators who picketed the prestigious Paris university to stop actors entering the theatre said the play, The Suppliants by Aeschylus, was being performed with blackface and was offensive.
Continue reading...The French must drink less wine, say health officials
Health agency advises no more than two glasses a day to cut down alcohol-related disease risk
“Quoi, just two glasses?” asked the headline on the English page of the rolling news station France 24.
It was the incredulous reaction to a campaign launched this week by French health officials seeking to persuade the public to drink no more than two glasses of wine per day – and not every day either.
Continue reading...French ex-spy suspected of Congo-Brazzaville plot shot dead in Alps
Daniel Forestier had been investigated over alleged plot to assassinate opposition figure
The body of a former French intelligence agent linked to an assassination plot has been found riddled with bullets in a layby in the Alps.
Daniel Forestier was discovered in a pool of blood in a parking area off a little-used road in Haute-Savoie near Lake Léman. Police said the killing was a “professional job”, and a postmortem revealed he had been shot five times.
Continue reading...French court orders demolition of €57m ‘pharaonic’ chateau
Illegally built and ‘delusional’ Tuscan-style property must be destroyed within 18 months
A court has ordered the owner of a €57m (£49m) chateau in the south of France to tear it down after declaring the building illegal.
Related: La Mothe-Chandeniers - the French chateau now with 7,400 owners
Continue reading...Macron’s mini-summit in Paris is a snub to Trump’s trade policy | Larry Elliott
European leaders and China’s Xi Jinping put on a show of unity in the face of US tariffs
Donald Trump was not on the guest list for Emmanuel Macron’s mini-summit in Paris, but the presence of the US president was still very much felt as Europe’s leaders sat down to talk trade, business deals and geopolitics with China’s Xi Jinping.
At one level, the message from the meeting of China’s leader with Macron, the German chancellor Angela Merkel and the European commission president Jean-Claude Juncker was obvious: this was a show of unity in the face of Trump’s tariffs aimed across both the Atlantic and the Pacific.
Continue reading...Emmanuel Macron hosts Xi Jinping in attempt to strengthen EU-China relationship
French president invited Angela Merkel to talks with Chinese leader in Paris
Emmanuel Macron has launched a charm offensive towards his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, talking of multilateralism and cooperation while tiptoeing around subjects such as human rights.
In a meeting during a bilateral three-day state visit to France, the French president took the unprecedented step of inviting the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, to Paris for the talks.
Continue reading...Protesters clash with police across France for 19th weekend
Gilets jaunes demonstrations in Paris on Saturday largely peaceful, but turned violent in the late afternoon
Police and demonstrators clashed sporadically in Paris and other French cities on Saturday as gilets jaunes protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s government took place for a 19th consecutive weekend.
The demonstration in the capital was largely peaceful for most of the day, but later in the afternoon police fired teargas on protesters near Boulevard de Strasbourg, close to the capital’s Gare du Nord and Gare de L’Est railway stations.
Continue reading...When protesters burned news kiosks in Paris, I had to take a stand…
The militant wing of the French protests picked on a beloved institution. So I set up a crowdfunder to help
In 47 years of journalism, few things have shocked me as deeply as the sight of burning newspaper kiosks on the Champs-Élysées.
Journalists are supposed to be neutral observers – impassioned but dispassionate. Forget all that. This was personal. This was an attack on the print newspapers that had been my life’s blood from the day I joined the Bolton Evening News in 1972 until the Independent stopped printing in 2016. This was an attack on something endearingly Parisian, something as instantly recognisable as the Eiffel Tower or the burned-rubber smell of the Métro.
Continue reading...France drafts in troops to prevent further gilets jaunes violence
Soldiers deployed in show of force in Paris and in Nice, which is hosting a state visit
France has drafted in extra security forces including army troops to try to prevent any repeat of violence during gilets jaunes protests in Paris or other cities this weekend.
Police, gendarmes and soldiers will be deployed in a show of force in the capital and in the southern city of Nice, where the president, Emmanuel Macron, will meet his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, for a state visit on Sunday.
Continue reading...UK heading for no-deal Brexit if MPs reject agreement, says Macron – video
The French president has said that if British MPs reject Theresa May's withdrawal deal next week, it will 'guide everybody to a no-deal [Brexit]'. Emmanuel Macron also said the EU and the UK could agree a technical extension if the House of Commons were to vote in favour
Continue reading...French PM removes police chief and vows to shut down rioters
Gilets jaunes protests in Paris and other cities will be banned if ‘radical groups’ are spotted
The French government has removed the Paris police chief and announced it will shut down all anti-government street protests by the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) in central parts of Paris, Bordeaux and Toulouse if violent groups are spotted in the crowds.
The prime minister, Édouard Philippe, announced the hardline measures on Monday after the government admitted failures in dealing with rioting and arson in Paris this weekend.
Continue reading...French government unprepared for gilets jaunes riots, critics say
Opposition claims security was lacking as protesters ransacked Champs Élysées in Paris
The French prime minister, Edouard Philippe, has held talks with ministers after opposition politicians accused the government of being unprepared for rioting during gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protests on the Champs Élysées in Paris.
The president, Emmanuel Macron promised to come up with strong measures to prevent further violence after rioters threw paving stones at police and restaurants, luxury stores, news kiosks and cars were torched, ransacked and looted.
Continue reading...French couple barred from calling son Griezmann Mbappe after football heroes
Celebration of World Cup win is ruled ‘contrary to child’s interest’ as pair settle to call boy Dany Noe instead
A football-mad couple in south-west France have been barred from naming their son “Griezmann Mbappe” after two of the stars of France’s World Cup-winning team.
A family judge in the central town of Brive-la-Gaillarde stripped the infant of his two first names, nearly five months after his birth, the local town council told Agence France-Presse.
Continue reading...France’s gilets jaunes target luxury shops and restaurant in protests
Masked demonstrators clash with police in central Paris as they smash Le Fouquet, a restaurant favoured by politicians
An 18th weekend of gilets jaunes protests erupted once more into violence and looting on Saturday as masked demonstrators smashed their way into luxury stores on the Champs-Élysées and destroyed one of the street’s most celebrated restaurants.
Demonstrators fought running battles with police who responded with water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets.
Continue reading...Michael Jackson fan groups to sue accusers for ‘sullying his memory’
Robson Wade and James Safechuck, who in HBO documentary accuse Jackson of child sex abuse, face legal action in France
Three Michael Jackson fan groups are suing his alleged victims in France for “sullying his memory” by taking part in the Leaving Neverland documentary, the fans’ lawyer told Agence France-Presse on Friday.
The Michael Jackson Community – which claims to be the “official fan club forum” – and the MJ Street and On The Line groups accuse Robson Wade and James Safechuck of “lynching” Jackson.
Continue reading...France repatriates five orphaned children of jihadists from Syria
French intervention likely to add weight to criticism of UK’s reluctance to do likewise
France has repatriated five orphaned children of French jihadists from camps in north-east Syria, where a five-year offensive against Islamic State is drawing to a close.
Among the children repatriated were the three sons of a French woman who died under Isis rule. Officials retrieved them from a camp in northern Syria where they were being held with as many as 3,000 other children of Isis families.
Continue reading...Move over, McDonald’s: French taco poised for global expansion
Pile-up of meats, fries and cheese sauce has become a fast-food phenomenon
At lunchtime on a street near the Gare du Nord in Paris, queues were forming at a fast-food restaurant. Construction workers jostled with schoolchildren for what has become a business phenomenon: the hefty, cheesy slab of indulgence known as the French taco.
France has always had a huge market for takeaways, from kebabs to McDonald’s, and fast food accounts for more than half the nation’s restaurants. Now the homegrown French taco is challenging the burger’s imperialist success and plotting its own global expansion.
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