Category Archives: France

Relatives of 27 who drowned in Channel boat sinking demand answers

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Two years on, families and refugee charities seek explanation and call for more help for refugees wishing to come to UK

The relatives of 27 people who died in the worst mass drowning in the Channel for decades have marked two years since the disaster by issuing an open letter demanding answers over what happened.

Signed together with dozens of refugee NGOs, the letter states that the families still have no explanation as to why French and British authorities failed the people onboard a sinking dinghy who repeatedly called for help.

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Man and woman reportedly drown trying to cross Channel to UK

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Fifty-eight others rescued, with many suffering from hypothermia after dinghy capsizes less than a kilometre from French shore

A man and a woman are reported to have drowned on Wednesday trying to cross the Channel to the UK in a small boat.

Fifty-eight others were rescued, with many of the survivors understood to have been suffering from hypothermia.

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B&Q owner issues another profit warning after weak sales in France

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UK business lifted by ‘improve not move’ trend and interior design videos on TikTok

The owner of B&Q and Screwfix issued its second profit warning in three months after weak sales in France but said its UK business is being boosted by the “improve not move” trend and interior design videos on TikTok.

Kingfisher, which also owns Castorama and Brico Dépôt in France and operates in Poland, Iberia and Romania, too, reported an almost 4% sales decline in its financial third quarter, prompting a downgrade in its annual profit forecast from £590m to £560m.

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French MP says she feared a heart attack after drink was spiked with ecstasy

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Sandrine Josso has accused senator Joël Guerriau of giving her a glass of champagne spiked with drug

A French member of parliament who was allegedly drugged by a senator has described “trembling and sweating” and fearing she was having a heart attack after drinking champagne spiked with ecstasy.

Sandrine Josso, 48, an MP for the centrist MoDem party, spoke out in two television interviews, saying she was “still in a state of shock” after the alleged incident last week.

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Hat worn by Napoleon fetches record €1.9m at Paris auction

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Black bicorne hat is one of 20 remaining that once belonged to French emperor, who famously wore them sideways

A two-cornered hat worn by Napoleon Bonaparte during his reign as French emperor has fetched a record €1.932m (£1.69m) at an auction in Paris.

The black bicorne beaver felt hat was initially estimated at €600,000-800,000. The price reached surpassed the €1.884m paid for another of Napoleon’s hats in 2014, also sold by the Drouot auction house, a spokesperson for the company said.

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Emperor’s new clothes: why the French are ready to embrace Napoleon again

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With Ridley Scott’s epic set to launch, there has been renewed discussion about the military leader’s legacy – and film fans can’t wait

A Hollywood war epic about the world’s most famous Frenchman – directed by an Englishman – was bound to contain its share of historical inaccuracies. So Ridley Scott’s big-budget battle extravaganza, Napoleon, which opens worldwide next week, has inevitably seen every aspect of its trailers scrutinised in France.

From the age of the actors (Joaquin Phoenix is older than the military leader he plays and Vanessa Kirby is younger than his wife, Joséphine), to a scene in which Napoleon’s cannons fire at the Egyptian pyramids when in reality his troops were kilometres away, nothing has escaped.

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Asylum groups warn of ‘catastrophic situation’ in northern France

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People in Calais and Dunkirk may die due to lack of shelter and sanitation, NGOs tell government officials

Twelve organisations working with asylum seekers in northern France have warned French government officials of a “catastrophic situation” as large numbers of people try to survive in insanitary conditions while they wait for a change in the weather so they can try to cross the Channel to the UK.

The warning is contained in a letter to French government officials signed by NGOs including L’Auberge des Migrants, Calais Food Collective, Médecins du Monde Nord Littoral, Utopia 56 and Le Secours Catholique délégation du Pas de Calais.

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French art expert faces trial for allegedly forging 18th-century furniture

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Bill Pallot is charged with building pieces to sell at high prices to buyers including Palace of Versailles

A leading French art expert is to face trial on charges of forgery for building furniture that he falsely claimed to be from the 18th century and that was sold at high prices to buyers who included the Palace of Versailles.

Bill Pallot, an expert on 18th-century French furniture, is charged with implementing the scam between 2008 and 2015, in one of the biggest forgery scandals to rock the art world in recent years.

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French court issues arrest warrant for Bashar al-Assad for complicity in war crimes

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Three others also subject to warrants over use of sarin gas in two attacks in Syria in August 2013 that killed more than 1,000 people

A French court has issued an international arrest warrant for the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for complicity in war crimes against humanity linked to chemical weapon attacks on civilians.

Three others – including Assad’s brother Maher, head of an elite army unit – are also subject to warrants over the use of banned sarin gas in two attacks in August 2013 that killed more than 1,000 people, including hundreds of children.

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State of emergency declared in parts of France after record rainfall

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Floods force evacuation of homes, schools and town halls in Calais region and in the Alps

Widespread flooding in northern and eastern France has led to thousands of people having to evacuate their waterlogged homes, the collapse of roads and the closure of schools and public buildings.

Record rainfall has caused rivers to break their banks, forcing the government to declare an official state of emergency in hundreds of towns and villages.

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Édith Piaf’s voice re-created using AI so she can narrate own biopic

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In-development film comes after controversy around the re-creation of late stars’ voices, such as Anthony Bourdain

Sixty years after her death, Édith Piaf’s voice will be re-created using AI to narrate her biopic.

As reported by Variety, Warner Music Group (WMG) has partnered with the Piaf estate to produce the feature-length film Edith. Artificial intelligence has been trained to replicate Piaf’s voice by feeding it hundreds of voice clips, with WMG promising the resultant re-creation will “further enhance the authenticity and emotional impact of her story”.

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Michel Ciment, veteran French film critic, dies aged 85

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The longtime chief of Positif film magazine started working there in 1968, and was a passionate advocate of cinema until his death

Michel Ciment, the celebrated French film critic and longtime editor of Positif magazine, has died aged 85. The magazine reported the news on social media, describing him as Positif’s “master architect” after a 60-year career.

Born in Paris in 1938, Ciment fell in love with cinema as a student, and joined Positif in 1968, becoming editorial director in 1973; he said he admired Positif over Cahiers du Cinéma because the magazine was “left wing” and influenced by surrealism. Ciment published a string of books about prominent film directors, including Kazan by Kazan (1973), Conversations with Losey (1979) and Stanley Kubrick (1980).

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French police foil €600k champagne theft after high-speed chase

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Drivers of two HGVs carrying high-end Moët & Chandon manage to flee but officers recover stolen bubbly

French police are looking for a gang of champagne thieves after a high-speed motorway chase in which two heavy goods vehicles carrying a total of €600,000 (£436,000) worth of stolen prestige bottles sped through northern France.

Two trailers containing high-end champagne by Moët & Chandon disappeared in the early hours of Saturday morning in Reims, the capital of the Champagne region, according to reports in Le Parisien and on local TV.

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French social media influencers feel the heat over new law on paid content

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Authorities step up checks and ‘name and shame’ content creators who break rules in move to regulate industry

When Marie Lopez started recording YouTube videos of makeup and hair tutorials in her bedroom in Lyon aged 16, she “ate, slept and breathed” social media.

By 21, she had an online community of millions and was one of the most watched French women on YouTube, posting about topics from bullying and acne to ecology. Now 28, under the name EnjoyPhoenix she uploads content from her life so many times a day that she is scared to count her working hours, aware that part of success is to “reveal more and more” of your private life.

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Failure to save 27 lives in Channel exacerbated by confusion and lack of resources

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Report identifies lack of aerial surveillance and personnel as contributing to deaths when small boat sank in 2021

Attempts to save 27 people who drowned in the deadliest Channel disaster for more than 40 years were compromised by confusion, lack of resources and poor communication between the UK and France, a report has found.

A failed operation to reach a stricken dinghy on 24 November 2021 identified the wrong boat, the report says. A Border Force cutter rescued 98 people in three other boats that night, but not those on the dinghy carrying the 27 who died.

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Jean-Baptiste Andrea wins Prix Goncourt for novel set in fascist Italy

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Award is usually seen as elitist but former screenwriter’s Veiller sur elle has strong sales and is a ‘popular’ read

Jean-Baptiste Andrea has won France’s most prestigious literary award, the Prix Goncourt, for a bestselling saga of the tumultuous life of a sculptor set against the backdrop of the rise of fascism in Italy.

Andrea, who turned to novel-writing after a long career as a screenwriter, has described Veiller sur elle as an expansive story of love, friendship and revenge. The novel stood out for a literary prize that has often been seen as elitist, as it already had strong sales and had been defined by some critics as a “popular” read.

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Unopened 18th-century love letters to French sailors read for first time

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Letters from loved ones of captured ship’s crew during seven years’ war lay forgotten for centuries

A forgotten bundle of love letters sent to French sailors more than 260 years ago – but never before opened or read – has been discovered among British naval archives, revealing intimate details of 18th-century marital and family life.

The remarkable stash of more than 100 letters was discovered by chance at the National Archives in Kew by Renaud Morieux, professor of European history at the University of Cambridge, who asked archivists if they could be opened so he could read them for the first time.

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Marine Le Pen’s support of Israel seen as move away from party’s antisemitic past

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National Rally has firmly supported Israel’s right to defend itself and promised to protect French Jews

The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s support of Israel in the wake of the Hamas attacks is being seen as part of a long-running drive to move her National Rally party away from its toxic, antisemitic past before a run for the presidency in 2027.

National Rally, which is now the biggest opposition party in the French parliament and is polling ahead of Emmanuel Macron’s centrists for next year’s European elections, has firmly supported Israel’s right to defend itself since the Hamas attacks on 7 October and the ensuing bombardment of Gaza.

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Revealed: UK coastguard downgraded 999 calls from refugees in days before mass drowning

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Investigation finds evidence that many calls received prior to 2021 Channel disaster were treated as less urgent

UK coastguards downgraded 999 calls from refugees pleading for help as they headed to England days before the worst Channel disaster for decades, new internal documents reveal.

HM Coastguard potentially breached its own policy by categorising 999 calls from distressed passengers on as many as four small boats carrying 155 people as not in need of urgent rescue, according to analysis of incident logs obtained by the Observer and Liberty Investigates.

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Blockbuster show on Genghis Khan opens in France after row with China

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Exhibition features objects never before seen in Europe and draws lessons from Mongol empire relevant to today

It was a major cultural row between France and China, prompting a history museum to pull the plug on one of its most important exhibitions of the decade accusing the Beijing authorities of interference and trying to rewrite history.

But now the Chateau des ducs de Bretagne history museum in Nantes has finally opened its blockbuster exhibition on Genghis Khan and the Mongol empire, with large crowds queueing to see hundreds of objects that have never been shown in Europe, some dug up by archaeologists only three years ago. It is part of a new modern reading of the geopolitical importance of the vast continental empire.

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