Author: Jourdain David

Next Monday, senior politicians from France and Germany will no doubt be looking nervous as they set sail on an awayday from the port of Hamburg to improve international relations. During the trip, members of Emmanuel Macron’s and Olaf Scholz’s teams will be expected to chat, drink, listen to talks about artificial intelligence (the on-trend topic for any corporate awayday), and then return to the city to visit a fish market. The German and French teams are hoping this trip will help to overcome increasing political tensions between the two countries over issues such as defence, energy and the future of the European…

Racism is “pervasive and relentless” and on the rise in Europe, with nearly half of black people in member states surveyed by the EU reporting discrimination, from the verbal abuse of their children to being blocked by landlords from renting homes. In every walk of life, from schools to the job market, housing and health, a survey by the EU’s rights agency of people of African descent found high levels of discrimination, with some of the worst results recorded in Austria and Germany, where far-right parties have been on the rise. The survey of 6,752 people of African descent in 13 countries…

Catherine Colonna said Armenia needed to be able to defend itself two weeks after Azerbaijani forces invaded Nagorno-Karabakh despite the presence of Russian peacekeepers. On a visit to Armenia, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna says Paris has agreed to deliver military equipment to the small South Caucasus nation. After visiting ethnic Armenian refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh, including burns patients injured in a petrol station explosion, the minister pledged military support. She said: “I would like to publicly state that France has agreed on future contracts with Armenia which will allow the delivery of military equipment to Armenia so that it can…

Paris, Wellington, Cape Town (23/10 – 33) History is arising on the horizon, as New Zealand and South Africa, two ancient foes, clash in the 2023 Rugby World Cup Final on Saturday 28 October. New Zealand smartly swept Argentina aside, 44-6, in the first semifinal on 20 October. After their embarrassing defeat 13-27 at the hands of France in the first pool match, The All Blacks are now on a fantastic run. Will Jordan and Co. destroyed Namibia 71-3, Italy 96-17, and Uruguay 73-0 in the remaining pool matches to the knock-out phase. Ian Foster’s team overcame the world number…

Macron vows the state will be back in the quartiers nord of Marseille. What this statement actually implies is that it isn’t there now. One class-action lawsuit is working on bringing this to court. In the 13th arrondissement of Marseille, one of the quartiers nord (northern neighbourhoods) of the city, a professor walks toward the high school where she runs a geography programme. She pauses briefly, pointing down the road. “When Macron visited, that’s where he went,” she said, looking at another school nearby. She rolled her eyes and shook her head, looking around at the students. “They know it’s just politics, everyone knows.”…

France’s debt went from €1 trillion in 2003 to €3 trillion this year. What happened? France’s economy minister Bruno Le Maire says he wants to slash the country’s multi-trillion euro debt, starting by launching the 2024 budget plan he introduced in September. French debt reached the €3 trillion mark at the beginning of 2023, equivalent to 112% of its GDP. It reached its first trillion 20 years ago, in 2003. France is not alone in this regard. Together with Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Belgium, it’s one of the EU and euro area countries whose debt is higher than 100% of…

How can France get its students to love maths again? Researchers hope a new Paris museum dedicated to the discipline could be the key. Maths is everywhere – it’s behind the streets we walk on, the homes we live in and the phone you may be reading this article on. But while maths can help us better understand the world we live in, a large percentage of the world’s population has trouble understanding maths. And France is struggling more than other European nations to keep students interested in the discipline. To battle that trend, the Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris has designed…

Vincent van Gogh’s final creative burst during his challenging mental health struggles is the focus of a new exhibition at Paris’ Musée d’Orsay, which is offering an innovate virtual reality experience. Vincent van Gogh’s final months were a creative whirlwind as the the artist who was struggling with his mental health, threw himself into painting. That intense period of creativity is being examined in new exhibition at Paris’ renowned Musée d’Orsay. Boasting the world’s richest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art, the Musée d’Orsay has pulled together around 40 of Van Gogh’s paintings and some 20 drawings from his two months in Auvers-sur-Oise.  The…

To mark World Architecture Day, we visited Arc 1950 in the French Alps. The ‘faux’ village was built by a North American mega-developer who bucked the 20th-century trend for high modernist designs and returned to its Savoyarde roots. Marmots had already begun to emerge from their winter slumber, only to be sent scurrying back into their burrows following an unexpected dump of late-season snow. The return to winter conditions was bad news for them, but good for me who wanted to ski just a little longer, and Arc 1950 – ‘Le Village’, nestled in the Tarentaise Valley is the ideal place…

French supermarket Carrefour has put stickers on its shelves this week warning shoppers of “shrinkflation” – where packet contents are getting smaller while prices are not. Lipton Ice Tea, Lindt chocolate and Viennetta ice cream are among the products being named and shamed. Shoppers are being told if bottles are smaller or pack contents lighter. Carrefour said it wanted to put pressure on the firms making the products to keep prices down. “Obviously, the aim in stigmatising these products is to be able to tell manufacturers to rethink their pricing policy,” said Stefen Bompais, director of client communications at Carrefour.…