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Inside France: Dried-up rivers, primped-up Paris and why we love the French tax office

Emma Pearson
Emma Pearson - [email protected]
Inside France: Dried-up rivers, primped-up Paris and why we love the French tax office
A picture shows the dry bed of the Loire River in Saumur, western France. Photo by GUILLAUME SOUVANT / AFP

From extraordinary pictures of France's rivers to voting rights for foreigners and a TV show that we will all love to hate, our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week.

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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.

There really is one picture that has summed up France this week.

 

The mighty river Loire - famous around the world for wines, chateaux and its beautiful valley - has in places dried up to little more than a trickle.

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It's just one example of rivers, lakes and marshland drying up as France's worst drought on record continues, and more and more of the country is placed under water restrictions.

https://www.thelocal.fr/20220811/in-pictures-french-drought-intensifies-loire-dries-up/

We spoke to hydrologist and climate expert Emma Haziza about why the drought is so bad and what we can expect by the rest of the summer.

And if you're wondering why French people are urging ex president François Hollance to visit their region, it's because they think he might bring the rain - a reference to this photo from 2014 of a drenched Hollande continuing regardless with a World War II commemoration event in Brittany.  

Say what you like about Hollande, but he was a trooper . . . 

 

Voting rights

With parliament in recess and most Ministers on the beach, there's not been a lot of political news this week, but one MP has trailed a new bill - to give foreigners in France the right to vote.

At present EU citizens living in France can vote in local and European elections (but not presidential elections), but non-EU citizens cannot vote at all, neither can they become local councillors (which meant that many Brits had to give up roles in their local communities after Brexit).

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Now Macronist MP Sacha Houlié wants to give non-EU citizens who are living in France the right to vote in municipal elections, and to become local councillors.

However before we get too excited, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin is apparently "strongly opposed" to the idea.

Happy tax

This might sound unusual, but this week I have been sharing the love for the French tax office.

Yes, residents in France pay a lot of tax, but if you ever need to deal with the tax office, their staff are surprisingly lovely and helpful - a stark contrast to my experiences of dealing with HMRC back in the UK.

When I tweeted about a recent visit, many people replied sharing their positive experiences and French tax offices - which by the way exist even in quite small towns and you can walk in without appointment and find someone to help you.

Vive les taxes! 

City streets

And for readers in Paris or planning a visit, I can highly recommend this free exhibition of street art, hosted in the Tunnel des Tuileries, beside the Seine.

The tunnel used to be a road, but is now a walkway and cyclepath and this summer has this wonderful display of European street art - just one of the examples of the rapidly changing face of Paris. 

 

And speaking of Paris, if you loved to hate Emily in Paris, then September is going to be a good month for you!

https://twitter.com/BravoTV/status/1556686679997419520

 

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.

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