Inside France: Storms, stationery and pigs named Napoleon

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.

In a development  guaranteed to make Brits feel at home, the whole of France has been talking about the weather this week, specifically rain.

Rain storms over the weekend were welcomed with joy when they broke another scorching heatwave and brought cooler, fresher air.

France pic.twitter.com/34gkHrg1eI

— Franglaise (@frangla) August 14, 2022

 

But as the week went on the storms got heavier, leading to flash flooding in cities including Paris and Marseille until, on Thursday, an extremely violent storm hit the island of Corsica, claiming six lives.

IN PICTURES Flash-flooding hits Paris

While storms along the Mediterranean coastline are normal as the temperatures fall and autumn arrives - they're known as épisodes cévanol - weather experts predict that they will be unusually intense this year, due to the extremely high temperatures recorded over the Mediterranean this summer.

Macron return

After a few weeks holidaying in Fort Brégançon, Emmanuel Macron stepped back into the limelight on Friday with an official visit to the Riviera town of Bormes-les-Mimosas to attend the ceremony marking its liberation in 1944.

The trip down to the Riviera villa of Brégançon is traditional for French presidents, since the property has been the official 'holiday home' of the holder of the office since the 1960s.

In previous years Macron has combined beach time with hosting meetings or foreign leaders, but this year his entourage let it be known that he needed a break and would be spending a couple of weeks 'studying' - a sign perhaps that even the famously hyperactive Macron was exhausted after two years of pandemic, followed by war in Europe and back-to-back presidential and parliamentary elections.

Pencil time

Have you ever wondered why French schoolkids have those enormous bags? It's because schools insist on a ridiculous amount of kit - 29 items are stationery alone are apparently required for the start of each school year.

À partir d’aujourd’hui, plus de 3 millions de familles vont bénéficier du 1er versement de l’#ARS, revalorisée de 5,8% en 2022.
Afin de restreindre le coût financier de l’achat des fournitures scolaires, le ministère de l’@education_gouv a établi une liste-modèle ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/jwsXfHdX89

— Pap Ndiaye (@PapNdiaye) August 16, 2022

 

Although the kids still have a couple of weeks of holiday left, this week the back-to-school allowance was paid out to parents and supermarkets began filling up with the dizzying array of pens, pencils and geometry kit for la rentrée.

Cake, pigs and Napoleon

And I've been greatly enjoying researching our French History Myths series, where we delve into some of the widely-touted 'facts' about French history - did Marie Antoinette really tell the poor to eat cake? Has it ever been illegal to name your pig Napoleon? And does the French army always surrender? Find the full series HERE. 

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.