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Inside France: Energy crisis, the next holidays and chocolatines

Emma Pearson
Emma Pearson - [email protected]
Inside France: Energy crisis, the next holidays and chocolatines
France went back to work and school this week. Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP

In the week that France went back to work, our newsletter Inside France takes a look at energy rationing, climate plans, wine sales, cross-Channel chat and dodgy French jokes about pastries.

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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.

Happy returns

France is now back at work after the summer break - shops have reopened, offices are fully staffed and the kids are heading back to school (staggering slightly under the weight of all that stationery the French government insists that parents buy).

Loving the vibes from broadcaster BFMTV, which is literally counting the days until the next holiday.

 

Sober start

The government has also gone back to work, with sobriété energétique (energy sobriety) the main focus - in other words how France can cut its energy use to get through a winter without Russian gas, and in the longer term tackle the climate crisis.

We don't know the exact details of the plan yet, but Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne started the week with a speech to business leaders, in which she outlined how businesses will be expected to have their 'sobriety plans' - detailing how they will cut their energy use - ready for October 1st.

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Although the fuel shortage following Russia's invasion of Ukraine is the immediate crisis - and householders have been reassured that there will be no power cuts this winter - the plan also looks to the future and the increasingly obvious need for all countries to cut their emissions to tackle the climate crisis.

Borne began her speech with a simple outline of the summer we have just had - record-breaking heatwaves, the worst drought in 60 years, raging wildfires and fatal storms - to underline the necessity for action. 

Exemplary Britain

It's always exciting when your country is held up as an international example, right? Unfortunately for Brits, the UK is now being used in France as an example of what governments should not do in relation to the energy crisis, with politicians including government spokesman Olivier Véran reassuring the French that "what is happening in the UK [with soaring energy bills] will not happen in France".

Wine

Other than la rentrée, the other thing that happens every September in France is both the wine harvest and the Foire aux vins - this is essentially a sale when retailers including supermarkets clear out their shelves ready for the new wines, and it's a great place to grab a bargain, or maybe to get a deal on some wines that are normally out of your price bracket. 

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The sex files

You might have heard the stories about Donald Trump having 'secret intelligence' on Emmanuel Macron's sex life? Given that the only evidence that this exists is the word of notorious liar Trump we're probably not going to dignify that with too much analysis, other than to flag up this seemingly quite relevant scene from one of our favourite French TV shows Au Service de la France (available on Netflix).

 

Podcast

For fans of our Talking France podcast there is some good news - it's back from its summer break. We're working on a new episode that will be out next week, and in the meantime you can catch up with old episodes HERE.

Blague de papa

And let's finish with a terrible French joke, courtesy of the national police's airborne unit.

 

"Did you know? At breakfast for the gendarmerie there is an exactly equal number of pain au chocolat and chocolatine, so as not to offend early morning sensibilities" - the joke being, of course, that a pain au chocolat and a chocolatine is exactly the same thing.

What you call the delicious chocolatey breakfast pastry, however, is the subject of fierce regional debate

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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