Inside France: Rain, strikes, carrots and Napoleon's love life
From new legislation aimed at making strikes less disruptive for airline passengers to storms, via the latest Napoleon controversy to hit France and a terrible carrot pun, our weekly newsletter Inside France looks at what we have been talking about in France this week.
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.
Right to strike
Some good news for travellers - the French parliament has adopted a new law aimed at making air traffic control strikes less disruptive.
The bill doesn't limit the right of air traffic controllers to go on strike (it couldn't - the right to strike is in France's constitution) but it does require individual staff members to give 48 hours' notice to their boss if they intend to join a strike. This will enable the Civil Aviation Authority to cancel fewer flights, since they will know exactly how many people will be off work.
It's the same system already used for SNCF staff and workers on the Paris public transport network - it's not like those two don't strike of course, but it does mean that transport bosses can usually guarantee at least a skeleton service on strike days.
READ ALSO How I stopped worrying and learned to love French strikes
The 'little' emperor
It's quite hard to walk down a Paris street at the moment without seeing a billboard for Ridley Scott's new Napoleon film - the studio have clearly got a big marketing budget for the Emperor's homeland.
But what surprised me when I first moved to France is just how complicated Napoleon's legacy is - I had previously assumed he would be seen as France as a great national hero, somewhat in the mode of Winston Churchill in the UK, but for many French people the war-monger who reintroduced slavery is not a figure to admire.
The 200th anniversary of his death in 2021 was marked by a national argument over whether the event should be marked at all. But it's also undeniable that 'le petit caporal' had a huge impact on the modern country, from laws still based on the 'Code Napoleon' to institutions such as lycées and the military and even public holidays.
In this week's Talking France we're trying to sort the facts from the myths about Napoleon, from his height to his sexual inadequacies and whether he ever banned people from naming pigs after him. Listen here or on the link below.
We're also planning a special episode over Christmas that will be entirely based on listener questions - so if there's anything you ever wanted to know about France or the French - leave your questions here.
My question would be the one that I have been asking repeatedly over the last few weeks (minus a few expletives) - When will it stop raining in France?
Cracking jokes
Humour is always one of the hardest things to translate as so many jokes are based on cultural context or puns - I enjoyed this fascinating article on how the translators worked on the Asterix comic books. Frequently they just wrote entirely new jokes if the original would not work in translation.
I've noticed that the French really do enjoy a terrible pun and I couldn't help groan out loud at this one.
(How do you cook carrots without heat? Put nine in the pan and take one out, then the carrots will be eight. Makes no sense at all in English, but in French les carrottes sont qu'huit - the carrots are eight - sounds the same as les carrottes son cuites - the carrots are cooked). I did warn you it was terrible.
Be more French
And I'm pretty sure I've seen this before, but it remains funny and possible the Frenchest thing ever - a passenger on a local train in Burgundy preparing himself a little train picnic, using his carte vitale health card to slice the foie gras.
Pendant ce temps, sur le TER Bourgogne de @SNCFVoyageurs, un voyageur décide de couper son foie gras avec sa carte vitale. Merci la France 🥰 pic.twitter.com/S1ftEiadpA
— Basile (@Basile_Viault) November 15, 2023
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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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.
Right to strike
Some good news for travellers - the French parliament has adopted a new law aimed at making air traffic control strikes less disruptive.
The bill doesn't limit the right of air traffic controllers to go on strike (it couldn't - the right to strike is in France's constitution) but it does require individual staff members to give 48 hours' notice to their boss if they intend to join a strike. This will enable the Civil Aviation Authority to cancel fewer flights, since they will know exactly how many people will be off work.
It's the same system already used for SNCF staff and workers on the Paris public transport network - it's not like those two don't strike of course, but it does mean that transport bosses can usually guarantee at least a skeleton service on strike days.
READ ALSO How I stopped worrying and learned to love French strikes
The 'little' emperor
It's quite hard to walk down a Paris street at the moment without seeing a billboard for Ridley Scott's new Napoleon film - the studio have clearly got a big marketing budget for the Emperor's homeland.
But what surprised me when I first moved to France is just how complicated Napoleon's legacy is - I had previously assumed he would be seen as France as a great national hero, somewhat in the mode of Winston Churchill in the UK, but for many French people the war-monger who reintroduced slavery is not a figure to admire.
The 200th anniversary of his death in 2021 was marked by a national argument over whether the event should be marked at all. But it's also undeniable that 'le petit caporal' had a huge impact on the modern country, from laws still based on the 'Code Napoleon' to institutions such as lycées and the military and even public holidays.
In this week's Talking France we're trying to sort the facts from the myths about Napoleon, from his height to his sexual inadequacies and whether he ever banned people from naming pigs after him. Listen here or on the link below.
We're also planning a special episode over Christmas that will be entirely based on listener questions - so if there's anything you ever wanted to know about France or the French - leave your questions here.
My question would be the one that I have been asking repeatedly over the last few weeks (minus a few expletives) - When will it stop raining in France?
Cracking jokes
Humour is always one of the hardest things to translate as so many jokes are based on cultural context or puns - I enjoyed this fascinating article on how the translators worked on the Asterix comic books. Frequently they just wrote entirely new jokes if the original would not work in translation.
I've noticed that the French really do enjoy a terrible pun and I couldn't help groan out loud at this one.
(How do you cook carrots without heat? Put nine in the pan and take one out, then the carrots will be eight. Makes no sense at all in English, but in French les carrottes sont qu'huit - the carrots are eight - sounds the same as les carrottes son cuites - the carrots are cooked). I did warn you it was terrible.
Be more French
And I'm pretty sure I've seen this before, but it remains funny and possible the Frenchest thing ever - a passenger on a local train in Burgundy preparing himself a little train picnic, using his carte vitale health card to slice the foie gras.
Pendant ce temps, sur le TER Bourgogne de @SNCFVoyageurs, un voyageur décide de couper son foie gras avec sa carte vitale. Merci la France 🥰 pic.twitter.com/S1ftEiadpA
— Basile (@Basile_Viault) November 15, 2023
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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