Inside France is editor Emma Pearson's 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.
Petrol pump opinion polls
It's been a grim week for international news as the body count in the Gulf continues to climb, meanwhile we've all had a crash course in exactly where the Hormuz Strait is, and why it's important.
Soaring fuel prices are never good news for governments, but French leaders are particularly nervous about them ever since the Gilets Jaunes protests which began as an expression of rural anger over the cost of driving.
The Local's columnist John Lichfield described the price boards outside filling stations as being "more effective than opinion polls" when it comes to measuring the state of rural public opinion on the government.
Meanwhile, I'm just going to leave this split-screen news report from the French news channel LCI here.
This might be the greatest split-screen ever broadcast. They’ll play this in museums in future. (🎥 LCI 🇫🇷)
— News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social) 12 March 2026 at 16:11
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Podcast
The Talking France podcast is back with a look at both world events and local ones, specifically those local elections which have their first round on Sunday and are shaping up to have a few knife-edge races. We also discuss the attractions of Montpellier and outline what to expect when voting in France. Listen here or on the link below.
Website of the week
This week I learned that the French public health body Santé Publique France has a useful tool on its Manger-Bouger healthy lifestyle page - it will build you a weekly menu of healthy choices, as recommended by the French government.
The results are quite something, with the insistence that both lunch and dinner must involve at least either a starter and a main, or a main and a dessert/cheese course and a firm insistence on a proper nutritious cooked lunch - salads or sandwiches were nowhere to be seen.
Here's Tuesday;
Lunch - Mushrooms stuffed with sardines. Turkey à la Provençale (cooked in tomato sauce with vegetables). Cheesecake with fromage blanc and speculoos biscuits.
Dinner - Coddled eggs (oeuf cocotte). Spiced Egyptian-style rice with lentils. Greek yoghurt with honey and nuts.
I cannot adequately express my levels of respect for anyone who manages to spend Tuesday morning stuffing a mushroom with sardines - that person is winning at life.
READ ALSO: French menus: How to eat as the French government advises✎
Manif
As well as elite-level everyday dining, France is also renowned for giving good protest and obviously there are all sorts of excellent reasons to join protests and make your voice heard.
But I don't think we talk enough about the benefits to the protester - after a week of staring at terrible news on a screen, feeling hopeless and helpless, it was an absolute tonic to take to the streets with tens of thousands of like-minded people on International Women's Day.
While smaller protests can sometimes be tense, the large annual affairs such as International Women's Day and the May 1st manifs are usually jolly affairs - there's families with small children, pensioners and everyone in between, there's music and little plays and a lot of witty banners. I don't think we brought down the patriarchy (maybe next year) but I certainly felt better and more hopeful about the future of humanity as I headed home from the march.
Small bite energy
Would you like to receive a gift of jewellery named 'small dick'? Well this is what this company is offering, with its unfortunate combination of the English word 'bite' and the French word 'petite'.
The thing is, une bite (pronounced 'beet') is a French slang term for penis, so rather than 'little bite' that the company presumably intended, the jewellery range now means small prick/little dick/tiny schlong/diddy willy etc . . .
When the marketing guy dropped French at the first opportunity but still thinks it sounds cute…
— Scornflake Grrrl (@scornflakegrrrl.bsky.social) 6 March 2026 at 08:56
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And this isn't even the first time this has happened - there have been numerous clangers like this over the years, including the range of oven-ready snacks that advertised themselves as 'petite bites, big compliments'. If you say so.
It seems to come from the conviction of advertisers the world over that adding a random French word to something makes it sound classy, elegant or exclusive. In most cases it wouldn't matter, but if you're going to do this, you need to check carefully that the word you're pairing it with doesn't have a different meaning in French, specifically that it doesn't have a sexually explicit meaning that turns your product into a smutty joke.
Inside France is editor Emma Pearson's 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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