France

Alain Ducasse’s new Paris flagship is indecently naff

The Jewish exodus from France shows that Islam’s rapid growth has caused a crisis for the Continent’s oldest minority. Bromides won’t do any more

“European progressives’ obsession with Israel has led them to explain away physical and verbal abuse, or even murder, of their own Jewish citiziens.”

Michel Houllebecq’s Soumission is provocative but treads familiar territory

The Parisian political elite has lost touch with reality and the public

 It was a calm, cold day when Barack Obama invited François Hollande to Monticello, Virginia, the grand mountaintop home of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, supporter of the French Revolution and early US envoy to France. “Monticello reflects Jefferson’s affection for the people of France, the long-standing relations between our two democracies, and the shared values we hold dear: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” the White House memo explained.

Novelist Nicholas Shakespeare’s biography of his aunt is a compelling look at everyday life in occupied France

‘Ever since its creation in 1972 the Front National has baffled commentators. No one seems able to decide what the party stands for or where it came from’

Cruel Crossing charts the history of the escape routes in the Pyrenees used by Spanish republican, then French Jewish refugees. It is a thoughtful memorial to these brave and desperate people