France
No French Please
Sacre bleu! Why bother learning any French when in France you’ll just be humiliated? Let’s study Mandarin, or Arabic, or Spanish in schools instead.
Hapless Hollande’s French Farce Flops
‘Hollande’s ministers are falling out among themselves and criticism from his
left-wing allies is getting ever more strident’
Overrated: The Marquis De Sade
The infamous French libertine should be enjoying a reviva. The trouble is, he was a rotten pornographer
M. Flanby’s Holiday
French president François Hollande seems to find monogamy too bourgeois for his tastes but all these former lovers are proving de trop
The Strange Case of Monsieur Normal
François Hollande’s lack of clear convictions won him the presidency. Will France regret saying non to Sarkozy?
Au Revoir Les Clercs
It may seem like the French belletrist is a dying breed, but the modern-day public intellectual has always been something of a myth
La Belle Dame Sans Publicité
The singer Barbara is little known outside France. Yet her songs yield endless riches
An Old Hatred Returns By Europe’s Back Door
In the first of an occasional series, we examine how and why hostility to Jews has re-emerged in France. The research for this article has been generously supported by the Hertog/Simon Fund for Policy Analysis
Sarkozy Plays Bonaparte As He Plots His Comeback
After four frustrating years, the French President is unpopular. But as his Socialist rival, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, falters, Sarkozy may yet hang on
Overrated: Carla Bruni
France’s First Lady lives a pampered, cloistered existence and regularly abuses her privileged position
The Brexit crunch approaches
Thorny issues remain unresolved as the transition period comes to a close. Yet the hurdles to a deal are not insurmountable
Meritocracy makes a new ruling class
Innovation has often come from hard work by unlettered people. But young progressives now seem to treat education as a proxy for virtue
Some black lives matter more than others
Black Lives Matter misses the point—we should highlight the progress we have made, not split society and trap ourselves in victimhood