If you’re in reading mode, here are some interesting articles:
‘Alexis de Tocqueville’: the first French critic of the US
French nobleman Alexis de Tocqueville’s aristocratic family suffered greatly during France’s revolution, with many of his relatives and friends guillotined, so it’s no surprise that Tocqueville was left with a deep fear of majority rule. However after traveling to America in pursuit of better ideas for his own country, Tocqueville was forced to concede that democracy- never experienced in Europe- actually worked. Read more.
Change France but keep the lunches
As France goes to the polls many agree that change is vital to tackle the slowing economy and growing public debt. But they also want to keep the best of what makes the country so distinctive… so French.
The fear is that banishing what is bad could endanger what everyone likes most – the sense that people in France still matter more than money, and that a good lunch is worth making time for.Read more.
France’s young flock to Britain
This Wednesday Marine Fretel, an intelligent, well-educated young French woman, will board a train to London. She has let her Paris flat, packed a large suitcase and said goodbye to family and friends.
She does not expect to return. Fretel is one of the “Eurostar generation” of French professionals fleeing to London and other cities abroad in the hope of better careers in a land of opportunity. Read more.
The shipwrecked memory of the L’Utile slaves
On July 31, 1761, the French ship L’Utile shipwrecked on a one square kilometer island in the Indian Ocean. The sailors built a boat and managed to escape, but they left behind 60 slaves the ship was carrying illegally. Fifteen years later, the survivors (seven women and a baby) were finally rescued. UNESCO is still researching the story of their escape attempts and how some survived those years on what is now named Tromelin Island. Read more. Via.
Snatched from the Holocaust
Aged just six, Suzanne Rappoport saw both her parents arrested and taken away from her to be sent to Nazi concentration camps. She was rescued by a neighbour and is one of many Jewish children who were hidden from the Nazis and survived the war. Read more.
France versus the world
Many French people say they are anti globalisation, but paradoxically France has launched dozens of world beating brands and grown rich on free trade.
A poll recently conducted by an American university sent shock waves through the Finance Ministry in Paris. Researchers found that only just over a third of French people think a free market economy is the best system to develop the country. Read more.
How Royal became the queen of chic
Discussing a politician’s skirts and shift dresses, rather than their policies, may seem trite but Segolene Royal’s style, which is incredibly feminine, neat and screams of bourgeois France, is interesting because it’s in stark contrast to all the other successful female politicians who have power-dressed their way to the top: Royal got there in pretty suits and elegant shoes. Read more.
