Everything you want to know about France and the French. Here’s this weekend’s Sunday edition:

How bloggers revealed Royal’s break-up (Telegraph)

Last week’s announcement by Ségolène Royal that she was separating from her boyfriend François Hollande because of his infidelity was the latest in a series of scandals to hit France’s political class. But the driving force behind the revelation has not been supermarket tabloids or France’s respectful mainstream media. Instead, it has been the work of les blogueurs, the country’s new chattering class, whose discussions of their leaders’ peccadilloes now threatens to undermine the country’s notoriously strict privacy laws. [...] Read more.

French property: wealth tax (Times)

If you own property in France and have to pay an annual wealth tax, you may be partly responsible. Many French people blame the influx of UK buyers into the property market for the fact that prices have increased so much that many now fall into the tax bracket. The wealth tax, or l’impôt de solidarité sur la fortune (ISF) is imposed on assets worth more than €760,000 (£514,000). If you are resident in France the tax is levied on your worldwide assets. [...] Read more.

Airbus chief gets back on course (Times)

Stifling heat made last week’s Paris Air Show an uncomfortable experience. As jet fighters roared overhead, defence executives and generals thronged the doors of the corporate chalets, hoping to escape from the blazing sun into air-conditioned comfort. Louis Gallois, chief executive of Airbus and joint boss of its parent, EADS, must have wished he could find a similar reprieve from the sea of troubles assailing the company. [...] Read more.

France out on limb to be Sudan peace broker (MSN)

The French government will seek to put a Gallic stamp on efforts to resolve the conflict in Darfur on Monday when it hosts a hurriedly arranged meeting of foreign ministers and officials. But rather than helping Sudan’s bloody and beleaguered western region, the move risks exacerbating the confusion already created by a proliferation of disjointed political initiatives, say analysts and some diplomats. [...] Read more.

Cécilia Sarkozy: The First Lady vanishes (Independent)

Cécilia Sarkozy doesn’t give a damn for protocol, goes awol at key events, and once fled to New York with a lover. So how does the French president’s wife keep such a hold over her husband, Nicolas? And why does nobody dare to criticise her? [...] Nicolas got Cécilia under his skin, as he once admitted to his mother. He has warned everybody that she is “the only non-negotiable part” of his career. [...] Read more.

Gas guzzling at the Paris air show (Times)

Jet fighters make a din, cost hundreds of millions, they pollute like crazy and they are made to kill people. But there are few things more heart-stopping than seeing one showing off low in the summer sky over Paris. All right, you have to love aeroplanes. For those who do so and those who make their living from them (not necessarily the same thing), the Le Bourget air show is a feast. [...] Read more.

Chirac Spurns Investigators Who Seek His Testimony (NYT)

Having lost the immunity that protected him from prosecution while in office, Jacques Chirac, the former French president, has refused to testify in a political dirty tricks scandal that sought to discredit Nicolas Sarkozy, the current president. The scandal involved false documentation that seemed to show large sums of money, presumably bribes, passing through secret bank accounts held by Mr. Sarkozy and others. Mr. Sarkozy said at the time that the scandal had been orchestrated to ruin his chances for the presidency. [...] Read more.