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In July, the number of detainees in France hit 64,250 people—the highest number since WWII, when jails were crowded with Nazi collaborators. Worse: the prisons are operating at 126 percent of capacity—far higher than the European average—with some French jails housing twice as many inmates as there is room for. Newsweek calls it Incarceration Nation.

I never knew of this condition, which affects only French people. From Wikipedia:

Dromomania, also called travelling fugue, is a psychological condition in which people spontaneously depart their routine, travel long distances and take up different identities and occupations. Months may pass before they return to their former identities.
The most famous case was that of Jean-Albert […]

One in seven French women bathe with their mobile:

A survey (by mBlox) on the secret habits of French mobile phone users found that 14% of French women (compared to just 4% of men) take their mobile phones into the bathroom with them.
The survey also reveals that 18 to 24 year olds are the most […]

In 2006, 7,9 million French were officially living below the poverty line, having less than 880 euros per month at their disposal. One in three are single parents, mostly mothers. The French poor represent 13.2% of the population, which is below the average European level of 16%. The highest poverty level is found in Lettonia […]

From the Independent:
A blue beard hangs from a statue on a monument on Republic Place in Paris, after three women from the feminist action group “La Barbe” (the beard) hung coloured beards on three of the memorial’s statues protesting the dominance of male managers in employment. The three promised to return every year until a […]

Le Monde reports that a 32-year old Moroccan woman has been refused French citizenship, despite the fact that she’s married to a Frenchman, has lived in France since 2000, has three kids who are all born in France, and speaks good French. The reason? She’s dressed like this:

According to the Conseil d’Etat, her dress code […]

This is how they did it in 1945:

Leg Power replaces electricity in this Parisian beauty salon, where Madame has her hair dried despite the lack of coal-generated current. An ingenious beautician hires unemployed 6-day bicycle racers to peddle away on a bike, the back wheel of which is attached to a small generator! The current […]

Researchers at the University of Michigan have just ranked 97 nations in order of their population’s happiness. Denmark is the world’s most content nation, followed by Puerto Rico and Colombia. France comes in at 37th place, trailing all countries north of it, but scoring better than Spain, Italy, Portugal and some Eastern-European countries. Read all […]

Your hardly see them. They’re often forgotten. Still, while we sleep they look after us, clean our streets and offices, and run our factories. Le Figaro has some great photos of people who work while the rest of us are sleeping. Here are two of them:

C’est beau, la France la nuit

The French senate is debating the legalisation of surrogate mothers [wiki], something which is common in many other countries, but still outlawed in France. So it’s big news for French online news media. The challenge: how to make the news even more exciting, with a strong visual?
Here’s what they came up with:

Clockwise, from top […]

France may be world’s first tourist destination, but French tourists are not always appreciated abroad.
A recent survey among 4,000 hotel owners worldwide reveals that the French are the world’s third worst tourists, after the Chinese and the Indians. The “best” ones are the Japanese, Germans and Brits.
Main gripes against the French: they can’t speak […]

When it comes to sexual education and AIDS awareness campaigns the French can be very explicit:

AIDES is a French HIV/AIDS NGO founded in 1984. They recently commissioned two safe sex posters with the theme “Explore. Just Protect Yourself” which won a bronze medal at Cannes. Click to see them in greater detail, but keep in […]

Palais de Justice, Paris. An impressive piece of architecture. For those who go on trial here it’s probably the last time they see a spacious building, because the French prison population is close to a new record. Click image for bigger.

For the first time, the French ministry of the interior has done a headcount of Muslims, and comes up with a total of nearly five million.

Among them, only 5% actually practice their religion regularly.
The largest Muslim group is of Algerian origin (1.5 million), followed by Moroccans (1 million) and Tunisians (400,000). Subsaharan Muslims account […]

Only a month ago I quoted a report claiming that one in ten French is obese. Forget about that figure.
According to a new survey it’s a lot worse. One in two French women between 34 and 75 years is too fat and two in three men are overweight, i.e. have a Body Mass Index […]