Dear readers,
At the time we write these lines, we are being told that we will wake up on Sunday under a cloudy sky… And in an approximately temperate climate: 16°C in Lille and Brest, 18°C in Paris and 23°C in Paris. °C in Perpignan, according to Météo France. Finally a slightly calmer period! After an extremely early heatwave, followed by a spectacular drop in temperatures throughout the country… We have to face it, France, like all of Europe, is suffering the effects of climate change: panicky weather forecasts, heat domes, storms hail, strong winds…
These vagaries and these extremes sometimes reveal the best of French society, noted last summer The daily newspaperÂ: the Berlin newspaper compared the reactions in France, in particular the care and attention given to the most vulnerable, with what is done in Germany. And for him, the observation is clear: France has learned a lot from the deadly heatwave of 2003, and is more prepared than its neighbor to face those that are coming.
But since this Sunday promises to be mild, it seems, let’s leave the maddening climatic questions and return to well-known areas, which inspire many of these chronicles. First among them: our troubled relationship with our British neighbors. Whatever the political context, from the Entente Cordiale to Brexit, we continue with delight our crude love affair with the English, steeped in mutual annoyance, admiration and mockery. This is what the article that we suggest you read today sums up very well.
It comes to us from Daily Telegraph, a conservative everyday person if ever there was one, and a fan of spicy and tasty verve. Writer and journalist Sean Thomas, very inspired by the fact that Frenchies now drink more beer than wine, lists what we still have to learn from the British – in addition to the love of beer, therefore…
A very personal list, he says it himself, and totally in bad faith… That’s what we’re adding.
We also find there the cult of eccentricity (“France has many things, wonderful landscapes, superb cities, but it lacks this essential freedom, that of being magnificently crazy and offbeat in public…), than curry or cricket (“A sport that teaches you that nothing is urgent, that everything is adorned with sumptuous absurdity…). And, of course, self-deprecation, which would finally allow us to loosen up a little… Clichés? We’ll let you be the judges. Our translation, provided by Raymond Clarinard, can be found here.
Happy reading.
—Virginie Lepetit
This might also interest you:
It is a sports selection that we have chosen to offer you to close this column, because this week, France shone on the European scene, but also on the American stage.
Seen from Switzerland. Flamboyant or pragmatic, PSG has become a winning machine
After PSG’s second coronation, Saturday May 30, this journalist from the Neue Zürcher Zeitung is full of praise for Luis Enrique’s invincible eleven.
View from Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Kenya… Africa “reconnaît†in the new coronation of PSG
In French-speaking Africa, many are rejoicing and highlighting the African origins of several players from the Parisian club. But in English-speaking Africa, where Arsenal enjoys wide support, we mourn the defeat of the London club.
Seen from the United States. Victor Wembanyama, the giant who changed basketball
There’s more than just football in life. There is basketball too. “Still unknown to the battalion until recently†, the French star of the San Antonio Spurs bewitches the NBA, writes the Wall Street Journal, and his team just beat the reigning champions. Facing Wemby, will the New York Knicks be able to find a solution in the final?
