Mondial de l’Auto 2026: The Motor Show Paris Invented
The Mondial de l’Auto opens 13 October at the Porte de Versailles, in the city that invented the motor show in 1898. This year’s edition is a referendum on the French car itself.
news
Mary Cassatt at Orsay: The American the Impressionists Let In
The Musée d’Orsay is hanging eighty works by Mary Cassatt, the Pittsburgh banker’s daughter who became the only American inside impressionism. A century after her death in France, the French are calling her one of their own.
September 29: The Day France’s Public Services Walk Out
On 29 September France’s civil servants walk out, called by all eight public sector unions at once, a unity rare enough to make the front pages. A French strike is not a breakdown. It is an instrument, and it has a grammar.
Journées du Patrimoine 2026: France Opens Every Door It Owns
For one September weekend France opens everything: the Élysée, the ministries, village chapels, courtrooms and lighthouses. The Journées du Patrimoine turn 43 this year, and the theme is the machine France gave the world: photography.
Le Pen or Bardella: One Name Must Come Off the Poster
Marine Le Pen is eligible, wears an electronic bracelet, and trails her own protégé in every poll. Jordan Bardella is thirty-one and leads them all. Before April 2027 the far right must put one name on the poster.
How France Elects a President: Two Rounds, 500 Signatures, No Electoral College
France votes for a president in April 2027, and almost nothing about the ritual works the way Americans expect. Two Sundays, paper ballots, 500 signatures to get in, and a result announced at exactly eight o’clock.
France Banned Social Media for Under-15s. Nine Judges Undid It.
On 21 July France banned social media for anyone under 15. On 14 August nine judges struck the ban down. Between those two dates sits an institution Americans keep mistranslating, and its favourite verb: censurer.
Worse Than 1976: France’s Drought Just Rewrote the Benchmark
France keeps a national benchmark for dry summers: 1976, the year of the drought tax. In August 2026 the soil moisture maps slid past it. Four heatwaves, a record area burned, and one word everywhere: la sécheresse.
Darmanin Backs Philippe: The 2027 Field Just Got Smaller
Gérald Darmanin wanted the Élysée. On 17 August he told a regional newspaper he would step aside and back Édouard Philippe for 2027. One announcement, one very French verb: se rallier. The presidential race just changed shape.
La Rentrée: The Word for France’s Great September Restart
Every September, France comes back from summer all at once, and it has a single word for it: la rentrée. It is not only the first day of school. It is a whole country restarting on the same week, with its own rituals.
