The story of Notre-Dame’s restoration starts with a fire, as Claire Tabouret is well aware. Officials in France have chosen her, a Frenchwoman who, for the last 10 years, has called Los Angeles home, to help bring its $900 million, yearslong resurrection project to the finish line. She will create stained glass windows in several … Read more
The Gaîté Lyrique theater has been a jewel in Paris’s glittering cultural scene since the 19th century. It once hosted the operettas of Jacques Offenbach and performances by the Ballets Russes. This season, though, its most talked-about drama has been generated by more than 300 homeless immigrants who are camping in the venue, sleeping on … Read more
French haute cuisine is, officially, the best in the world again. At least, that’s according to the judges of the Bocuse d’Or, a fine-dining competition held every two years. The last time the contest was held, in 2023, France did not even place in the top three. “It’s a real pride to bring France to … Read more
The Louvre Museum in Paris will move the Mona Lisa to a newly created exhibition space, President Emmanuel Macron of France announced on Tuesday as he unveiled sweeping plans to renovate the world’s biggest and most visited museum. Speaking in front of La Gioconda herself, Mr. Macron also announced that the Louvre would create a … Read more
When in Morocco, one might visit the El Badi Palace, walk the grounds of the Koutoubia Mosque or enjoy a meal of dates and chebakia at … McDonald’s? For some, dining at McDonald’s has become part of the fun of traveling abroad. With distinctive locations — a “ski-through” restaurant in Sweden, a decommissioned Douglas DC-3 … Read more
The couple had been together for some three decades before they divorced. She blamed his work for taking a toll on their marriage. But in 2019, a French court ruled that she was solely to blame for the split, after she refused to have sex with him. Europe’s top human rights court on Thursday condemned … Read more
One early evening in December, the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad fled his country as rebel forces advanced on Damascus. In France, three days later, one of the country’s most-watched TV news channels turned to a cartoonist for expert opinion on the news. “Did you think that this could have happened so rapidly?” a news anchor … Read more
A founder of a French cryptocurrency company and his wife were freed in France this week after being brutally kidnapped and held for ransom, the authorities announced on Thursday. David Balland, a founder of Ledger, a company that sells physical devices to store crypto assets, was abducted alongside his wife early on Tuesday from their … Read more
Bertrand Blier, an acclaimed director whose films scandalized, captivated and entertained 1970s and ’80s France with their sometimes brutal projections of French men’s sexual imaginations, died on Monday at his home in Paris. He was 85. His death was confirmed by his son Léonard Blier. For two decades Mr. Blier was one of France’s most … Read more
At the start of his second term President Trump has positioned himself at the crest of a global wave of hard-line conservative populism, offering fuel and inspiration to surging nationalist parties in the European Union and beyond. Those parties are generally united by tough stances against immigrants, support for what they call “traditional” values in … Read more