On-the-spot France
Archive of daily reports about France (through 2016). For more up-to-date reporting and stories about France, visit the Spotlight on France podcast.
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'I'm dying', say protesting farmers at annual Paris agriculture fair
This year's annual agriculture fair in Paris is taking place with farmers across France angry at a drop in prices. Dairy and pork farmers in particular have protested repeatedly over the past few months against prices that are lower than production costs. At the Salon de l'Agriculture, farmers were quick to air their frustrations.29/02/201610:00 -
Rights group fear Front National rise in French regional elections
Mainstream parties in last week’s first round of elections in France's départements have urged supporters to turn out in droves to halt the progress of the far-right Front National. In the northern Paris suburb of Sarcelles inhabitants are worried about the impact the FN's risecould have on their culture of living together. The head of a campaign called Bridging Cultures comments.27/03/201504:00 -
France elections: Islam under scrutiny
Islam’s place in France is increasingly under debate, following January’s terror attacks against Charlie Hebdo magazine and attacks in Tunisia that left 22 people dead. Paris has intensified efforts to tackle radical islam, with the far right Front National even calling for a halt to the construction of new mosques, perceived as being at the source of the problem.26/03/201504:00 -
First round of France’s departmental elections: the battle for control of Paris’s suburbs
The first round of France’s departmental elections ended with the emergence of a three-party system: the conservative UMP on top, followed by the far right Front National and the ruling Socialists in third position. The battle for control of Paris’s inner suburbs like Bobigny, Noisy-le-Sec and Bondy, will be a close match between the Socialists and the UMP in the upcoming second round. Polls suggest that Bobigny, a traditional stronghold of the left could swing right.24/03/201504:00 -
Skeptical about vaccinations in France
France's Constitutional Council is set to rule on Friday, 20 March, on whether mandatory immunisations are constitutional. It will rule on the case of a couple in central France who refused to vaccinate their eldest daughter. The couple's lawyer argues that France's constitutional right to health should include the right to not be vaccinated. RFI meets others who are sceptical about vaccinations, even as public health officials worry about the rise of previously eradicated diseases, like measles.23/03/201504:04 -
Afropean in France
Where are you from? That question can be frustrating if you are French, even if you have African ancestry. As a reaction, some French artists and intellectuals have started embracing the term Afropean to describe their mixed backgrounds. A recent festival in Paris was dedicated to this mixed identity.23/03/201503:59 -
Without law, St Denis has trouble banning plastic bags
The French senate is debating a wide-reaching environmetal bill that would require a 50 per cent reduction of waste in landfills by 2025. The bill includes a ban on plastic bags by next year. A 2010 law introduced a tax on bags, but it was never applied. St. Denis has the Paris region’s biggest market, which is held three days a week. The city has been trying to impose a ban on bags at the market for years, but it has had trouble imposing it without a law.23/03/201504:04 -
Socialists downplay losses in first round of French local elections
After Sunday’s first round of France’s Departmental elections, in which the conservative alliance led by the UMP came out ahead of the far right Front National, each party is spinning the result in its own way, ahead of the second round next weekend. These are local elections that national politicians have turned into a national referendum. RFI’s Sarah Elzas assesses that for the ruling Socialist party, the spin after this first round is: “It’s not as bad as it could be”.23/03/201503:42 -
Sport - a vector of citizenship
Candidates in France's departemental elections have up until midnight today to persuade voters to vote them into the second round. The first round takes place this Sunday and the second round a week later. Candidates vying for a post of local councillor in over 2,000 cities say they hope to get a say in the running of local services such as education and health. For the first time, they're competing in mixed pairs, in a bid to increase female representation. Candidates who make it past Sunday's first round, will compete again the weekend after. The elections take place in a backdrop of suspicion after the terror attacks against satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. But as RFI reports from the northeastern town of Bobigny, sport could be one way of reviving civic values.20/03/201503:51 -
France launches its first global gastronomic journey: Goût de / GOOD France
More than a thousand chefs around the world are today serving up a French dinner, in celebration of French gastronomy and savoir faire. The gastronomic/diplomatic operation called "Gout de France - Good France" is the brainchild of top chef Alain Ducasse and French foreign minister Laurent Fabius. Aware that the promotion of French culture begins at the table, it aims to encourage tourism and give a much-needed boost to the image of French cuisine.19/03/201505:05 -
France's Agriculture Fair promotes Paris region products
Paris's annual farm show is welcoming visitors and exhibitors from around the country and the continent this week. But with its environmental focus ahead of this year's climate conference, there's a special focus on what is available closer to home, in the Ile-de-France region.24/02/201504:11 -
How climate change impacts agriculture
France’s annual agricultural fair is this year taking on the issue of climate change. Some 20 percent of France’s greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture. Reducing them is key, as Paris prepares to host the UN climate conference aimed at finding a global compromise on global emissions. Farmers are also learning how to adapt to the effects of the emissions. RFI met researchers looking at how climate change affects one of France’s top products: wine.23/02/201504:04 -
France's Foundation for the memory of the Shoah promotes dialogue in combatting anti-Semitism
Five teenagers who were detained after overturning more than 200 gravestones in a Jewish cemetery in eastern France last weekend had a clear “anti-Semitic motive,” according to a local prosecutor.They admitted that they had taken part in the vandalism and had made Nazi salutes, spat on Jewish symbols and used terms like “dirty Jews”.Faced with such anti-Semitic attacks in France, particularly by young people, the Paris-basd Foundation for the Memory of the Shoah is encouraging new initiatives to combat the new face of anti-Semitism through inter-cultural dialogue.20/02/201504:31 -
French Jews consider moving to Israel
After the attacks in Paris on Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in early January, France's Prime Minister Manuel Valls said "France would no longer be France without its Jews". Following last weekend’s desecration of a Jewish cemetery in Alsace, President François Hollande has said the republic would protect French Jews with "all its strength". But a growing minority of France’s estimated half million Jews, the largest community in Europe, see their future elsewhere, and notably in Israel.19/02/201504:31 -
UNESCO's World Radio Day invites young Syrian radio journalists
Where would we be without radio? It's a cheap and accessible way of getting information out to people, even in the most remote of communities. For the fourth edition of World Radio Day organised yesterday at UNESCO , a host of community radios from Africa, Asia, North and South America were invited to broadcast from its Paris headquarters. The guests included Jordanian radios Farah al Nas and Yarmouk FM, broadcasting "The Syrian Hour", serving the over 600,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan.14/02/201504:57
On-the-spot France
Archive of daily reports about France (through 2016). For more up-to-date reporting and stories about France, visit the Spotlight on France podcast.