Louis XIV’s personal motto gives you a clue as to the size of this leader’s self-importance: “Nec pluribus impar” (“None his equal”). Imagine this phrase accompanied by his emblem, the Sun King (derived from a role he played in a ballet created expressly for him by Jean-Baptiste Lully). There was no ignoring this king, despite the lack of Truth Social media in the 17^th century.

Even his own courtiers wrote that “Louis XIV’s vanity was without limit or restraint.” It’s hard not to make the comparison with a pretty intimidating, egomaniacal, shiny gold-festooned persona that exists in at least one world capital today.

Spoiled at Birth

Louis’ feelings of entitlement went back to his early childhood. His father (Louis XIII) died when he was just shy of his fifth birthday, leaving the lad to succeed as King of France, cossetted by his mother, Anne of Austria (who was nonetheless Spanish), and who acted as regent in concert with the intrepid and intimidating Cardinal Mazarin, an Italian. Thus, not only was Louis convinced of his mortal right to rule from a very young age, he sincerely believed that right was God-given and backed it up with doctrines carefully constructed by a leading bishop of the 17^th century, Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet. Today’s democracies must navigate a series of courts and religious groups to approach the same results.

The apple of his mother’s eye, holder of impressive real estate throughout the country, and surrounded by a sycophantic court, the 22-year-old took the reins of French government upon the death of Cardinal Mazarin in 1661. Louis had become somewhat insufferable, hellbent on winning at all costs. James A. Nathan, writing in Force, Order, and Diplomacy in the Age of Louis XIV, nicely sums up Louis’ egotistical approach to deal-making: “Louis’ single-minded search for advantage was so raw, unencumbered, and bellicose that even in the ethos of the times it was unique.” His arrogance (one could call it “France First”) went a long way to making enemies of his neighbors across the borders, whom history tells us viewed the French king with both fear and contempt.

But Louis was not a buffoon who ranted through the night, hurling food at the walls in fits of rage in those days before social media provided unfettered direct communication with the public. Louis exhibited a sense of self-awareness not just personally but in his role as a leader. Courtiers of that time claimed they never saw Louis lose his temper in public – and fewer than ten times in private. For someone who ruled for 70 years straight, this is a pretty good track record by any measure.

He also took pains to ensure the dignity of his office would live on, leaving advice in his memoirs: “A bloody and ferocious temper is despicable in a man, and beneath the dignity of a king.”

Louis knew how to use both his mouth and his ears when appearing in public, as courtier Saint-Simon wrote of the king’s appearances: “He had the ability to speak well and to listen with quick comprehension, with much reserve of manner … always dignified, always distinguished.” An appraisal that might be considered today as the equivalent of “stable genius.” But according to another courtier, Louis also knew when to keep his mouth shut: “He knew how every word a monarch utters is canvassed over in public.”

Limelight and Limits

And for all his love of the limelight, even Louis had his limits. “The more facility I have as king to glorify myself, the more I ought to be on my guard,” Louis cautioned his son, admonishing him to “avoid the empty noise of applause, which is incessantly flattering.” Even the Sun King understood the importance of acknowledging dissenting voices.

While Louis XIV believed in the divine right of kings to rule, he understood that this right derived from the ancient and fundamental law of succession. As head of state, Louis was the interpreter of the law and oversaw the meting out of justice in the French state, upholding and respecting the many rights to which his subjects were entitled – even under an absolute monarch.

And he was indeed absolute: on April 13, 1655, at the tender age of 16, shortly after reaching the “majority” or legal age of succession in France, Louis reshuffled his government. He kept Mazarin but dismissed most of his other ministers and declared, perhaps apocryphally, before the French Parliament, “L’État, c’est moi” (“the state is me”). Parallels could be drawn between this proclamation and that of today’s US Supreme Court regarding presidential power; however, court memoirs from the 17^th and 18^th centuries attest to the prodigious working hours put in by Louis XIV, who, as far as is known, did not play golf.

While Louis may have considered himself a living legend, he nevertheless understood that the country he ruled was more important than its ruler, telling those who attended him on his deathbed, “I depart, but the state remains.”

In other words, in the end, recognizing the human limits of power, Louis came to understand his leadership responsibilities superseded his need for ego aggrandizement. Though there is still Versailles, of course.

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France has been hit by a series of heat waves this summer that began in May. There have been searing temperatures across the country. At one point, it was hotter in Brittany and Normandy in northwestern France than down on the Mediterranean coast.

The summer has also seen wildfires in many parts of France, particularly in the southwest and the south, but also in the forest at Fontainebleau outside Paris. What can be done about it? Can “fire modeling” help?

Reporting from Paris deputy editor Elaine Cobbe speaks to Aurélien Costes, a fire scientist from Bordeaux, and Météo France weather forecaster Olivier Proust.

Elaine Cobbe is an award-winning print and broadcast journalist based in Paris. A former foreign correspondent with CBS News, she has covered many of the major international stories of the past three decades, including the conflicts in Iraq, Kosovo, and Rwanda, and terror attacks in Paris, Brussels, and Barcelona. A regular commentator on French and international politics for news outlets in France and her native Ireland, she is also a researcher and trainer in journalism and trauma. Elaine is a committee member of the Anglo-American Press Association of Paris.

We’re pleased to share with you our fifth issue of Reporting from Paris.

Our lead story this August is The Heatwave currently ravaging Europe with devastating fires in the south of France, Spain, and Italy (Sicily). Why is this happening, how can it be stopped or at least controlled, and what to wear in the heat (especially if you have to go to the office)?

You’ll also find articles and videos on:

• What Louis XIV (France’s Sun King) could teach Donald Trump about leadership

• Olympic investments: what benefit for residents today?

• The global data center pushback

• La Flâneuse on the secret signals of French manners

• Paris in August: what’s on… and what’s not

You’ll notice that we’ve turned on our “pledge” button this month in anticipation of adding paid subscriptions and premium content to our mix beginning in October. Content going forward will include expanded coverage of news and feature stories, VIP interviews, videos (cooking classes, for example), and live participation in journalist roundtables.

We’re open to your ideas as well, so please share your ideas with us via contact@reportingfromparis.fr. And please consider pledging your support.

Thanks and best regards,

Shellie Karabell
Editor-in-Chief
Reporting from Paris

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It’s Too Hot! French Experts Tell Us Why – And Warn there’s More To Come

Summer temperatures in France used to max out at 35°C and forest fires were sporadic and confined to the south. Now 40°C is the norm and wildfires are rampant. What's next? asks deputy editor Elaine Cobbe.

More Tips on Dressing Well and Comfortably in a Heat Wave

Edie Twells-Eastwood finds out the word on the street in South-West France.

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At one point in late June, with meteorologists reporting temperatures exceeding 40°C (more than 100°F), Paris was hotter than Athens, Cairo, and Bangkok. Offices, boutiques, schools, and virtually any business without air conditioning that didn’t need to be open in the midday sun… wasn’t.

Tourists (and others who didn’t need to maintain decorum in an office) donned shorts, beach-style sundresses, and heaven forbid, even flip-flops, to venture out into the streets, breaking nearly every unstated but widely respected Parisian dress code.

Still, Paris is a big capital city, one of the fashion capitals of the world, and there are standards to keep no matter what. Parisians “present” themselves, and many French businesses still tacitly require a moderate level of decorum (think banks, large corporates, high-end retail establishments, for example). And even if the work premises are air conditioned, what happens to that polished presence during the blasting heat of the commute between home and the office?

Who better to provide advice than fashion director, stylist, and consultant Giovanni Dario Laudicina, who agreed to answer a few questions…

Reporting from Paris: Cities require a certain level of elegance and an office dress code. During heatwaves, especially where air conditioning isn’t always available or reliable, what does one wear to look professional and avoid perspiring profusely (which would undermine the whole point of the dress code)? What can replace a suit or a dress?

Giovanni Dario Laudicina: I would recommend embracing oversized volumes, covering as much of the body as possible, and choosing highly breathable fabrics such as linen. It reduces direct sun exposure, helps avoid visible sweat marks, and prevents the skin from looking damp in the heat.

RFP: Accessories and details: What does one wear on the feet? What can replace a tie? Should the shirt or sweater be tucked into the skirt... or leave it untucked altogether? Briefcase or…?

GDL: Right now, the trend is to let clothes fall naturally rather than styling them through excessive draping or tucking. For footwear, I always prefer shoes with very thin soles, which create a more elegant silhouette. Large, understated bags work best. And if you’re not wearing a tie, don’t try to replace it with another accessory.

RFP: Which fabrics work best in the heat (keeping one cool and not wrinkling too much) while still maintaining a “put-together” look?

GDL: I wear almost exclusively linen and hemp during the warmer months. I would avoid silk in the heat, while a touch of cashmere can still work beautifully in the evening.

RFP: Fragrances: deodorants, colognes, hairsprays, etc. – which scents hold up best in the heat? What should be avoided?

GDL: Nothing particularly complicated: simply avoid fragrances that are too strong.

RFP: The future holds more frequent, longer, and more intense heatwaves. What opportunities do you see for fashion designers and cosmetics companies to meet this new and growing need? What should they focus on?

GDL: I focus on clothing because that’s my field, but in reality, this new climate is also changing the way we think about fashion. It limits certain possibilities and forms of creativity because many of the traditional seasonal references no longer apply. We are all navigating new territory, often guided by practical considerations and market demands. Heavy clothing has become increasingly difficult to justify, while the transitional seasons seem shorter than ever. The opportunity, however, is to refocus on what truly matters: quality. Fewer options, but better ones. A more carefully edited and intentional wardrobe.

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Loose-fitting and natural fibers, says one. That way, it you catch a breeze, “it’s fabulous”. Choose cotton, linen, silk, says another. Look at how desert people dress: they’re not in swimwear, they cover all parts of the body. Nothing is ‘fitted’. And how about a light scarf? “It seems a bit mad in 40°C but it just gives a bit of shade.”

Hear these tips and more during Edie’s walkabout under the blazing southern sun!

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Reporting from Paris launched on April 7, 2026 to an enthusiastic welcome from readers around the world who wanted news from and about Paris – and a somewhat different world view. This continued support has kept us going psychologically ever since, and we’re all very grateful.

Now we find it’s time to ask you to consider pledging your financial support as well, to support the continued growth of our independent media model. Your pledge today will convert to a paid subscription in the autumn, when we plan to introduce a pay wall.

Let me explain why we’re taking this step.

As a veteran of more than 50 years of print and broadcast journalism, I confess to looking askance at the term “independent media.” It resonated as a description of someone with a computer, an internet connection, and an opinion who just bashes out anything at all and foists it on the universe. No newsroom, no editors, no standards …no good.

The years since COVID have proven me wrong.

COVID changed the way the world consumes news, information, and entertainment: confined to their homes at the beginning of the decade, audiences imported everything from food to movies to school lessons to news. The size of the screen determined what was watched: big screen TV was the format for the movies, sports, documentaries, and entertainment-type material that Netflix and their rivals produced or distributed. School work morphed to the computer, while smartphones became a lifeline for communications, news, and information. In bite-sized chunks. TV viewers were not watching news…in fact, they weren’t watching much of anything on what we now call “legacy media.”

Distribution was setting the agenda: there is more bang per spent buck in streaming than producing news the “old fashioned way” with crews and editors and journalists and producers. As a consequence, the news business has morphed into something less: less reliable, less well-financed, with fewer journalists. In particular in the US, in some notable cases, opinions, debates, and outright lies have replaced fact-based news reporting and divided the audience into warring camps. The cost to democratic governance has been exorbitant.

Journalists React

Many journalists who have been jettisoned from newsrooms have resurfaced with bespoke online news platforms. Worthy undertakings but solo performances can only go so far. And it’s not surprising that viewer-supporters are beginning to feel a bit over-subscribed. In the US, one look at TV news ratings indicates that today’s audience isn’t watching network TV news. Advertisers were among the first to notice… and moved their advertising spending elsewhere; massive layoffs have followed (misspellings on-screen are only the teeny tip of the iceberg).

The future for news and information, we strongly believe, is portable – online, pocket-sized, personalized. The change-over is already happening. But dismantling the present-day capital base and system of work while constructing another is a long and arduous process. The executives doing the dismantling may be no more certain of their jobs than those below them to whom they have given the axe.

The cost of accommodating these changes in distribution is high but will be covered because there’s too much money at stake in what’s to come (think Paramount, Time Warner, Hachette Media et al…). The challenge is keeping the traditions and high standards of “legacy journalism” alive during this transition and in the new environment of the future. The music isn’t in the violin: it’s in those who know how to play it.

With Reporting from Paris, and the early support of a like-minded investor, we have taken that first step to keep journalists active and preserve a professional news structure that can transfer sound practices and principles to the next generation – something that doesn’t happen when everyone is working independently.

Presenting a New Model for Journalism

In short, we believe there is more to be gained for journalists, news consumers, and the future of real journalism by coming together to launch tailor-made online magazines – such as Reporting from Paris. With real news and real analysis by real journalists.

Most of us are members of the Anglo-American Press Association of Paris. Founded in 1907, it is the oldest foreign press association in France. Many of us have been here for several decades and have worked for a variety of English-language publications and broadcast outlets: Associated Press, CBS News, the Financial Times, NBC, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNBC, PBS, ABC News, Dow Jones, and more.

We are reaching a global English-speaking audience (so far 61 countries) who have an affinity for and more than a passing knowledge of Paris. We’re not aiming at an audience focused on luxury but on passion: for insights and ideas, facts and fancies, profound thought, and light-hearted whimsy. (There is a bit of luxury thrown in, of course: this is the land of Versailles, after all, and luxury is big business in Paris.)

We spend 85 percent of our budget directly on journalists and journalism to ensure a high standard of editorial output each month.

So far, Reporting from Paris has been free. Now we find it’s time to introduce paid subscriptions to allow us to provide additional content – including some premium content, behind a paywall, offering subscribers the opportunity to interact with journalists, watch longer VIP video interviews, attend bespoke activities such as lectures or cooking classes…and perhaps live events in Paris itself.

This part is up to you: what would you like to see from us? And would you consider supporting us? There’s no immediate demand for money. You can pledge here to see your options. And please contact us directly should you have questions, need more information, or want to share some feedback.

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Shellie Karabell has spent more than 40 years in broadcast journalism as a news executive, anchor, producer, and field reporter in her native USA, Europe, the USSR/Russia and the Middle East for ABC/WTN, PBS, Dow Jones Broadcast, CNBC, and Forbes.com. She has covered some of the major news events of the 20^th century: the release of the American hostages from Iran in 1981; the collapse of the Berlin Wall (1989); civil wars in Lebanon (1983) and Yugoslavia (1991-92), and USSR/Russia (1986- present). She is currently VP of the Anglo American Press Association of Paris (President 2022-2025).

More jobs, increased appeal, economic development: the Olympic vision for Seine-Saint-Denis was glowing. Just five days before the Games began, the mayor of the Parisian suburb of Saint-Ouen, Socialist Karim Bouamrane, called that vision “a particle accelerator.”

As the Games got underway, expectations were high among the government, local elected officials, and economic stakeholders.

Today, Bouamrane claims the vision has been at least partially fulfilled. The Olympics, he tells Reporting from Paris, “accelerated projects that would have taken much longer: the arrival of Metro Line 14 [in Saint-Denis], the transformation and beautification of public spaces, and new facilities for better public services.”

Pinned Hopes

Seine-Saint-Denis is France’s poorest department: more than one in four residents lives below the poverty line (on less than 1,200 euros per month). The municipality of Saint-Ouen and other towns in the region pinned their hopes on the Olympic and Paralympic Games to improve substandard housing (accounting for at least 15 percent of the private housing stock, according to the préfecture) and boost public transport facilities.

Among them is the famous Olympic Village and its 2,800 housing units built across three municipalities: Saint-Ouen, Saint-Denis, and L’Île-Saint-Denis. After hosting nearly 15,000 athletes and support staff during the Games, 25 percent of these units were earmarked for public housing. The rest were intended for resale after the event.

However, in its report of March 23, 2026, the regional chamber of the Court of Auditors expressed concern about the lack of buyers for these units. The main reason? The price per square meter – around 7,000 euros – was considered too high for the department, where the average is less than 4,000 euros. Olympics aside, property prices here have been rising in recent years: the search for affordable accommodation in Paris has brought gentrification even to areas like Seine-Saint-Denis, putting long-term residents at a disadvantage.

Future Vision

Bouamrane takes the longer view. He believes that “the renovation and rehabilitation of 1,800 housing units in two historic neighborhoods of Saint-Ouen through the ANRU (the National Agency for Urban Renovation) with a budget of 350 million euros, as well as the planned move there of the DGSI [Homeland Security] in 2029, and the future major Paris Cité university hospital campus – which is expected to have 12,500 medical students by 2030 – all these large-scale projects have helped accelerate the town’s development.”

He claims that the Games actually supported a momentum that was already underway. “As early as 2020, we had launched major projects to improve the lives of Saint-Ouen’s residents,” explains Bouamrane, referring to the year of his first election. (He was re-elected in March 2026 with 56.44 percent of the vote and has declared his candidacy in next year’s French presidential elections.)

In the neighboring town of Saint-Denis, locals now get to enjoy a very concrete legacy of the Games, as the only permanent Olympic venue built from scratch, the Aquatic Center, opened to the public last summer. The center was specially designed for a variety of water sports and other activities, with the express intention of making it public-friendly for after the Olympic and Paralympic Games. That includes keeping the entrance fee lower than many other Paris municipal pools. As well as four pools, the center houses paddle tennis courts, a climbing wall, and a gym.

Mixed Perceptions

While the region’s image and accessibility may be improved today, the reality is mixed. Following the Games, the independent institution responsible for overseeing French public spending commended the Olympic organization for its management while noting modest economic benefits, with 293 million euros in revenue. Residents of the region, however, expected more, and sooner: an economic boom following the billions in Olympic investment. But the disparity was evident from the start.

Just nine percent of direct hires for the Olympic and Paralympic Games lived in Seine-Saint-Denis, resulting in only modest short-term gains for residents.

Two years later, Bouamrane remains optimistic about what he calls “shared progress.” He insists that “the true legacy of the Games will be measured over the long term – through quality of life, economic appeal, and the opportunities created for the residents of Saint-Ouen and Seine-Saint-Denis.”

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Nadia Henni-Moulaï is a political journalist, novelist, and professor of journalism at the IEJ and CFPJ in Paris, as well as a professor of literature. A specialist in Franco-Algerian relations, she is a regular commentator on France24 and contributes frequently to French and international media such as France Info, Le Monde, and Middle East Eye. She is the author of several books on French Muslims and the Algerian war, publishes on Substack, and has recently launched Faktuel, an independent political podcast.

Where exactly is the center of Paris?

QUESTION 2

What is the narrowest street in Paris?

QUESTION 3

When was the Jardin des Plantes founded?

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“Our house is on fire!” shouts an anti-data center protestor outside a local council meeting. “And Microsoft and Mulhouse metropolitan council are fanning the flames!”

The house-fire analogy is coincidental – the protest in question took place in June, weeks before France’s July heatwave produced the country’s worst-ever period of wildfires – but all the more ominous for it. Supporters of the “IA pas moyen !” (“No Way, AI!”) community collective in the Haut-Rhin region in eastern France reckon the spread of data center construction projects is equally out of control and needs, well, hosing back.

Similar grassroots protest groups are forming up and down the country, wherever a new data center construction project is announced or is already underway. They have been winning support from national lobbying organizations such as the Confédération Paysanne (Countryside Confederation) as well as a fairly broad range of political groups from the Écologistes to the Socialist Party.

Data centers are not popular in France, it seems. But is it all just a case of “Nimby-ism” – Not In My Back Yard – by which people are happy to make use of innovative digital technology on their doorstep as long as the physical infrastructure is built somewhere else?

Is it Too Late to Stop?

It’s not as if large data-handling locations are anything new. Warehouse-like data houses have been proliferating hand-in-hand with the development of cloud computing. These virtual platforms need somewhere physical to exist: computer chips, memory, cables, and so on, all secured with the kind of in-real-life protection you might expect of a gold reserve. There are more than 350 data centers already in France, with some 200 in the Île-de-France region alone.

The real game changer is Artificial Intelligence. AI demands not just unimaginably vast quantities of data but also far greater processing power than mere cloud computing. AI platforms need dedicated data centers of their own: bigger, better, and exponentially more resource-intensive.

France’s biggest live data center – currently, at least – is Paris Digital Park situated in La Courneuve to the east of the impoverished Saint-Denis area of greater Paris. Occupying 40,000 square meters over four stories, it houses some 630,000 servers and 5,000km of cabling. It looks part-fortress, part-spaceship.

To maintain 24-hour operation, the site gobbles up 130 megawatts (MW) of electricity. This is about the same consumption as the entire southern city of Perpignan. To prevent the servers from overheating, its cooling system gulps through 50 million liters of water each year; enough to fill 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

And yet, despite the threat of another 300-plus new data centers to be constructed across the country over the next few years, the pushback remains highly localized rather than national. Local people feel that AI data centers have crept up on them unannounced and accuse government decision-makers of forcing projects through behind their backs.

Their complaints are starting to be heard. On July 10^th, the Grenoble administrative court suspended the building permit for a new 40-80MW data center in Alixan, a village of fewer than 3,000 inhabitants, citing the risk “of causing harmful effects on the environment.” Apparently, no environmental impact study had been carried out before Alixan’s mayor granted the building permit. A spokesperson for the local campaign group called the application “clearly illegal.”

Similar grumblings were expressed when an even bigger 1.4 gigawatt (GW) “Campus IA” project was recently given the go-ahead in Fouju, a hamlet of just 700 people, within the Melun district of the Seine-et-Marne department east of Paris. In the center of the country, the possibility of a major project in Châteauroux was warmly received by its mayor, who then had to backtrack when locals launched a petition demanding a moratorium on the construction of large data centers in the area.

Macron: “Plug, Baby, Plug”

Such objections are a far cry from the generally positive reception just over 18 months ago when President Macron pitched France as an “Eldorado” for AI business. Speaking in English at the AI Action Summit in Paris in February 2025, he mocked his American counterpart’s “Drill, baby, drill” slogan by proposing a French alternative: “Plug, baby, plug.”

Investors took the hint: France has an extensive network of nuclear power stations, so connecting newly built data centers to a reliable and affordable power grid is virtually guaranteed. Detractors claim that gifting these companies cheap electricity raises the risk of shortages or even power cuts for everyone else in the locality, not to mention rising prices resulting from competing demand. Environmentalists decry such a waste of energy spent on (in their view, largely unnecessary) AI.

The use of water as a coolant is more contentious, for both sides. Local protestors express fears that data centers will dry up their rivers and squeeze what remains of the precarious water table in drought years. Data center builders point out that their cooling systems rely on clean water only. Environmentalists decry such a waste of clean water.

There is more than electricity and water at stake, say protestors. Data centers are supposed to be built on brown-field sites but that is no guarantee that this happens. The project at Mulhouse, for example, will be spread across 40 hectares (almost 100 acres) of agricultural land, a quarter of which is dedicated to organic farming.

AI Companies Fight Back – Nicely

Investors in AI infrastructure building are responding to the darkening mood among municipal voters by trying to pre-empt objections, to counter misinformation, and to foster good faith by at least engaging with local inhabitants.

Google itself invited locals to a meeting at its Waltham Cross data center in Hertfordshire, in the UK, at the end of July. Residents complained about the lighting being on all night; Google promised to address this. Campaigners complained about the water usage; Google explained that it uses a closed-loop system that condenses and re-uses the water rather than just letting it evaporate.

If such solutions can already be found, say campaigners, why don’t all data centers apply them? The same goes for energy consumption: even Elon Musk reckons that server farms should be covered with solar panels so that they can at least generate a little bit of their own electricity. Then again, he also thinks they should be floating in high orbit – who knows, possibly communicating with Earth via laser.

In the meantime, campaigners have been disappointed by the National Assembly’s six-month inquiry into the country’s IT infrastructure. Delivered at the beginning of July, the report concentrates on the economic benefit of achieving digital sovereignty, which would include the building of French-owned and French-controlled data centers. However, it admits that, due to time constraints, it did not examine the environmental impacts of data centers.

The hope is that France’s urgency to achieve digital independence from the US tech giants will not brush aside the environmental concerns of its own citizens. But with opposition to data center projects on the rise, it’s clear that local people are not waiting around to find out.

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Alistair Dabbs is a freelance journalist, photographer, and media-tech trainer based in Montpellier, France, having spent 30+ years working on magazines and newspapers in London. He has also talked about technology on TV and radio, performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, and was executive producer on an album of live jazz rock. His satirical publication Autosave is for Wimps is a Substack Bestseller. Alistair heads the Paris branch of the National Union of Journalists of UK & Ireland.

“Paris is always a good idea.”

The phrase is often associated with (though apparently not said by) Audrey Hepburn in the 1954 movie, Sabrina, thanks to her unique connection with the City of Light.

Millions of people around the world would agree. Some of them live in Paris; some of those are journalists and correspondents – like us, who know and see and understand the city in a different way. We have witnessed it grow and change and develop into a modern European leader and a world-class capital in business, politics, and defense, as well as a beacon in the three Cs: culture, couture, and cuisine.

At the same time, we have seen the news business morph into something less: less reliable, less well-financed, with fewer journalists. Many of those who have been jettisoned from newsrooms have resurfaced with bespoke online news platforms. Worthy undertakings but solo performances can only go so far.

We believe there is more to be gained for journalists, news consumers, and the future of real journalism by coming together to launch tailor-made online magazines – such as this one: Reporting from Paris. With real news and real analysis by real journalists.

Most of us are members of the Anglo-American Press Association of Paris. Founded in 1907, it is the oldest foreign press association in France. Most of us have been here for many decades and have worked for a variety of English-language publications and broadcast outlets: Associated Press, CBS News, the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNBC, PBS, ABC News, Dow Jones, and more.

We aim to reach a global English-speaking audience who have an affinity for and more than a passing knowledge of Paris. We’re not aiming at an audience focused on luxury but on passion: for insights and ideas, facts and fancies, profound thought, and light-hearted whimsy. (There is a bit of luxury thrown in, of course: this is the land of Versailles, after all, and luxury is big business in Paris.)

We’re starting out with the support of a wise investor who believes a new, online model for the dissemination of news and information is the future. Substack as a platform is free to use and wonderfully manageable. This makes it possible to spend most of our budget on journalists and journalism to ensure a high standard of editorial output.

We’ll be circulating Reporting from Paris gratis, every month. Eventually, we will introduce a paywall for some content – the kind of long-form content that costs more to produce. And to add more free stories and freelance contributors.

We hope this first edition finds a place in your busy day, and we look forward to your comments.

Sincerely,

Shellie Karabell has spent more than 40 years in broadcast journalism as a news executive, anchor, producer, and field reporter in her native USA, Europe, the USSR/Russia and the Middle East for ABC/WTN, PBS, Dow Jones Broadcast, CNBC, and Forbes.com. She has covered some of the major news events of the 20^th century: the release of the American hostages from Iran in 1981; the collapse of the Berlin Wall (1989); civil wars in Lebanon (1983) and Yugoslavia (1991-92), and USSR/Russia (1986- present). She is currently VP of the Anglo American Press Association of Paris (President 2022-2025).

Holiday gatherings – what is the first word that springs to mind? For me, it’s… “la bouffe.”

La bouffe refers to eating or a meal, but it’s best avoided until your French is so good, you know exactly when and where it can be used.

I write this from experience. Shortly after marrying my French husband, I complimented my mother-in-law on a particularly delicious repast with the following phrase: “On a bien bouffé. C’était délicieux.”

The last sentence was fine, but the first one almost put her into a faint. When she recovered, she gently explained (beginning with her affectionate “ah, ma petite fille…”) that bouffe is more akin to grub or chow. If you want to thank your host for a wonderful meal, she said, replace the inelegant bouffe with “On a bien diné.” Or, better still, “Nous avons passé une soirée délicieuse” (or “formidable” or “très agréable”), which covers it all.

Of course, people say “bouffe” all the time. My mother-in-law was simply trying to keep me from making a fool of myself by using the word in the wrong phrase and the wrong context.

As time went by, my mother-in-law taught me innumerable things, not only about the subtleties of French vocabulary and usage but also about the making and serving of five-course meals and what to do and how to act if and when invited to dinner in a French home.

Navigating the French Kitchen

I could have landed in a French family where nobody much cared about food (does that exist? Yes…) or where a cook prepared the meals (wouldn’t that be nice…).

Mais non.

For my husband’s grandmother, mother, aunts, and sister, cooking is second nature. And with nary a recipe book in sight.

I will never forget the first time I watched my chic Parisian sister-in-law in the kitchen of the family country house. Dressed in a silk outfit and high heels, she scurried around tasting what was cooking (I think it was a sauté de veau), prepared a vinaigrette and made a salad, laid out a sumptuous cheese plate, and checked on the pie she had made that was cooking in the oven. The kicker is… that she didn’t wear an apron! To this day, she never wears an apron! And never gets a spot!

When you’re up against a kitchen in which all the women are chatting and cooking family specialties you know nothing about – and on top of that you are not wearing an apron – there are only two solutions: give up or get on board.

I got on board.

The Pomme de Terre Affair

Rather than feel sorry for myself (you know, I’m just an American klutz who knows nothing, boo hoo…), I began to hang out in the kitchen and watch the ladies doing this and that. Occasionally, I would be assigned to cut vegetables or some such subaltern task. But even then… As my mother-in-law watched me peel potatoes one day, she observed: “I see that you’ve never lived through a war.” (No, indeed I had not, but she had and never forgot the deprivation).

Speaking of war, that remark could easily have sparked off a mother-in-law/daughter-in-law guerre, but I decided not to go there. (Wise move: I now know how to peel a potato and leave some potato).

And, oh, the things I learned in that kitchen. As I wrote in French Toast, the cleaning of vegetables was an obsession. One had to cut the pithy green inside the carrots. As for tomatoes: my mother-in-law peeled them and then gently squeezed out the seeds. (I tried – it looked like an axe murder).

My husband inherited her manie, so guess who prepares all the lettuce salads in our home? He inspects the salad leaf by leaf, making sure that no insects or dirt are present. He washes each leaf one by one, then rips them to edible size. And, bless his artistic French heart, he would never let a boiled potato out of the kitchen unless it had a bit of parsley sprinkled on it. As for eating potatoes with their skins, no way. “Only hogs eat potato skins,” he declares.

I could go on and on (and did in French Toast) but suffice it to say that all the time watching my in-laws in the kitchen paid off. It took a few years to do it easily, but the day arrived when I could put together and serve a decent five-course French meal!

Rules of Engagement

Concurrently – and here’s where you, dear reader, come in – I learned many valuable French table rules to apply when I was the guest, not the host.

There were lots of them. Casual gatherings with old friends weren’t a problem. The social French dinner party, though, can be a real killer for a novice. I know from experience: I attended many of them throughout my husband’s career. But the rules apply at home as well, and to make sure that things haven’t changed radically since our day, I ran the following list past my son and his wife and their teenagers. I thought they might make fun of me and say that all that was in the Dinosaur Days. Instead, they nodded their heads in agreement on every single point.

So, here are a few tips on what not to do at a French dinner table.

DON’T

• Show up on time. If the host says 8pm and you are there at 8pm, walk around the block. 8:15pm is perfect. Why? The hour given is an indication, but no French (or Parisian) host actually expects people on time.

• Expect to visit the apartment or house. Unless invited to do so, forget it. The French, like the English, believe that a man’s house is his castle. And they want people, including their guests, to penetrate only so far into their intimacy.

• Bring chrysanthemums or carnations. The former is for funerals; the latter supposedly bring bad luck.

• Offer a bottle of wine. Why? Your hosts have gone to a lot of trouble to make a meal in which the wine and the food are harmonious. If you arrive with a bottle for them to open and serve, you’re throwing off their plans. Better to bring a bottle of whiskey or a digestif like Cointreau.

• Get up to help in the kitchen (unless you offer to help and the host accepts). Why? The host or hostess knows his or her role, which is to direct the show. Your role as guest is to stay at the table and be sociable. Plus, most French kitchens are tiny. Not to mention the possibility of boo-boos. On one occasion, early on, I trekked back to the kitchen of a French friend and dumped what I thought was a bowl of water into the sink. Turns out it was the syrup for her fruit salad. She was not happy. To keep out of trouble, remain seated!

• Get up from the table (to go to the bathroom, or other) unless it’s an emergency. Très impoli. (And this was confirmed by my teenage granddaughters who wouldn’t even conceive of doing so.)

• Pick up the wine bottle and serve yourself. Très vulgaire. The host is supposed to serve the guests. And if it doesn’t happen? You kind of swish the remaining wine in your glass around and hope they will look your way.

• Announce your allergies. If you have a serious, life-threatening allergy, you must of course warn your host when invited – not when you are already there.

• Talk about money. Films, books, and concerts, current events, and even sex, religion, and politics are okay as long as you keep it light.

• Say “Bon appétit.” The worst. My husband cringes when I do (or did) this. He says it’s démodé (old-fashioned) or redneck. Ouch. So, what are you supposed to say? Nothing!

DO

• In spite of all of the above, relax! Foreigners get a pass (until they have lived in France for so long that they should know better).

Bon appétit !

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Harriet Welty Rochefort grew up in the American Midwest, came to France via freighter after college, and stayed. A freelance journalist, professor of journalism and author of several books about Franco-American cultural differences, she lives in Paris with her French husband, Philippe. She is a member of the Anglo-American Press Association of Paris. You can find her writing on Substack at harrietinparis.substack.com

Humans aren’t the only victims of this summer’s suffocating heatwaves. The high temperatures in June, which reached 40°C (over 100°F) in Paris, occurred during peak breeding season for many birds and animals, overwhelming wildlife rescue centers around France. Dehydration, overheated juvenile gulls, baby birds falling from their nests in search of fresh air, heat stress, and burned mammal paws were just some of the cases treated. The influx became even more overwhelming when a second heatwave hit in July, with rescue centers still looking after patients from June suddenly facing a fresh deluge of new arrivals.

At one rescue center, the normal daily intake of 30-50 animals swelled to 130 during the June heatwave, as noted by Céline Grisot of Faune Alfort speaking in this video from BFMTV. According to the LPO (Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux), climate change and the resulting heatwaves accounted for more than 14 percent of the 20,000 animals taken in by LPO care centers last year – and 80 percent were birds.

Especially hard hit are nesting swallows and swifts, whose mud nests tucked under roof tiles experience extreme and often lethal temperatures. If it’s 40℃ in the city, their nests can reach 60℃; flightless chicks reaching for air tumble to the ground. Rescue centers throughout France, such as the LPO center in Aquitaine, were inundated with hundreds of chicks that required feeding every few hours.

All Wildlife is Affected

Distress from suffocating heat isn’t limited to birds. Scorching roads burn the paws of mammals such as foxes (and domestic dogs) whose fur coats trap heat; shade and water are essential. Hedgehogs and small rodents dehydrate easily, and the insects they eat disappear underground where it’s cooler in hot, dry weather.

High temperatures decrease oxygen in water and can also cause heat stress, reproductive disruption, and even mass die-offs of fish. Many insects and amphibians won’t survive if their ponds dry up.

Some animals are affected in unexpected ways. Nocturnal bats, whose daytime sleeping roosts normally thermoregulate themselves, will flee their roosts during the day to escape the scorching heat, exposing them to dehydration, overheating, and predation. Snakes and reptiles may be forced to hunt at night when it’s cooler, only to find their prey is nowhere to be found.

Catastrophic Wildfires

And that’s not to mention the devastating wildfires that have wreaked havoc on both plant and animal life. At the time of writing, wildfires continues to rage in France, Spain, and Italy, with nearly 98,000 hectares (242,000 acres) destroyed in France since the start of the year, placing humans, as well as domestic and wild animals, in danger.

Some owners of domestic animals are releasing them from confinement so they can flee the fires – as seen in this video from an equestrian center in Biscarrosse. But many wild animals cannot escape fast-moving fires.

Ground dwelling or burrowing animals such as hedgehogs and foxes, along with young mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and nesting birds, are the most vulnerable. If able to escape, surviving wildlife may suffer from burn injuries, smoke inhalation, confusion, and food loss, or be taken as prey while fleeing the fire. They can also be displaced with no habitat left to which they can return.

Cascading Effects

According to the Observatoire National sur les Effets du Réchauffement Climatique (ONERC), there are also potential long-term effects for wildlife when heatwaves occur regularly – and especially during breeding season. Extreme heat may cause adults to abandon their young; juvenile birds and animals may leave the nests prematurely.

Successful breeding can be disrupted in other ways, too. For example, Skylarks, whose first broods are often destroyed by early agricultural mowing, may not be able to renest during a heatwave, thus losing an entire breeding season.

Meanwhile, plants and trees, losing the ability to photosynthesize, often do not survive frequent heatwaves. Extreme heat can also disrupt when flowers bloom and therefore the pollination of plants and crops. If insects and flowers are out of synch, there is diminished availability of insects – a critical food source for many birds and animals when they need it most while raising their young.

Taking Measures

There are, however, some simple things to mitigate destruction during a heatwave – and these can make a huge difference to a heat-stressed bird or animal.

A top priority is access to water. Placing shallow dishes of fresh water on the ground, with a flat stone in the dish for perching, creates a place where butterflies, small birds, and animals can drink or bathe without drowning. Easy access to water eliminates an otherwise long, exhausting, and often dangerous search.

In addition, creating shaded or cool spots by delaying the trimming of grass, trees, or plants mid-season can offer respite for overheated animals. Similarly, planting native plants and trees can provide welcome refuge while also improving biodiversity.

Some animals may need professional treatment, but knowing basic care for animals suffering from the heat can be a lifesaver. The LPO offers helpful information, including how to safely hydrate birds, and The British Hedgehog Preservation Society has advice on helping hedgehogs.

In terms of the wildfires, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has useful advice on how to protect domestic animals and help wildlife. Also, the LPO offers guidance on what to do if you find injured wildlife – and, here in Paris, it has set up a special unit for distressed wildlife in the wake of the Fontainebleau fires.

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Deborah Rivel is an award-winning wildlife filmmaker; co-author of bird-finding book Birdwatching in New York City and on Long Island and owner of streaming nature sounds WildTones.com. She serves on the Audubon CT/NY and Friends of BirdLife International boards, and on the BirdLife Advisory Group, and founded a volunteer group which monitors beach-nesting birds. Deb travels extensively photographing birds and wildlife, and works to engage and inspire people to experience and protect nature.

When the French formalized the right to paid vacation in 1936, little did Léon Blum’s Popular Front government know they were enacting a cultural revolution that would have lasting repercussions. National law extended the initial two weeks of congés payés to three weeks in 1956, four in 1969, and five in 1982.

Over the course of 90 years, most French people have learned to build their work schedules around their congés payés. Nowhere is that more evident than in Paris, whose residents tend to flee the City of Light in the summer. In the peak vacation period, from Bastille Day on July 14^th to Assumption Day on August 15^th, the urban pace slows to a crawl.

More decades ago than I care to admit, The Wall Street Journal published a story I co-authored under the title, “Don’t Even Bother Trying to Do Things as France Vacations.” In it, my bureau chief and I lamented the fact that everything – including Berthillon, the best ice cream maker in Paris – was closed in the summer. Hot and hungry patrons had to turn to less luscious alternatives.

Hellooo… Anyone There?

Berthillon wasn’t alone: at that time, even public swimming pools were closed, as were many shops and restaurants, doctors’ and dentists’ practices, and pharmacies. Offices operated with a skeletal staff, and some French media outlets stopped publishing altogether as their teams took a large proportion of their annual vacation. Much of that is still true now.

Even today, public services adopt summer hours. As of August 3^rd, my local post office is closed on Mondays as well as Sundays, and its weekday hours run from 10am to 6pm, compared with 8am to 7pm the rest of the year. Same for my local pharmacy, which is open from 9am to 12:30pm and then from 4:30pm to 6:30pm, versus 8am to 8pm in normal times.

My local bank branch and bakery, as well as the butcher, flower, and fancy pastry shops, are all closed for three to four weeks. Luckily, these services post their summer hours in advance so we can plan ahead.

There’s Always the Paris Beach

Granted, I live in a residential neighborhood. The more touristy areas of Paris remain mostly open for business. Also, since that WSJ article, City Hall has made efforts to make Paris livelier for summer visitors.

Each year, since 2002, it brings in everything from palm trees and parasols to deckchairs to create “Paris Plages” (“Paris Beaches”) along the banks of the Seine and other waterways. Last year, it opened three areas of the river to swimmers – especially welcome with the increasing number of intense heatwaves.

Plus, rekindling memories of the Paris 2024 Olympics, the “Vasque” is back in the Tuileries Garden until mid-September. Weather permitting, this 30-meter-tall helium balloon that was the Olympic Flame is visible each evening from sunset.

While the main Berthillon shop is still closed (until September 1^st), a number of retailers on the Île Saint-Louis and elsewhere that stock its ice cream and sorbets remain open. In a country that has been slow to adopt air conditioning, this is already a measure of progress.

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Lorie Teeter Lichtlen is a Paris-based journalist and ghostwriter. Her work has been published in outlets including Air Mail, The Wall Street Journal, W Magazine, Women’s Wear Daily, and Newsweek. She also shares her quirky insights into life in France via her own Substack at Little Lights on Rosa Happiness Street. Lorie is a member of the Anglo-American Press Association of Paris.

The US and France each have a distinct national language, but they treat them in disparate ways. France is enormously protective of its mother tongue, while the US – a country of immigrants, where hundreds of languages are spoken – has never officially put English in that category.

For the French, preserving their national language is paramount. In a recent report from the Ministry of Culture, department minister Catherine Pégard noted that French is the fourth most spoken language in the world. It is now spoken by 365 million people, including citizens of the French overseas territories, according to the report.

“French is a living language and one that evolves,” Pégard added. “It must remain as a bridge between cultures and generations. It’s up to us to make sure that it thrives.”

To ensure that this happens, various organizations are devoted to the task, including the august Académie Française. One of the five constituent academies of the Institut de France, it is responsible for promulgating the French language – and famously creating its dictionaries at the pace of an escargot. In the meantime, the Académie keeps pace in other ways, offering tips on correct usage via its website.

One thing is certain, the French language – taught rigorously, beginning in the country’s 42,000 primary schools – is a matter of enormous national pride. As some of us know firsthand, it takes work to learn to speak it correctly. Many of its verb tenses – hello, imperfect subjunctive! – are notoriously difficult, at least for foreign adopters. Not to mention such grammatical booby traps as the ne explétif, a two-letter word some erudite francophones use as a kind of fillip to improve the rhythm of a sentence.

And then there are those nasty interlopers – the faux amis! Fake friends that leap from one language into another, diabolically changing their meaning as they go. These treacherous, so-called allies confuse foreigners learning French.

Preserving the Mother Tongue

As for the French themselves, they have other things to worry about – notably incursions into their sacred mother tongue. Back in 1994, the country passed the Toubon law – named for Jacques Toubon, then the country’s Minister of Culture – who was adamant in his campaign to de-English his native language.

His law required that French be used in teaching, at work, and in the country’s official government publications, as well as in some advertising. It also, rather grandly, promised to safeguard “the right to the French Language” for that country’s citizens. Some time-honored Englishisms, such as “le week-end,” got a pass as, eventually, did such Silicon Valleyisms as “dot-com” and “start-up.”

America, in its own way, also takes a pedagogic approach to its own language. The United States Department of State, for example, offers an excellent website that focuses on “teaching and learning about American English and American culture.” Even so, the US – notably multicultural – takes a more nuanced approach than the top-down one favored by the French.

Back when the US Constitution was ratified in 1790, America’s population spoke many languages beyond English, including Spanish, Dutch, German, and multiple indigenous ones spoken by native tribes. Many others have been added in the centuries since. While English is the most dominant of these, it wasn’t until Presidential Executive Order 14224, signed March 1, 2025, that it was declared the official language of the country’s federal agencies.

“Wait, what?” you may ask. You’re not alone. Many Americans hardly registered this development, which seemed to reflect the Trump administration’s wary approach towards immigrants.

Some organizations, such as the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) disapproved, noting that 67 million Americans speak a language other than English in the home. “While there is little doubt that English proficiency is valuable for communication and economic opportunity,” an ACTFL statement read, “policies that formally elevate one language at the expense of others fail to recognize the rich linguistic diversity that has long been a strength of our nation.”

Trump’s Executive Order is not law, has only limited power, and can be repealed by subsequent administrations. So, is English actually the official language of the United States? The correct answer just may be... maybe. It is at least the *lingua franca.

Word on the Street

Meanwhile, dismaying verbal tics keep hitchhiking their way into American English. Words like “you know” and such hateful locutions as the word “like” dropped into the beginning of sentences. “Like, you know,” etc., etc. Not to mention obscenities, which you rarely, if ever, hear in normal conversation in France. In the US, and even in its media, the “F word” and its unpleasant relatives seem to float in the air, carrying a distinct feeling of ambient hostility along with them.

So, there are far worse linguistic crimes than the dreaded faux amis. In fact, these seem tame in comparison. No one, after all, has been injured by incorrectly using the French verb “injurer” – which to anglophone ears sounds like causing physical harm, while to native speakers it just means insulting them with words.

Proper English itself, on the other hand, looks increasingly vulnerable to both insult and to injury. It definitely seems in need of some TLC. Perhaps it’s time to take a few lessons from the French?

*Lingua franca: A language that is adopted as a common language among speakers whose native languages are different.

Penelope Rowlands is a journalist and the author of six books. She learned persnickety French – up to and including the dreaded ne explétif – at the Paris flagship of the Alliance Française. For more about her work, follow her on LinkedIn or visit her website here. Penelope is a member of the Anglo-American Press Association of Paris.

Nationwide, a perfect storm has hit French wine, with many legacy wineries struggling with severe commercial, climate, and geopolitical crises. But it’s by no means all doom and gloom. On the contrary, the most ambitious wine bars and restaurants have become international destinations, while buyers from Japan and the United States are willing to pay record-high sums for artisan natural wines.

Anyone who still thinks that French wine culture is dying should try to get a table at a decent, wine-forward restaurant in eastern Paris – say, Le Baratin or Lissit – come the latter part of the week. On a recent Thursday evening, the crowds outside the wine bar Cave Canaille, in the 11^th arrondissement, spilled out into the street. Buses and vespas honked their way past vast swaths of mostly young customers who ignored the sweltering heat to enjoy macerated Alsatian Riesling and chilled Loire Gamay.

Emerging New Trends

Today, artisanal wine makers, from the hills of Languedoc to the mountains of Ardèche, are producing radical wines with integrity and personality, attracting wine lovers from all over the world who increasingly plan entire vacations around France based on the regions they want to explore. Along the Canal Saint-Martin, arguably the social heart of contemporary Paris, summer evenings unfurl with hundreds of people sharing bottles of wine on the stone quays, legs dangling just above the murky water.

The crowds flocking to new wine bars and niche wine shops do not just reflect superficial trends, but rather a new golden era of eccentric French wine-making that coexists with the wider decline in the commercial wine industry, according to the author and wine critic Alicia Dorey.

“I think there has never been a better time to drink wine in France,” Dorey says when we meet at Willi’s Wine Bar in central Paris to make sense of these contradictions.

Dorey does not deny that the challenges facing the current wine industry are real. Overall, domestic wine consumption in France has nearly halved, from more than 40 million hectolitres in the 1970s to about 24 million now, according to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine. To address shrinking demand and overproduction, the French government has begun to permanently uproot more than 80,000 acres nationwide, with Bordeaux wineries representing almost half. Growers receive a grant per hectare with no replanting allowed for at least six years.

The Champagne region is in its third straight year of decline, and in Bordeaux, global exports have plummeted. More than 100,000 jobs could be at risk, according to FranceAgriMer. Why has overall demand fallen?

Consumer Tastes are Changing

Dorey mentions a generational change in which young people today are more concerned with the health effects of drinking alcohol. The heavy reds of Bordeaux have been hit particularly hard by this consumer shift. But there are also global factors involved. Internationally, wine consumption fell to a 60-year low in 2024.

For many decades, China was a major buyer of expensive Bordeaux and Burgundy. But since the country launched a big nationwide anti-corruption campaign, many local officials, once the biggest spenders on French legacy estates, tend now to be in jail or relieved of their expense accounts. According to Wine Spectator, Bordeaux exports to China have fallen from 72 million cases to under 22 million in just a few years.

The globalization of the premium wine market has also exposed French legacy producers to more international competition, where great wines can often be found for lower prices. But much of the decline in French domestic drinking is also due to the fact that wine is no longer drunk like water at the French dining table.

People are more likely to make informed decisions on what to drink now, and this hurts the mass producers of cheap box wines in Bordeaux or Provence, while it actually helps many of the artisan wine makers who work with integrity and passion to create unique wines with strong personalities. In a way, Dorey suggests, we are seeing a shift from quantity to quality.

This can result in a number of increasingly absurd contradictions in French wine culture. While legacy wineries in Bordeaux and Champagne suffer through existential crises, cult wine makers and distributors in Bourgogne and Loire can “drive around in Lamborghinis,” says Dorey. Their sales have grown in tandem with increased demand from wine nerds in Tokyo, Copenhagen, and California, who crave sought-after natural wines from makers like Overnoy and Ganevat over legacy brands.

The shift is also visible in domestic wine auctions. Whereas organic and biodynamic wines make up only two percent of French wine production, they now account for almost a third of sales at French auctions, according to iDealwine’s Auction Barometer. This shift in demand has not just changed the progressive wine bars of eastern Paris but also many legacy institutions around the country.

Funky vs Conventional

“At one point, you had this huge split between very extreme, funky, natural wine and the very conventional ones with a lot of chemicals and chaptalization [added sugar to increase the alcohol content],” Dorey continues. “But now, there is a kind of convergence between the two worlds. The funky wines understand that they might need to make more straight, clean wines, as people become more knowledgeable about wine. But the most conservative, conventional wine makers also understand that chemicals and pesticides are not the future.”

This is noticeable in many of the more renowned restaurants and wine cellars in Paris, where sommeliers have embraced more radical, organic wines.

“There is a new generation of sommelier now,” Dorey explains. “For instance, the sommelier of Le Bristol – they have a huge wine list – and when he arrived, he said, ‘Oh, in 10 years, half of the cellar will be natural wines.’ But he knows that it’s not like funky people at Le Bristol, so he has very straightforward, very delicate, nice natural wines.”

Americans also play a surprisingly benevolent role in this shift, Dorey says. While you can still find the stereotypical, culturally ignorant American tourist in certain parts of Paris, the city also attracts an increasing amount of well-informed American consumers who deliberately seek out progressive, ambitious wine bars, far from the obvious tourist traps.

The owner of a popular wine-focused restaurant in Belleville tells me that whenever someone calls to make a reservation several weeks in advance, she assumes they are Americans. Parisians tend to be more spontaneous with their dining choices, whereas an increasing number of American visitors plan their entire trips around wine cellars, choosing hotels based on the neighborhood dining and drinking scene.

These customers don’t just bring much-needed revenue to more adventurous wine makers in France, they increasingly shape the currents of the whole wine market. Knowledgeable and passionate American wine nerds have already reshaped the wine culture in New York and California to a point where they also shape the trends for the French wine scene.

“I visit New York at least twice a year, and the wine culture there is just amazing now,” adds Dorey. “They increasingly set the trends that arrive in France one or two years later.”

Thomas Jefferson and French Wine

Of course, the American love affair with French wine goes back to the dawn of the founding of their republics.

The famously francophile Thomas Jefferson sustained an extensive correspondence with French wineries, including the esteemed Beaune wine merchant Étienne Parent, who guided him through Burgundy and became his personal wine buyer. After serving as the minister to France in 1785-1789, Jefferson became particularly fond of Meursault and Montrachet, Chambertin and Volnay. He personally visited many of the venerable Bordeaux wineries and often kept cases of Château d’Yquem in his cellar at Monticello, non-controversially calling it “the best white wine of France.” At one point, Jefferson ordered 250 bottles of the allegedly great 1784 vintage.

The convivial Benjamin Franklin fittingly preferred champagne and sparkling mousseux, and once wrote, possibly after a couple of glasses, that every rainfall over the vineyards of France was “a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy.”

Martin Gelin worked as a US correspondent for European media for two decades and moved to Paris in 2024. He writes regularly for Dagens Nyheter and The Guardian, and lectures globally on soft power and geopolitics. His new book, Rules of Attraction: Why Soft Power Matters in Hard Times, will be published in more than 20 countries in 2027. He is President of the Anglo-American Press Association of Paris.

They include 19^th-century Venezuelan liberation leader Simón Bolívar; Algerian independence fighter Ahmed Ben Bella; and Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who lived briefly in the village of Neauphle-le-Château, to the west of Paris, before returning to spearhead Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.

But there was also the raft of early 20^th-century leftist activists who laid the foundations of Communist China and Russia. And the Black artists and intellectuals who spearheaded the Négritude movement, founded in Paris, ahead of a wave of colonial independence uprisings in Africa and other former colonies in the 1950s and ’60s.

Lessons of the Paris Commune

Paris was a magnet for many other leftist thinkers and agitators. This was where Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels met in 1844. Where Ho Chi Minh, the first president of North Vietnam, helped to found the French Communist Party in 1920. And where Cambodian revolutionary-turned-dictator Pol Pot studied in the early 1950s.

Many were influenced by the Paris Commune of 1871, a short-lived insurrection against the French government that was crushed in a bloody riposte.

“It was the first revolution of the proletariat, as Marx said,” says Paris tour guide and lecturer Thomas Stehlin. “It was a failure, but also a huge inspiration.”

The Commune also helped shape the thinking of Vladimir Lenin, who moved to Paris in December 1908, after exile in Siberia and stints in other European cities. He eventually settled in a small apartment in the 14^th arrondissement with his wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, and his mother-in-law – reportedly moving his mistress, Inessa Armand, into an apartment next door.

Lenin kept a low profile in Paris, studying, writing, and playing chess. He met with Leon Trotsky and other exiled Russians at local cafés, weaving through city traffic on a bicycle – a practical way to also duck Russian secret police.

“Life for these exiles wasn’t easy,” Stehlin says, “as about 40 members of the Czarist police were based in Rue de Grenelle [in the 7^th arrondissement].”

Lenin moved out of Paris in 1912. Five years later, he returned to Russia to lead the October Bolshevik Revolution.

“All the Russian revolutionaries left Paris in 1917,” says Serge Wolikow, historian and professor emeritus at the University of Burgundy. “And Russians who were against the revolution began to arrive here.”

Work, Study, and Revolt

Down a nondescript street off Place d’Italie, in the 13^th arrondissement, is a small plaque dedicated to a big figure: Zhou Enlai, who served as foreign minister and first premier of Communist China until his death in 1976.

In 1920, Zhou joined a wave of young Chinese heading to France and elsewhere in Europe as part of the “Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement” that offered an escape from a poor and war-ravaged country.

“They came to continue their studies,” says Li Jianle, owner of the Hôtel Neptune, where Zhou stayed for two years. “Zhou Enlai studied science and worked as a journalist.”

Zhou and his counterparts arrived in a country buffeted by civil unrest. “They observed the social fights, the strikes in France…” says Professor Wolikow at the University of Burgundy. “They discovered Marxist movements and leftist unions.”

Photos of Zhou line the wall outside Room 1 of Hôtel Neptune, where the future Chinese leader lived and worked, reportedly surviving on bread and water. The small room was even smaller during Zhou’s time, reveals hotel owner Li, barely fitting a bed and chair.

“With his comrades, Zhou published two newspapers,” he adds. “The second, called Youth, he did here.”

Zhou wrote the editorials, Li says. Other colleagues pitched in – including future Communist Party leader Deng Xiaoping, who commuted in from the French town of Montargis, more than 60 miles south of Paris, where he worked in a factory.

“Deng would stay Saturday evenings with Zhou Enlai [to work on the newspaper],” Li says. “He slept on the floor – there was no other bed.”

Zhou left the hotel in 1924 and headed home. He and Deng joined a revolution that would pave the way for the People’s Republic of China in 1949. “After he left France, he never returned,” Li says of Zhou.

A university professor, Li moved to Paris with his wife in the 1980s. They bought the hotel in 2001, after hearing about its history.

Today, it is a go-to attraction for many Chinese people. “At the beginning, it was Chinese people like me, from the old generation,” Li says. “But, increasingly, young Chinese are visiting. Which is a good thing. You can’t forget history.”

The Négritude Revolution

Paris attracted many other changemakers early last century, including the best and brightest youngsters from France’s colonies.

Among them were three African and Caribbean writers who met in Paris: Léopold Sédar Senghor from Senegal, Aimé Césaire from Martinique, and Léon-Gontran Damas from French Guiana. In the 1930s, they founded the groundbreaking Négritude movement, affirming Black identity and African culture, and rejecting European colonialism and racism.

“I think we can call it a revolution,” says Black activist Louis-Georges Tin, who co-founded the Representative Council of Black Associations (CRAN) in France. “It was about redefining North-South relations – and that rebalancing is beginning to happen, even if there are difficulties.”

In the 1940s and ’50s, Left Bank cafés became hubs of debate on Négritude – influenced also by the earlier Harlem Renaissance across the Atlantic in New York, and gathering some of the Black American artists and thinkers who had flocked to Paris. Not all Black intellectuals supported the movement, however, and Black French and Americans did not always see Paris – or France – the same way.

“Many Americans felt they were well received in Paris – and if you compare Alabama to the Latin Quarter in the 1950s, we could say Paris was much more open,” Tin says. “But the majority of Black French weren’t in France in the 1950s, they were in the colonies. And that comparison did not favor France.”

In 1956, the Sorbonne University hosted one of the most important meetings of Black intellectuals of the time, the First Congress of Black Writers and Artists. It was organized by Présence Africaine, a cultural, literary, and political magazine that continues today, along with its Left Bank bookstore and publishing house.

The 1950s and ’60s also saw a wave of independence movements in Africa and elsewhere. The three Négritude founders, later deputies in France’s National Assembly, earned success and acclaim.

Damas went on to become an academic and United Nations delegate. Senghor became independent Senegal’s first president, and the first African member of the Académie Française. Césaire, who became mayor of Martinique’s capital, Fort-de-France, turned to militancy in his writings.

Many believe Négritude has left an enduring footprint on culture, society, and politics, including the Black Lives Matter movement.

“For a Martiniquais like me, Négritude is everywhere,” Tin says of the French overseas department he hails from. “It was a cultural, family, and national immersion. It was a normal reference.”

These and other revolutionaries have left their mark on the French capital in myriad ways – captured in plaques, statues, bookstores, and cafés – and in politics and daily life thousands of miles away.

Even today, as Professor Wolikow observes, “Paris remains a place of encounter, of liberty, of debate – and of exile.”

Elizabeth Bryant (“Lisa”) is a Paris-based journalist with 30 years of experience across radio, print, and television. She was a long-time correspondent for Voice of America, has freelanced for outlets including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Houston Chronicle, and Religion News Service (RNS), and currently contributes to Deutsche Welle’s English-service radio. Previously based in Cairo and the US, Elizabeth has worked for AFP and UPI and was a staff reporter for US national and local news outlets. She is a member of the Anglo-American Press Association of Paris.

Hundreds of communities throughout France have cancelled their fireworks displays for Bastille Day due to fire risks caused by recurring heatwaves and exceedingly dry vegetation. Multiple wildfires across the country have already stretched emergency crews to the limit, so the precautions are being taken as a preventative measure.

However, many other Bastille Day activities will still take place, and the Paris fireworks display is due to continue as scheduled, on July 13^th, at the Eiffel Tower.

Despite the challenges posed by the latest heatwave (or canicule) to strike the country, Bastille Day will always be one of the most important dates in the French calendar. Officially called “La Fête Nationale” (France’s national day of celebration), it commemorates a pivotal period in French history.

Turning the Tides of History

The origins of Bastille Day date back to July 14^th, 1789, and the “storming of the Bastille.” Originally a medieval fortress built between 1370 and 1380 under the rule of Charles V, the building later became a royal prison, often used to house political dissidents. By the late 18^th century, with the Age of Enlightenment, the Bastille had grown to represent what the people hated about the court and its aristocratic consorts, who were also blamed for the food shortages and high taxes at the time.

So, when an angry mob descended on the prison in search of gunpowder – and freed the prisoners inside in the process – this act of defiance came to symbolize the start of the French Revolution. In actual fact, there were only seven inmates left by that stage, as the prison had fallen largely out of use. Nonetheless, the attack on this emblem of power would mark the beginning of the end for the Ancien Régime.

To give an idea of the depth of feeling among the people, the man who negotiated the surrender of the prison, its governor, Bernard-René Jordan de Launay, was attacked by the crowd and beheaded. For good measure, his head was then put on a pike and paraded through the city. A number of guards and many of the attackers also lost their lives that day.

One year later, to mark the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille, a “Fête de la Fédération” was held on the Champ-de-Mars. This time, however, the day was all about celebrating national unity. The political force behind the event was none other than Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, recently returned from America, where his involvement was instrumental in helping George Washington win independence for the colonies from Britain.

By 1880, lawmakers declared that the events of this auspicious date – in both 1789 and 1790 – should not be forgotten. Ever since, July 14^th has been a day devoted to celebrating the nation.

Fabulous Fireworks Displays

Today, of course, Bastille Day is usually commemorated with festivities the length and breadth of the country. Notably, this is the time of year – heatwaves permitting – when the skies all over France are lit up by spectacular fireworks displays.

Here in Paris, there is a major military parade along the Champs-Élysées, a symphony concert, and the country’s most famous fireworks display of all. Even for those who are not into patriotic rah-rah, watching showers of colored sparks rain down around the Eiffel Tower is quite something.

This year’s event also marks another, more somber anniversary. It’s 10 years since the Bastille Day terrorist attack in Nice, which left 86 victims dead and hundreds wounded. In a gesture of respect for all those affected, July 14^th itself will be devoted to remembrance, and the capital’s famed fireworks display will take place the evening before.

Adding Some Sizzle to the Celebrations

A lesser-known but exceedingly and increasingly popular side of the celebrations is the “Bals des Pompiers” (Firefighters’ Balls). Legend has it that the dancing dates back to 1937, when a bunch of firemen in Montmartre decided to continue the Bastille Day festivities at their base.

Since then, these balls have become a firm fixture at many fire stations, making this the one time of the year when everyone gets to party together. However, with some of them being cancelled or postponed due to staff being called on duty to deal with the wildfires, it’s worth checking ahead first. In the lead-up, firefighters can often be spotted selling tickets in the street outside, usually for a nominal fee, and some of the events are free – though donations are often welcome.

For anyone not in Paris for Bastille Day, the event is marked not only across the country but in many other locations around the world. For example, one of the biggest celebrations in North America happens, of all places, in downtown Milwaukee. This four-day festival even features a 43-foot-tall replica of the Eiffel Tower. So, it’s not necessary to be in France (or to behead someone) to join the party on Bastille Day – fireworks or not.

_{The “Bals des Pompiers” (Firefighters’ Balls) are an opportunity for everyone to party together
[video © Elaine Cobbe]}

Caroline Harrap is a freelance journalist, editor, and trainer based in Paris. Her writing has been featured in France Today, The Guardian, and BBC Travel, among others, and she is a copy editor for the Louis Vuitton City Guide collection. Beyond her editorial work, Caroline is a co-director of the Society of Freelance Journalists, a committee member at the Paris branch of the National Union of Journalists, and a mentor for the journalism undergraduate program at Birmingham City University. She is also a member of the Anglo-American Press Association of Paris.

We’re pleased to send you our fourth issue of Reporting from Paris... this month focused on 250 years of Franco-American relations.

You’ll find articles and videos on:

• The role played by the Marquis de Lafayette as well as French commanders Rochambeau and de Grasse in defeating British General Cornwallis at Yorktown

• Benjamin Franklin as the quintessential diplomat... and fashionista!

• Language: French and English and “les faux amis”

• French cuisine on the high seas, with a recipe from Admiral de Grasse

• Jazz as the ultimate American export to France

• An introduction to other revolutionaries who have found refuge in Paris

We value your support and comments and would like to hear which subjects and topics interest you or that you would like us to cover in future editions. You can email us at contact@reportingfromparis.fr.

Enjoy this new issue of Reporting from Paris and stay in touch!

Best regards,

Shellie Karabell
Editor-in-Chief

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Reporting from Paris Editor-in-Chief Shellie Karabell talks with Edith de Belleville, author, lawyer, tour guide and professor.

Want to read through the whole Revolutionary Timeline in one go?

[All graphics by Edie Twells-Eastwood]

The Carnavalet Museum houses the history of Paris, showcasing artifacts dating from prehistoric times to the present. The French Revolution and the French-American relationship are well documented.

Reporting from Paris Editor-in-Chief Shellie Karabell and museum attaché for heritage and patrimony Lény Roinné visit a special exhibition dedicated to 250 years of that heritage. [videographer/editor: Celine Marchand]