In the best case, take Socrates as your instructor.
country: France
Stay informed on France with Worldcrunch. In-depth coverage of French politics, economic trends, societal changes, and cultural events with expert translations. Highlights include Paris, Lyon, Marseille, French cinema, gastronomy, modern literature, and cultural events.
PARIS — French workers are allowed up to four leave days to celebrate their entrance into a civil union pact. But if a partner or, heaven forbid, child should die, they get just two. Losing a parent or sibling warrants just one single day off work. And there’s no legal leave for the death of […]
GRASSE — They call it “the Provençal permit,” a local custom of sorts that involves building first and asking questions later. The logic is that once a construction is in place, authorities will feel more or less obliged to approve it retroactively. It is surprising how often that actually happens. Recently, though, one land owner […]
A heat map from French tourism professionals, forced to rethink where to send eager would-be globetrotters in the face of new and old security threats.
A French economist specialized in tax havens says only tough new international standards can eliminate the many gray areas that allow the wealthy to pay by their own rules.
A few decades ago, researchers dreamed of creating a machine capable of thinking as well as, or better than, humans. As the world becomes increasingly specialized, artificial intelligence can undermine the art of perspective.
PARIS — Does the Arab world party? The answer is yes. That’s also true in France, where the North African community doesn’t deprive itself of pleasures or amusements, and where raï music — contrary, perhaps, to the general public’s perception — is alive and well, albeit in a sphere of its own. The music used […]
Why this time it’s different — and maybe much worse.
In the Paris neighborhood of Belleville, home to a thriving Chinatown, prostitutes with no other prospects work to support families here or in China. And now, new dangers loom.
By next year, there will be three times more connected objects than humans on earth, all containing information that can be mined to improve public services, benefit consumers and boost economic growth.
Using hydraulics to churn energy from its most obvious natural resource, Ushant is on its way toward an environmental overhaul, and other countries are taking note.
PARIS — We’ve hardly made peace with the idea of driverless cars, and now we’re being told that artificial intelligence could also control rifles, missiles and bombs of the future. The warning was issued last summer by leading figures such as Tesla chief Elon Musk, physicist Stephen Hawking and MIT Professor Noam Chomsky. During July’s […]
MARCILLAC — From the edge of the vineyard, one can see a small wooden hosting shed for honeybees and other insects with translucent wings. The vegetation along the ground is dense with phacelia, rumex and crimson clovers to nurture biodiversity. Here in the French department of Gironde, more and more producers in and around the […]
Voltaire said he never saw female inventors. A study on female entrepreneurs in 19th-century France reveals a very different reality.
PARIS — Our usual spot at Parc Sainte-Périne to plop our blanket and sports equipment for a few hours of recreational escape was already taken when we arrived on Saturday. A group of about 10 young men were sprawled out on the patch, enjoying the sunshine and talking among themselves — in Arabic, I noticed. […]
User ratings systems on service apps and websites are making some people obsessive about their online reputations, even as customers. Where is all this headed?
As a result of the boom construction, worldwide demand for sand has led to an explosion of illicit trafficking in what would have seemed like a limitless resource.
PARIS — This is a new kind of police investigation. It is a terrorist affair that touches the edges of childhood, psychological manipulation and social discontent. The protagonists of this story are a group of girls torn between their teenage troubles and the traps of a tormented time. Aged between 14 and 19, they come […]
The temptation to get rid of coins and paper bills is evidence of the failure of the monetary policy of central banks, which has led to negative interest rates.
Libération, March 11, 2016 To mark the upcoming fifth anniversary of the start of the civil war in Syria, French daily Libération renamed itself Friday in Arabic, featuring a striking front-page image of children spinning on swings around a bomb. Calling itself Tahrir (“Liberation” in Arabic) for the occasion of the March 15th anniversary next […]
The twin problems of the economic crisis and university studies taking longer than expected have conspired to force many young adults to return home to their parents. Problem is, sometimes they bring their partners too.
Wanted in two countries for his actions to save endangered marine wildlife, the Sea Shepherd founder is now under the unofficial protective custody of France, where he manages an extreme conservation group that makes Greenpeace look like pikers.
NANTERRE — He’s got Palmyra on his mind. Sitting as his desk in the judicial police office in Nanterre, near Paris, Ludovic Ehrhart is staring at his holiday pictures: four black-and-white snapshots of the ancient Syrian city. He put them up last summer, just after ISIS started to destroy it. He’s been to Palmyra twice, […]
The French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean is a place of green experimentation, but economic and climate realities make sustainability a huge challenge.
The rapid growth of the sharing economy is both inevitable and generally good. But only a fool can believe it will truly disrupt the natural capitalist forces of our market economy.
WASHINGTON — In November 1968, a young Rhodes Scholar by the name of Bill Clinton was “mad as hell,” as he told a friend back in Arkansas in a letter penned from Oxford University. Clinton’s absentee ballot hadn’t arrived in time for him to cast his vote for the Democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey, who lost […]
European rocket company Arianespace doesn’t get the attention of Elon Musk’s U.S.-based upstart SpaceX, but its approach may be better equipped for the long haul.
Did you know the funny yellow stuff was born in the land of beurre?
PARIS — One of France’s state institutions is under fire for what critics call a textbook example of “biopiracy,” an issue that is also at the heart of a new bill the French Senate approved just last month. Last year, the country’s Research Development Institute (IRD) earned a patent on a molecule extracted from the […]
LUNEL — Tac trimmed his beard and cut his hair short. He also stopped wearing his long prayer shirt. After the Paris attacks in November, he thought, the police were bound to come looking for him. Even his family had gotten into the habit of calling him “Daesh” (acronym for ISIS) as a joke about […]
PARIS — Pinpointed strikes, carried out covertly: This is France’s strategy to face down the threat of ISIS in Libya. A senior French official has confirmed to Le Monde that “the last thing that should be done is to intervene in Libya. Avoiding any open military engagement, we must act discreetly.” In Libya where France […]
In the multiethnic French city of Marseille, the La Rouvière complex has its own unwritten bylaws.
Moroccan-born Osama Khallouf is a 20-year-old student with plans to become a full-time imam. As French mosques struggle to tamp out radicals, the likes of Khallouf are being nurtured and given on-the-job training.
MONTCHEVREL — Hidden in the hills of the Orne department, in Normandy, is the village of Montchevrel, population 230, with its church, garage and, surprisingly enough, nightclub. On this Saturday night, the parking lot of the Tempo Club is full and the bouncer is welcoming: even the the people in T-shirts and sneakers, and the […]
From the Middle East to Europe and the United States to Asia, from geopolitics to economics, the world has fallen into widespread chaos. But there is cause for hope.
Given our growing concerns about ‘traditional’ employment, some say paying people a basic living income should not be linked to work. The idea is appealing, but requires a leap of faith few politicians are willing to take.
Maya and Mehdi were seriously injured at Le Carillon café during the Paris attacks. Three of their friends (including Maya’s husband) were killed in front of them. Three months later, moving on is almost impossible.
Our connected lives don’t happen as if by magic. Nearly 99% of intercontinental traffic, such as Internet and telephone, is made possible by giant underwater cables buried deep on the ocean floor.
A feeling has spread through the popular consciousness: The collapse is near, we’re living on the edge of implosion. But there is another way to look at our complicated world.
There was a time not long ago when imperfect produce was discarded for its aesthetic shortcomings. But now concerns about food waste are giving some not-so-pretty products a new lease on life.