Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.

It’s been a dramatic week in France with some frankly extremely worrying scenes, but let’s start with something a little lighter – Emmanuel Macron dressed up in a beret forced to sing along to a ‘local song’ that he clearly doesn’t know.

En déplacement dans les Hautes-Pyrénées, Emmanuel Macron accompagne la chorale pour un traditionnel chant pyrénéen pic.twitter.com/dLyYXdyB7u

— BFMTV (@BFMTV) July 21, 2022

The president was on a visit to the Pyrenees when he encountered the local choir and was forced into a rather uncomfortable-looking singalong. It looks to me as if certain choir members are rather enjoying Macron’s discomfort.

There’s a lovely phrase in French for what Macron is doing – chanter en yaourt (singing in yoghurt) which means trying to sing along when you don’t know the words.

Ablaze

Back to the serious stuff and some of the photos from France over the last week have looked like visions of hell as some of the country’s worst ever wildfires struck.

The fires are still burning, they have been ablaze for 10 days, and have destroyed an area of south west France that is twice the size of Paris.

Fortunately no-one died but businesses including five campsites have been destroyed and large parts of south west France have been blanketed in a choking smog as a result of smoke from the fires.

Even here in Paris, 600km away, the air quality dipped sharply and the air smelled of smoke – in fact the US rock band Pearl Jam, currently touring Europe, cancelled a concert in Prague after singer Eddie Vedder developed throat problems after an outdoor gig in Paris. 

Scorching

The wildfires broke out as France saw its second heatwave of the summer, with temperatures soaring across the country to 40C, making many everyday tasks uncomfortably sweaty.

The below meme refers to the stifling temperatures on the Paris RER suburban rail service, although I can confirm that the Metro was fairly sauna-like too, sadly without the fluffy towels and smell of pine.

Le #RERB en été pic.twitter.com/UB8snFh6QH

— Arnaud (@ArnaudADC75) July 19, 2022

And the new normal imposed by the climate crisis means we will all have to find ways to live with these temperatures in the future – in fact the Spanish National Research Council is predicting that 2022 will be the coolest summer for the rest of our lives.

The below cartoon from Coco in the leftwing newspaper Libération sums up the air-conditioning dilemma – soaring temperatures mean that people naturally want it, while at the same time knowing that fossil fuel consumption is what caused the climate crisis in the first place. The man in the street cries ‘it’s too hot’ while the householder replies ‘don’t worry, I’ve put on the air-con’, even as the world burns outside.

Aujourd’hui dans @libe 💀🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/qBbHH6vs4L

— Corinne (@cocoboer) July 19, 2022

Summer breaks

But while summers are clearly set to change, some French traditions remain.

We’ve already started getting out-of-office email replies as French people decamp to the beach and interview requests are often met with the response “sure, how about September?”

Me, trying to work during the summer in France: Can we set up an interview next week?

The French: No. How about at the end of the summer? pic.twitter.com/xSS36b4M2T

— Peter Yeung (@ptr_yeung) July 21, 2022

Electricity

It seems hard to imagine as we swelter under the boiling sun, but winter is coming and with the likelihood of Russia cutting off gas supplies it’s likely to be a tricky one.

The French government is preparing an ‘energy sobriety’ plan to cut energy usage by 10 percent over the next two years – the plan is due to be revealed next week.

But in the meantime the French government spokesman Olivier Véran used his weekly press conference to ask everyone to make small gestures to save power – turn off the wifi router when you’re away, lower the air-con and – the favourite of dad around the world shouting at their kids – turn off the lights in rooms that you’re not using.

In French the favoured expression of exasperated electricity bill-payers is ‘it’s not Versailles here’ – a phrase so well known it was even used in an advert.

In the UK we say ‘it’s like Blackpool illuminations in here’ while Italian has a variety of phrases based around energy firm Enel such as ‘are you the daughter of Mr Enel?’ or ‘we’re not shareholders in Enel, you know’ while in Spain parents say ‘your dad doesn’t work for the electricity board’. Which just goes to show that some things are absolutely universal.

Inside France is our weekly look at some of the news, talking points and gossip in France that you might not have heard about. It’s published each Saturday and members can receive it directly to their inbox, by going to their newsletter preferences or adding their email to the sign-up box in this article.