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.

La ville est belle

If you’ve been in Paris in the past week – or even just watching Paris on TV – I think you will have had a pretty fun time as the Olympics gets underway.

The sport is of course an extremely serious business for the athletes, but for spectators the emphasis really has been on enjoyment with venues making a big effort to get crowds involved and participating – resulting in the fabulous atmosphere commented on by many.

Even outside the venues people seem to be in an unusually good mood – could the Olympics really dispel the long-held (and in my opinion slightly exaggerated) Parisian reputation for grumpiness? 

Are the Paris Olympics doing the unthinkable and make the French happy?

Relative values

Before the Games started, my hope was that the world would get to see the modern Paris as it truly is – and I think the fabulously fun and weird opening ceremony truly delivered on that.

Of course some people didn’t like it (and I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that the list of people complaining about it – including the French far-right, Donald Trump, Recep Erdogan and the supreme leader of Iran – also reads like a list of the worst people in the world) but the French themselves were unprecedentedly enthusiastic.

Je vous invite, hormis les grincheux et les pisse-froids, à retweeter en masse cette magnifique vidéo 👌 pic.twitter.com/hyBPcRCnyk

— Léa 🇫🇷🇪🇺🇺🇦 (@LeaFbpe) July 27, 2024

I was also pleased to note Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo standing firm behind the ceremony’s organisers and performers in the face of confected outrage, saying: “The powerful message sent with this opening ceremony by Thomas Jolly and all the artists is that we love diversity.

“Life is diversity. Humanity is diversity. It’s a way of telling them that we’re not afraid. We’re not afraid of you. And you’re not going to force us to live in anything other than the freedom and generosity that have emanated from this very beautiful ceremony.”

It’s worth noting I think that these are the Paris Olympics, not the France Olympics, and these are the values of Paris in the 21st century. Some may not agree with them, and that is their prerogative, but Paris is what it is.

Setting the Scene

If nothing else, I have learned that the Leonardo da Vinci painting The Last Supper is known as known as La Cène (pronounced ‘sen’) in France. As it sounds quite similar to the Paris river on which the opening ceremony was set, we were treated to some very bad Cène/Seine puns. 

C'est bon? On peut se baigner dans la Cène?

— Arnaud Viviant (@ArnaudViviant) July 29, 2024

Number-crunching

This might not sound quite as exciting as the planet’s biggest sporting festival, but the French Interior Ministry has also released immigration data from 2023.

This provides the first clear post-Brexit picture of British immigration to France (since figures from 2021 and 2022 include the issuing of residency permits to Brits who were living here pre Brexit) and it seems that thousands of Brits are still managing to move here.

The process is a lot more complicated post-Brexit – involving a visa, residency card and proof that you can support yourself financially – but more than 9,000 Brits managed to do it in 2023, according to the data.

I hope they are all enjoying their new home.

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.