Juliette Ovigneur

On Saturday, France celebrated the Fête de la Musique – an annual street festival of free live music held across the country. But the headlines were about something else: panic over ”needle spiking” – a fear that men secretly injected drugs in women in crowded spaces. Social media posts and videos w…

My mom was an ”accident”, born of an old natural contraceptive method. It was just before the pill arrived in Europe in the 1960s and sparked a revolution in sexual and reproductive freedom. Today, natural contraception – tracking fertility cycles, body temperature, and cervical secretions – is popu…

To mark the 200th anniversary of Haiti's independence, the French president has pledged to ”look history in the face”, creating a commission to study the impact of the ”double debt” imposed on Haiti in 1825. In 1804, Haiti defeated Napoleon and became the first independent black republic. But in 182…

”French rapists: prison, Foreign rapists: prison + plane”, says a purple protest sign. The identitarian ”feminist” group Nemesis forced its way into the Women's Day march in Paris, shouting ”Free us from immigration”, under police protection and a private security escort. Using feminism to promote a…

”One product bought, one tree planted!” Over the last 15 years, many brands started offering consumers a way to ease the guilt of their materialistic impulses through the promise of reforestation – think of search engine Ecosia or fashion brand Faguo. Forests have become a trendy solution,  and many…

”To the carrier pigeon,” reads the inscription on a unique war memorial in Lille. It is dedicated to the 20,000 pigeons who died for their country and their keepers. Known to be war heroes, pigeons are celebrated in France. With their ability to find their way back to their base and their endurance …

The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy goes on trial this week for the biggest political financing scandal in modern French history. He is accused of partially financing his 2007 presidential campaign, which led to his election, with funds from Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, allegedly in exch…

Gisèle Pélicot has taken off her sunglasses for the final days of her trial on Monday. Ex-husband Dominique Pelicot – orchestrator of her mass rape – apologised one last time. Today, he is expected to be sentenced: 20 years in prison. The fifty other defendants are to receive between four and 18 yea…

France's poorest territory is in complete devastation since tropical cyclone Chido first hit on 14 December. While this disaster stems from a climate issue, the situation is more complex. The island, an overseas French department near Madagascar, is the only one in the Comoros archipelago that did n…

Take out the glasses, polish your corkscrew! It's that time of the year. The latest vintage of Beaujolais Nouveau went on sale a week ago, like every third Thursday of November for more than 70 years. This red wine has the particularity of being aged less than three months in barrels, making it a ve…

#8NOVEMBRE16H48. This hashtag, created by the newsletter Les Glorieuses, results from a calculation based on France's gender pay gap. According to Eurostat, the gap between what men and women earn in France is 13.9%. This means that, symbolically, women work for free from 8 November until the end of…

After sending the Netflix series <i>Emily in Paris</i> to Rome, the Americans are in the process of taking away France's iconic medical drug. French pharma giant Sanofi plans to sell its paracetamol painkiller Doliprane to an American investment fund. Doliprane, France's best-selling medical drug, c…

France finally has a new government. After Macron's gamble to dissolve parliament before summer, a surprise victory of the leftwing alliance in snap elections, and France's longest-ever caretaker government, it has all led to this: the most right-leaning government in at least a decade, and on top o…

”Heureux qui comme Ulysse a fait un beau voyage” (Happy is he who, like Ulysses, has made a great journey) opens one of Joachim du Bellay's most iconic poems. As one of France's beloved early poets, du Bellay is known for contributing to the enrichment of the French language during the Renaissance a…

Two things are missing in France right now: a new government and accessible public transport for people with disabilities. As Paris is currently hosting the Paralympic Games, reports in French media reveal that the French capital has only 29 wheelchair-accessible metro stations out of 300. Special s…

The Paris Olympic Games might be the last event of the outgoing French minister of internal affairs, known for his very tough line on security – and boy, did he deliver. Almost 4,000 applications for Olympic accreditations have been rejected. Judicial records, connections to radical Islamist groups,…

“The two extremes lead to civil war,” French President Emmanuel Macron said this week, ahead of Sunday's parliamentary elections. He was referring to the far-right National Rally party (RN) and the leftwing party France Unbowed (LFI), which is part of a new broad left-wing alliance. A strategy which…

A decade ago, former French President François Hollande figured his scooter helmet was all he needed for anonymity. Little did he know, the Parisian paparazzi had eyes everywhere. In January 2014, Hollande got caught in an affair when paparazzi snapshots emerged of him leaving the presidential palac…

The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, one of Europe's most prestigious film awards, opened on Tuesday. Yet, as usual, the films themselves weren't the only focus. There are whispers of a 'list' that could accuse dozens of French cinema figures of sexual abuse, which might come out during the…

Mayotte, France's poorest overseas department, is facing a challenging couple of years. Amid water shortages, migrant-related repression, and violence, this tiny island off Africa's east coast now confronts a cholera outbreak. More than 70 people have been affected by this virulent intestinal infect…

“Proud to look like her,” writes the TikToker who shares the same facial features as far-right figure Marine Le Pen to her 30,000 followers. She presents herself as Le Pen’s niece. But ‘Amandine Le Pen’ exists only as a deep fake – Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology that enables users to create…

After a boy was recently killed by a group of young people, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced a ”surge of authority”, unveiling measures targeting ”disruptive children”, like removing special law treatments for minors. This sparked significant concerns among teachers, magistrates, and agencies …

While cleaning it for the Olympic Games, France is trying to rid the Seine of its ghosts from the past. Last week, the French parliament's lower house passed a resolution condemning an infamous yet little-known massacre from 63 years ago, when Algerians were killed and thrown into the river.---On 17…