Inside France: Pigs, politicians, wine rules and the patriarchy

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.

Health check

The French government is preparing a major reform of the health service to try and deal with the increasing problems that it faces. This is always an interesting topic for me, since my own perspective (and the perspective of many other foreigners in France) is that French healthcare is fantastic – but the French themselves will often tell you that the service is a disgrace and on the brink of collapse. 

One thing is clear though, that services are increasingly a postcode lottery, with those who live in ‘medical deserts’ with GP shortages struggling to find care, while those in areas with plenty of doctors generally receive an excellent service.

ANALYSIS How sick is the French health system?

But to be honest my main takeaway from a meeting with the French health minister this week was that I don’t know how the man gets any work done when he has such a spectacular view from his office window.

Well the view from the 🇫🇷 health minister’s office is quite something, this is why you enter public service pic.twitter.com/YFHQviPfa6

— Emma Pearson (@LocalFR_Emma) February 21, 2023

Bottoms up 

This week on the Talking France podcast we are talking wine and why French people are drinking less of it – listen here.

While I’m a big fan of France’s viticulture, I’m less enthusiastic about some of the frankly quite pompous ‘rules’ that seem to accompany it. While some French wine rules have a good practical basis, I’m happy to ignore those that dictate when or how you should drink a certain wine. I think that you should drink the wines that you like, when you like (and I know plenty of French people who think the same).

And as for the patriarchal bullshit about ‘women should wait for a man to pour their wine’ – to that I say je m’en bats les couilles.

Ticket chatter

Here in Paris talk is increasingly turning to Olympics tickets as the draw opens – every social interaction now seems to start with a discussion of who has been picked for the draw, what events they managed to get and how much the tickets were.

There have, of course, been plenty of complaints from people who weren’t able to get the events they wanted or could only find the expensive tickets – but there are still two more opportunities in the Olympics draw, while tickets for the Paralympics (the best events, in my opinion) don’t go on sale until autumn. Nil desperandum!

Events of the week

And if you’re in the vicinity of Paris this week (until March 5th) I highly recommend the Paris Salon de l’agriculture – it’s a great farm show and a very fun day out with lots of opportunities to spot cows and taste French regional produce.

It’s also acquired a political importance over the years – basically anyone who has ambitions of becoming president one day must demonstrate that they are a ‘man/woman of the people’ by going to the farm show, chatting to farmers and petting cows. So you might spot the next head of state lurking next to the prize-winning pigs.

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.