Olympic prep and alliances of dishonour

Happy Bastille Day from France in flux!

Dear Friend, 

In journalism, editors talk about news ‘pegs’, these are little topical notches on which to hang your articles. Well, my issue with writing at the moment is a veritable SURFEIT of news pegs: the UK elections; the French elections; the subsequent French elections; the consequent arguing after the French elections; the upcoming Olympics Games in Paris; politicians swimming in the Seine; the football!; Bastille Day, and the list goes on. It’s hard to work out what to focus my mind on, let alone my pen. 

Last time I wrote, we were waiting for the second round of parliamentary elections here in France. Well, it could have gone a lot worse! After most of the main parties made a series of coalitions and agreements, the RN (the artist formerly known as the National Front) was relegated to third place in the final round of Macron’s very snappy snap election. 

The Nouveau Front Populaire coalition, a broad church of left parties from Communists to Greens, won the largest share of the vote (182 seats), which their leaders are currently framing as a mandate to enact their 150-point manifesto. After them came Renaissance, Macron’s broadly liberal and neoliberal coalition (168 seats), while Le Pen’s RN came in third with 143 seats in parliament. 

The RN have still increased their share of the vote, but by much less than projected, and Macron’s coalition has lost seats, though by less than predicted. The better-than-expected performance of the Macron crew is attributed by many to the campaign efforts and relative popularity of his young prime minister, Gabriel Attal. 

The left coalition has performed more strongly than anyone guessed, which is particularly impressive when we consider they put together their whole campaign and programme in less than a month. Socialist Raphaël Glucksmann immediately called the result “a victory for humanist France”, while RN poster boy Jordan Bardella said the win was due to an “alliance of dishonour” between the Macronists and the left, which frankly sounds quite sexy. 

Has Macron won his bet or not in calling this election? Nobody can really tell because they’re not quite sure what he wanted. If you believe his goal was to take the wind out the sails of RN and unite the rest of the country for the greater good, then maybe. Commentators here, however, still think it was a bit of an own goal, generally understanding that Macron thought his own party would emerge the unexpected victors. 

I just finished reading Impossible City: Paris in the Twenty-First Century, a book by Financial Times correspondent and adopted Parisian Simon Kuper. In the book, he weaves his own experience of Paris during the last twenty years with observations about the character of the city, how it has changed and the state of French culture and society. Each chapter is sorted into different themes, such as football, food and schooling. 

Several chapters of the book are dedicated to describing the nature and modus operandi of France’s ruling class. Essentially, says Kuper, they all go to the same elite schools (Sciences Po, ENA, ENS), then run together in mutually supportive circles. Their allegiances are consolidated in meetings of small groups which invariably take place over food, either in Parisian restaurants or at highly curated dinner parties. According to Kuper, within this setup, Emmanuel Macron learned to play the game perfectly, cultivating France’s power brokers over three-course lunches and exclusive dinners. 

In a chapter entitled, ‘Macron: The Seducer who ate Paris’, the writer describes young Macron’s courting of influence: 

“In the Parisian tradition, Macron ate his way to the top. One early colleague recalled: ‘He never ate alone. At breakfast, lunch or dinner, he always saw someone.’” 

This seems to corroborate the instinctive impression many get of Macron — that he is exceptionally bright and/but motivated primarily by personal ambition. This is also shown in the single-minded way that he chose to call the election now, as the country is preparing to host the Olympic Games that it has worked so long and hard for. 

Star chef and head of an influential hospitality union (l'Umih), Thierry Marx, was on the radio this weekend lamenting that hotels in Paris are not fully booked for the Games as it was expected they would be. Instead, some are even doing worse for bookings than they were at the same time last year. He suggested that among factors like ‘Olympics-bashing’ and bad weather, the political activity around the election also has not helped. 

Many Parisians are setting off for les vacances all around the country, but those who are still here are, I believe, are starting to get excited about the Games. If you go into central Paris now you see the town hall decked out in Olympics regalia and seating in place on the Place de la Concorde and the bridges over the Seine. Those of us who nabbed tickets are downloading the official app in preparation and starting to mark the event dates in our diaries, and the Olympic Flame will come through here this weekend before traversing the region, and then heading back to the city for the opening on 26 July.

The Town Hall in its Olympic outfit

• Read: ‘Holiday’ is an untranslatable word

Meanwhile, at the time of writing, the various parties, factions and personalties of French politics are arguing it out over who should rule now and how. After the results were announced on Sunday, all the news channels were full of panels of political representatives shouting over each other about their conclusive interpretations or the ostensibly complex results, while anchors tried to bring them under control. 

Jon Sopel, the former BBC journalist who co-presents podcast The Newsagents, commented on these scenes saying “ils sont complètement fous là-bas” (‘they are completely crazy down there’). But actually, scenes like this, of politicians shouting over each other on TV, are extremely common. Somehow, in fact, I think the current state of political flux and ideological wrangling seems to suit the French sensibility quite well. 

A word on the French lunch break

While the president’s manoeuvres over hors d’oeuvres strategy (as described in the quote above) seems particularly extreme, the idea of consolidating business or work relationships over food is quite normal here. I discussed this yesterday with my go-to no-nonsense source of wisdom, my neighbour Dr. Diane. 

“All the best work conversations are had over food, it’s normal”, she said. In the hospital where she works, according to Diane, the shared lunch with colleagues is the best place to talk shop because, “hierarchy disappears around the table”: junior staff feel comfortable to express their opinions and more senior staff feel more inclined to listen while chowing down on a slice of clafoutis! 

I had a realisation then about the French long lunch break and how the outside derision of it is also a misunderstanding of its full nature. That is to say, it’s not really a break. It may be arranged around fulfilment and pleasure, but it is an integral part of the work day where work is, if not done, then facilitated and improved by the ritual. 

‘Power lunch’, by Hannah Meltzer

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Thirty-second book club

As mentioned above, I enjoyed Kuper’s book. 

I am currently reading the 1960 novel The Country Girls by Irish author Edna O’Brien, which was donated to me by an Italian friend who found the English too complicated to understand. I find the prose to be both succinct and lyrical at the same time. It’s also rich with dialogue full of the particularities of Hiberno-English, or the local Irish version of English. You will be reading a bit more about this in the near future (see note below).

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When I first moved to Paris I worked as a tour guide. This week I got to condense the knowledge I gained on my 100+ trips up the Eiffel Tower in the below fun advice article for The Telegraph!

An insider’s guide to the Eiffel Tower, by someone who has been there 100 times

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We’re all systems go here at Pen Friend! I have been plying some pals to write PFF (Pen Friend friend) guest letters, where they put across their own unique perspectives on Paris, French culture, the place they’re from, books and more. 

Over the next few months, you can expect to receive these punctuated in and amongst my own letters. I am looking forward to sharing upcoming contributions about Paris and feminism and from 

The FBC Paris

; and about Paris, Hiberno-English and more from

Ellen Quinn Banville

.

The letters will be illustrated by me and I am sure you will enjoy reading them as much as I am currently.

I’ll write very soon! Hope you enjoy some long lunches between now and then, whether you’re cultivating your co-diner or not. 

Yours, 

Hannah