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Opinion: Another week off – how I love living in France
One of the many things I adore about the French is their attitude to time off.
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Anniversary tributes for Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources author
April 18 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Marcel Pagnol’s death. Commemorations celebrating his life and work are taking place around the country
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‘It is my right to work beyond retirement age - but France says no’
Age discrimination in the workplace is real but hidden, says (soon to be forcibly retired) English teacher Nick Inman
1817: a great year for...
Readers’ least favourite chapter of Les Misérables is L’année 1817 (The year 1817). It has nothing to do with the plot and is just an incoherent miscellany of events, fashions, vanities, absurdities and personalities of the year in question, written from Victor Hugo’s memory 40 years later.
The details must have mattered deeply at the time but none is remembered today. Some are too obscure even to have been recorded by anyone except him.
Which begs the question: what will a 15-year-old novelist remember of this past year when he looks back in 2057? Will his memories mean anything to a reader in 2217?
This should put everything we have just lived through in perspective: presidents, elections, negotiations, separatist movements, media obsessions and Twitter diatribes. Will they be of lasting significance? And if not, what will prove of enduring importance to the people of the future?
Now there’s a good Christmas game for the family...