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French rail strike June 10: how to find out about affected services
Action may impact TER, TGV, Intercités, Transilien and RER trains
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France’s D-Day events and commemorations 2026
Celebrations include official remembrance ceremonies, historic exhibitions and 1940s-themed dances
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Pyrénées Orientales residents to cast vote on name change
Three options are being submitted although a popular fourth has been controversially removed
Mortgage rates ‘pop’ fears of bubble
Fears France could be facing a property ‘bubble’ have been calmed by the Banque de France market figures for April/May, which showed people were giving far less of their monthly budgets to repayments than before the 2008 crash.
While there was an unprecedented 36% rise in mortgage applications last year, 85% of them were for main homes and 12% for investment property.
The central bank said all categories of earners were involved and 10% were earning under €20,000 a year.
In all, €137billion of lending was at rates averaging 1.5% in late 2016. Importantly, that meant buyers had had to give over far less of their pay to be able to afford the property, just 24% on average.
