-
EU looks to increase Etias travel authorisation fee from €7 to €20
Second-home owners and other visitors from the UK and US will need this from autumn 2026
-
What dangerous snakes are in France and what to do if you spot one
Anyone killing a snake risks a fine and potentially a prison sentence
-
Ryanair says flights over France must be protected from air traffic controller strikes
Strikes at start of the month cost airlines over €100 million as budget airline claims workers ‘wanted time off’
Party face to sirens: France’s Covid-19 situation in emojis
One French Covid statistics website shows how bad the epidemic situation is in each department using emoticons

The Covid-19 pandemic has been extremely trying for many people, but a French data analyst and digital project manager has decided to bring a bit of humour to the grim situation.
Guillaume Saint-Quentin, founder of website Météo Covid, which allows people to follow the Covid-19 situation through graphs, tables and other infographics has created a departmental map of the Covid-19 epidemic in France using emoticons as indicators.
La TrouilloCarte du #COVID19 par département 09 février pic.twitter.com/F2CFAn1Aav
— Guillaume Saint-Quentin (@starjoin) February 9, 2021
He calls the map the Trouillocarte, which translates to something like the “fear-o-map”. It comes from the expression avoir la trouille, an informal way of saying “to be very scared”.
The map has 11 levels of “fear”, showing an emoji face with a party hat to represent the fewest number of Covid-19 cases, going all the way to an emoticon of a police siren, mark the highest number of Covid-19 cases.
In between there are winking faces, shocked faces and a face screaming in fear.
You can see an interactive version of the map on the Météo Covid website here.
The map is updated daily so you can chart the progress of each department.