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Fréjus Tunnel that connects France and Italy to close this weekend
The tunnel will close for 12 hours and not the 56 hours originally announced
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TotalEnergies opens service station for electric vehicles in Paris
It is the first of its kind in the capital and has ultra-fast charging
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Conductors on French public transport will soon be able to check your address
Move is part of anti-fraud plans to prevent people from giving false information during fines including on SNCF trains
Village labelled ‘racist’ by vandals
Les Nègres in Poitou-Charentes was targeted by vandals angry at the village’s controversial name
‘Inappropriate’, ‘Decolonise’ and ‘Racist’ were the words scrawled on cardboard signs obscuring plaques of the village's name. The vandalism took place on Friday and Saturday nights.
Locals reacted with surprise, as they didn’t consider the name offensive, but merely part of their heritage. The mayor told France 3 he had no problem with keeping the name Les Nègres as it has existed for a long time.
He decided not to press any charges, saying the vandals should approach the mairie with any complaints.
Villagers still debate the origin of the name. Some say Les Nègres may have been a stop-off point on the slave route from Bordeaux and La Rochelle. Others say the name is more innocuous, and could be a family name or of German origin.
Nègre is considered to be a pejorative term. Last year, then Minister of Women’s Rights Laurence Rossignol courted controversy when she used the word casually in a radio interview, igniting a debate about the use of the word in modern France.
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