Carte de séjour misery, French data centre battlegrounds and will parts of Brittany run out of tap water?
A new episode of The Local’s Talking France podcast is back, where we discuss the serious drought that the country is facing after a scorching summer, how lengthy residency permit delays are affecting people’s daily lives and the rising anger across the country due to fuel prices.
This week, host Ben McPartland is joined by The Local’s Emma Albright, politics expert John Lichfield, as well as by journalist Katy Wright in Brittany.
You can find the Talking France podcast on Spotify, Apple or the French platform Deezer or on World Radio Paris. You can download it here or listen to the full episode in the player below.
We start off by talking about the weather and if a famous seaside town in Brittany will run out of water due to the strict water restrictions imposed on the country. What’s the situation like in France? Will we all be forced to limit our showers to three minutes soon?
Politics expert John Lichfield discusses if the government can do anything to quell anger around fuel prices or will it all feed far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s populist campaign. He also examines whether recent anti-semitism allegations against Jordan Bardella, president of Le Pen’s Rassemblement National party, could affect her bid for the presidency.
Problems with carte de séjour renewals give many foreign residents sleepless nights and high levels of stress. We discuss the latest on moves to ease the crisis and hear from several readers who have been badly impacted by residency permit delays.
Plus we’ll find out about where the battlegrounds are in France over the planned construction of controversial data centres.
And finally, for our vocabulary section this week we’ll look at what to respond if and when a French person says ‘sorry’ to you.
Talking France is a free podcast made possible by the support of paying members of The Local. Listeners of Talking France can take advantage of a special half-price introductory offer to get access to all the articles on The Local France – and support the podcast at the same time.
Join now for just €29.99/year and stay with us for a crucial presidential election race which could have a huge impact on the lives of foreign residents in France.
