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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

This week's column on the very French phenomenon of setting a wheelie bin on fire in order to make your point

Text reads - Of course it's not ideal that bins get burned, it's annoying for residents, expensive for local councils and requires deployment of the fire service to put them out. And this is not unique to student protests - every time social unrest flares in France you can more or less guarantee that a bin will get it. I remember during the 2023 riots the large wheeled bin for my building disappeared one night - trying to figure out how to request a replacement, I went to the website of the local mairie, expecting the process to be very complicated, only to be greeted with a pop-up that basically said 'has your bin been burned in a riot? Click here'.

But while this is not ideal, it is, at the end of the day, just a bin - it's not a priceless piece of art, and it's not a sentient being. Is protecting the bins from being burned really worth the increasingly violent policing that we are seeing of these protests? Which do we value more highly - our children or our bins?

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

Did I buy these mostly for the name? Yes. Am I very immature? Also yes! #bite 🍆

Packet of chocolate wafer snacks called Bite Cone. In French, bite is a slang term for penis

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

I'm afraid I laughed out loud at this book opening - the hottest day of the year in Paris and it's only 23C at 7pm? Oh guys, just you wait until 2026 . . . (Day of the Jackal)

Photo of a page of a book. Paragraph reads - The sun has dropped at last behind the palace wall and long shadows rippled across the courtyard bringing a welcome relief. Even at seven in the evening of the hottest day of the year the temperature was still 23C. Across the sweltering city the Parisians piled querelous wives and yelling children into cars and trains to leave for the weekend in the country. It was 22nd August 1962, the day a men waiting beyond the city boundaries had decided that President Charles de Gaulle should die

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

France has a glut of very good WWII films out at the moment, but I've been really struck by the fact that these are not really about the 1940s at all, they're about modern politics as France faces the possibility of its first far-right government since Vichy

Poster for film Notre Salut (A Man of his Time)

Poster for Part 2 of the De Gaulle film (La bataille De Gaulle, J'écris ton nom)

Poster for Part 1 of the De Gaulle film (La Bataille De Gaulle, L'age de fer)

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

French lycée student protests show no sign of slowing with 500 schools expected to be closed tomorrow. Here the local authority asks us not to leave out bulky waste (in case it is set on fire/used to create barricades)

Message reads, in French, due to lycée protests and for safety reasons, please do not leave bulky waste on the street on Sunday evening or Monday morning

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

I absolutely love the very specific art of French protest signs. From puns to song titles via fuck jokes, these are poetry in their own way . . .

Sign reads - Macron BZ ta prof pas les autres

Sign reads - La jeunesse emmerde le R-haine

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I seem to be getting an increasing number of emails/comments saying 'How dare you refer to Marine Le Pen's party as far right' - so for the avoidance of doubt, here is The Local's policy on naming French political parties

text reads - We refer to two French political parties as far right - Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National and Eric Zemmour's Reconquête, because these are the two parties furthest to the right of the political spectrum in France.

The rest of the parties we refer to as, variously, right-wing, centre right, centrist, centre-left, far left, hard left.

The reason that we include the indicator of where on the political spectrum each party sits is that the majority of our readers are not French and are therefore not as familiar with the names of the parties and what they represent. French media tend to merely refer to the parties by names or initials - eg RN, PS, LFI - or sometimes even by nicknames such as les insoumises or macronist/lepennist.

They're aiming at a French readership who are much more familiar with these parties, but for our readers we believe it is helpful to add a short indicator of where the party sits on the political spectrum, as well as its name.

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Kids are out this morning blockading the local lycée, with Thursday declared 'act 2' of student mobilisation

Group of teenagers in front of the entrance to a school - bins are piled up to create a blockade

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Here in the Paris suburbs we're apparently writing poems about AI . . . which is least wastes less water

A poem written on a billboard. It reads

I work in a bullshit job
I consume to fill the void
I waste, my children will have nothing
I don't think AI works for me
Pursuit of profit or pursuit of life?
Generative AI or regenerative collective intelligence?

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I also conclude that Nantes is very proud of both LU biscuits and this joke . . .

Postcard saying 'Nantes, lu et approuvé' (read and approved), the phrase you must write on each page of a French contract that you are singing- but here also a pun on LU biscuits

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I'd say the elephant is very in keeping with Nantes' overall vibe of 'delightful and a little bit weird'

Weird piece of street art - a pink figure on top of a building, arms reaching down into creeper plant that covers the lower half of the wall

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Simply impossible to dislike a town that creates an enormous and beautiful mechanical elephant to walk around spraying water at people ❤️

Two storey high wooden elephant, with people riding on 2 observation decks, with a mechanic propulsion

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Nantes history museum is an outstanding example of how to engage with the less savoury parts of one's history (like having been France's biggest slave trading port). Alongside historic artefacts and descriptions of the 🇫🇷 slave trade are works from modern artists dealing with postcolonial themes

Historic woman's silk gown, likely bought with the profits of the slave trade. In the background is a piece of modern art showing an enslaved woman

Portrait of a Nantes ship captain with a young black boy, likely a slave

Omar Victor Diop portrait of a black man in a white robe and turban, holding a football

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Was last here 2 years ago during the Paris Olympics, this week part of the Athletes' Village relaunched as the Cité du Cinema, a very cool film, music and entertainment space

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

I've walked past the incredible Oscar Niemeyer building that houses the French Communist Party so many times, but today (thanks to #JournéesduPatrimoine) I got to see the inside - it did not disappoint

Exterior building. A large white dome with a wave shaped building made of glass behind

Modern piece of art, colour blocks in yellow and brown

Interior windows, white shaped like a spaceship with green velvet walls

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Well well, that is an interesting spelling mistake in a post on X allegedly by French Gilet Jaune organisers. The town is supposed to be Besançon, but that doesn't seem to me to be a mistake that any French speaker would make . .

Close up of one place name spelled 'Besnbicon' - there is no such town in France

Screenshot of a call to Gilet Jaune demonstrations, with a list of French towns

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

It's a beautiful evening and I have collected the first conkers of the season 😁

Photo of a large horse chestnut tree, a clear and sunny blue sky

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Outside @thelocalfrance.bsky.social offices this afternoon is a giant Céline Dion karaoke event - city hall says they expect 10,000 people 🤯

Fenced off area with a sign advertising 'Paris chante Céline'

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Beautiful morning for a visit to the 'black spaceship' aka Seine-Saint-Denis' Bobigny préfecture (And they gave me my new carte de séjour 🥳)

Early morning sunshine over the striking modernist building of the Seine-Saint-Denis préfecture

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Just the 222 days to go until the French presidential election 😬

Text from a French news site reading '222 days until the first round of the French presidential election' at the start of their daily politics live blog

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

While French national politics continues to be, ahem, tricky - here's a lovely rentrée letter from the mayor saying that all local kids now get free stationery and goûter (snack) as part of their mission that "scholarly success must never depend on the finances of the family". 🇫🇷 local mayors rock!

Long letter to all residents from the Mayor of Bagnolet

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

The use of pictures like this is very disingenuous - the RN's proposal is not to ban face coverings, veils, burqas, niqab or similar (these are already banned in France) - the proposal is to ban the hijab, the headscarf

Headline about Marine Le Pen's proposed hijab ban together with a picture of a woman wearing a long black robe with a head covering and a veil covering the lower half of her face

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Rock en Seine has great bands - but it also has clean toilets, short queues at the bar and a Metro home at the end of the night which makes it, in my old-person opinion, the best festival of all

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Franglais language wars reach the vehicle hire sector 😂

A white Rent-a-Car van with the following text on the side, in French: 'But why write Rent A Car [in English]on your van when it means 'rent a car'? Because it's a semantic aberration and we'd made a bet with the marketing team to write 'semantic' on our vans. They owe us €5

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

I'm going to be using this a lot! "Unfortunately I am under a bad moon, so I am unable to answer your stupid question/respond to your trivial complaint/ resend the documents I already sent." www.thelocal.fr/20260819/fre...

chalkboard showing the French phrase 'être mal luné' - to be under a bad moon

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

At swimming this morning were 2 girls nervous about getting in, kept asking if it was safe, clean. It ended with a Greek-style chorus of swimmers calling 'La Seine est propre! Oui, la Seine est propre maintenant' #ViveLaSeinePropre

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Telemarketing calls from a single week last month. This week? Nothing. Is France's new law banning cold calls actually working? 🤞🤞

Phone call log, with 7 marketing calls in the space of a week

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Eclipse last night, swim in the river this morning. Back to nature!

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Can someone just wake me up if any news happens in France this afternoon? Merci 😴⛱️

Deck chairs on the Paris urban beach, parasol and blue sky

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Fantastic street art expo at La Villette in Paris, really varied and wide ranging, great soundtrack (Worth noting, as we head into yet another heatwave, that it has super AC)

Disconcerting Donald Duck puppet smoking a cigarette

Picture showing a swimming pool, house and palm trees, partially on fire with a winged horse

Picture showing butterflies, graffiti and graphics all in bright colours

A quilt with floral fabrics and the words Riot, riot, riot

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Fight the good fight, mon brave 💪

A plant with a label reading 'mosquito fighter' with a cartoon drawing of a mosquito going 'aaargh'

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

I'm honestly not sure that the internet was a good idea . . .

Exchange beneath a news story on The Local France Facebook page
Comment - Really? I live in France and have certainly not heard anything of the sort on the news
Reply - They have mentioned it on the national news on TF1 and France Télévisions (2 and 3)
Comment - Oh OK. Must have missed it. Must admit I've not seen news last couple of days
Reply - that would explain why you haven't heard it then . . [facepalm emoji]

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Fortunately I always wanted to live in a real life version of the 'this is fine' meme

Wildfire map of France showing 54 fires in progress, all over the country

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Just ordered the new Pompiers calendar to, ahem, show my support for the heroic work of French firefighters this wildfire season . . . (Also donated to the actual fund that supports firefighters and those who have lost homes/businesses in the fires - www.thelocal.fr/20260727/don...)

Page from the French firefighter calendar, showing a black and white photo of an exceptionally well muscled man displaying his bare torso, wearing a firefighter's helmet

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Ladies and gentlemen, France's new national football coach (and his dog) 💙🤍❤️

Zinedine Zidane, seated, with his exceptionally small, white fluffy dog on his lap

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

As journalists, we tend to hear more from the readers who disagree with us - and on climate issues that means shouty nutters telling you it's all a hoax. So it's especially nice to get reader emails like this 😊

Text reads- i especially want to praise your bravery and willingness - seemingly absent from journalists the world over - to say this: "They might not have been in the woods with a box of matches, but the fossil fuel CEOs and the governments who fail to take action on climate change are just as responsible for these fires as the person who ignited the spark."

BRAVO. AMEN. We need more voices like yours.

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

I'm sorry, but the French are correct on this one and service in Paris is better than it is in the UK www.thelocal.fr/20260725/ins...

Text reads - On my last few trips back to the UK I've been really struck by the fact that waiters and bar staff are all very keen to chat . . . but frequently get the order wrong, take ages to bring it or need you to remind them where you are sitting and what you ordered. Is it a sign that I've gone native in France that I find myself longing for a bit less 'hi guys' and a bit more Parisian professionalism?

And while we're on the topic - it IS rude not to greet waiters or bar staff with a bonjour/bonsoir before starting your order.

In the anglophone world we wouldn't go into a business meeting and not greet people, nor would we start an appointment with a doctor or lawyer without saying hello - so why do we think that it's OK not to give servers or shop staff the courtesy of a greeting?

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Me on the wildfires raging in France www.thelocal.fr/20260725/ins...

Text reads - Much attention has been focused on the arrests of people for starting fires. I don't pretend to understand the kind of twisted person who would do this, but in truth one cannot start a wildfire, only a fire. What turns a fire - small, contained, possible to extinguish - into a wildfire are climactic conditions, especially the parched land and tinder-dry vegetation that is the result of longer, hotter and drier summers.

They might not have been in the woods with a box of matches, but the fossil fuel CEOs and the governments who fail to take action on climate change are just as responsible for these fires as the person who ignited the spark.

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

You would take your life in your hands to swim in the Seine before Anne Hidalgo's big clean up! It's a more inviting colour now

The Seine swimming site at Bras Marie, with clearer water

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

So apparently my parcel is waiting patiently for me, but my Darty order is waiting impatiently . . . Should I prioritise Darty or is this simply rewarding poor behaviour on the part of an inanimate object?!

Text reads, in French, Darty - your order is ready and is waiting impatiently

Text reads, in French, Point Relais, your package is waiting patiently for you at Franprix

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Bonne fête nationale! Perfect start to the day - a swim in the Seine. Perfect end to the day would, obviously, be watching France defeat Spain . . . Allez les bleus 💙🤍❤️

Swimmers use the Seine bathing space at Bras Marie

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

These two high profile Frenchmen both have one immigrant parent. Yet Jordan Bardella never has to deal with questions about whether he is 'really' French. I wonder what could possibly account for that difference?

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

Kelly gets it, shame she's not in government www.thelocal.fr/20260713/hug...

Text reads -

French rail company SNCF said on Sunday evening there were delays of up to six hours for trains arriving at or leaving from Paris's Gare de Lyon.

At the station, 34-year-old physiotherapist Kelly took the delay in stride.

"It's global warming," she said. "It's the disruption of the seasons...there are political decisions to be taken."

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Emma Pearson @emmapearson.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Europe swelters for the third time (so far) this summer, wildfires rage and the local paper is launching a campaign against wind turbines 🤦‍♀️

Front page of the Darlington & Stockton Times, leading a campaign to 'save Hope Moor'

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