Goodbye holidays, hello crisis!

Dear readers,

Ready for a new year of French news from a different perspective? French gastronomy seen through the teasing eyes of a Briton? The tough-love comments of an ironic Italian? The state of the debt scrutinized by a conscientious German?

For the start of the school year, in any case, even the most disconnected among you will have noticed that there is little chance of being disappointed. Here we are on the first weekend of September, the eve of the announced fall of the government , the day before the mobilization of the Block Everything movement already stamped “very French” abroad, and in the midst of speculation on what will happen next: a new Prime Minister, a new dissolution, even a new presidential election, all in a vaguely worrying blur on the financial markets, waving the A’s, the B’s, the +’s, the −’s, and, of course, the ineffable spread… We hope that your vacation was as sunny, peaceful and fulfilling as possible. From now on, things are going to rock.

Few foreign newspapers, if any, see François Bayrou in Matignon beyond this Monday. The proposal to remove two public holidays from the calendar could not succeed, the Süddeutsche Zeitung estimated this week. In France, where quality of life is a good