Talking France27 Aug 2025

Does France realise the 'imminent danger' it's in?

So summer's almost over, but it's been an eventful one in France. We'll bring you up to date with what's been happening. But the thrust of this week's episode and the reason we've started the new series a week earlier than planned is that France has, once again, been plunged into, yep you can guess what I'm going to say next: a new political crisis.

The country is facing "great danger" says the PM Francois Bayrou, but is the country listening to him? We'll get all the news and analysis on the latest turmoil to hit Emmanuel Macron's government and find out what's going to happen next.

And one of the big subjects our team has been covering in recent weeks has been a major change to France's citizenship rules that has left a lot of readers anxious.

We'll explain all.

They say never change a winning team, so for this new series I've decided to stick with the same line up that has made Talking France THE podcast to listen to if you're interested in France... With me once again will be Editor Emma Pearson, journalist Gen Mansfield and French politics guru John Lichfield. Ben McPartland is your host.

Thanks for joining us for a new series of Talking France.

We hope you all had a fantastic summer wherever you were.

As a reminder, just in case you might have forgotten during the heatwaves, this is a podcast produced by the team at The Local France, thanks to our paying members, so if you like what you listen to, please sign up via The Local.fr and help keep Talking France going.

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Episoder(172)

Heatwaves, wildfires and border delays: What to expect in France this summer

In this week’s episode of Talking France we’ll look ahead to the holiday season in July and August and spell out exactly what you can expect in France this summer from the weather outlook and wildfire...

9 Jul 17min

French clash over air conditioning and how France became the best place to get naked

Welcome to a new episode of Talking France. It’s our penultimate episode before we take a summer break and it’s a jam-packed one full of the latest news, talking points and flare ups from France.We’ll...

1 Jul 35min

Is France prepared to face more hellish heatwaves and why the French are ruling the World Cup?

On this week's show we discuss the heat, yes France and the rest of Europe is in the grip of another brutal heatwave - and it's still only June.We'll look at the huge impact it's having on daily life ...

24 Jun 37min

Macron’s swan song, why France is mad for roundabouts and how Lyon became the home of gastronomy

This week we’ll look at whether Emmanuel Macron can land any knock out blows for Europe as he welcomes global leaders including Donald Trump to France for what’s been dubbed as his swansong in the int...

16 Jun 31min

70,000 outstanding complaints: France rocked by scale of child sexual violence

First up this week we'll look at how the killing of a young girl in south west France has sparked nationwide anger and protests and put the French governent under pressure to respond to a growing cris...

10 Jun 37min

Why the violence after football in France and will the French pay up for slavery role?

On this week's episode we will discuss the trouble you can get into in France for being sexist after one man was fined 55,000 euros for an ungentlemanly outburst.We'll also find out why dramatic footb...

3 Jun 32min

How to live without a car in France and are we facing an insufferably hot summer?

As we recorded this episode, France is baking under a record-breaking May heatwave that has sadly proved deadly - at least seven people having died in incidents linked to the hot weather. We’ll get t...

27 Mai 30min

France frets over contaminated baguettes and how to avoid renovation nightmares

This week we'll find out why it's all kicked off at the famous Cannes film festival. In one corner of the ring we have hundreds of French film stars, directors and industry staff and in the other corn...

20 Mai 40min