Day 3147 (Monday) 19th January 2026

This is La Villa Le Roc Fleuri between Nice and Villefranche-sur-Mer

and this is Menton.

 

It was yet another grey day and the journey into Nice on the scooter was very cold. I did my usual 4 hours with Pauline, it’s amazing how quickly the time goes with her.

As always here’s What’s happening in France this week. The Local, France.

Men in hats... Must be a traditional French festival. AFP PHOTO JEFF PACHOUD (Photo by JEFF PACHOUD / AFP)

France’s never-ending Budget debate continues, farmers plan major disruption in Strasbourg, Champions League football returns, and it is a big week for students looking for places at university in September.

Monday

University applications — The Parcoursup university application platform opened in December, allowing students planning to enter higher education in 2026 to take a closer look at courses they might be interested in.

Registration formally opens on January 19th, allowing them to start putting their names forward for courses they would like to take at establishments they would like to attend.

Tuesday

Budget — The contested 2026 Budget returns, possibly. On Thursday, the government announced that agreement on the second part of the budget was "impossible" and suspended debates.

It said it had given itself until Tuesday to decide how to proceed - with the most likely options being using one of two possible constitutional powers to push the budget through without a vote. This could result in a no-confidence vote and the fall of another French government.

Protest — Farmers are planning a massive protest in and around Strasbourg, and plan to be at the European Parliament building at 11am.

Haute couture — Paris Fashion Week men’s fall/winter 2026/27 collection gets under way.

Cybersecurity — The European Commission will propose a revision of EU rules on cybersecurity.

Football — Ligue 1 sides Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco are both in action as the seventh day of the Champions League pool phase kicks off.

Wednesday 

Anniversary — the 50th anniversary of Concorde’s first commercial flight will be marked in Paris.

Rugby — France manager Fabien Galthie will announce his initial extended 42-player squad for the 2026 Six Nations.

Football — Ligue 1 side Marseille host Liverpool on the seventh day of the Champions League pool phase.

Saturday

Anniversary — The 60th anniversary of the crash on Mont Blanc of an Air India Boeing 707 flying from Bombay to New York will be remembered in Chamonix.

Festival — If you can’t celebrate Saint-Vincent Tournante, the patron saint of winegrowers, in France, where can you celebrate him?

This annually moveable two-day celebration in deepest Burgundy, which will take place on January 24th and 25th in 2026, is to thank the saint for the last harvest and ask his protection for the next one. One of the oldest festivals on the calendar, it has its roots in the Middle Ages. 

Here are some more great books to read about France, written by Leyla Alyanak 

Nightingale
by Kristin Hannah

A New York Times bestseller about love and resilience and war: "With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women's war."

Gay Paree and the 1920s: Between the wars

A Moveable Feast
by Ernest Hemingway

I'm not going to say much about this classic vision of Paris in the 1920s by an outstanding American writer. It's not so much about the plot and story but about the extraordinary writing.

What's interesting about this particular edition is that it contains some sketches we haven't seen before – including some events we didn't know about, and portraits of other expat writers. It was a heady time in Paris between the wars, a time of high energy and even greater creativity, especially among the throngs of Americans who discovered how inspiring (and incredibly inexpensive) Paris then was. 

Jean de Florette
by Marcel Pagnol

Jean de Florette (and its companion book Manon of the Springs, Manon des Sources) is a deep and epic excursion into small-town Provence, its landscapes and its characters. Both were made into exceptional films. These are classics of modern French literature and if you happen to read French fluently, read the originals but if not, go for the translations. You may never want to part with your copy. One of the best novels about France.

Lovers at the Chameleon Club
by Francine Prose

A uniquely stylish novel of Paris between the wars, with a nightclub, colourful characters, a bit of decadence, homosexuality, artists, politics, tragedy, collaboration – fiction, but based on someone who existed.

Bel-Ami

by Guy de Maupassant

Guy de Maupassant was an astute observer of late 19th-century Paris and this second novel, all about human foibles − sex and power − takes place against a backdrop of France's North African colonies. In it, he traces the ascension of a corrupt journalist, and his observations about betrayal and manipulation would work just as well today. Add to this his sharp and critical gaze at the emergence of the city's bourgeoisie and you have a classic.

The Discovery of France
by Graham Robb

Billed as an historical geography, The Discovery of France covers the history of France from just before the Revolution to the First World War, the period where France moves from a collection of "pays" with quite different languages and ways of life to a (more or less) unified nation during the Belle Epoque. You'll learn about the first tour de France — not a bicycle race — the cagots, and the murder of Cassini's geometer. 

La Bête Humaine
by Émile Zola

This is the 17th novel of Zola's 20-volume Rougon Macquart epic but it is apparently one of the most powerful, and explicit. As with the rest of the books in the series (they all stand alone, by the way), Zola takes apart every detail of the time and place and describes individuals as though he were using tracing paper on their every feature. Passion, jealousy, murder − and the railway all feature prominently in this late 19th-century tale of violence and corruption.

The Horseman on the Roof
by Jean Giono

Set in the mid-1800s, a romantic Piedmontese nobleman flees Italy and travels through Provence on his way back home – but a cholera epidemic is raging, along with mistrust and imprisonment of foreigners. A slow read of beauty. "Perhaps no other of his novels better reveals Giono's perfect balance between lyricism and narrative, description and characterization, the epic and the particular."

This was a sleepy Badger in his box last night.