France Archives

The Discreet Eminence

On the enduring legacy of Marshal Pétain

French Lessons

The optimists went to the gas chambers (or so it’s been said). The pessimists went to America. The collabos went to Maxim’s (for steak). The orphans went to the country…

Permanent Pandemic

by Justin E. H. Smith,

Will COVID controls keep controlling us?

Bond Market

by Lee A. (Lee Allan) Craig, Julianne Treme, Thomas Joseph Weiss,

From “License to Dine: 007 and the Real Exchange Rate,” a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, which compares the evolution of James Bond’s salary with that…

Under the Surface

by Thomas Chatterton Williams,

One morning in September, a dapper Frenchman seated next to me in the garden of the Château de Tocqueville gestured solemnly at the front page of Le Monde, the house…

Flesh and Blood

by David Graeber, David Wengrow,

From The Dawn of Everything, which will be published this month by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. In the mid-twentieth century, a British anthropologist named A. M. Hocart proposed that monarchs…

Diary of a Country’s Priest

by Vincent Mongaillard,Translated by Max Norman,

From Je vous pardonne tous vos péchés, a collection of French priests’ observations about the sacrament of confession. The book was published in March by Éditions de l’Opportun. The following…

Lemon Zest

by Zoey Poll,

One town’s oversized festival of fruit manufactures its terroir and merchandising opportunities

Triangulation

by Thomas Chatterton Williams,

As of this writing, the United States, which has 4.2 percent of the world’s population, accounts for nearly 30 percent of total COVID-19 mortalities. Among Americans, a common response to…

Survive and Advance

by Albert Camus,Translated by Madison Mainwaring,

A letter written in 1943 in response to a request from the Committee of National Liberation in Algiers to outline the mood in France, which was under Nazi occupation at…

Killing Time

by Jean Giono,Translated by Jody Gladding,

From Occupation Journal, a diary that Giono kept during the Nazi occupation of France, which was published last month by Archipelago Books. Translated from the French by Jody Gladding. tuesday,…

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