It’s 10 years since France’s first civil union ceremony was held, and the institution’s popularity is still growing. Just under 150,000 couples signed PACS agreements in 2008, more than five times the amount agreed in the first year of their existence.
The poverty gap between men and women has continued to widen in recent years, according to the United Nations, with women being increasingly disadvantaged. Although the trend has been largely visible in the developing world, developed countries are not immune. AFPTV went to meet one Frenchwoman trying to survive on society’s margins.
During its storied history, soldiers with the French Foreign Legion have fought in many far-flung places. Now it has 750 men operating in Afghanistan as part of NATO’s International Security Force.
The German national anthem was sung on the Champs Elysees - just one symbol of an Armistice Day commemoration that has made history in its own right. Exactly 91 years after Germany’s defeat in the First World War, it is now a firm friend of former foe France. Hence their leaders’ joint rekindling of the flame at the Tomb of the Unknown soldier. Angela Merkel’s presence in Paris for France’s principal Armistice Day event is a first for a German Chancellor.
Tottering along on high heels is an occupational hazard for women everywere. But now help is at hand. A school in Paris, for those who want to learn how to walk the walk.
French banks pledged on Thursday to stagger payment of half of all banker bonuses over three years and to pay half in the form of shares, in line with measures agreed at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh.
France
Frances annual winter ban on tenant evictions began on November 1 and will go on until March 15. The measure guarantees some 1.8 million families who struggle to pay their rent an albeit temporary roof over their heads.
France has begun a massive national consultation programme to establish what it is that makes the French so French.
A strike by garbage collectors strike in Marseille entered its sixth day today as talks to resolve the crisis reached deadlock.
In 1859, Frenchman Jules Léotard presented the first ever flying trapeze show at Paris Cirque d’Hiver. 150 years later, the family-ran circus pays a special homage to the impressive act in a new show called “Festive”. The traditional lions, clowns and acrobats are also part of it.
Tags: Paris Cirque d'Hiver
The cafe has been a quintessential part of French life for centuries. It’s where writers like existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre held court. But times are changing and this tradition is losing ground as discontent brews among its once loyal customers.
Former French president Jacques Chirac is to be tried on allegations that he gave 21 political allies false contracts as ghost workers in Paris city hall.
Tags: Jacques Chirac
A French court slapped prison terms and stiff fines on Tuesday on the main players in a network that smuggled arms to Angola and included an ex-minister and the son of late president Francois Mitterrand.
The French branch of the Church of Scientology is found guilty of fraud and fined 600,000 euros, just over 900,000 dollars.
Tags: Church of Scientology
